Elon Musk on Tuesday once again criticised US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill, calling it a “disgusting abomination”. Elon Musk hammered the sprawling tax cuts and spending mega-bill that President Trump is trying to muscle through Congress as a “disgusting abomination.” (AFP)

The ‘Big Beautiful bill Act’ is currently at the top of Trump’s legislative agenda, with the Republican leader lobbying with his party’s lawmakers in the Senate to pass the bill.

“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” Musk said about the bill in a post on X.

The public criticism is a sharp turn from Musk, who has been a fierce backer of Trump’s policies till now. A week prior to his departure as the DOGE chief, he had said in an interview that he was “disappointed” by the spending bill. But it was a much milder criticism than what he said on Tuesday. Why is the Tesla and SpaceX CEO against Donald Trump’s spending bill?

Elon Musk’s problems with Donald Trump’s spending bill

According to Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill Act’ will increase the federal deficit.

“It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt,” Musk said in a post on X.

Through social media posts, Elon Musk has gained support from several fiscally conservative Republicans in the US Senate, which could complicate the bill’s passage in that chamber. He even threatened those who voted for the bill. The legislation has already passed the House of Representatives hurdle.

“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” he wrote in another X post.’

The business interests of the world’s richest man stand to take a hit if lawmakers approve Trump’s bill, which would slash funding for electric vehicles and related technologies, according to a Reuters report. Musk’s Tesla is the nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer. SpaceX, another of Musk’s companies, has massive defence contracts.

The White House has downplayed Musk’s criticism of the bill, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying that it doesn’t change the President’s opinion.

“The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill, it doesn’t change his opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it,” Leavitt told reporters.

After nearly a week of mudslinging and online sparring, Elon Musk has backtracked on his attacks against Donald Trump, softening his stance on the United States president, hinting at a possible truce and reconciliation between the two. In a post on X, Elon Musk admitted that some of his remarks about Donald Trump “went too far.”

“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Elon Musk said.

The SpaceX founder served 130 days as a “special government employee” at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with a mandate to eliminate what he characterised as bloated government programmes.

Days after bowing out of his role as one of Donald Trump’s closest advisors and special government employee in the federal government, Elon Musk hammered the tax cuts and spending mega-bill as a “disgusting abomination.”

This marked the beginning of a week-long feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

‘Tax cuts bills is disgusting abomination’ In a post on X, Elon Musk said, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

A day later, Elon Musk further criticised the spending bill, saying a new one should be drafted. “No one who actually reads the bill should be able to stomach it,” he wrote on X.

In response, a White House official said the federal government “will not consult every policy decision with Elon Musk.”

Musk’s tirade continues: ‘KILL the BILL’ Determined to get the bill abolished, Elon Musk went on a tirade against it with calls to ‘kill the bill’.

“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL,” he said.

In another post shared on X, Elon Musk stated, “This spending bill contains the largest increase in the debt ceiling in US history! It is the Debt Slavery Bill.”

Trump responds… In his first response to Elon Musk’s attacks, Donald Trump said the bill is “incredible” and said “don’t know if he and Musk will have a great relationship anymore”.

He blamed Musk’s reaction on the decision to eliminate consumer tax credits for electric vehicles. “Elon Musk is upset because we took away the EV mandate,” he said. Donald Trump also thought withdrawing a nominee to lead the NASA space agency whom the tech tycoon had backed was also one of the reasons, he thought, Musk was upset about.

“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore. I was surprised,” Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“I’m very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here… All of a sudden, he had a problem. You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval desk, and even with the black eye. I said, you want a little makeup? We’ll get you a little makeup.”

He also said that the Republicans would have won Pennsylvania without Elon Musk.

Musk hits back: ‘Such ingratitude’ Hitting back at Donald Trump over his Pennsylvania remarks, Elon Musk said, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

“Such ingratitude.”

All this while, Tesla Inc.’s shares sank.

Trump threatens Musk’s govt contracts US President Donald Trump suggested on Thursday that he may terminate U.S. government contracts and subsidies given to Elon Musk’s companies, as the public feud between the two men escalates over a tax and spending bill.

Responding to this, Elon Musk said as Donald Trump mentioned cancelling his government contracts, “SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately” before taking a U-turn.

He also responded “yes” to a post on X calling for Donald Trump’s impeachment. Elon Musk also said in a post that Donald Trump’s tariffs will result in recession in second half of the year.

And then came the bomb!

Amid a spiralling feud with Donald Trump, Elon Musk claimed that Trump ‘s name is mentioned “in the Epstein files” and added that it is the “real reason they have not been made public.”

“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT.”

“Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”

This came from the same Elon Musk who was seen jumping around the stage during Donald Trump’s rallies during Presidential elections in an apparent show of his support for the Republican leader.

But he also deleted this post later.

After the explosive remark insinuating that Trump was withholding the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein because of his own presence in them, Elon Musk signaled he would move to cool tensions with the US President.

But Donald Trump was in no mood to reconcile.

A White House source recently claimed that Donald Trump was not interested in talking to Elon Musk.

Cut to June 10, Elon Musk Elon Musk appears to be making a serious effort to get back in Donald Trump’s good graces. He recently dropped a heart emoji on a video of Trump saying, “I wish him [Elon Musk] well.” A day later, Elon Musk said he regrets some of the things he said about Trump.

Elon Musk Bloomberg via Getty Images

WASHINGTON ― Former White House adviser Elon Musk escalated his attacks on the big Republican bill cutting taxes and Medicaid, urging Americans to call their lawmakers to kill the bill.

“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL,” Musk wrote on his social media platform Wednesday.

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The legislation is supposed to encompass the entirety of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy agenda for his second term, so Musk’s aggressive opposition, just one week after leaving his job as a senior adviser to the president, is striking.

A senior White House official told The Wall Street Journal Trump is “losing patience” with Musk and “confused” as to why the Tesla CEO is savaging his biggest legislative priority.

The billionaire entrepreneur ramped up his attacks on the legislation starting Tuesday, saying Republicans should be ashamed to vote for it. House Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican, Louisana) said he was blindsided by Musk’s change of tone after they’d had a cordial conversation on Monday.

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“I called Elon last night and he didn’t answer, but I hope to talk to him today,” Johnson said, adding that he’s spoken to the president about the situation.

“He’s not delighted that Elon did a 180 on that,” Johnson said. “But look, I don’t know what happened in 24 hours. Everybody can draw their own conclusions about that.”

Musk responded to Johnson with more posts on X on Wednesday, saying there should be a new bill before more directly saying the current bill should be killed.

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The legislation combines more than $4 trillion in tax cuts and new spending with less than $2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and other social programs, for a net deficit of $2.4 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The deficits would be even wider counting interest expenses, and the likelihood a future Congress would extend several tax cuts is currently written as temporary in the bill.

“A new spending bill should be drafted that doesn’t massively grow the deficit and increase the debt ceiling by 5 TRILLION DOLLARS,” Musk posted on Wednesday.

Several House Republicans who voted for the legislation told HuffPost they didn’t think Musk’s opposition would sway them when it comes time for a final vote after the Senate makes changes. But Representative Thomas Massie (Republican, Kentucky) who voted against the bill because of deficit concerns, said Musk has already altered the dynamics on Capitol Hill since the speaker is doing “damage control” addressing Musk’s remarks.

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“I mean, the public trusts a man who can land rockets backwards and get their cars to drive themselves way more than they trust these ― these people up here,” Massie told HuffPost.

The House passed the bill last month, and the Senate is expected to pass its version this month. It’s not clear how the breakup between Musk and Republican leaders will affect the bill’s prospects, but there does appear to be a messy breakup going on.

“I have all the respect in the world for Elon, all the respect world for him,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (Republican, Oklahoma) told HuffPost. “I also love my wife, and every now and then my wife and I disagree, and so sometimes people just have disagreements.”

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President Donald Trump threatened Senate Republicans who defy him and his “Big, Beautiful Bill” as the legislation cleared a key test vote in a dramatic night in the upper chamber of Congress.

After negotiations dragged on for hours Saturday evening, the Senate voted 51 to 49 to open a debate on the legislation, moving one step closer to landing the bill on Trump’s desk by his self-imposed Fourth of July deadline.

Trump targeted Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who voted against opening the debate after he argued the package would “result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding” for his state.

The president said “numerous people have come forward wanting to run” in a primary election against Tillis, Trump wrote on Truth Social after returning to the White House to watch senators scramble for votes.

“I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina,” Trump said.

Elon Musk lashed out at Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy legislation on June 28, calling it ‘utterly insane’ (REUTERS)

Before votes were underway, Trump’s “first buddy” Elon Musk momentarily re-entered politics when he attacked the bill as “utterly insane and destructive” in a post on X.

The world’s wealthiest man said the bill will “destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country” and give “handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”

The motion to proceed with the legislation — which includes sweeping spending cuts to pay for Trump’s tax cuts he signed into law in 2017, as well as increased spending for the military, oil exploration, and immigration enforcement — came down to the wire, as Vice President JD Vance showed up at the last moment in the event of a tie break.

Trump says he plans to support a primary candidate to run against Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who voted against moving forward with the Senate’s version of the president’s megabill on June 28 (Getty Images)

Senate Republicans scrambled for sufficient support to pass the motion to proceed with votes on the mammoth bill. Final text for the sprawling 940-page bill was released Friday evening.

Budget analysts predict the bill — if approved — could explode the national debt by more than $4 trillion. The bill’s tax cuts would amount to $4.5 trillion in lost revenue, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

If the bill does pass the Senate, it will return to the House of Representatives, which passed it last month. But plenty of House Republicans have objected to the Senate’s changes, teeing up yet another legislative battle over Trump’s massive bill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said it was ‘time to get this legislation across the finish line’ (Getty Images)

Trump lobbied senators on Saturday while playing golf with Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Democrats would object to the bill moving forward without the text being read on the Senate floor. “We will be here all night if that’s what it takes to read it,” he said Saturday.

Reading the nearly 1,000-page bill on the floor is estimated to take 15 hours.

Republicans, who have 53 seats in the Senate, plan to pass the bill using the process of budget reconciliation. That would allow them to sidestep a filibuster from Democrats as long as the legislation relates to the budget. For the past week, the Senate parliamentarian’s office has issued advisories about which parts do not comply with the rules of reconciliation.

Biggest cuts to Medicaid in history

The biggest sticking point was major changes to Medicaid, with Republicans proposing the steepest cuts to the federal healthcare program in history.

The legislation would add work requirements for certain Medicaid recipients and limit how much money states can tax health care providers like hospitals and nursing homes to raise money for Medicaid.

But the American Hospital Association said this would devastate rural hospitals that rely on Medicaid dollars. The parliamentarian removed the provider tax provision, but the new version of the bill simply delays when the cap goes into effect.

Hospitals in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s home state of Louisiana were compelled to write to him Saturday to warn that the Medicaid cuts “would be historic in their devastation.”

The biggest sticking point was major changes to Medicaid, with Republicans proposing the steepest cuts to the federal healthcare program in history (Middle East Images/AFP via Getty)

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, also warned that the bill would cut funding for Medicaid by $930 billion, citing an upcoming Congressional Budget Office analysis.

Wyden accused Republican senators of pushing a “rushed and reckless” process.

“Just as before, these cruel cuts to Americans’ health care will strike a mortal blow to rural health care, and threaten the health and safety of kids, seniors, Americans with disabilities, and working families across the country,” he wrote.

Tillis, who hails from a state with a large number of rural hospitals and that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in 2023, said he was a “no” on the motion to proceed because of Medicaid.

“It will cause a lot of people to have to be moved off of Medicaid,” he told The Independent Friday evening. “It’s just inescapable. The price tag’s too high.”

Tillis, who is up for re-election in 2028, outlined his opposition to the bill again on Saturday, saying in a statement that the bill would “result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding” for his state, including hospitals and rural communities.

“This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population,” he added.

Billions for Trump’s anti-immigration agenda

The bill would allocate funds to hire 10,000 ICE officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of border patrol officers (AP)

The bill would see Trump gain some $350 billion to pursue his anti-immigration agenda, including $46 billion for the U.S.– Mexico border wall and another $45 billion to build capacity to detain another 100,000 people in immigration detention centers.

In order to meet his goal of deporting some 1 million people per year, the bill would also allocate money to hire 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of border patrol agents.

Extending Trump’s massive tax cuts

The legislation, which contains roughly $3.8 trillion in tax cuts, would extend the 2017 cuts that Trump signed into law during his first administration, which are set to expire at the end of the year.

The existing tax rates and brackets would become permanent under the bill. The bill also would include some measures Trump campaigned on, including up to $25,000 in deductions on tipped wages and $12,500 for overtime pay through 2028.

‘Hardship’ for children and families on food assistance

Hospitals in Speaker Mike Johnson’s home state of Louisiana were compelled to write to him Saturday to warn that the Medicaid cuts ‘would be historic in their devastation’ (Getty Images)

Americans who receive food stamps through the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, would face new “hardship” under the current legislation as billions would be slashed from the scheme, advocacy groups warn.

The bill increases the age at which “able-bodied” adults without dependent children must work to receive food assistance from 54 to 64 years old, the year before many seniors become eligible for Social Security and Medicare.

It also would mandate that parents with children 14 and older must work at least 20 hours per week to receive SNAP benefits.

“Already, states like Texas have opted out of programs like Summer EBT and denying thousands of children critical food benefits during the summer because of concerns over state obligations to cover SNAP benefit costs,” the Food Research and Action Center warned. “It’s unimaginable the number of children who would miss out on the nutrition they need if this harmful bill is passed.”

Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, previously told The Independent that changes to SNAP in the House version of the bill “may be one of the most egregious items in the entire markup.”

Donald Trump and Elon Musk. via Associated Press

Elon Musk ramped up his attacks on Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending bill, even as the president reportedly was “furious” at his former adviser’s stunning intervention.

The gloves came off when the richest man in the world on Tuesday torched the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, calling it a “disgusting abomination.”

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On Tuesday night and into Wednesday, the Tesla boss, whose mission at the White House was to slash federal government spending, continued to post his disgust at a bill that would expand budget deficits by more than $2 trillion.

In one message on X, formerly Twitter, the billionaire appeared to set up an electoral showdown with the Republican.

“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” wrote Musk, suggesting Republican politicians should be kicked out of Congress at the midterms.

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Musk was the biggest donor in the 2024 political cycle, lavishing $288 million to help elect Trump and other Republican candidates.

He recently said he was scaling back his efforts unless there’s “a reason to do political spending in the future.”

In his barrage of tweets, Musk, who left his temporary position at the White House just days ago, made repeated references to the damaging impact of the spiraling US national debt.

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“This immense level of overspending will drive America into debt slavery!” he said above a post of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warning in a 2024 interview that the current rate of spending is “unsustainable.”

In another post, Musk wrote, “Mammoth spending bills are bankrupting America! ENOUGH.”

He also responded with a “100” emoji when an X poster wrote that Musk had “reminded everyone: It’s not about Right vs Left. It’s about the Establishment vs the People.”

Trump has yet to publicly comment on Musk’s maneuvers.

On Tuesday night, the president said he wants his signature bill on his desk to be signed into law by July 4, yet made no reference to his former aide.

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But behind the scenes, Trump reportedly is livid.

On Fox News’ Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning, co-host Brian Kilmeade said: “I think the Elon Musk thing really caught the president by surprise. And I hear he is furious!”

“I think he’s so smart to keep his powder dry,” Kilmeade added. “Because it just plays into what critics would have to say, ‘The right can’t get out of their own way.’ Instead, you have a goal: Pass it. Elon Musk is not in the Senate or the House. Don’t worry about it.”

The legislation includes nearly $4 trillion in tax cuts, mostly benefiting wealthy households. The cost is only partially offset by more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and federal food benefits.

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The House passed the legislation last month, and the Senate is working on its own version of the bill.