Elon Musk has vowed to unseat lawmakers who support Donald Trump’s sweeping budget bill, which he has criticized because it would increase the country’s deficit by $3.3tn.
“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” he wrote on his social media platform, X.
A few hours later he added that if the “insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day”.
With these threats, lobbed at lawmakers over social media, the tech billionaire has launched himself back into a rift with the US president he helped prop up. Since taking leave from his so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, Musk has sharply criticized Trump’s budget bill, which he has said will undermine his work at Doge by increasing spending.
Musk had been relatively quiet about the bill after his dramatic fallout with Trump, but re-entered the debate this weekend.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO called again for a new political party, saying the bill’s massive spending indicated “that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”
“Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” he wrote.
After contributing $277m to Trump’s political campaign, Musk became a vital part of the US president’s orbit and his administration. Doge, which oversaw abrupt and chaotic cuts to various government programs, claimed it saved $190bn. But the effort may also have cost taxpayers $135bn, according to an analysis by the Partnership for Public Service (PSP), a non-partisan non-profit that focuses on the federal workforce.
Musk and Trump were aligned in cutting social safety net programs, environmental and health initiatives and global aid programs. But Musk has railed against the president’s signature proposal.
The Senate’s version of the bill would add nearly $3.3tn to the deficit over the next decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate, whereas the House-approved bill would add $2.4tn to the deficit over the next decade.
Musk has expressed disdain for both versions.
In addition to criticizing the bill’s spending provisions, he has bemoaned its slashing of subsidies for electric vehicles, saying that the bill “gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future”.
