President Donald Trump’s White House advisers were “caught off guard” by Elon Musk’s astonishing attack on his “big, beautiful bill” this week while Trump himself is said to be “losing patience” with his billionaire ally, according to a report.
Just days after Musk’s 130-day tenure as a special government employee came to an end, the world’s richest man began lashing out at Trump’s signature tax and spending package, calling it a “disgusting abomination” in an X post on Tuesday.
Hours after Musk’s broadside, Trump posted a screenshot of the South African’s X post from last week, in which he thanked the president for allowing him to work in the White House.
A senior White House official now tells The Wall Street Journal that the president is not happy about Musk’s intervention and is “confused” by the billionaire’s stance, given that they have spent the past four months working closely together.
Asked whether it had hurt the relationship between the two men, the Journal’s sources indicated it was “too soon to tell” but noted that, while Trump can be forgiving, he does not easily forget slights.
Musk’s bond with Trump certainly appears to be fraying, with the Big Tech boss cutting an increasingly beleaguered figure and reportedly annoyed by the bill’s inclusion of a cut to an electric vehicle tax credit that benefits his Tesla customers and by Trump’s recent decision to scrap his friend Jared Isaacman’s nomination to lead Nasa.
The Tesla CEO last intervened over a Republican spending bill six months ago, firing out a string of tweets that forced House Speaker Mike Johnson into hasty rewrites just hours before Congress broke up for the Christmas recess.
Musk’s tweet on Tuesday sent shockwaves across the corridors of power in DC.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” Musk wrote.
He followed that up on Wednesday with a fresh appeal to “KILL the BILL”, imploring his millions of followers to contact their representatives and senators to remind them that “bankrupting America is NOT ok!”
Musk’s opposition has garnered the support of conservative fiscal hawks like Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who share his concern that the bill could add at least $2.4 trillion to America’s national debt over the next decade, with some estimates placing the total closer to $5 trillion.
Invited to respond on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill; it doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”
While that has not yet happened this time, Speaker Johnson has expressed frustration.
“We had a great, very friendly, very fruitful conversation together,” Johnson said of Musk at his weekly press conference on Wednesday.
“Twenty-four hours later, he does a 180 and he comes out against the bill. And it surprised me, frankly.”
Johnson argued that Musk is “flat wrong” in his objections and said that while he himself was “not upset,” Trump was “not delighted that Elon did a 180,” a statement that might well be interpreted as a warning.
One person who was delighted with Musk was Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, one of just two House Republicans who voted against the bill in the lower chamber last month.
“I figured he would eventually get there,” Massie told the Journal. “You don’t land rockets backwards or get cars to drive themselves by ignoring the people who are lying to you.”
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