- Friday, June 06, 2025
In his latest barrage on X, Musk posted, “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination”
By: India Weekly
BARELY a few days after demitting office as the chief of department of government efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk on Tuesday (3) launched a broadside on president Donald Trump’s tax bill calling it a “disgusting abomination” that will increase the federal deficit.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform X. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.”
He added: “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
This is not Musk’s first comments on Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” which is set to add $3 trillion to US deficits over a 10-year horizon, despite deep cuts to health and food aid programs.
But Musk’s previous criticism was more restrained, with the world’s richest man offering only that it undermined his cost-cutting efforts.
Now it appears that the gloves are off, and Musk’s loud opposition to a bill that Trump has urged Republicans to pass presents a test of his political influence.
The White House dismissed Tuesday’s attack, just as Trump dismissed earlier Musk complaints about the legislation.
“Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at a White House briefing.
“It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson called Musk’s comments “disappointing,” adding that he had walked the entrepreneur through the bill on Monday, and that he “seemed to understand.”
The normally pugilistic Trump has pulled his punches, aware of his biggest backer’s enormous influence over young, tech-savvy and historically apathetic voters – a key Trump constituency in 2024.
The proposed bill would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump’s main legislative accomplishment, while boosting spending on the military and border security.
The House of Representatives passed it last month.
The Senate, also controlled by Trump’s Republicans, aims to pass the bill in the next month with some revisions.
Musk has become disillusioned, US media reported, as his goals for White House action that would benefit him personally have gone unrealized.
The bill he was criticizing cuts the electric vehicle tax credit – bad news for Tesla – while Axios reported that Musk was rebuffed in his efforts to extend his role beyond the statutory 130-day limit.
He also failed to have his Starlink satellite system used for air traffic control, according to Axios, and was angered by Trump withdrawing the nomination of Musk ally Jared Isaacman to be NASA chief.
When Musk bowed out of his role as Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief, their relationship appeared on an even keel as the Republican hailed his fellow billionaire’s “incredible service.”
Trump even insisted that Musk was “really not leaving” after a turbulent four months in which the South African born tycoon cut tens of thousands of jobs, shuttered whole agencies and slashed foreign aid.
DOGE led an ideologically driven rampage through the federal government, with its young “tech bros” slashing tens of thousands of jobs.
But its achievements fell far short of Musk’s original boast that he could save $2 trillion – more than the government’s entire discretionary spending budget for 2024.
The DOGE website claims to have saved taxpayers less than a tenth of that total – just $180 billion – and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous inaccuracies in its accounting.
Senate Democrats released a report Tuesday itemizing 130 examples of “unethical or potentially corrupt” administration actions they say have helped Musk dodge regulation and add $100 billion to his wealth.
The report came as senators began what is expected to be a fraught month of negotiations on Trump’s mammoth policy package, expected to add between $2.5 trillion and $3.1 trillion to deficits over a decade.
Trump said on Monday (2) it was “the single biggest Spending Cut in History,” although he added: “The only ‘cutting’ we will do is for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.”
