- President Donald Trump is less than thrilled with Elon Musk since the world’s richest man came out against the president’s proposed spending bill, which the White House promises would reduce the deficit by $6.6 trillion over the next decade. Despite the two men working closely together for the past four months—an arrangement that ended last week when Musk completed his 130-day term as a special government employee—House Speaker Mike Johnson says he spoke with Trump and “he’s not delighted that Elon did a 180.”
Elon Musk has been busy ripping into President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” on his social network, X, over the last 48 hours. He says it’s a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled” spending plan and a “disgusting abomination” that would add trillions of dollars to the federal deficit and undo the cost-cutting work achieved by his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“This spending bill contains the largest increase in the debt ceiling in US history!” Musk wrote. “It is the Debt Slavery Bill.”
But Trump, who has been supportive of Musk publicly—he had glowing things to say about the world’s richest man when he completed his 130-day term as a special government employee last week—is reportedly not thrilled with Musk’s recent online antics. That’s according to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who answered a question about Trump’s feelings about Musk during his weekly press conference on Wednesday.
“Let me just address the Elon controversy,” Johnson started. “It’s curious to me what happened this week. Full disclosure: Elon and I had a great conversation about a half hour long talk on Monday morning, and we talked about the big beautiful bill… We left on a great note, and then yesterday, 24 hours later, he comes out and opposes the bill.
“It did surprise me, frankly. I don’t take it personal; we don’t take it personal. Policy differences are not personal. I think he’s flat wrong. I think he’s way off on this, I’ve said that publicly and privately.”
When asked what he thought had changed since their conversation, Johnson said he called Musk since he came out against the bill to assure him it “would be jet fuel for the U.S. economy,” but also noted he had already talked to the president about Musk’s about-face.
“I talk to President Trump multiple times a day. Obviously, we’ve talked about this. As you know, he’s not delighted that Elon did a 180 on that,” he said. “Look, I don’t know what happened in 24 hours. Everyone can draw their own conclusions about that.”
A complicated relationship
Trump and Musk have a complex history, which dates back to Trump’s first presidency. Musk joined two of Trump’s advisory councils after the real estate tycoon won the 2016 presidential election, but stepped down from both just six months into Trump’s first term after the president pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, saying on Twitter (now X), “Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”
Things got particularly sour between the two men in 2022, when Trump went in on Musk in a brutal Truth Social post.
“When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocket ships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it.”
Trump around that time also called Musk “a b——t artist” at a rally because Musk had said he never voted for a Republican, “and I said ‘I didn’t know that, you told me you voted for me.'” In response, Musk said on Twitter, “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”
Trump and Musk’s relationship finally warmed up in 2024, particularly after the failed assassination attempt against the president. Musk made it his mission to reelect Trump: through posts on his social network X, public appearances on TV and at rallies, and his bountiful wealth. Musk donated about $288 million to the campaign through his America PAC, according to estimates.
Later, when Musk joined the White House and became Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief at the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the president defended Musk when he became the target of public ire for laying off thousands of federal workers. When people started protesting at Tesla dealerships and boycotting the company’s cars as a symbolic gesture of disapproval, Trump bought a Tesla and made a big show of it at the White House.
But there were signs of a rocky relationship. As Trump was forming his administration, Musk made it clear he had a preference for Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who he said would “actually enact change,” for Treasury secretary, compared with Scott Bessent, who he said would be a “business-as-usual choice.” Trump ultimately nominated Bessent for the role.
And just recently, sources to the Wall Street Journal said Musk was “infuriated” by Trump’s decision to pull Jared Isaacman’s nomination to lead NASA; Isaacman is a close ally of Musk’s.
What’s in the “big, beautiful bill” anyway?
The spending package looks to extend individual income-tax breaks that will expire in December while also adding new ones, including no taxes on tips. It also carves out $350 billion to bolster national security, border security, and deportations. But to fund these ideas, Republicans are proposing slashing green-energy tax breaks, which were put in place during President Joe Biden’s presidency, and adding new work requirements for some adults on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which would likely result in less spending on those programs.
The package would also boost the U.S. debt limit, currently at $36 trillion, by another $4 trillion to allow for more borrowing. The White House claims the bill would boost GDP by 2.6% to 3.2% in the long term, while median-income households would see a boost in take-home pay in the ballpark of $5,000 a year.
But the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan federal agency working within the legislative branch that’s staffed by some 275 economists, estimates the bill would cut taxes by $3.7 trillion but increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade. The CBO also says the bill would increase the number of people without health insurance by about 10.9 million Americans.
