By Rachel Cohen
nj.com
(TNS)
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk unleashed on President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” on Tuesday, marking the second time in a week that the former presidential advisor broke with the president.
In a post on X, Musk said that he “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,” he continued.
The Lincoln Project reminded Musk that “the only people who voted for that “disgusting abomination” of a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill” were his co-conspirators—Republicans.
Musk then added in a separate post, “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”
The GOP budget bill, which totals over 1,000 pages, narrowly passed the House last month and has made its way to the Senate. The multitrillion-dollar package would extend Trump’s signature tax breaks during his first term and reduce funding to government programs including Medicaid.
- Related article: House Passes Sweeping ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ After Weeks of Arm-Twisting
- Related article: Senate Republicans Vow Changes to Trump Tax-and-Spending Megabill
- Related article: SALT Write-Off, Harvard Tax, Medicaid Cuts: What’s in Trump’s Bill
Some Republicans have criticized the bill for its cuts to the health care program, and a handful have argued that it would raise the national deficit, which sits at over $36 trillion. A preliminary Congressional Budget Office analysis found that an estimated $3.8 trillion would be added over the next decade.
Musk had already echoed those concerns during an interview with CBS News last week, in which he said the budget bill “undermines” the mission of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a nongovernmental agency that was aimed at slashing the size of the federal workforce and spending.
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion,” Musk said during the interview with “CBS Sunday Morning.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has been a sharp critic of the bill and was previously threatened by Trump, responded to Musk’s post on X with two words: “He’s right.”
During her press briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also addressed Musk’s comments when asked by Fox News’ Peter Doocy about how Trump will react.
“It doesn’t change the president’s opinion,” she said. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”
Over the past few weeks, Musk had appeared to distance himself from Trump and U.S. politics as he has taken a reputational hit for his role as the now former head of DOGE. As the Tesla CEO, the electric vehicle company’s stock price has plummeted as sales dropped in the first quarter, and car dealerships have also been the site of mass protests for months. American voters had also disapproved of his role in the Trump administration, polls show.
Musk and Trump held their final press conference together in the Oval Office last Friday after Musk announced that his time as a special government employee had come to an end.
“… I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote in a post on X last week. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
Following Musk’s announcement about his departure, Trump said in a Truth Social post that Friday would be “his last day, but not really.”
Musk also mentioned to reporters that his time away is “not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning.”
Photo caption: Elon Musk steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, on March 22, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
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©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit nj.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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Tags: Congress, doge, Elon Musk, Legislation, Taxes, Trump tax cuts, Trump tax plan
