Shame on those who voted for it,” Musk wrote.
Elon Musk calls Trump’s signature bill a ‘disgusting abomination’Just days after leaving the administration, Musk blasted Pres. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill Act” in a post on X. It comes as prices continue to rise amid Trump’s tariff war.
Days after attacking the megabill that advances President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda, Elon Musk slammed it again on Tuesday, calling it a “disgusting abomination” in a post on X.
“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 of the House-passed bill. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Musk followed up with a flurry of posts: one claiming the bill “will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt;” another that “Congress is making America bankrupt.”
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” legislation extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and boosts spending for the military and border security — while making some cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other assistance programs. It will also add about $3.8 trillion to the federal government’s $36.2 trillion in debt over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Negotiations on the bill are underway in the Senate, with the president working the phones and holding meetings with senators to try to get his sweeping agenda passed by Congress.
Speaker Mike Johnson, however, brushed off Musk’s criticism, telling reporters Tuesday that the billionaire was “terribly wrong about the one big, beautiful bill.”
“For him to come out and pan the whole bill is to me just very disappointing, very surprising,” Johnson said, adding to that two spoke on Monday.
“That is a dangerous thing for Elon or anyone who has who cares about the U.S. economy to be meddling with,” he said. “And I, I think the risk is very great. We have to pass this legislation.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune also dismissed Musk’s criticism, citing differing economic models and the bill’s potential for growth and deficit reduction.
“We obviously respect everything that Elon did with DOGE. On this particular issue, we have a difference of opinion,” Thune told reporters during his weekly press conference on Capitol Hill.
Thune said he believes Musk is using outdated data from the CBO.
Democrats used Musk’s comments to raise their objections to Republicans and the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer held up a printout of the posts during a news conference and said he agreed with the billionaire.
“Trump’s buddy says the bill is bad — you can imagine how bad this bill is,” Schumer said.
Schumer’s counterpart in the House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries echoed those statements in a separate news conference saying “breaking news: Elon Musk and I agree with each other.” Jeffrisk added that he and Schumer will work to kill the legislation.
Asked about Musk’s comments on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed his criticism.
“Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” Leavitt said during the White House press briefing. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill and he’s sticking to it.”
Musk had earlier criticized the bill, saying he was “disappointed” with it in an interview with CBS News.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk told CBS News in an interview.
Musk announced the next day he would depart the Trump administration and leave his role as a “special government employee” overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency.
The president held a news conference with Musk in the Oval Office on Friday where the pair cordially discussed his work.
Musk did not discuss his criticism of the bill during the news conference. Trump, however, touted the spending bill.
“It’s an unbelievable bill. It cuts your deficits. It cuts, you know, it’s a huge cutting, but there’s things I’d like to see, maybe cut a little bit more. I’d like to see a bigger cut in taxes,” he said.
