Elon Musk has gone nuclear over Donald Trump’s mega-spending bill, describing it as a “disgusting abomination” and condemning those who voted for it.
The former DOGE chief - who spent almost $300 million on Trump’s presidential campaign - also threatened to “fire all politicians who betrayed the American people” at next year’s midterm elections.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” he wrote on X.
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“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
The stinging scorched earth rebuke came partway through White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s latest briefing.
Asked for her response, 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.”
Musk added in a second post that the bill “will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”
The comments come days after Musk formally stood down from his duties as the president’s DOGE cost-cutter.
The Tesla boss’ dramatic shift in tone on Tuesday came after a tumultuous few months in which Musk upended the federal bureaucracy, watched his Tesla stocks plummet and ultimately failed to deliver the $1 trillion in savings he claimed DOGE would achieve.
But while Musk has made no secret of his disappointment that the bill did not include enough of his DOGE cuts, his latest comments represent his biggest attack yet on the Trump-backed spending plan, which is now making its way through the Senate.
Tensions escalated on Friday when Musk and his electric vehicle company Tesla blasted the bill for slashing clean energy tax credits.
“Abruptly ending the energy tax credits would threaten America’s energy independence and the reliability of our grid,” said Tesla in a post that Musk amplified to his X million followers on X.
Speaker Mike Johnson said he had spoken to Musk for 20 minutes on the phone on Monday, and “extolled all the virtues of the bill, and he seemed to understand that.”
“With all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong about the one big, beautiful bill,” Johnson said.
Musk did, however, win support from some Republicans, such as Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, one of only two Republicans to vote against the House version of the bill.
“He’s right,” Massie said in response to Musk, who in turn replied: “Simple math.”
In another sign of internal dissent, Utah Senator Mike Lee wrote: “The Senate must make this bill better.”
And Republican Senator Rand Paul wrote: “I agree with Elon. We have both seen the massive waste in government spending, and we know another $5 trillion in debt is a huge mistake.”
The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act extend taxes and increases border and military spending, while scaling back spending on health care measures such as Medicaid
It now faces an uncertain path in the Senate, as Paul has said for days he will only support it if it removes language raising the debt ceiling.
Trump, however, wants Republicans’ wholehearted endorsement of the bill, and hit out personally against Paul on Tuesday morning.
“Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas,” he posted. “His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!”
