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Elon Musk has lambasted Donald Trump’s signature tax bill as “a disgusting abomination”, in an outburst that threatens to destroy the relationship between the US president and his billionaire backer.
In a series of posts on his social media site X on Tuesday, Musk, who abruptly left the Trump administration last week, derided the legislation as a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill”.
He added: “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
The billionaire’s aggressive intervention comes at a critical time for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives last month and needs to be approved by the Senate if it is to become law.
Trump has imposed a deadline of July 4 to pass the legislation, which could define his second term and set the course for the US economy. He has heaped pressure on Republican senators who are alarmed about the package, which would slash taxes, reduce social spending and increase the federal debt.
Hours before Musk’s comments on X, Trump attacked Republican Senator Rand Paul, a staunch fiscal conservative who has taken issue with the bill’s provisions to raise the limit on how much the federal government can borrow by $5tn.
“Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming,” Trump said on his Truth Social social media platform on Tuesday morning. “The BBB is a big WINNER!!!”
Other fiscally conservative senators — including Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida — have called for deeper spending cuts in the bill.
Another group of Republican senators — including Susan Collins of Maine, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Josh Hawley of Missouri — have criticised the bill’s proposed cuts to Medicaid, a government healthcare scheme for lower-income and disabled Americans.
Trump’s party controls the Senate by a 53-47 margin, meaning the Republicans can only afford to lose the support of three senators if the spending bill is to pass the upper chamber.
Asked about Musk’s comments, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “Look, 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.”
But Musk’s intervention is likely to embolden the president’s Republican critics. Paul agreed with Musk on X, saying, “We can and must do better.” Lee replied: “The Senate must make this bill better.”
Musk’s broadside came just five days after a send-off for him in the Oval Office and escalates his row with the White House, which he has criticised over tariff policy and blamed for not fully backing his efforts to cut $1tn from the US budget.
While the world’s richest man has refrained from criticising the president, whose campaign he backed with more than $250mn last year, he has distanced himself from parts of Trump’s agenda. He has also indicated that he would halt spending on Maga candidates.
Musk has said his involvement with the administration has brought “blowback” against his businesses, especially Tesla, whose sales have slumped in Europe.
Last week, Musk told CBS News that he was “stuck in a bind” because he did not want to speak up against Trump but also did not want to “take responsibility for everything this administration’s doing”.
On Tuesday he wrote of Trump’s bill on X: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.”
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