Musk calls Trump's 'beautiful' bill a 'disgusting abomination,' shames GOP lawmakers who support it

Elon Musk is doubling down on his criticism of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Days after leaving his prominent position as the head of the budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, Mr. Musk said he cannot remain silent about the tax-cut and spending legislation that Republicans are trying to pass through Congress.

“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Mr. Musk said on X. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

Mr. Musk, minutes later, added: “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”

Mr. Musk’s comment comes as Senate Republicans take up the proposal that passed the House by a single vote. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill that Mr. Musk’s comments were “very disappointing.”

“With all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong,” the Louisiana Republican said.

Mr. Johnson said the criticism was “very surprising” given that he had a 20-minute phone conversation about the bill with Mr. Musk on Monday.

The speaker reiterated his stance that the bill reduces federal spending by $1.6 trillion over ten years, while acknowledging that the measure eliminates an electric-vehicle tax-credit that benefited Mr. Musk as the founder of Tesla.

The measure would extend Mr. Trump’s first-term tax cuts; defeating the bill and allowing those tax cuts to expire would lead to one of the largest income-tax increases in modern history. 

Mr. Musk’s criticism also came on the same day that Mr. Trump and the White House ramped up the pressure on Senate GOP holdouts, who also have raised concerns about the level of spending in the proposal and its projected impact of adding at least $4 trillion to the national debt.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump called on Sen. Rand Paul to fall in line after the Kentucky Republican warned he cannot support the proposal because it increases the nation’s borrowing limit by trillions of dollars.

Asked about Mr. Musk’s latest criticism of the measure, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the daily briefing that it does not change Mr. Trump’s opinion.

“This is one big, beautiful bill, and he is sticking to it,” Ms. Leavitt said of the president.

Mr. Musk also piled on the criticism last week, saying the “massive spending bill” increases the national deficit and “undermines the work” that the DOGE has done to identify ways to scale back government spending.

“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful,” he said. “I don’t know if it can be both.”