Elon Musk speaks during a press event with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured), at the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
Elon Musk on Tuesday tore into the massive tax-and-spending-cut bill backed by President Donald Trump, calling it a “disgusting abomination” that will explode federal budget deficits.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk wrote in a post on his social media site X.
“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” added the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Musk led the Trump administration’s DOGE effort to cut government spending and waste until last week, when his term as a temporary “special government employee” expired. Trump and Musk warmly praised each other on Friday in a send-off event in the Oval Office.
Musk added in a follow-up 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 White House quickly shrugged off the criticism from Musk, a vocal Trump supporter who spent over $250 million backing Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
“Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said when asked about the post.
“It doesn’t change the President’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it,” she said.
Leavitt also doubled down on the administration’s claim that it is “blatantly wrong” to say that the bill adds to the deficit. She accused the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office — which recently assessed that the budget package would raise the deficit by $3.8 trillion over the next decade — of being biased against Republicans.
But some of Trump’s fellow Republican lawmakers are siding with Musk.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a fiscal hawk and one of only two Republicans to vote against the House version of Trump’s bill, wrote, “He’s right,” in response to Musk’s post.
Musk replied to Massie: “Simple math.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also backed Musk’s view.
“Congress has hollowed out America’s middle class through reckless deficit spending and the inflation it causes,” Lee wrote on X in response to Musk’s warning of a looming deficit blowout.
“The Uniparty propels this vicious cycle, and must be stopped in its tracks,” Lee wrote.
Musk had earlier criticized the bill. In a CBS News interview that aired Sunday, the billionaire said that the legislative package backed by the president “undermines” DOGE.
Musk has also previously expressed opposition to Trump’s tariffs. And he has butted heads with other government officials, including openly hurling insults at White House trade advisor Peter Navarro and reportedly clashing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump lashed out at Sen. Rand Paul after the Kentucky Republican criticized the bill’s provision to raise the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars.
Trump accused Paul of failing to understand that the bill would spur “tremendous GROWTH.”
