https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j76djzgpvo
Elon Musk has hit out at President Donald Trump's signature tax and spending bill, describing it as a "disgusting abomination", in a widening rift between the two.
The tech billionaire posted on X that the bill would add to the US budget deficit and saddle Americans with "crushing" debt.
The budget, which includes huge tax breaks and more defence spending, was passed by the House of Representatives last month and is now being considered by senators.
"Shame on those who voted for it," said Musk, hinting that he may try to unseat the politicians responsible at next year's midterm elections.
The bill has the backing of President Donald Trump and would be the legislative linchpin of his second-term agenda if it passes Congress.
Musk left the administration abruptly last week after 129 days working to cut costs with his team, known as Doge.
The comments mark his first public disagreement with Trump since leaving government, after having previously called the plan "disappointing".
The South African-born tech billionaire's time in the Trump administration came to an end on 31 May, although Trump said that "he will, always, be with us, helping all the way".
In its current form, the bill - which Trump refers to as the "big beautiful bill" - has been estimated to increase the budget deficit - the difference between what the government spends and the revenue it receives - by about $600bn (£444bn) in the next fiscal year.
In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, Musk said that the "outrageous, pork-filled" spending bill will "massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America [sic] citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt".
In American politics "pork" refers to spending on projects in lawmakers' constituencies.
Musk has previously vowed to fund campaign challenges against any Republican that votes against Trump's agenda. But on Tuesday he fired a warning to those who backed the bill.
"In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people," he wrote.
Asked about Musk's comments soon after the first post, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said "the President already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill".
"This is one, big, beautiful bill," she added. "And he's sticking to it."
The legislation also pledges to extend soon-to-expire tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration in 2017, as well as an influx of funds for defence spending and to fund the administration's mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
To the dismay of fiscal conservatives, it would lift the limit on the amount of money the government can borrow, known as the debt ceiling, to $4tn.
The comments from Musk reflect wider tensions among Republicans over the plan, which faced stiff opposition from different wings of the party as it worked its way through the House.
The Senate has now taken it up, and divisions are already emerging in that chamber, which is also narrowly controlled by Republicans.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has said over the last few days he will not support the bill if it raises the debt ceiling.
"The GOP [the Republican Party] will own the debt once they vote for this," he told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, over the weekend.
Trump responded to Paul with a series of social media posts, accusing him of having "very little understanding of the bill" and saying that the "people of Kentucky can't stand him".
"His ideas are actually crazy," Trump wrote.
Republican lawmakers pushed back on Musk's comments, with Senate majority leader John Thune telling reporters the party plans to "proceed full speed ahead" despite "a difference of opinion".
"We have an agenda that everybody campaigned on, most notably the president," he said.
Mike Johnson - the Republican Speaker who has ushered the legislation through the House - told reporters on Capitol Hill that "my friend Elon is terribly wrong".
"It's a very important first start. Elon is missing it," Johnson said.
Johnson said he had a 20-minute phone call with the tycoon about the bill on Monday, adding that its phasing out of electric vehicle tax credits could "have an effect" on Tesla, Musk's firm.
"I lament that," Johnson said, expressing surprise that Musk criticised the bill despite their call. "I just deeply regret he's made this mistake.”
Among the issues that upset Musk involved air traffic control at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to Axios.
Musk was hoping it would be run on his Starlink satellite system, but he was denied because of issues relating to the technology and the appearance of a conflict of interest, the political outlet reported.
Some Democrats welcomed Musk’s comments despite their previous criticism of him and the work of Doge.
"Even Elon Musk, who's been part of the whole process, and is one of Trump's buddies, said the bill is bad," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. "We can imagine how bad this bill is."
Trump and Republicans in Congress have set a deadline of 4 July to get the measure passed and signed into law.
Musk supported Trump in last year's November election with donations of more than $250m.
To make peace with spending hawks, Trump is also asking Congress to pass a plan that would reduce current spending by $9.4bn, a figure derived from Doge's work.
It would mainly slash funding for foreign aid, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and for broadcasters NPR and PBS.
>>1409705It's awfully annoying how Musk is so tolerated in the White House, especially when he can't make up his mind on where he stands for the life of him.
>>1409715He stands for his own profit/benefit and always has. Everything he did to the federal government with Doge was to either protect his businesses or himself from oversight and regulation, either directly or as a favor for other wannabe oligarchs. "Eliminating fraud and waste" was a cover for dismantling regulatory bodies, paving the way for billionaires and other scum to further consolidate wealth. The supposed savings amounted to about a minute or two of military spending while putting thousands out of work and millions at risk now that agencies and programs they relied on are gone or gutted.
>>1409704 (OP)>leaves Trump white house>within a week he's calling Trumps key bill a disgusting abominationman everyone who works with Trump comes to fucking hate him don't they?
>>1409724Including his own children and grandchildren
It's a deep state bill. They snuck in an outrageous amount of horseshit last minute that Congress didn't have the time to read before passing, without Trump's knowledge. Trump's fighting behind the scenes to stop this shit, there is no rift between Elon and Trump, they're both of the same mind about this bill, it's the leftists who subverted the bill that need to be investigated and attacked, not a bunch of unwitting victims of leftist subversion
>>1409743Is that similar to how trump is actually working against Israel behind the scenes, even as he fellates the chosen people in public?
>>1409724Musk is afraid to go the whole hog, and call tRump personally a disgusting abomination. Although we all know that that's what he meant. Beware The Ides of March Donald in 2029
>>1409757Trump knows Israel is the new international pariah state. He can't openly embrace what Israel is doing, but he still wants to build Trump Gaza Casinos, so he's going to keep fellating Netanyahu behind the scenes. Besides that he also has the zionist Kuschner family and a bunch of baptist armageddon enthusiasts whispering in his ear telling him to enact armageddon for Jesus.
>>1409757tRump pulls Net & Ya-Hoo's chair out for him so he can sit down. tRump's done this more than once for Net & Ya-Hoo'. tRump knows who holds the real power in the United States.
>>1409743You people are so fucking cringe. Garbage in, garbage out.
>>1409724It's a whole room full of belligerent narcissists. Frankly the only surprising thing is that Musk didn't get a black eye earlier.
>>1409758I think Musk is afraid of getting scapegoated. Under the logic of "Well, we were told we'd have tons of money to spend! Musk lied to us, let's put him on trial"
Elon had a whole project with POTUS endorsement to cut the budget... Accomplished nothing... Dumbfuck Elon needs to go back to pretending to be a CEO
They're all disgusting abominations.
>>1409900Actually it saved us hundreds of billions of dollars.
>>1409900He accomplished the gutting of all the departments that were investigating his companies for various crimes. That's not nothing.
>>1410261Exactly. Not enough people are putting this two piece puzzle together, and would rather take elon at his word about doge
>>1410261I'm pretty sure the weather service, the FDA, and the EPA were not investigating him
