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Billionaire sides with GOP critics who say measure doesn’t cut spending enough

Key Points

WASHINGTON—Former White House cost-cutting czar Elon Musk called President Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending package a “disgusting abomination,” stepping up his criticism just as the Senate is trying to quickly pass the measure and get it signed into law by July 4.

Musk’s comments are his latest sharp words about the package, which includes tax cuts as well as reductions to spending on Medicaid and food assistance. Last month, he gave new fuel to GOP critics of the Republicans’ multitrillion-dollar agenda, saying that the current measure failed to reduce the federal deficit.

“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” said Musk, in comments on his X social-media platform. Musk, who left the administration last week, called the package a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill.” He issued a warning on the midterm elections: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”

The bill narrowly passed the House last month by one vote. It is now in the hands of the Senate, where some fiscal hawks, including Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida, have demanded deeper cuts.

The Senate is aiming to make changes to the bill and then send it back to the House. Backers can afford to lose no more than a handful of GOP votes in either chamber, with all Democrats expected to be opposed. Still, the White House and GOP leaders said that Musk’s statements didn’t shake their confidence in passing the measure.

Trump “already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday when asked about Musk’s social-media post. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”

The current proposal would extend expiring tax cuts for all income groups and create new tax cuts on top of that, including versions of Trump’s campaign-trail promises to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits. The bill would provide new money for border security, national defense and support for farmers. To cover some—but not all—of those costs, the bill would reduce spending on green energy tax credits, Medicaid and food assistance.

Top Republican defenders of the measure argue that the tax cuts will fuel increased economic growth to close the fiscal gap—counter to assessments by congressional scorekeepers. In all, the bill is expected to increase budget deficits by $2.7 trillion through 2034, compared with doing nothing, though a final official estimate wasn’t available.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) kept his focus on the bigger picture, saying that Republicans had campaigned on extending and expanding Trump’s tax cuts and that he intended to deliver, aiming to put the bill on the floor the week before July 4. Asked if he thought Musk’s pressure would tank the bill, Thune said he hoped Musk would further assess the bill and “come to a different conclusion.”

Senate Republicans still must sort through intraparty differences, including over the timing and depth of cuts to Medicaid and clean-energy subsidies, whether to go along with more generous state-and-local tax deductions, and demands from lawmakers who want special benefits for their states in exchange for backing unpopular changes elsewhere in the bill.

Musk helped derail a House GOP spending bill in December, forcing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) to slim down the proposal to get it passed and avoid a government shutdown right before Christmas. But there were signs Musk’s power has ebbed, and Johnson brushed off his objections.

Johnson said Musk is “terribly wrong.” He said the bill is a “very important first start” in terms of cutting costs, and the package will be “jet fuel for the economy.” He also questioned whether Musk’s objections were related to a provision ending federal tax incentives for electric vehicles.

Under the House bill, consumer tax credits for new electric vehicles would largely end after this year. Musk has previously said the government should end all such tax credits.

Democrats, who for months cast Musk as a villain haphazardly dismantling government agencies, reveled in the public split.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said the billionaire’s comments prompted him to “say something I didn’t think was imaginable. I agree with Elon Musk.” He reiterated Democrats’ criticism of the package as a “big, ugly bill” that provides “tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy paid by gutting health care for millions of Americans.”

While in government, Musk drove sharp cuts in many government departments, but fell well short of producing the $1 trillion in savings he promised. Some Republicans questioned how meaningful Musk’s comments were in swaying senators.

“I don’t know how influential he was when he was in the administration, so I can’t gauge it,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R., S.D.). “He’s a businessman who came in and tried to help. We appreciated it,” Rounds said. “But now we move on.”

Trump hosted Musk at a farewell Oval Office press conference last week, where the two men heaped praise on each other, aiming to counter the perceptions that their partnership had frayed. The White House on Tuesday sent Congress a $9.4 billion rescissions package that would codify some spending cuts made during Musk’s tenure.

Critics of the bill embraced Musk’s latest remarks.

“The Senate must make this bill better,” Lee wrote in a response to Musk’s post. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has objected to the debt-limit increase included in the package, said both he and Musk “have both seen the massive waste in government spending and we know another $5 trillion in debt is a huge mistake. We can and must do better.”

Trump attacked Paul on social media earlier Tuesday, saying the senator “has very little understanding of the [big, beautiful bill], especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming.”