Musk has previously made his opinions about Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” clear. Days after he left the federal government last month with a laudatory celebration in the Oval Office, he blasted the bill as “pork-filled” and a “disgusting abomination.”
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” he wrote on X earlier this month. In another post, the wealthy GOP donor who had recently forecasted that he’d step back from political donations threatened to fire lawmakers who “betrayed the American people.”
When Trump clapped back to say he was disappointed with Musk, back-and-forth fighting erupted and quickly escalated. Musk suggested without evidence that Trump, who spent the first part of the year as one of his closest allies, was mentioned in files related to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein.
Musk ultimately tried to make nice with the administration, saying he regretted some of his posts that “went too far.” Trump responded in kind in an interview with The New York Post, saying, “Things like that happen. I don’t blame him for anything.”
It’s unclear how Musk’s latest broadsides will influence the fragile peace he and the president had enjoyed in recent weeks. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk has spent recent weeks focused on his businesses, and his political influence has waned since he left the administration. Still, the wealthy businessman poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump’s campaign in 2024, demonstrating the impact his money can have if he’s passionate enough about an issue or candidate to restart his political spending.
Though he was silent on Musk, Trump laid on pressure and lashed out strongly at Republican holdouts in the Senate as lawmakers spent hours taking a procedural vote during a rare Saturday evening session. He accused Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina of seeking publicity with his no vote and threatened to campaign against the senator’s reelection.
The legislation narrowly cleared its test vote in the Senate late Saturday evening, allowing senators to begin debate.
