Elon Musk renews his criticism of Trump's big bill as Senate Republicans
scramble to pass it
[June 30, 2025]
By ALI SWENSON
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk on Saturday doubled down on his distaste for
President Donald Trump's sprawling tax and spending cuts bill, arguing
the legislation that Republican senators are scrambling to pass would
kill jobs and bog down burgeoning industries.
“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America
and cause immense strategic harm to our country,” Musk wrote on X on
Saturday ahead of a procedural Senate vote to open debate on the nearly
1,000-page bill. “It gives handouts to industries of the past while
severely damaging industries of the future.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, whose birthday is also Saturday, later posted
that the bill would be “political suicide for the Republican Party.”
The criticisms reopen a recent fiery conflict between the former head of
the Department of Government Efficiency and the administration he
recently left. They also represent yet another headache for Republican
Senate leaders who have spent the weekend working overtime to get the
legislation through their chamber so it can pass by Trump's Fourth of
July deadline.
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.
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Elon Musk attends a news conference with President Donald Trump in
the Oval Office of the White House, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
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.
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