‘Can’t stand it’: Musk lets rip at Trump’s ‘disgusting abomination’
Days after leaving the White House, tech billionaire Elon Musk has launched his angriest attack yet against US President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, slamming it as a “disgusting abomination”.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” the former DOGE boss, whose role was to cut government spending, said in stepping up his criticism.
“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” he posted to X on Wednesday morning (AEST).
He went further to attack Republicans who backed the package, which Trump has dubbed his “big, beautiful” tax bill.
“Shame on those who voted for it: You know you did wrong. You know it,” wrote Musk.
Musk followed up his post with the claim that Trump’s bill would “massively increase” the “already gigantic budget deficit” to US$2.5 trillion ($A3.9 trillion) and burden American citizens with “crushingly unsustainable debt”.
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He shared a post by Kentucky’s Republican Senator Rand Paul agreeing with his criticism.
“We have both seen the massive waste in government spending and we know another $US5 trillion in debt is a huge mistake. We can and must do better,” Paul wrote on X.
Paul copped a spray from Trump this week for criticising the bill, with Trump calling his ideas “crazy” and fuming that “the people of Kentucky can’t stand him”.
Musk’s furious outburst comes only four days after Trump heaped praise on the Tesla boss at a special press conference in the Oval Office to mark his official departure.
There was no evidence of tension during the joint appearance, when Trump said Musk would continue to play a role in his administration.
“Elon is really not leaving,” Trump said.
“He’s going to be back and forth.”
The bill promises $US600 billion in tax cuts for the top 1 per cent of America’s richest people, which The Guardian reported was the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history.
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It would also add an estimated $US4 trillion-$US5 trillion in public debt over the next decade.
Minutes after Musk’s post, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill”.
“It doesn’t change the President’s opinion,” she said.
Musk eliminated thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in contracts during his tenure with DOGE in a bid to slash federal spending.
He disrupted agencies across the federal bureaucracy, but fell far short of the massive savings he had initially promised.
Musk initially claimed DOGE would slash at least $US2 trillion in federal spending.
DOGE estimates it has saved $US175 billion ($272 billion) four months into its efforts.
Before his departure on Saturday (AEST), Musk had prompted some frustration among White House officials by criticising Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill as too expensive.
Some senior aides, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, saw Musk’s remarks on the tax bill as an open break from the administration, with Miller particularly irked by the comments.
Initially, the White House and senior aides insisted Musk, the world’s richest man, was a key figure who wasn’t going anywhere.
But more recently, they began pointing to the end of his 130-day mandate as a special government employee last Friday as a natural endpoint.
Musk has said he intends to devote most of his energy to his business empire, including Tesla and SpaceX, after some investors expressed concern that DOGE was occupying too much of his time.
He has also said he plans to ratchet back his political spending, after he spent nearly $US300 million ($A467 million) backing Trump’s presidential campaign and those of other Republicans in 2024.
