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Key Points
- US President Donald Trump voiced disappointment with Elon Musk’s criticism of his tax and spending bill.
- Musk called the bill “a disgusting abomination” for its projected $5.8 trillion increases to US national debt.
- Trump noted that he and Musk previously had a strong relationship but implied that may now be over.
United States President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off government contracts with companies owned by billionaire Elon Musk, as the alliance between the world’s most powerful man and its richest erupted into a rancorous public fight.
“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday (AEST).
“He said the most beautiful things about me, and he hasn’t said bad about me personally, but I’m sure that’ll be next. But I’m, I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
Trump also wrote on his social media site Truth Social: “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.” Trump had appointed Musk this year to slash the federal bureaucracy.
During his remarks in the Oval Office, Trump claimed that Musk’s intense criticism of the bill was driven by the suggested removal of tax breaks for electric car buyers.
Musk, the CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla, has said he opposes the bill because it will increase federal deficits.
The Republican-held Senate is expected to pass the bill after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the measure — which extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts — would add US$3.8 trillion ($5.8 trillion) to the federal government’s US$36.2 trillion ($56 trillion) debt.
Trump suggested that Musk, who received a praise-filled send-off from Trump last week after overseeing his federal bureaucracy cost-cutting campaign, was upset because he missed working for Trump.
“He’s not the first,” Trump said.
Elon Musk received a praiseful send-off from Donald Trump last week. Source: AAP / Francis Chung / POOL / EPA
“People leave my administration … then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile.”
As Trump was speaking, Musk wrote on X, “Slim Beautiful Bill for the win,” a reference to the bill’s official title, the “Big Beautiful Bill Act”.
Musk followed that up with another post, saying he was fine with the cuts to electric vehicle credits as long as Republicans removed what he called a “mountain of disgusting pork” in wasteful spending from the bill.
The billionaire later posted, “Without my involvement, Trump would have been defeated, the Democrats would have taken control of the House, and Republicans would hold a slim 51-49 majority in the Senate. Such lack of gratitude.”
Musk has been a powerful Trump ally, spending about $US250 million ($384 million) to boost Republicans in the 2024 election and then overseeing Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk came into the government with brash plans to cut $US2 trillion ($3.1 trillion) out of the federal budget.
He left last week having achieved far less than that, having cut about half of one per cent of total spending.
His work eliminating thousands of federal jobs and cutting billions of dollars in foreign aid and other programs caused disruption across federal agencies while prompting widespread protests at Tesla outlets in the US and Europe.
