President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s apparent relationship troubles don’t seem to likely to blow over anytime soon.
Musk has ripped Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” on X, calling it a “disgusting abomination” on Tuesday. Trump and his administration have been uncharacteristically quiet on the subject, but on Wednesday morning’s edition of “Fox & Friends,” co-host Brian Kilmeade said there was anger behind the scenes: “I think the Elon Musk thing really caught the president by surprise and I hear he is furious.”
Kilmeade went on to say that Trump’s public silence is “smart,” arguing the president’s focus should remain on pushing the bill forward and getting it passed by the Senate. “Don’t worry about it,” Kilmeade said.
The strife appears to extend beyond the president, however. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., shared with reporters Wednesday that his calls to Musk have gone unanswered and unreturned.
“I called Elon last night and he didn’t answer. I hope he calls me back today,” the speaker said.
Johnson added that he’s spoken to Trump, noting that the president is “not delighted that Elon did a 180 on that.”
The speaker suggested that Musk’s discontent with the House-passed bill comes from language that would terminate electric vehicle tax credits, an issue that obviously matters to the Tesla CEO. Axios reported that Tesla has spent at least $240,000 lobbying for the electric vehicle credits and that Musk even spent time personally advocating for it.
Publicly, Musk has criticized the bill for expanding the federal deficit. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill’s spending cuts would be more than offset by the inclusion of tax cuts that disproportionately aid the wealthy, adding more than $2.4 trillion to the debt.
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Despite Johnson’s criticism, other GOP legislators have backed Musk. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah showed their support for Musk’s criticism of the bill in posts on Musk’s social platform, X.
Paul responded on X, saying: “I agree with Elon..We can and must do better.”
“The Senate must make this bill better,” Lee responded on X.
Musk’s tirade on X continued into the night on Tuesday as he eventually said a continued increase in the country’s debt would “drive America into debt slavery!”
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