Key Points
- Elon Musk has criticised Donald Trump's tax and spending bill after leaving the Trump administration.
- The bill is projected to increase the national debt by US$3.8 trillion ($5.8 trillion).
- Despite leaving his formal role, Musk’s criticism is fuelling party debate over Republican spending priorities.
Elon Musk called United States President Donald Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill a "disgusting abomination" that will increase the federal deficit in social media posts that hardline Republicans quickly embraced.
"I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore," the billionaire Musk wrote in an X post.
"This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
"Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it."
The House of Representatives last month passed the bill by one vote after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the measure — which would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump's main legislative accomplishment in his first term — would add US$3.8 trillion ($5.8 trillion) to the federal government's US$36.2 trillion ($56 trillion) in debt.
The Senate, also controlled by Trump's Republicans, aims to pass the measure titled the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" in the next month, though senators are expected to revise the House-passed version of the bill.
'My friend Elon is terribly wrong'
House speaker Mike Johnson and Senate majority leader John Thune said Musk's calculations were in error.
"It's very disappointing," Johnson told reporters. "With all due respect, my friend Elon [Musk] is terribly wrong."
But two House Republicans — representatives Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson — who opposed the measure, went to Musk's social platform X to endorse his message.
"The Big Beautiful Tweet," Davidson said while reposting Musk's words.
Senator Mike Lee, one of at least four hardline Republicans pushing for deeper spending cuts, also supported Musk in a tweet that called on party members to use the Trump bill and future spending measures to reduce the deficit.
"We must commit now to doing so, as this is what voters justifiably expect — and indeed deserve — from the GOP [Grand Old Party] Congress," the Utah Republican said on X.
Trump appointed Musk, the world's richest person, to lead a government cost-cutting and efficiency drive, during which he upended several federal agencies but ultimately failed to deliver the massive savings he had sought.
Musk left his formal role in the administration last week as his time as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency came to an end.
