President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, once allies, clashed publicly Thursday in a bitter dispute over the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a sweeping Republican legislative package central to Trump’s second-term agenda.
The escalating war of words, fueled by social-media broadsides, threatens to derail the bill, fracture Republican unity, and unsettle financial markets. The social media spat, which played out on Musk’s X.com and Trump’s Truth Social, marks the first public sign of acrimony between the two MAGA billionaires since Trump secured victory in November.
Musk had previously backed Trump’s presidential campaign with his America PAC and subsequently joined the administration to run the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE). However, Musk appears to have become disillusioned with the Trump White House over the president’s apparent willingness to play politics as usual with congressional Republicans.
The rift ignited earlier this week when Musk, also head of Tesla, Inc and SpaceX, blasted the GOP omnibus bill, which narrowly passed by the House last month, as “a disgusting abomination.”
The bill would extend the 2017 tax cuts, ramp up defense and border-security spending, and fund large-scale deportations of undocumented immigrants. In addition, the bill would increase the so-called SALT deduction for high earners in mostly blue high tax states while implementing some modest welfare reforms, such as work requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients. A controversial provision to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion has drawn sharp criticism from fiscal hawks in Congress, as well as Musk, who decried the bill as “pork-filled” and urged supporters to “KILL the BILL” by pressing senators and representatives to oppose it.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk posted on X Tuesday, adding, “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong.” On Thursday, he escalated, claiming his support was pivotal to Trump’s 2024 victory: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude.”
Trump retaliated on Truth Social, accusing Musk of erratic conduct and hinting at slashing billions in government contracts with Musk’s firms. “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate… and he just went CRAZY!” Trump wrote, referring to a scrapped electric-vehicle policy. He added, “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.”
Contrary to Trump’s assertion, Musk has publicly criticized EV subsidies and mandates and urged their repeal, which he pointed up in rejoinder posts on X.
The real kernel of the feud seems to be Musk’s expectation that Trump was going to embrace a radical departure from “business as usual” in Washington, D.C., whereas the Republican omnibus measure made only a modest attempt to fundamentally alter the financial trajectory of an American government that’s $37 trillion in debt and paying roughly 25 percent of its annual budget just on interest.
The Congressional Budget Office projected that the Republican bill could swell the national debt by another $2.4 trillion to $5 trillion over a decade, strident fiscal conservatives like Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), who align with Musk’s stance.
Supporters, however, hailed its tax cuts and security investments. Amid the dispute, Trump called the bill “one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress,” touting “a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given” in a Truth Social post. He warned of a “68% Tax Increase” and worse if it fails, adding, “I didn’t create this mess, I’m just here to FIX IT.”
The feud turned personal when Musk posted a sensational claim on X:
“Time to drop the really big bomb:
@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
That Trump’s name would appear in FBI files related to the infamous Jeffrey Epstein is unsurprising considering their relationship has been documented publicly for years. What remains unclear is the context in which Trump would be “in the Epstein files.”
That is, is Trump in the files as a high-profile figure who was filmed engaging in embarrassing or potentially illegal sex acts, as has been suspected of other Epstein associates, or is his relationship with the late financier simply chronicled in FBI records.
Trump sidestepped the allegation but jabbed back on Truth Social: “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.”
Musk upped the ante, threatening to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, vital for NASA’s International Space Station missions, after Trump threatened to cancel the company’s government contracts.
“@SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” he wrote on X. T
he fallout hit markets hard: Tesla shares slid 14 percent Thursday, erasing over $150 billion in market value.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt brushed off Musk’s attacks, saying, “The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change his opinion.”
With a July 4 deadline looming for Senate action, the clash between Trump and the world’s richest man—once a key backer—clouds the bill’s prospects and GOP cohesion, potentially altering the Republican Party’s fortunes in the 2026 midterm elections.
Late Thursday, both Trump and Musk continued lobbing social media bombs at each other, with no end in sight to the feud.
