Musk declares war on Trump, calling his tax law a "repugnant abomination"

The growing rift between Elon Musk and Donald Trump has abruptly turned into a rift . The world's richest man, a key supporter of Trump's victorious election campaign and right-hand man in his first months as president, harshly attacked the president's major legislative project: the so-called "One, Big, Beautiful Bill," the omnibus fiscal and budget law that underpins his political agenda and which Trump has been pushing since returning to the White House.

"Sorry, but I can't take it anymore," Musk wrote on X, his social network, about the law this Tuesday, just four days after having held an official farewell in the Oval Office with Trump, who gave him praise and a golden key to the White House.

"This massive, outrageous, favor-laden spending bill is a disgusting abomination," he said of the same bill, which Trump has celebrated and is fighting to push through Congress. It passed the House of Representatives last week and already drew criticism, albeit much less furious, from Musk. Now the president is hounding senators to push it through the Senate as well and secure a major legislative coup.

"To those of you who voted for her, shame on you," Musk wrote. "You know you were wrong, you know it," he added, without mentioning Trump, although the tech mogul is aware that the vast majority of Republicans simply align themselves with the president's demands.

Musk's attack on Trump's major legislative proposal marks a turning point in the relationship between the two. The richest man in the world and the most powerful man in the world have gone from being thick as thieves to clashing over a central issue in the US government. Musk threw himself into the election campaign that returned Trump to the presidency, showering his campaign with money—almost $290 million, by far a record—appearing at rallies and serving as one of his biggest voices and supporters. After the election victory, he moved into Mar-a-Lago, Trump's mansion and private club on the Florida coast, and became involved in the transition team's major decisions. Once in office, Trump appointed him to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a newly created agency to dramatically reduce the public sector.

In February, at the height of his power within the Trump administration, Musk appeared on stage at CPAC, the major conservative political conference, with a chainsaw gifted by Javier Milei, the president of Argentina. "This is the chainsaw of bureaucracy!" he shouted to the audience, referring to the massive cuts he was implementing.

The chainsaw, however, has stalled. Musk left the government last week because his 130-day term as a "special government employee" was expiring. But it's clear that Trump could have fixed that technical issue if he had wanted. The reality is that the relationship between the two was strained. Musk had been highly critical of another centerpiece of Trump's agenda, the massive, universal tariffs he announced in early April, which directly impacted some of Musk's biggest businesses, such as Tesla, his electric car manufacturer.

DOGE's management was also chaotic, with poor decisions, legal battles, and changes of direction. And the processing of the "one, big, beautiful bill" is shaping up to be the biggest disagreement.

For now, both Trump and Musk have preferred not to attack each other directly. The president, for example, hasn't used the same tactics with the South African entrepreneur as he has with one of the Republican senators who oppose his omnibus bill.

"His ideas are actually crazy, he's for losers. The people of Kentucky can't stand him," Trump wrote on social media about Rand Paul, a senator from that state and a constant scourge against spending and deficit policies. Despite Trump and the White House's insistence that his bill won't increase the US's massive fiscal deficit, Paul and other lawmakers are certain otherwise.

"You love to vote 'no' on everything, you think that's good politics, but it's not!" Trump said to her.

The president, however, has remained silent on Musk's comments for the time being. His spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, declined to comment on the matter on Tuesday, shortly after Musk's X-rated attacks: "The president already knows how Elon Musk feels about this law, but that doesn't change his opinion."

Musk didn't stop there, however, and came back for more. "This will massively increase the already massive US deficit," he wrote. "Congress is bankrupting the US."

And he moved on to threats, which, in his case, are reinforced by two weapons: his public influence from the pulpit he has in X and his pockets, the deepest on the planet.

"Next November, we will fire all the politicians who have betrayed the American people," he fired in a message, referring to the 2026 midterm elections, in which the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will be elected. Last year, Musk spent $30 million specifically on the campaigns of Republican congressional candidates. This spring, his involvement in an election for a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice made that campaign the most expensive in the country's history for a judicial position.

Musk, who hasn't hidden his disappointment with politics and has seen how his time in government has hurt the performance of his companies, has asserted that he won't spend so much money on election campaigns again. But it's clear he'll remain involved, and that could be a threat to Republicans who may face primary opponents who align with Musk's views.

For now, his incendiary statements have disrupted the passage of the omnibus fiscal and budget bill, right at a delicate moment. Trump wants the Senate to produce a bill similar to the one passed in the House, and just this Tuesday he said he wants to sign it into law before July 4th, Independence Day.

Whether that will happen remains to be seen. Republicans can only afford three defections from their caucus, and many senators are hesitant, for various reasons. Some, like Paul, believe it will unacceptably increase the deficit . Others argue it will weaken access to assistance programs like Medicaid, public health care for retirees.

Musk's messages could create gaps in the passage of Trump's omnibus bill. Shortly after his post, another senator, Mike Lee, joined the movement: "We can and must do better," he wrote on X.

At the same time, it unleashed the frustration of some House Republicans, who were beginning to show remorse over their support for a law they disliked. House Republican leader Mike Johnson tried to rally the party. He attacked Musk, saying he was "very disappointed, very surprised" by his remarks, and took a dig at him: he argued that the billionaire's position stems from the fact that the law ends the tax credits that electric vehicles, including Tesla, receive.

Democrats, desperate for some good news, have seized on the open war between Musk and Trump. "Elon Musk and I are on the same page," said Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader in the House. "The Republicans' tax fraud is a disgusting abomination. Truer words have never been spoken."