'A disgusting abomination': Elon Musk slams Donald Trump's budget bill

This is a new rift between the two men. Elon Musk on Tuesday called the congressional budget mega-bill championed by Donald Trump a "repugnant abomination," a sign of heightened tensions between the billionaire and the administration he just left. This violent attack on one of Donald Trump's most cherished projects "does not change the position" of the American president, the White House quickly responded.

"The president already knew what Elon Musk was thinking," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday. "It's a great, beautiful law, and he's sticking to it," she added, using the nickname used by the US administration to describe this keystone of the presidential program.

It includes extending the Republican billionaire's monumental first-term tax credits, which expire at the end of the year. According to various independent analysts, extending them could increase the federal deficit by $2 trillion to $4 trillion over the next decade. Budget cuts, meanwhile, could affect millions of the poorest Americans.

For the world's richest man, who had been tasked by Donald Trump for the past four months with making drastic cuts to the US budget, "this enormous, scandalous, clientelist budget bill is a disgusting abomination." "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you were wrong," added Elon Musk in a message on his X network.

Passed in late May in the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, under pressure from Donald Trump, the bill has been under consideration since Monday by the Senate, where Republicans hold the majority. The US president warned senators that he wanted to see this law on his desk "as soon as possible" for enactment. However, elected officials from his own Republican camp have indicated their intention to make significant changes. The parliamentary back-and-forth could therefore continue.