Elon Musk hit out at President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill, posting on X that he “can’t stand” the legislation and describing it as a “disgusting abomination.”
The bill – which includes multi-trillion dollar tax breaks and increased defence spending while also allowing the U.S. government to borrow more money – was passed by the House of Representatives in May.
On X, Musk said those who voted for to pass the bill are “wrong.”
Musk had previously said the bill, one of Trump’s signature policies, was “disappointing” because he believed it undermined the cost-cutting work of the team he headed until recently, known as DOGE.
The South African-born tech billionaire’s time in the Trump administration came to an end on 31 May, although Trump said that “he will, always, be with us, helping all the way”.
The bill in its current form has been estimated to increase the budget deficit – the difference between what the government spends and the revenue it receives – by approximately $600bn (£444bn) in the next fiscal year.
In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, Musk said that the “outrageous, pork-filled” spending bill will “massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America [sic] citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”
In American politics “pork” refers to spending measures that lawmakers tack onto legislation to narrowly benefit their constituencies.
Asked about Musk’s comments soon after the first post, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “the President already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill.”
“This is one, big, beautiful bill,” she added. “And he’s sticking to it.”
The legislation also pledges to extend soon-to-expire tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration in 2017, as well as an influx of funds for defence spending and to fund the administration’s mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Additionally, it proposes lifting the limit on the amount of money the government can borrow, known as the debt ceiling, to $4tn.
