House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is not giving up on Elon Musk, saying he texted the tech billionaire who was feuding with President Donald Trump on Thursday “a lot of information” about the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that led to the dispute.
Holding what he said was his chief of staff’s baby, Johnson told reporters in the U.S. Capitol that Musk “is a friend,” indicating there remains hope for a resolution to the conflict, and said he had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get on the phone with Musk.
“I sent him a lot of information via text, hoping he reads it and considers it,” Johnson added. “And this isn’t personal. Policy differences should not be personal.”
Mike Johnson tells us: “Elon said I’ve changed? No, I’m the same guy who has always been a deficit hawk.”
Also downplays Musk’s attacks against bill and pushes back on Musk saying that Rs held House because of him. “If there’s one person (deserves credit), it’s Donald J. Trump.” pic.twitter.com/CXIedngRey
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 5, 2025
Last week, Musk began to criticize the bill as he wrapped up a stint as a special government employee helping to oversee Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort last week, and the conflict came to a boiling point on Thursday when Trump declared that he was “very disappointed” with Musk.
In a series of posts to X, Musk fired back at Trump and also highlighted old comments from Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) in which they railed against the growing national debt — a central focus for Musk as he critiques how the bill is expected to impact the U.S. deficit.
“I super agree with this guy,” Musk said in one post, pointing to a 2018 tweet from Johnson saying, “At some point, Congress has to stop this endless cycle of out-of-control deficit spending.” To a March 2023 post from Johnson warning about a federal debt topping $31.4 trillion (it is now approaching $37 trillion), Musk asked, “Where is the Mike Johnson of 2023?”
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Johnson shot back in a post that said, “The Mike Johnson of 2023 is the SAME Mike Johnson who has always been a lifelong fiscal hawk – who now serves as Speaker and is implementing a multi-stage plan to get our country back to fiscal responsibility and extraordinary economic growth.”
He continued, “It begins with the critically important One Big Beautiful Bill that includes the LARGEST mandatory spending cut to the federal government in history (by almost 400%), the LARGEST tax cut in history, the LARGEST investment in border security in a GENERATION, along with arguably the STRONGEST collection of pro-growth provisions EVER passed. The same CONSISTENT Mike Johnson who has ALWAYS supported the America First Agenda.”
X, which is owned by Musk, applied a Community Note to Johnson’s response, saying, “Multiple non-partisan groups have put out reports showing the reconciliation package will add over $2T in debt and potentially over $3T when you add increased debt payments.”