For those of you who are watching the all-day, all-night “vote-a-rama” on the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” in the U.S. Senate, be aware that you missed the main event, which is on social media: Yes, President Donald Trump and Tesla/SpaceX/X head Elon Musk are fighting. Again.
In response to a series of posts by Musk in which he expressed concern over the debt the reconciliation bill would create and promised to start a new political party if the GOP didn’t cut spending, Trump said “perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at” the money the government is spending on Musk’s companies in a late-night post.
The move came, Axios noted, “as the Senate worked through a marathon amendment session to send the measure to the Oval Office by July 4.”
Musk doesn’t necessarily make bad points, at least in a vacuum: Yes, a bill is generally either big or beautiful, and yes, the “Big Beautiful Bill” looks a lot bigger than it does beautiful.
Or, as Musk put it: “It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country — the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”
It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!
Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 30, 2025
Other Musk missives, both assailing the spending and hinting at a potential third-party move:
???? pic.twitter.com/KupkVrA4WT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2025
All I’m asking is that we don’t bankrupt America ????♂️ https://t.co/lt22t3EBpp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2025
VOX POPULI
VOX DEI80% voted for a new party https://t.co/JkeOlG7Kl4
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2025
Enter President Trump, who posted from his Truth Social account and put down Musk’s sourness over the bill down to its gutting of the EV mandate.
“Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate,” Trump wrote. “It is ridiculous, and was always a major part of my campaign. Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one.
“Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” he continued. “No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”
Donald J. Trump Truth Social 07.01.25 12:44 AM EST pic.twitter.com/lYEBxuYYlK
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) July 1, 2025
I could have sworn that we’d been through this already and that the most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world had patched up their bromance, to a certain extent. “Big Beautiful Bills” giveth; “Big Beautiful Bills” taketh away, I suppose.
As much as I sympathize with Musk as someone who makes a much humbler living, in part, beating his head against the wall of generalized government inefficiency, being right in principle does not mean being right in terms of government policy.
It’s something that Trump brings to the Oval Office: For all of his bombast, the man is a pragmatist at heart and wants to get the best deal that he can. He may put a better face on it than it deserves (i.e., giving it the moniker “Big Beautiful Bill”), but he still knows how to play the hand he’s dealt. Musk, for all his experience in the private sector — both as a product innovator and a businessman — has demonstrated that he’s still an idealist at heart. Idealism is enviable, pleasant, and the easiest path to getting eaten alive in Washington, the District of Columbia.
Yes, spending obviously needs to be reduced, and this bill will doubtlessly have numerous inefficiencies in it. Spending, when it is reduced, will not be reduced via a necessary reconciliation bill. That’s just how D.C. works, like it or not.
As for the fighting, it’s easy to offer advice to people who almost certainly aren’t listening from afar, but it needs to be said: Musk is not the South African Ross Perot, and the White House should focus on getting its agenda through Congress, not turning DOGE upon its first chair. It’s likely that both Musk and Trump were employing hyperbole to make their points — points that need to be heard, but which will almost certainly be buried under a thick layer of media coverage about the fight itself and not the content of it.
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