Fiscal hawks in the House GOP are praising Musk’s broadside against the bill.
Elon Musk is so frustrated with the House-passed reconciliation bill that he’s calling on Republican lawmakers to start from scratch. President Donald Trump and congressional GOP leaders aren’t pleased — to say the least.
The tech giant’s opposition to President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy bill is a curious finale to Musk’s formal time in U.S. government, which technically ended when his special government employee contract work as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) came to a close in late May.
He’s spent recent days criticizing the legislation’s spending cuts as insufficient and raising concerns that the bill will balloon the deficit, calling it a “disgusting abomination” and threatening to possibly oust lawmakers who supported it. “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” Musk wrote on June 3. And he’s using his super PAC — which spent millions last cycle helping elect Republicans — as a megaphone for his opposition.
The Trump-Musk tension over the president’s signature policy bill is forcing congressional GOP leaders to do a careful dance: praising his efforts to claw back federal spending during his time at DOGE while also casting his opposition as a barrier to the president’s domestic agenda.
“We had a great, very friendly, very fruitful conversation together,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) told reporters at a press conference. “Twenty-four hours later, he does a 180 and he comes out against the bill. And it surprised me, frankly.”
“I called Elon last night, and he didn’t answer, but hope to talk to him today,” he added.
Navigating Musk’s opposition is a tricky political situation for congressional GOP leaders, given the tech CEO’s ownership of the influential social media platform X and the possibility that the billionaire could fund primary challengers to any Republican politician at the drop of a hat. The rift has also given fodder to Democrats, who are harshly critical of the bill, mainly over its Medicaid and tax-cut provisions.
Pressed on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday afternoon about Musk’s opposition to the legislation, House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R., Texas) embarked on a roughly five-minute-long tangent thanking Musk for his work on DOGE while characterizing his assessment of the bill as misguided.
“Nobody since Ronald Reagan, honestly, has raised the profile on the out-of-control spending of the federal government more than Elon Musk,” Arrington said, while insisting that “he’s totally wrong” about how the legislation will impact the debt and deficit. “It will affect the fiscal health of our country by growing the economy, and it will begin reducing spending, and in fact, cut spending by the most ever, and it’s two times the most ever.”
“Look, no reconciliation bill is going to dig us out of the debt hole in one fell swoop,” the Texas congressman said, adding: “When we were at this level of indebtedness after World War II, it took two decades.”
Publicly, administration officials have dismissed Musk’s comments while reminding reporters that the president is looking to codify DOGE cuts with the rescissions package the White House sent to Congress this week.
“The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”
As many Republican lawmakers see it, Musk’s opposition to the House-passed bill has less to do with the deficit than it does with its repeal of electric-vehicle tax credits that would financially affect his electric-vehicle manufacturing company, Tesla.
On May 28, Tesla Energy went public with its lobbying effort in a social media post on X: “Abruptly ending the energy tax credits would threaten America’s energy independence and the reliability of our grid — we urge the senate to enact legislation with a sensible wind down of 25D and 48e. This will ensure continued speedy deployment of over 60 GW capacity per year to support AI and domestic manufacturing growth.”
And Musk personally lobbied Speaker Johnson in multiple private conversations, a source familiar with the matter tells National Review.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk has also grown extremely frustrated that the White House pulled his close ally Jared Isaacman from consideration as administrator of NASA — a government agency that has contracts with Musk’s space technology company, SpaceX.
It’s unclear whether Musk’s opposition to the bill will have any serious impact on the final legislative text. This is not the first time he’s launched a social media campaign against a bill drafted by House GOP leadership — though his involvement in the December government funding standoff occurred before the House advanced the bill, not after, and Musk’s involvement in that legislative spat was more in tune with the White House’s end goals.
On reconciliation, administration officials say Senate Republicans are making progress on the legislation ahead of the upper chamber’s self-imposed July 4 deadline for getting it to Trump’s desk, and they brush aside media questions about Musk. And the Senate is a very different animal than the House, whose members are typically more influenced by primary threats given their shorter terms.
“I don’t think very many senators are that interested in what Elon has to say about it,” Senator Kevin Kramer (R., N.D.) told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s amusing, but we’re serious policymakers. We have to govern.”
Even still, GOP leaders in both chambers can afford only a handful of defections. And a handful of Senate Republicans have spent recent weeks sharing Musk’s concerns — some about the deficit, and others about phasing out clean-energy tax credits, which provide jobs and attract business to their states.
Fiscal hawks in the House GOP are praising Musk’s broadside against the bill — even though in the end, all of them supported it (except for House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R., Md.), who voted present). Budget hard-liners who held their noses and voted for the bill last month welcome Musk’s pressure on Republicans to cut more spending as Senate Republicans prepare to make their own mark on the legislation.
“Elon’s driven by good motives with respect to wanting to reduce the deficit. He gets the situation economically with respect to the bond markets,” said Representative Chip Roy (R., Texas). “He’s being honest about it. I think that’s a good thing.”
“We need a million more people like Elon Musk to put the fear of God in all these politicians to actually have a backbone and cut spending,” Representative Eric Burlison (R., Mo.) told National Review on Wednesday. “And the sad part is: I agree with Elon, but that bill was the best that we could do, and we fought tooth and nail to get to $1.6 trillion in spending cuts.”
In this Missouri congressman’s view, every voice calling for less spending is a welcome development. “At the end of the day, the public needs to be out crying out and angry at Congress for its lack of fiscal discipline.”