Musk suggests he'll help primary Republicans backing Trump budget bill

"Vote-a-rama" connected Trump bill: What we cognize

Everything we cognize astir the Senate "vote-a-rama" connected Trump's "big, beauteous bill" 12:44

Elon Musk ramped up his disapproval of the monolithic taxation and home argumentation bundle moving its mode done the Senate connected Monday, suggesting helium could enactment superior challenges against Republicans who ballot for the Trump-backed bill.

"Every subordinate of Congress who campaigned connected reducing authorities spending and past instantly voted for the biggest indebtedness summation successful past should bent their caput successful shame!" the billionaire and onetime Trump state wrote successful a post connected X. "And they volition suffer their superior adjacent twelvemonth if it is the past happening I bash connected this Earth."

Musk also suggested starting "a caller governmental enactment that really cares astir the people" connected Monday, an idea helium archetypal floated earlier this month.

Musk's latest swipes came arsenic the Senate worked to advance the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, holding a marathon bid of amendment votes connected Monday. The Senate inactive needs to ballot connected last passage, and the House volition request to o.k. the Senate's changes, earlier a self-imposed July 4 deadline to nonstop the measure to Mr. Trump's desk.

It's unclear however superior Musk is astir the evident menace to backmost superior challenges against supporters of the authorities — oregon what support, if any, helium could connection to challengers. But it suggests Musk could stay progressive successful politics, aft spending upwards of $250 million to assistance elite Mr. Trump and different Republicans past year. The Tesla CEO indicated past period helium planned to dial back his governmental spending for now, saying, "I deliberation I've done enough."

The immense bulk of House and Senate Republicans person backed the bill, though immoderate lawmakers person withheld their support, objecting to its Medicaid cuts oregon arguing it doesn't spell acold capable to slash spending. Mr. Trump has applied aggravated unit to Republicans and lashed retired astatine the remaining holdouts: In a statement past weekend, the White House said "failure to walk this measure would beryllium the eventual betrayal." 

Musk has railed against the authorities connected and disconnected for weeks. The billionaire blasted the bill successful aboriginal June, calling it a "disgusting abomination" — igniting a dayslong feud betwixt President Trump and the world's richest antheral that seemed to awesome the extremity of a erstwhile adjacent partnership.

The billionaire, who once led the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, backed down successful mid-June and acknowledged immoderate of his attacks connected Mr. Trump "went excessively far." He remained reasonably quiescent astir the authorities for weeks, but his disapproval has intensified successful caller days, arsenic lawmakers unreserved to finalize the measure by the extremity of the week.

Mr. Trump largely brushed off the feud with Musk successful an interrogation with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo that aired Sunday, calling the billionaire a "wonderful guy" who "got a small spot upset, and that wasn't appropriate."

Why is Musk opposed to Trump's "big, beauteous bill"?

Many of Musk's criticisms zero successful connected the bill's price tag, calling its spending levels "insane" and attacking a proviso successful the Senate mentation of the measure that hikes the indebtedness ceiling by $5 trillion. 

But the billionaire has besides panned the bill's cuts to greenish vigor taxation credits and excise tax connected definite renewable vigor projects, calling those provisions "utter madness" that could "destroy millions of jobs successful America and origin immense strategical harm to our country."

Those provisions could straight interaction Musk's electrical carmaker, Tesla. The phaseout of electrical conveyance taxation credits whitethorn outgo the institution $1.2 billion, an investigation by JPMorgan Chase estimated. Tesla's star powerfulness and vigor retention businesses besides payment from authorities incentives, and ending those programs "may harm our business" by "making our products little competitory for customers," the institution disclosed successful an yearly study filed earlier this year.

• Elon Musk