On June 3, 2025, Elon Musk harshly criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial “Big Beautiful Bill.” The legislation, which consists of the largest tax cut in American history, opens federal lands to energy leasing and aims to deliver tax relief for families and businesses. However, it also slashes non-defense spending by 22%, cutting from health care, Medicaid, green energy, and student loans. Those funds are then redirected to defense spending, particularly by investing billions into America’s shipbuilding and maritime industrial base and spending $350 billion on border security, deportations, and national security. The tax cuts add up to $3.7 trillion, allowing taxpayers to keep that amount at the cost of coming out of the federal budget and potentially adding to deficits. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit, excluding interest costs, and increase it by $3.8 trillion by 2024.
Elon Musk pointed this out, writing on X that the bill would add to the U.S. budget deficit and saddle Americans with “crushing” debt. The tech billionaire called upon Americans to tell their representatives in Washington to “kill the bill,” even describing it as a “disgusting abomination” and shaming those who voted for it. Next, Musk issued a threat towards them if they continued to advance the policy, declaring that all politicians who had “betrayed” the American people would be fired in November next year. Republican strategist Alex Conant commented on Musk’s response, sharing that it was “not helpful” to have Musk criticizing the legislation, but he did not expect lawmakers to side with Musk over Trump, since Musk does not wield the level of influence that Trump does. However, two of the Senate’s Republicans quickly backed Musk: Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Utah Senator Mike Lee. Lee argued that “federal spending has become excessive,” adding that it causes inflation and “weaponizes government.” Democrats found themselves unexpectedly siding with Musk for one of the first times, waging a political assault on Trump’s attempt to cut Medicaid, food stamps, and green energy investments.
If the bill passes, Musk’s business interests would take a hit, since the “Big Beautiful Bill” cuts funding for electric vehicles and related technologies, directly affecting Tesla, the nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, and Musk’s company. The bill would also cut SpaceX, which has massive defense contracts.
Tensions escalated when Trump threatened to cut Musk’s government contracts on Thursday, June 5. The President, on his social media platform, retorted that “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!” A Washington Post analysis has found that Musk and his business have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits, meaning that this would be a detrimental blow to Musk’s income. Musk’s SpaceX had spent years at the center of American civil and military spaceflight, creating a profitable relationship that made him incredibly wealthy. Musk quickly retracted to Trump’s threat, bringing up the idea of decommissioning a SpaceX vehicle that was critical to NASA’s spaceflight program, since SpaceX had been the fulcrum of a majority of the U.S. government’s spaceflight programs. Afterward, he continued to launch a series of accusations at Trump, claiming that his administration had not released all the records related to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein because Trump was mentioned in them. Then, he claimed that Trump would have lost the election with him since he donated more than $250 million towards Trump’s campaign. Since June 7, those posts have now been deleted.
Musk’s sudden actions against the president have spurred discussions of the possibility of him supporting Democratic lawmakers and candidates in the future, especially in the 2026 midterm election. When asked about his stance on that, Trump told NBC, “If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that.” Although he declined to share what those consequences would be, Musk’s businesses have many lucrative federal contracts, all of which Trump could affect.
Written by Claire Liu
