Once close allies, United States President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk appear to be drifting apart after the tech mogul criticized the newly passed tax bill backed by the 48th America leader and House Republicans.
Musk’s criticism came just days after he abruptly stepped down from his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency also known as DOGE, a position he was appointed to by Trump after succeeding former president Joe Biden.
Replying to the world richest man on Thursday, the president said he is “disappointed” with Musk after the billionaire publicly criticised his signature tax bill as “outrageous and abomination”.
Trump suggested that his former backer and adviser missed being in government, and has “Trump derangement syndrome” SAYING I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.
The bill, which includes multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks, was passed by the House Republicans in May and has been described by the president as a “big, beautiful bill”. By contrast, Musk has called it the “big, ugly bill”.
The tech billionaire attacked the tax cuts on his platform X on Tuesday, writing, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
In American politics, “pork” is a political metaphor used when government spending is allocated to local projects, usually to benefit politicians’ constituencies.
Shortly after the president expressed his disappointment in Musk, the SpaceX boss responded with a post on his page saying, “False”, This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”
In another tweet, Musk claimed responsibility for Donald Trump’s re-election success.
He wrote, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”
