President Donald Trump on Thursday hit back on Elon Musk following Musk’s rampage against his domestic megabill, saying he’s “very disappointed” in the Tesla billionaire.
“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Musk responded in kind to the personal comments in real time on X, where he swiped at the legislation and at Trump directly.
At one point, Musk responded to a user: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”
“Such ingratitude,” Musk added. Musk spent more than $270 million to back Trump and other Republicans during the 2024 election cycle.
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The back-and-forth only escalated as the day went on.
Trump countered on his own conservative social media platform: “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”
Trump said the “easiest way to save billions of dollars” would be to “terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts.” Musk has criticized the bill’s price tag and its estimated impact on the national debt.
Musk and Trump had not spoken as of Thursday morning, according to two sources familiar with the president’s conversations.
Multiple administration officials have attempted to reach out to Musk and his representatives personally, but their calls and texts have not been returned, several sources tell ABC News.
President Trump was asked about Musk’s relentless criticisms of the tax and immigration bill while taking reporter questions alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House.
“He hasn’t said anything about me that’s bad. I’d rather have him criticize me than the bill, because the bill is incredible,” Trump said of Musk.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed the House last month by a single vote. The measure would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and boost spending for the military and border security, while making some cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other assistance programs.
It now faces headwinds in the Senate, specifically among a small group of Republican fiscal hawks.
Musk has said the the legislation, estimated by the nonpartisan budget office to add $3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, would undermine the Department of Government Efficiency’s goal to reduce government spending and chip away at the nation’s debt.
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“Where is this guy today??” Musk wrote as he reupped another user’s compilation of past Trump tweets criticizing high deficits, unbalanced budgets and more.
Musk made similar comments on X toward Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Trump contended on Thursday that Musk, the CEO of Tesla, was really “upset” because the legislation would remove tax credits for electric vehicles.
Before speaking out publicly against the bill, Musk personally pushed some lawmakers, including Speaker Johnson, to keep the tax credits for electric vehicles in the bill, according to two people familiar with conversations.
“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday. “He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden, he had a problem.”
Musk pushed back on X and suggested Trump was not telling the truth.
“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!” he wrote.
In another post, Musk wrote: “Whatever.”
“Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill,” the post read.
“In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful,” Musk added. “Everyone knows this! Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.”
As of now, the Tesla that President Trump bought to show support for Elon Musk is still on the White House complex, according to two sources.
The White House declined to comment. A representative for Musk has not yet returned request for comment.
