Musk sends Republicans into chaos as he shreds Trump's ‘big beautiful bill' — ‘He doesn't get to vote'

Independent

3 days ago

Senate Republicans were in their luncheon as they begin the process to take up President Donald Trump's ' One Big, Beautiful Bill ' when Elon Musk blasted the legislation as an ' outrageous, pork-filled, disgusting abomination.'
version of the massive domestic legislation bill that includes extending the 2017 tax cuts Trump signed, beefed up spending at the U.S.-Mexico border and oil drilling as well as massive changes to the social safety net in the United States.
But just before Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the rest Republican leadership were about to begin their press conference, Musk, the just-departed head of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, raged against the bill on X.
'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore,' he posted. '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.'
Some Republicans sought to ignore it. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa — who recently came under criticism for dismissing constituents concerned over Medicaid cuts at a local town hall with her response, ' Well, we're all going to die ' — brushed off a question from The Independent as she exited the Capitol and got into her car.
Sen. Rick Scott said he had not read the Musk tweet, a common refrain from politicians not wishing to discuss a hot topic. When The Independent offered to show it to him, he brushed it off.
'I want to get the tax cuts permanent, the border money, the military, but we've got to get spending under control,' Scott, an ally of Trump, told The Independent. 'So I'm going to continue to work to bring down the deficit, to hopefully balance the budget the next three years.'
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has in the past called for steeper cuts in the bill and praised Musk's comments, saying it 'bolsters' the points he made.
"The only way I know how to do this is lay out the facts and figures and win the argument," Johnson told The Independent.
Others, such as Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Katie Britt of Alabama, both members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told The Independent they had not seen the tweet.
Alabama's other Republican senator — Tommy Tuberville, a staunch ally of Trump — brushed off Musk's criticism.
'I ain't got any thoughts on that,' Tuberville said of the Musk posting. 'We got a lot of work to do. He doesn't get to vote.'
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who spent weeks corralling various factions within the House GOP conference before he passed it in the wee hours of the morning last month before the House broke for recess, pushed back on Musk's criticism.
'It's very disappointing,' Johnson told reporters. 'With all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong about the One Big, Beautiful Bill.'
Other Republican senators made jokes about Musk's remarks.
'Does that mean he likes it?' Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio told The Independent. 'I think he's probably buying into the CBO scoring model, but look, ultimately, we haven't even gotten the bill yet right so we're gonna make it better.'
The Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan body in Congress that scores how much legislation costs, estimated that extending the tax cuts in the bill would raise the debt by $3.8 trillion. But Republicans have pushed back on the estimate.
Republicans have only 53 Senate seats, which is below the 60-seat threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. As a result, they hope to pass the bill through a process reconciliation, which allows them to pass legislation with a simple majority as long it relates to the budget.
Musk recently exited the Trump administration after a months-long tenure at DOGE, where he slashed federal spending at numerous government agencies, including the US Agency for International Development.
Other Republicans said they would work to improve the bill.
'He's certainly entitled his opinion,' Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who faces a tough primary challenge in Texas. 'And we're trying to make the bill better.'
The bill is not the first time that Musk has wielded his significant following on X, the site then-known as Twitter that he purchased in 2022, to intervene in congressional affairs. In late 2024, he killed a bipartisan spending deal to keep the government open and said that the government should remain closed until Trump's swearing in.
Musk pledged he would challenge any Republicans who voted for the bill.
'In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,' he said.
Even Republicans who criticized the bill seemed to balk at Musk's intervention. When Musk tweeted 'Congress is making America bankrupt,' Paul tweeted 'Some of us are trying to stop that.'
But when The Independent asked if Paul had seen Musk's first tweet, he said 'I haven't seen it' as he exited and got into an elevator.