Trump 'very disappointed' in Musk, as feud over 'big, beautiful bill' escalates

Australia Broadcast Center

a day ago

Donald Trump has hit back at former aide Elon Musk, saying he is "disappointed" in the tech billionaire for criticising his sweeping tax and spending legislation.
The US president is under pressure as he attempts to muscle his "big, beautiful bill" — a mammoth plan for the US economy, which will increase the debt ceiling, slash taxes and pare back Medicaid health benefits for the poorest Americans — through the US legislature.
Mr Musk, one of the Republicans' largest donors, earlier this week lashed out at the bill, branding it a "disgusting abomination" that will "burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt".
Now, the president has escalated the feud as he laid into the Tesla CEO during a press conference at White House.
"Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore," he said. "He said the most beautiful things about me, and he hasn't said bad things about me personally, but I'm sure that'll be next. But I'm, I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot."
The president claimed Mr Musk, who until last week held a cost-cutting role in his administration as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was against the legislation due to proposed elimination of consumer tax credits for electric vehicles.
"Elon knew the inner workings of this bill, better than almost anybody sitting here," said Mr Trump.
"He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the EV [electric vehicle] mandate, because that's billions and billions of dollars."
The president also hinted that Mr Musk, who he praised heavily when he left his White House role last week, was upset because he missed working for the government.
"He's not the first," Mr Trump said. "People leave my administration, then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile."
As Mr Trump was speaking, Mr Musk appeared to doubled down on his opposition, writing on X, "Slim Beautiful Bill for the win".
He also reposted comments from the president made in 2013 in which he said he was "embarrassed" Republicans were raising the debt ceiling, calling them "wise words".
Ramping up his attacks, he accused Mr Trump of "ingratitude", adding: 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.'
He said he was comfortable with the cuts to electric vehicle credits as long as Republicans removed what he called a "mountain of disgusting pork" in wasteful spending from the bill.
The legislation passed Congress earlier this week but could face fierce opposition from the Senate from Democrats and some sceptical Republicans.
Reuters/ABC