WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday sharply criticized Elon Musk after the Tesla CEO criticized the House-passed GOP policy bill as an “abomination.”
“I’ve always liked Elon,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a bilateral meeting with Germany’s chancellor, but he said he was “very surprised” by Musk’s comments denouncing the legislation.
“You saw the words he had for me. 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,” the president said.
Trump said that the reconciliation measure would be the “biggest tax cut,” saying that it would especially help middle-income Americans and small businesses.
“Elon’s upset because we took the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles and they’re having a hard time with electric vehicles and they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy,” Trump said. “Elon knew this from the beginning.”
He was referring to the bill’s provisions that would cut tax credits implemented by the Biden administration that were designed to incentivize purchases of electric vehicles.
Trump also suggested that Musk was partially upset with him because the White House pulled Musk ally Jared Isaacman’s nomination to lead NASA. The president said, “I didn’t think it was appropriate” because the prospective nominee was a Democrat.
“He wanted that person, a certain person. I can understand why he’s upset,” said Trump, who added that he had a “great relationship” with Musk, but said, “I don’t know if we will anymore.”
“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill,” Trump continued. “I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
Musk reacted to Trump’s comments in a post on X, saying “Whatever.”“In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful,” he added.
After officially leaving the Trump administration last week, Musk has publicly denounced the House reconciliation bill, calling it this week a “disgusting abomination.” The version narrowly passed by the House would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, eliminate taxes on tips and overtime work, boost funding for immigration enforcement and the military, would make cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted in a new estimate released Wednesday that the legislation would add $2.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.
