Trump 'very disappointed' with Elon Musk as billionaire turns on spending bill

WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is "very disappointed" with Elon Musk as the tech billionaire and former close aide escalates his campaign against the president's signature spending and tax bill.

The president suggested that Musk's criticism may have to do with the fact that he recently departed the White House after serving a critical role in Trump's effort to gut the federal workforce. "I think he misses the place. I think he got out there and all of a sudden he wasn't in this beautiful Oval Office," he said.

"I'm very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people. 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 mandate, because that's billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair," Trump said in the Oval Office as he hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

The "EV mandate" refers to a long-standing one-time tax credit of up to $7,500 for those who purchase electric vehicles.

"He hasn't said bad about me personally, but I'm sure that'll be next. But I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot," he added.

Musk quickly responded with a post on X with "whatever," and rebutted Trump's suggestion that he had even seen the bill before he left the White House, calling the claim "false." He acknowledged, however, that some of his opposition stems from the elimination of the electric vehicle tax credit.

"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.

"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. In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this! Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way," he added.

Musk on Wednesday ramped up his crusade to convince lawmakers to kill Trump's "big, beautiful bill," which is estimated to add $2.42 trillion to US budget deficits over the next decade.

"Bankrupting America is NOT ok!" Musk posted Wednesday on his X social media platform, where the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO has more than 220 million followers.

"Call your Senator, Call your Congressman," he continued, with the US Senate needing to approve the bill before the president can sign it into law.

The US House of Representatives narrowly approved the spending bill last month, but the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its estimate Wednesday of what it would cost taxpayers if signed into law: a staggering federal debt of nearly $2.5 trillion.

Musk, who recently stepped down as the head of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative aimed at reducing federal spending, blasted the president's proposal, saying the "massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination."