Washinghton, DC (BN24) – Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk sharply escalated his criticism of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending package on Saturday, warning that the Senate legislation would devastate American jobs and cripple the nation’s future industries.
Musk, who only weeks ago stepped down as head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, denounced the latest draft of the bill as “utterly insane and destructive” in a series of posts to his 220 million followers on X, the platform he owns. His remarks came just before the Senate prepared to open debate on the sprawling measure, which would make permanent Trump-era tax cuts, slash spending on federal programs such as Medicaid and food assistance, and channel hundreds of billions into defense and deportation priorities.
“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” Musk wrote Saturday. “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
Musk, whose companies Tesla and SpaceX have been closely linked to federal climate and technology policy, has emerged as one of the most prominent critics of the legislation. He previously called the bill a “disgusting abomination” for failing to impose deeper cuts to government spending. In a later post Saturday, he claimed that polls showed the legislation could be “political suicide for the Republican Party.”
The dispute marks the latest twist in Musk’s turbulent relationship with Trump. Earlier this year, Musk accused the president of appearing in confidential Justice Department files related to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, an allegation the White House forcefully denied. In June, Musk publicly apologized, saying, “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” though he did not specify which accusations he was retracting.
Trump has responded by blaming Musk’s increasingly hostile stance on his administration’s decision to end federal subsidies for electric vehicles and reject Musk’s preferred candidate to lead NASA. In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed Musk “just went CRAZY” after the White House revoked what he called the “EV Mandate” that had supported Tesla’s growth.
“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave,” Trump wrote. “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!”
The Senate’s late-night vote Saturday to advance the measure capped days of wrangling among Republican lawmakers. Even as Trump lobbied holdouts in tense private meetings, the legislation has faced backlash from multiple quarters, with critics warning it could erode health coverage for millions and deepen deficits over the next decade.
Musk’s intervention underscored the stakes of the debate, as some Republicans fear alienating voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections while others remain committed to fulfilling Trump’s campaign promises.
