Trump attacks Musk as public feud escalates

6/6/2025 6:08

President Donald Trump

lashed out on Thursday against Elon Musk, saying he was

"disappointed" by the billionaire's public opposition to the

sweeping tax-cut and spending bill that is at the heart of

Trump's agenda.



"Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know

if we will anymore," Trump said in the Oval Office. "He said the

most beautiful things about me, and he hasn't said bad 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."



Trump also asserted that Musk's days of blistering attacks

on the bill were motivated by the proposed elimination of

consumer tax credits for electric vehicles. Musk, the CEO of

electric vehicle maker Tesla, has said he opposes the

bill because it will increase federal deficits.



Trump suggested that Musk, who received a praise-filled

sendoff from Trump last week after overseeing his federal

bureaucracy cost-cutting campaign, was upset because he missed

working for Trump.



"He's not the first," 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 Trump was speaking, Musk wrote on X, "Slim Beautiful Bill

for the win," a reference to the bill's official title, the "Big

Beautiful Bill Act."



Musk followed that up with another post, saying he was fine

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.



Musk came into the government with brash plans to cut $2

trillion out of the federal budget. He left last week having

achieved far less than that, having cut about half of 1% of

total spending.



Musk has been a powerful Trump ally, spending nearly $300

billion to boost Republicans in the 2024 election and then

overseeing Trump's Department of Government Efficiency.



His work eliminating thousands of federal jobs and

cutting billions of dollars in foreign aid and other programs

caused disruption across federal agencies while prompting

widespread protests at Tesla outlets in the U.S. and Europe.



Shares of Tesla extended losses after Trump's criticism of

Musk. The stock was lately down nearly 6%; it was off by 3%

before Trump spoke.