USA Musk clashes with Donald Trump
Just a few days after withdrawing from Washington, tech billionaire Elon Musk is on a collision course with US President Donald Trump. Musk attacked the tax and spending bill pushed by Trump as a "disgusting abomination".
04.06.2025, 02:02
SDA
He then followed up with a warning to members of Congress who vote in favor of the bill: "Next November, we will fire all politicians who have betrayed the American people."
Mid-term elections are due to be held in the USA at the beginning of November 2026, in which all members of the House of Representatives and a good third of senators will have to face the voters.
For members of Congress, such words from Musk's mouth are no empty threat: after all, he donated more than 250 million dollars to Trump's election campaign last year. Musk is by far the richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of 400 billion dollars. Even if it largely consists of shares, he can easily raise large sums for election campaigns.
Musk stands up to the White House
The budget plan, which Trump calls the "big beautiful bill", made it through the House of Representatives, the first chamber of Congress, by a narrow majority in May. In the Senate, however, several members of Trump's Republican Party are opposed to it. They take issue with the planned increase in the debt ceiling and want greater spending cuts.
Trump is currently trying to bring the skeptical Republican senators into line. Musk's initiative undermines these efforts. He is also interfering in the relationship between the President and Congress in an unusual way. Trump himself often threatens renegade deputies and senators to support their rivals in the party in the next election.
The White House initially reacted to Musk's criticism with a shrug: "The president already knows what Elon Musk thought of this law," said spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. Trump is sticking to it. However, that was before Musk's admonition to members of Congress.
Musk: "I can't take it anymore"
Musk did say two weeks ago that he would probably spend less money on political causes in future. "I think I've done enough," he explained in an interview. At the same time, he qualified that if he saw a reason to spend money on politics in the future, he would do so again.
Musk had already criticized the law in recent days - but with much more restrained words. For example, he said he was "disappointed" that it undermined the cuts in government spending by the Doge committee that he had cited. At the same time, he told CBS that he was "in a bit of a pickle" because he did not want to criticize the government, but also did not want to support all of its decisions. Now he introduced his fierce criticism with the words: "I'm sorry, but I can't take it anymore."
Applause from the left
On his online platform X, Musk criticized, among other things, that the plans would drive up the "already gigantic" budget deficit and national debt. All those who voted for the law should be ashamed: "You know you did the wrong thing."
One of the plans for the package is to permanently extend tax breaks from Trump's first term in office. He also wants to fulfill his campaign promise to no longer tax tips and overtime payments. This is to be financed by cuts to social benefits, for example - which is meeting with fierce resistance from the Democrats.
The tech billionaire received applause from the notoriously left-wing Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders of all people: "Musk is right", he also wrote on X. Sanders pointed out that the richest Americans would receive 664 million dollars in tax breaks and at the same time 290 million dollars would be cut from the food supply for the needy.
Defeats in Washington
When withdrawing from Washington, Musk referred to the rule that contracts for external government employees are limited to 130 days per year. However, there had already been indications in recent months that Musk's influence in Trump's environment had weakened. According to media reports, he lost power struggles with several ministers. Most recently, Trump also decided to remove the previous candidate for head of the space agency NASA from the race due to his proximity to Musk.
