Elon Musk is now a thorn in Donald Trump’s side.
The leader of the administration’s cost-cutting drive has suddenly emerged as the chief critic of the White House’s fiscal plan.
On this issue, Musk has turned against the US President. The risk is that Musk begins to divide the fiercely loyal MAGA constituency.
The world’s richest man is sending them a very clear and powerful message: they have been stabbed in the back.
Musk says the administration is veering badly off course. He says Trump supporters have been betrayed because the nation is being accelerated into a potentially crippling sovereign debt crisis.
He warns that there will be political consequences at the mid-terms.
“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” Musk posted.
In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people https://t.co/GTRc9Rjled
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025
Just a few days ago, Musk said he expected to serve as a “friend and adviser” to the President after standing down as a special government employee and relinquishing his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk is taking full advantage of his new-found freedom outside the government tent, but his advice is more frank than Trump may have been expecting.
His scathing criticism shows that he has the potential to become one of the President’s leading critics.
The intervention from the world’s richest man is also likely to raise questions about how aligned the two men ever were.
They had already clashed on multiple fronts, including over skilled migration, the H-1B visa program and the use of tariffs. Musk famously branded Peter Navarro – Trump’s top trade adviser – as “dumber than a sack of bricks” in April.
A major rift was always likely and perhaps predictable. The surprising element is the passion, sharpness and speed with which Musk launched his critique.
Having been released from his political straitjacket, he immediately set out to condemn the Big Beautiful Bill as a “disgusting abomination”.
“Congress is making America bankrupt,” he warned.
I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025
This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.
On substance, Musk is right to sound the alarm.
Trump’s legislative centrepiece is forecast to increase deficits over 10 years by about $2.5 trillion. This figure rises to more than $US3 trillion once the cost of interest on the extra borrowing is accounted for.
No serious forecaster believes the growth dividend from Trump’s suite of pro-business policies will be sufficient to make a meaningful difference in clawing back the deficit blowout – despite claims to the contrary from the White House.
Trump’s trade war is also muddying the waters. The OECD this week substantially reduced its 2025 growth forecast for the US, slashing it to 1.6 per cent from its 2.2 per cent projection in March. Yet, in 2024, the American economy grew by 2.8 per cent.
The Congressional Budget Office expects interest payments on the national debt to total $US952bn in 2025 (more than is being spent on defence) and rise to $US13.8 trillion over the decade – before even factoring in the Big Beautiful Bill.
The CBO has already forecast that the debt-to-GDP ratio will hit 130 per cent by 2033 under current law, but the Big Beautiful Bill will push this substantially higher. Musk says it will “burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt”.
While Trump promised to reduce deficits and balance the budget, his rhetoric is completely divorced from economic reality.
Musk is giving the President a badly needed wake-up call. How Trump responds will be instructive.
At the very least, Musk’s intervention is likely to embolden and encourage the handful of Republicans in the Senate who have expressed concern over the fiscal implications of the Big Beautiful Bill.
This will create a more challenging political environment for Trump to have his agenda passed by his July 4 deadline.
More Coverage
It’s war: Musk claims Trump named in Jeffrey Epstein files
The former besties have traded barbs and insults with the tech titan suggesting the President should be impeached and replaced by JD Vance.
Australian Robert Pether freed from Iraqi jail
The Australian engineer has been freed after four years in prison on what his family says are trumped up fraud charges.