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Billionaire Elon Musk re-entered the political fray yesterday, ahead of the crucial vote in the Senate to begin reading President Trump’s flagship Big Beautiful Bill.
Musk expressed his anger at the bill, which has been a source of significant friction between him and President Trump since Musk’s tenure in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) came to an end. Musk called the bill “utterly insane” and “political suicide.”
“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” Must wrote on X.
“Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
Despite Musk’s Tweet, Senators voted 51-49 to begin debate on the 940-page bill that would fund the President’s flagship policies, including his mass-deportation and immigration agenda, tax cuts and increased military spending.
The bill passed after hours of delay. Republican leaders and Vice President JD Vance worked furiously to persuade holdouts to vote in favour of the bill.
Hardliners Rick Scott, Mike Lee, Cynthia Lummis and Ron Johnson were all persuaded to vote in favour.
In the end, only two Republicans, Rand Paul and Thomas Tillis, voted against opening debate.
President Trump and Musk fell out spectacularly at the beginning of June, after working together for months to slash government waste and expose fraud.
Musk left his role as head of DOGE at the end of May and said he would continue to play an advisory role to the President.
But things went south when the billionaire CEO started attacking President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, claiming that it was against the spirit of his work with DOGE and with the need to cut spending and debt dramatically.
A bitter back-and-forth ensued, with Trump suggesting Musk had “lost his mind” and Musk claiming the Jeffrey Epstein files were not being released to protect the President. It was rumoured President Trump would sell the red Tesla Musk gave him, and Musk said he would decommission his Dragon spacecraft, which is essential to NASA missions, and also back the creation of a third political party to represent the majority of Americans. Musk also suggested he would back impeaching Trump and that he would support Democrats against the President.
In an interview with NBC, President Trump said that if Musk supported his political opponents, he would “have to pay very serious consequences.”
Since the split, Musk has expressed remorse about his public statements, saying they went “too far.”
He also offered public support of President Trump for his actions in Los Angeles to quell the riots and unrest there.
