President Donald Trump on Thursday said that Elon Musk has been criticizing his major tax bill because the Tesla CEO is “upset” about the elimination of EV credits in the package, and the president nixing his pick to run NASA.
“I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Musk quickly fired back at Trump in a post on his social media site X.
“Whatever,” wrote the mega-billionaire, who also leads SpaceX and several other companies in addition to Tesla, a leading manufacturer of electric vehicles.
“Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill,” Musk wrote.
“In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful.”
Trump spoke after days of Musk condemning what Trump calls his “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” over concerns it will blow out federal deficits.
Musk on Tuesday called the bill, which is being considered by the Senate, a “disgusting abomination.”
Musk last week left his temporary government post overseeing DOGE, the Trump administration’s effort to slash federal spending and employee headcounts.
Musk was also the biggest financial backer of Trump’s 2024 campaign, spending more than $250 million on that effort.
Last weekend, soon after Musk was lauded by Trump for his government service in an Oval Office event, the president said he was withdrawing Musk’s preferred nominee, tech billionaire Jared Issacman, to run the space agency NASA.
“You know, I’ve always liked Elon,” said Trump on Thursday. “I’d rather have him criticize me than the bill, because the bill is incredible.”
“Elon is upset because we took the EV mandate, and you know, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles,” Trump said. “And you know, they’re having a hard time, the electric vehicles, and they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy.”
“Elon knew this from the beginning,” Trump said, referring to the elimination of the tax credits in the bill for electric vehicles. “He knew it … a long time ago.”
“I’m very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people. He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it.”
“All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate, because that’s billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair,” Trump said.
The president also said, referring to Isaacman, “I’m sure [Musk] respected him, but to run NASA … I didn’t think it was appropriate.”
“You happen to be a Democrat, like totally Democrat,” Trump said of Isaacman. ” And I say, you know, look, we won. We get certain privileges. And one of the privileges we don’t have to appoint a Democrat. NASA is very important.”
