Elon Musk slams Trump's tax bill as wasteful 'abomination' amid backlash

Donald Trump ally Elon Musk lambasted the president’s signature tax bill as a budget-busting “abomination” as Republican fiscal hawks stepped up criticism of the massive fiscal package. 

Musk attacked the legislation days after leaving a temporary assignment leading the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to cut federal spending. 

“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote in a social media post. “Shame on those who voted for it.” 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt brushed aside the criticism. 

“The President already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill and he’s sticking to it,” she told reporters on Tuesday. 

 

Trump attacked fiscal conservative Rand Paul earlier Tuesday as “crazy” as the president pressed reluctant Republican senators to move forward swiftly with his massive tax and spending package. 

The Kentucky senator earlier said on CNBC that he wouldn’t vote for the president’s signature legislation because it would increase the legal US debt limit. 

“I’m just not for that. That’s not conservative,” said Paul, who also has argued the tax measure would add too much to the national debt. 

Trump quickly responded with a series of social media posts, saying the senator “never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!)” 

But Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota said the debt ceiling has to be raised and “failure is not an option.” The Treasury Department estimates the US will run out of borrowing authority in August or September.  

Thune acknowledged it will take time to resolve conflicting demands from the Senate’s 53 Republicans and assemble a package acceptable to a majority of the 100-member body. All Democrats are expected to oppose the legislation.  

“We’ve got to get to 51, so we’ll figure out the path forward to do that over the next couple of weeks,” Thune told reporters. 

While most outside economists have forecast the House version of the legislation would add trillions of dollars to the US debt over 10 years, the White House has claimed that the tax bill would pay for itself in part through economic growth. 

Trump and Republican leaders have said they have no choice but to add the debt ceiling to the tax bill in order to ensure smooth passage and avoid a payment default as soon as August. 

Paul posted a response to Trump, saying he favors the tax cuts but “I also want to see the $5 trillion in new debt removed from the bill,” adding at least three other Republican senators agreed with him, enough to block the legislation. 

But other conservative bill holdouts stopped short of saying they would oppose any debt ceiling increase in the bill.  Florida Senator Rick Scott said that he wants to balance the budget to avoid raising the debt ceiling in the future, but noted he voted for a budget outline allowing a debt ceiling increase.  Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said he could support a smaller one-year debt ceiling increase in exchange for large spending cuts.