Hours after US President Donald Trump spoke with his Chinese counterpart on Thursday night and shared optimistic remarks about the call on social media, a public feud escalated between him and his biggest political donor.
Elon Musk, once Trump’s most high-profile donor and self-proclaimed “first buddy”, lambasted the “big beautiful bill” earlier this week – one of Trump’s key domestic policy initiatives that was recently passed by the House – lighting the fuse on a public fight that quickly spiralled into a fiery exchange of accusations.
In this explainer, the Post takes a closer look at Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act – examining a specific clause that fuelled the fallout, how the two sides turned on each other, and the economic ripples that have followed.
How did the feud start?
Musk called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act a “disgusting abomination” in a social media post on his own website, X, saying it was a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill”.
“It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt,” added Musk, who was at the helm of the US’ cost-saving-focused Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) until last week.
This was the second time Musk publicly lashed out at the bill. In late May, before officially leaving the Doge, he said he was “disappointed” by the bill and believed the legislation “increases the budget deficit” and “undermines the work that the Doge team is doing”.
In response, Trump suggested that Musk was upset about the removal of mandates for electric vehicles (EVs), which could affect his Tesla business, while the president was speaking to reporters during a news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday.
Georgianna Kucera
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