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Donald Trump and former federal employee Elon Musk have engaged in a public back-and-forth over the President’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” legislation, with Trump saying that he doesn’t know if he will still have a “great relationship” with the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO anymore.
The verbal sparring is hitting the electric vehicle (EV) maker’s stock, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shedding over $100B in market cap.
Musk on Tuesday called the bill “a disgusting abomination” and said it would “massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit.”
“I’d rather have him criticize me than the bill because the bill is incredible,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.
“Elon’s upset because we took the EV mandate, which is a lot of money for electric vehicles,” he said. “Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” the President added.
Musk late last month stepped down from his role as a senior adviser to Trump as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, where he spent months leading efforts to cut federal spending. Musk last year had emerged as one of Trump’s strongest supporters during the President’s election campaign.
“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 a problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate. Because that’s billions and billions of dollars,” Trump said.
“He knew every aspect of this bill. He knew it better than almost anybody. And he never had a problem until right after he left,” he added.
“False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” Musk hit back on his X (formerly Twitter) service.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” the billionaire businessman said.
“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. In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this!” Musk said.
“Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way,” he added.
Wall Street on Thursday rose as traders digested the spat, along with a phone call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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