Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was “very surprised” and “disappointed” by Elon Musk’s sharp criticism of the Big Beautiful Bill.
“I’ve always liked Elon. And so I was very surprised. You saw the words he had for me, and he hasn’t said anything about me that’s bad. I’d rather have him criticize me than the bill. Because the bill is incredible,” Trump said during a White House meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more,” he added.
The 47th president said that the Tesla CEO’s problem with the Big Beautiful Bill revolves mostly around the legislation’s elimination of electric vehicle tax credits, and noted that Musk was aware of the policy “from the beginning.”
“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. I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot,” Trump remarked.
Musk wrote that the bill can scrap the electric vehicle credits as long as they get rid of the purported “DISGUSTING PORK” in the bill:
Whatever. 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! Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.
Musk then accused Trump of lying, saying that the bill was not shown to him during his time as a government adviser.
He wrote, “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’s company, Tesla, reportedly spent $240,000 lobbying on behalf of the credits and other matters.
