(Yahoo! Finance) - Elon Musk offered his harshest rebuke yet of President Trump’s signature "big, beautiful" tax and spending bill advancing on Capitol Hill, saying it is instead "a disgusting abomination."
"Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong," he said in one of more than 10 posts or reposts on the subject Tuesday afternoon — adding at another point "next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people."
Musk and other tech leaders have spoken out against the bill in recent days, but the new wave of commentary from the world's richest man was a clear escalation and earned quick endorsements from a number of fiscal conservatives on Capitol Hill.
"He's right," posted Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of at least three Republican lawmakers who quickly echoed Musk.
Musk responded to Massie, who voted against the bill when it recently advanced in the House of Representatives, calling it "simple math."
The posts are likely to be closely watched by lawmakers given Musk's outsized profile as well as his recent willingness to spend lavishly on candidates that he supports.
Musk was the 2024 campaign's largest donor, spending $288 million, though he recently suggested he might pull back on political giving.
The commentary also puts Musk and Trump on polar opposites of the debate in Washington, with the president set to push hard for the bill's passage in coming weeks, including his own post Tuesday morning about fiscal conservatives who have criticized the bill's multi-trillion dollar price tag.
"Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill, it doesn't change the president's opinion," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday afternoon.
"This is one big, beautiful bill and he's sticking to it," she added.
House Speaker Mike Johnson also reacted to the posts and lamented Musk’s position Tuesday afternoon to a CNN reporter, saying he talked with the billionaire Monday.
“My friend Elon is terribly wrong,” the speaker said, suggesting that Musk’s opposition might have something to do with provisions in the bill that phase out credits for electric vehicles.
"I know that has an effect on his business," Johnson noted.
'Undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing'
This isn't the first time Musk has hit out at Trump's reconciliation package.
In a recent interview with CBS, Musk said he was "disappointed" with the bill and claimed it "increases the budget deficit ... and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," in reference to the Department of Government Efficiency effort that Musk led until recently.
Musk oversaw DOGE and left the White House to focus on his companies. Last Friday was his last day as a special government employee.
Musk appeared at the White House last week to mark the end of his time in Washington and declined to repeat his critiques there of Trump's tax agenda.
He stood silently as Trump said the bill would "cut deficits" — a claim that nearly every outside observer and Musk himself has said is false.
It was an event that saw the two men repeatedly praise each other in person, but Musk clearly had more to say about the package, which could add more than $3 trillion to the US national debt over the coming decade.
"I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore," he said in one of his posts.
By Ben Werschkul and Daniel Howley
