By T N Ashok
WASHINGTON DC: President Donald Trump has ruled out any patching up with Elon Musk over their divide following strong differences over the Big Beautiful Bill leading to $2.7 trillion deficit in a decade opposed strongly by the tech billionaire Musk who has vowed to ensure the bill does not see the light of the day.
However, Trump is unfazed and is going ahead with his efforts appease angry republicans to vote for the Big Beautiful Bill which almost negates all of the work done by Musk at Doge – he spent $135 billion to save $175 billion to send tens of thousands of governments employee’s home in one of the biggest purge in bureaucracy in DC witnessed in recent times.
While Trumps dreams and grins about how quicky his BBB will pass, Musk has emerged out of the dark shadows of the BBB that sacrifices $3.7 trillion in taxes and raises only around $1 trillion in revenues, leaving a yawning gap in the budget for an astronomical sum of $2.7 trillion in the budget for the next ten years.
No one in the Trumps cabinet including the treasury secretary Scot Bessent have the ghost of an idea on how this hole is going to be plugged, if unchecked this could land the US economy in utter disarray with inflation rising to double digits and recession also looming around the corner.
The back-and-forth attacks between Trump and Musk have reverberated across the U.S. capital tin Washington DC and also they have both reshaped. The latest development is the proud and powerful Trump is refusing to budge to make the modifications in the BBB to please either Musk or the rebel hold out in the Senate for the bill to pass.
Both are flexing their muscles as one thinks his power would shock into submission the rebel holdouts to vote in his favour and the other thinking his money power would strike fear into the rebel republicans that they could lose their seats in the next cycle of midterm election in 2026 to the Congress if they did not support him to defeat the legislation.
While Trump may be unfazed threatening Musk with withdrawing federal subsidies to his companies and withdrawing government contracts, Musk is assessing how the feud is affecting Tesla’s stock, and other business ventures . President Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday: “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.”
Even by the standards of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s relationship — an unprecedented alliance punctuated by a meme-inspired reshaping of the government, numerous rocket launches, assassination attempts, a quarter-billion-dollar political gamble and electric car photo-ops — it’s been an unusual week, report most of the publications in the US particularly ABC.
Musk had been the closest of Trump’s advisers — even living at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and spending time with the president’s family. More recently, Trump gave Musk a congratulatory Oval Office sendoff from his work leading cost-cutting efforts in his administration, giving him a golden key with a White House insignia. Musk bid adieu to White House after a 130 day stint at DOGE returning to his flagship TESLA under stake holder pressure while leaving his acolytes to complete his unfinished task at the cost cutting machinery.
Though the tech billionaire’s criticism of Trump’s budget, which he described can only be either Big or Beautiful but not both, started with muted criticisms but soon snowballed into more pointed post on X, last of which described the BBB as a “Disgusting Abomination”. Shame on you for voting for it, he ridiculed GOP members who voted for it. “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk posted. “Such ingratitude.” Going a step further.
Some lawmakers and Republicans worry Musk’s apparent acrimonious departure from Trump’s orbit could create new uncertainties for the party — and stoke GOP divisions that would not serve Republicans well heading into a critical legislative stretch before the midterm elections. The back-and-forth attacks, which continued into the weekend and took a sharply personal turn, reverberated across a capital they have both reshaped.
Trump on Friday told several reporters over the phone that he was not thinking about Musk and told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl that Musk had “lost his mind.” Trump and the GOP are trying to muscle their signature tax and domestic policy megabill through the House and Senate, with the slimmest of margins, notwithstanding disagreements. The house endorsed the bill with just one vote majority, 215-214. In the Senate Republicans enjoy a 53 to 47 majority, but, even if three GOP members flip, Trump can still pass the bill with the tie breaking vote of the chambers presiding officer Vice President JD Vance.
Any shift on the key issues could topple the high-wire act needed to please House and Senate Republicans, people with experience on congressional matters say. A nonstop torrent of criticism from Musk’s social media megaphone could collapse negotiations, harden the position of the bill’s critics and even undermine other pieces of Trump’s first-term agenda, they said.
“You hate seeing division and chaos,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who represents a swing district, said about the Trump-Musk fracas. “It’s not helpful.” Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, called Musk a “credible voice” on “debt and spending” issues.
“It’s never helpful when he says those things. He’s a believable person and he has a broad reach, but I think he’s frustrated, and people understand the context,” Arrington said, predicting that both men will eventually resolve their dispute.
They understand pretty much the popular adage “United we stand and Divided we fall “. Republican operatives watching the spat unfold this week told ABC News it is too early to say how the feud between Trump and Musk could affect the next election.
The billionaire spent more than anyone else on the last election, pouring $270 million into groups boosting Trump and other Republicans up and down the ballot, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The voting results on BBB in Senate will show whether Musk has retained his hold on some Republican members after his break up with the U.S. President. (IPA Service)
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