After a day of feuding, it appears that President Donald Trump and former Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk may be on the path to making up.
Several posts to X by Musk, along with comments by President Trump to Politico on Thursday evening, seemed to confirm that both parties were backing away from their condemnation of each other.
Musk had been publicly critical of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is currently under debate in the Senate. The omnibus bill extends tax cuts Trump and the GOP enacted in 2017, as well as addresses welfare spending (down) and military spending (up).
Musk began objecting to the size of the bill late last month, saying, he “was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing. … I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion.”
This is probably not inaccurate, but it also doesn’t take into account how government works. While DOGE has been around in its current form since January, legislative horse-trading has been around since time immemorial — and isn’t about to change just because the guy who made electric cars cool and private space travel feasible spent a few months in and around the District of Columbia figuring out how it could operate better.
But that didn’t stop Musk from escalating the feud in an X post on Tuesday in which he called it “outrageous,” pork-filled,” and “a disgusting abomination.”
I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025
“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” he added in a later post.
In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people https://t.co/GTRc9Rjled
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025
Trump responded on Thursday by threatening to cut Musk’s contracts with the U.S. federal government and said he was “wearing thin” at the White House, so he was asked to leave.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
Donald J. Trump Truth Social 06.05.25 02:37 PM EST pic.twitter.com/IojHzVyg83
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) June 5, 2025
Donald J. Trump Truth Social 06.05.25 02:37 PM EST pic.twitter.com/vlq4FwkkpB
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) June 5, 2025
Trump went on to say he didn’t “mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It’s a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given.
“If this Bill doesn’t pass, there will be a 68% Tax increase, and things far worse than that.”
Donald J. Trump Truth Social 06.05.25 04:06 PM EST pic.twitter.com/Cyv9Qw0nyO
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) June 5, 2025
Musk, for his part, threatened to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft …
In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately pic.twitter.com/NG9sijjkgW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
… although, it’s worth noting, he backed off of this later on Thursday after he was asked to “cool off” and “make peace” with the president, including by Trump mega-backer and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.
Good advice.
Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 6, 2025
You’re not wrong
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 6, 2025
😂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 6, 2025
Meanwhile, Politico reported, “White House aides, after working to persuade the president to temper his public criticism of Musk to avoid escalation, scheduled a call Friday with the billionaire CEO of Tesla to broker a peace.”
The president’s response, meanwhile, could be summed up thusly: Feud? What feud?
“Oh it’s OK,” Trump told Politico in a conversation.
Should Trump and Musk make peace?
“It’s going very well, never done better … The [poll] numbers are through the roof, the highest polls I’ve ever had, and I have to go.”
While Musk has dealt with Washington before, this is his first rodeo in an adversarial role with politicians; for Trump, this is basically every day that ends in the 25th letter of the alphabet. And both, once you edit out the hyperbole as noise, are correct in their own way.
As for where Musk is right: No, Congress and the White House can’t continue on this path endlessly, as DOGE has already sufficiently proved. As for where Trump is right: Maybe this isn’t as beautiful as everyone would like, but something far worse would happen had the agreements to shove this thing through not been reached.
DOGE and Musk did great work, don’t get me wrong. Trump voters and Musk supporters expect DOGE to continue to do good work. This is, let me remind you, the first time we’ve had a real department focused on government efficiency — and it’s only been a few months. The 2024 election may have signaled a “vibes shift,” but it didn’t signal a tectonic shift that swept Congress and its 535 constituent members down the Potomac and out to sea.
And also, for those who wish it were that easy, let me remind you that we first voted Trump into office in response to a man whose governing philosophy was laid out thusly: “I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone.” His party, over the past eight years, has learned that which can be done by a pen and a phone can be undone by a pen and a phone.
Our party oughtn’t learn the wrong lesson from this. DOGE may be a small step in the right direction when you look at huge compromise bills, but we need to keep taking those small steps — and realize that, while movement may be slow, it’s still a heck of a lot better than pen-and-phone solutions that can be easily erased.
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