Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start.
CBO estimates that debt-service costs under H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, would total $551 billion over the 2025–2034 period—increasing the bill's cumulative effect on the deficit to $3.0 trillion.
President Donald Trump said Thursday he’s “disappointed” with Elon Musk after his former backer and advisor lambasted the president’s signature bill.
Trump suggested the world’s richest man misses being in the White House and has “Trump derangement syndrome.”
The Republican president reflected on his breakup with Musk in front of reporters in the Oval Office as Musk continued a storm of social media posts attacking Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and warning it will increase the federal deficit.
“I’m very disappointed in Elon,” Trump said. “I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
Musk has called Trump’s big tax break bill a “disgusting abomination.”
Annie Karni and Theodore Schleifer:
House Republicans suddenly find themselves scrambling to mollify Elon Musk, who has been venting his rage at them for voting for a Trump-backed domestic policy bill he calls a “disgusting abomination.”
After Mr. Musk threatened to “fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” Republicans from Speaker Mike Johnson on down are trying to manage an unmanageable tech billionaire who has become one of the most powerful figures in Republican politics.
Even as Mr. Johnson insisted at a news conference on Wednesday that “policy differences are not personal,” he admitted that Mr. Musk’s hard turn against the bill had come as a surprise given the “happy texts” they had shared 24 hours earlier. Mr. Johnson said he had tried again to talk to Mr. Musk but could not get through.
“I called Elon last night, and he didn’t answer, but, uh, hope to talk to him today,” he said.
Such ingratitude
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
