The top two congressional Republicans rebutted Elon Musk’s criticism of their “big, beautiful bill” Wednesday as the tech mogul and former Trump administration cost-cutter continued attacking the GOP legislation overnight.
Speaker Mike Johnson spent several minutes during a closed-door House Republican Conference meeting on Wednesday morning pushing back on Musk and trying to reassure Republicans after Musk signaled that he thinks lawmakers who support the megabill should be ousted next year, according to three people in the room granted anonymity to describe the private meeting.
Johnson told his conference that he’s tried to call Musk to explain the process behind the megabill, as well as a separate bill to claw back billions in spending. Johnson’s message, in the meeting, according to the attendees: People will have differences of opinion; don’t take it personally.
“I think he’s flat wrong, and I’ve told him as much,” Johnson said at a news conference after the meeting.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune downplayed the impact that Musk’s criticism would have on his whip count. Republicans can afford no more than three defections in the chamber, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is already expected to oppose the bill.
“Obviously he has some influence, got a big following on social media,” he said. “But at the end of the day this is a 51-vote exercise here in the Senate, and I think it’s going to be the question for our members is going to be would you prefer the alternative. And the alternative isn’t a good one.”
Thune said he had spoken to Musk “a couple of days ago,” ahead of his latest attacks. Musk called the bill a “disgusting abomination” yesterday, and he continued attacking the bill and the GOP Congress overnight for not doing more to address “massive deficit spending.” The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated Wednesday the bill will add $2.4 trillion in deficits over the coming decade.
“There are going to be a lot of people who share commentary about this, and we just got to make sure we’re doing everything we can to get our arguments out there,” Thune added.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise also downplayed Musk’s potential threats to GOP members in a brief interview, saying that the party is “continuing to see fundraising goals get exceeded” ahead next year’s midterms.
“The speaker, myself, our whole team continues to exceed fundraising goals, because people know what’s at stake next year,” he added. “And President Trump’s all in, by the way, too, helping us hold the House. … He’s been our best, most effective deliverer of support.”
Johnson said at the news conference that Trump is deeply unhappy about Musk torching the centerpiece of his legislative agenda — reiterating comments he’d made inside the closed-door meeting: “As you know, he’s not delighted that Elon did a 180 on that.”
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