Lawmakers are not defecting from President Donald Trump amid the fallout between the commander-in-chief and Elon Musk over the “big, beautiful bill,” with one congressman saying the tech billionaire “hasn’t moved a single vote” and another surmising Musk has “lost his damn mind.”
Musk this week descended from an ardent supporter of Trump — campaigning for him and even working in his administration — to calling for his impeachment.
In a series of X posts, Musk criticized the president and even agreed that he should be impeached.
In another X post, Musk took credit for Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election and suggested that the Epstein files have not been fully released due to Trump’s personal involvement.
This came after Musk’s time as a Special Government Employee (GSE) came to an end and debate rages on over what has been dubbed the “big, beautiful bill,” which Musk stands against
Many Republicans surmise that the outrage from Musk originates from the bill’s removal of electric vehicle mandates and green energy subsidies, which benefit Musk’s Tesla. Regardless, lawmakers seem to be aligning with Trump over Musk, and they question if his influence will truly sway any of their colleagues.
“He hasn’t moved a vote,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who appears to remain on friendly terms with Musk, wholly disagreed with Musk taking credit for Trump’s election victory.
“I don’t think any one person deserves credit, but if there is one person, that’s Donald J. Trump,” he told the outlet, which also quoted Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) praising Trump for “taking the high ground” in the feud with Musk.
NBC News reported that Johnson also said this of Musk: “I don’t argue with him about how to build rockets, and I wish he wouldn’t argue with me about how to craft legislation and pass it.”
Others remain perplexed on Musk’s outburst.
“Elon, for whatever reason, is very upset,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said, according to NOTUS, which also quoted Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) as saying Musk has “lost his damn mind.”
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) believes that people are simply aligning more with Trump with every single social media post that Musk blasts out.
“Every tweet that goes out, people are more in lockstep behind President Trump, and he’s losing favor,” Hern said.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) shared these general sentiments, telling Fox News Digital, “Elon crossed the line today.”
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“What I would say is, if Joe Biden had Donald Trump in the Epstein logs, there’s no question it would have come out during the campaign,” Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) also told the outlet regarding one of the accusations touted by Musk in his barrage of attacks against Trump.
“So, I don’t know what’s prompting it,” he added. “I think it’s all unfortunate.”
“The Biden administration would have put it out,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said of the same accusation lodged by Musk. “There’s nobody that Democrats hate more than Donald J. Trump, and he’s handing them their lunch every day. So, I don’t put much faith into it.”
“Why would he let his kid hang out with the president if that was true? That just doesn’t make any sense. And now he’s calling for his impeachment. I mean, it’s just going off to the deep end,” he added.
“I could not tell you what Elon Musk’s motivations are, but I can tell you what we’re going to do, which is avoid a $4 trillion tax increase on the American people,” Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) said of the feud.
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While others hope for eventual reconciliation, Trump has remained relatively measured in his responses.
“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump said on Truth Social.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!” he added in another post.
While there are rumors that Musk hoped to have a phone conversation with Trump on Friday, a White House official has said that Trump is “not interested in Elon call.”
“There could be anything — I’d like to de-escalate a very unfortunate situation,” an official added. “But there are no calls on the books, at least not now.”
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