Y'all, the girls are fighting. Elon Musk and Donald Trump's breakup is going just about as well as you'd expect. The Tesla CEO and former advisor to the President who gave him over a quarter billion dollars to get him elected is on a mission to kill Trump's tax bill. The move comes after Musk failed to convince Republican lawmakers to preserve tax credits for EVs that Tesla desperately needed.
Musk went so far as to personally appeal to House Speaker Mike Johnson to save the tax credit, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg. The House version of the tax measure will largely end the $7,500 EV tax credit by the end of 2025. Losing that credit would hurt Tesla and every other automaker that currently takes advantage of it. The CEO took to his social media site, X, to try and garner support for his position — a position that him and I are aligned on... that feels gross.
Call your Senator,
Call your Congressman,
Bankrupting America is NOT ok!
KILL the BILL
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2025
Here's what Johnson told Bloomberg TV in an interview:
"Elon's a good friend. We texted late last night. We're going to talk this morning," Johnson said. "I just want to make sure that he understands what I think everybody on Capitol Hill understands. This is not a spending bill, my friends, this is a budget reconciliation bill. And what we're doing here is delivering the America First agenda."
Still, Johnson said, Musk seems "pretty dug in right now, and I can't quite understand the motivation behind it."
"I'll let everybody draw their own conclusions about Elon's motivation," Johnson added. "I mean, obviously the EV mandate going away is, I'm sure, a concern for, you know, the leader of Tesla and other things as well. But I think there's a lot of confusion out there about what the legislation is."
Musk has long rallied against "abruptly ending" the tax credits.
Elon's post on social media comes just a day after he first lashed out at Trump's tax bill, calling it a budget-busting "disgusting abomination" according to Bloomberg. At the same time, Republican fiscal hawks cranked up their criticism of the massive spending package.
Trump has yet to publicly respond to Musk's comments, but the White House did put out a statement saying the legislation "unleashes an era of unprecedented economic growth."
Things have gotten rather frosty between Musk and Trump in the last week or so following his formal exit from the administration and his DOGE program. Musk's condemnation of the bill is putting him squarely against the President as he personally lobbies holdouts on the bill.
Musk's ousting from the Federal Government was orchestrated by Sergio Gor, the head of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, Bloomberg reports. He and Musk repeatedly butted heads as he led DOGE in its feckless money-saving scheme.
Time will tell if this new feud with D.C. Republicans will impact Musk's donations to them in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections. Musk spent unprecedented sums of money during the 2024 cycle, so I'm sure Republicans are relying on him to shell out a lot of money to keep their majority in the House and Senate.