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Investing.com-- President Donald Trump is “losing patience” with Elon Musk after the billionaire criticized his “big beautiful” tax and spending bill, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Trump and his administration were reportedly caught off guard by Musk’s recent criticism of Trump’s signature legislation, where the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO called the bill a “pork-filled… disgusting abomination.”
Trump was also confused over why Musk was criticizing the bill after working closely with the White House for the past four months, the WSJ report said, citing a senior White House official.
Musk is irked about Trump’s decision to withdraw the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a major Musk ally, to run the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the WSJ report said. His frustration over the NASA decision likely made him more willing to aggressively criticize the tax bill.
Musk had complained to associates that he had donated hundreds of millions of dollars to help get Trump elected, only to see his NASA nominee be pulled, the WSJ report said.
Musk criticized the tax bill on the grounds that it will ramp up government spending and increase the deficit. He kept up his criticism of the bill on Wednesday, calling on his over 200 million followers on X to call their representatives and “KILL the BILL.”
While Musk and Trump have praised each other in public, rifts were seen forming in the background, with Musk also opposed to Trump’s trade agenda while clashing with some of his advisors. He had engaged in a public feud with trade adviser Peter Navarro earlier this year.
The WSJ report comes nearly a week after Musk’s supposedly last day working with the government. He had led the Department of Government Efficiency, which oversaw a slew of spending cuts but fell well short of its targeted $2 trillion in cuts.