Mike Johnson: Musk Is 'Terribly Wrong'

Elon Musk came out swinging against the "Big Beautiful Bill" on Tuesday, delighting its opponents on both sides of the aisle and perturbing its supporters, including House Speaker Mike Johnson. "With all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong about the one big, beautiful bill," Johnson said. He said Musk's remarks were "very disappointing" and "very surprising" because they had a 20-minute conversation Monday about the "virtues" of the bill and Musk seemed to understand, Politico reports.

• Musk's remarks. "This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination," Musk said in a post on X Tuesday. "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it." He later added: "It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt." In another post, he said, "In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people."

• Trump caught off guard. A source tells the New York Times that President Trump was caught off guard by the posts. Trump hasn't publicly responded, though he clashed with Sen. Rand Paul over the bill earlier Tuesday. "The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. "It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it."
• Republican senators are skeptical. Politico reports that Paul and other budget hardliners praised Musk's remarks, while other Republican senators said they doubted whether the billionaire's opposition would have much effect on amendments to the bill. "I think the people that are of the same view are encouraged, and I think others are sort of dismissive," said Sen. Kevin Cramer. "I like Elon Musk, but he's one man," he added.
• Democrats in "complete agreement." Democrats made the most of the Republican infighting, the Washington Post reports. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer held up a poster board of Musk's tweets and joked, "I hear something happened while we were at lunch, which led me to make some news here today and say something I didn't think was imaginable: I agree with Elon Musk." House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made similar remarks, saying of Musk, "We're in complete agreement."

(More Elon Musk stories.)