White House stands by tax bill after Musk calls it a 'disgusting abomination'

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The White House defended the President Donald Trump-endorsed "big, beautiful bill" Tuesday after outgoing DOGE chief Elon Musk doubled down on his criticism, calling the legislation a "disgusting abomination."

Musk, who has been openly critical of the proposed reconciliation bill, said Tuesday afternoon that he "just can't stand it anymore."

"This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination," Musk added in a Tuesday afternoon post on X. "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it."

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The bill passed the House in late May, ahead of Memorial Day, largely along party lines. However, two Republicans did vote against the measure, citing insufficient spending cuts and a rising national debt. GOP Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has also signaled he likely will not vote in favor of the bill in its current form, citing a debt ceiling increase that is a red line for him. 

Trump has lashed out at Paul and others for opposing the bill, but he has taken a more measured approach to Musk's criticism.

"Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Tuesday afternoon briefing when asked about Musk's most recent criticism.

"It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill and he's sticking to it," she said. 

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Musk, who led the cost-cutting efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), previously criticized the bill during an interview with CBS, noting he was "disappointed" in the spending bill because "it undermines" all the work his DOGE team was doing.

In May, when Trump was asked about Musk's criticism of the bill on CBS, he responded, "Well, our reaction's a lot of things," before pivoting to talk about the votes needed to pass the bill. 

"Number one, we have to get a lot of votes, we can't be cutting - we need to get a lot of support and we have a lot of support," he said. "We had to get it through the House, the House was, we had no Democrats. You know, if it was up to the Democrats, they'll take the 65% increase."

Following Musk's Tuesday afternoon criticism, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters he hopes Musk "will come to a different conclusion" about the GOP's "big, beautiful" spending bill, adding the two have a "difference of opinion" about the legislation. 

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In a recent interview, Thune addressed Musk's criticism in more detail, particularly the point that the current version of the GOP's spending bill "undermines" the work he has done with DOGE. 

"A lot of what Elon was working on was on the discretionary side of the budget, which this doesn't touch. The reconciliation bill just deals with mandatory spending," Thune said. "But we want to incorporate a lot of the savings that he found, and there are ways to do that."

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Thune said he hoped, through other legislative efforts, discretionary spending Musk is concerned about will be addressed. He pointed to a proposed "rescissions bill" expected to be pushed by the White House that Thune said will try "to capture a lot of what Elon found in these various agencies and puts it in a bill that's submitted to Congress."

Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.