In the latest sign the honeymoon is over between Donald Trump and his tech billionaire sidekick, Elon Musk, the president confirmed he will go ahead with his signature tax bill, despite Musk’s public criticism of it.
Musk has sneered at the bill in a series of social media posts and interviews, including one with CBS, in which he said he was “disappointed” to see the bill progressing, saying it would increase the budget deficit and “undermines the work that the Doge team is doing”, referring to the department he oversaw to slash jobs, spending and resources from federal agencies.
The disagreement between Trump and the world’s richest man comes as Musk confirmed on social media platform X that his time at the White House was officially coming to an end.
Musk has publicly diverged from the president on policy several times and had clearly signaled his intent to spend less time in Washington and more on his businesses, Tesla, SpaceX and xAI. It’s a drastic turnaround for Musk, who plowed $200m into Trump’s campaign and dedicated most of the last year to promoting Trump and far-right ideology online.
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