Elon Musk rallies against Trump's tax bill, urges public to act

Key topics:Musk urges Americans to block Trump’s $2.4T tax bill over EV credit cutsTensions rise as Musk exits Trump admin, slams bill as "abomination"GOP risks midterm fallout if Musk pulls political funding from Congress.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..By Erik Wasson.Elon Musk is on a mission to block President Donald Trump’s tax bill after he tried — and failed — to convince Republican lawmakers to preserve valuable tax credits for electric vehicles in the legislation, according to a person familiar with the matter.The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer personally appealed to House Speaker Mike Johnson to save the tax credit, the person said, requesting anonymity to discuss a private conversation. The House version of the tax measure calls for largely ending the popular $7,500 electric car subsidies by the end of 2025 that Tesla has benefited from for years.“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman,” Musk wrote in a social media post. “Bankrupting America is NOT ok!”In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday, Johnson did not confirm whether Musk had approached him over the credits, but said the two would speak later in the day. “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’s post came one day after Musk first lashed out at the tax bill, describing it as a budget-busting “disgusting abomination” as Republican fiscal hawks stepped up criticism of the massive fiscal package. The billionaire has also publicly railed against “abruptly ending” the US’s energy tax credits, which the EV maker has gained from over the last few years.Musk did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment. NBC News reported earlier on Musk’s overture to Johnson.Many congressional Republicans have pushed for the rollback of certain clean energy and solar tax credits as a way to minimize the impacts of the tax and spending bill. Last month, Tesla said in a post on X that “Abruptly ending the energy tax credits would threaten America’s energy independence and the reliability of our grid.”Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who voted against the measure, defended Musk, saying in a post on X: “He knows if America collapses financially, we aren’t making it to Mars. He’s right.”Trump hasn’t publicly responded to Musk’s comments, but the White House put out a statement Wednesday saying the legislation “unleashes an era of unprecedented economic growth.” Tensions between Musk and the White House have flared in recent days after the tech titan formally stepped down from his role leading Trump’s federal cost-cutting effort, the Department of Government Efficiency.After a meeting with Trump and Republican senators at the White House on Wednesday evening, Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas told Bloomberg Television that “Elon was not important at all as far as this conversation goes.” Earlier, Johnson told reporters that Musk was “dead wrong” about the bill and that the tax cuts would pay for themselves through economic growth.Musk’s public condemnation pits him against the president at a critical time as Trump is personally lobbying holdouts on the bill. His campaign against the legislation threatens to stiffen resistance and delay enactment of the tax cuts and debt ceiling increase. Musk has attacked the legislation days after leaving a temporary assignment leading the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to cut federal spending. The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer’s high-profile role in the Trump administration eroded his business brand and sales of his company’s electric vehicles plunged. The House-passed version of the tax and spending bill would add $2.4 trillion to US budget deficits over the next decade, according to an estimate released Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.The CBO’s calculation reflects a $3.67 trillion decrease in expected revenues and a $1.25 trillion decline in spending over the decade through 2034, relative to baseline projections. The score doesn’t account for any potential boost to the economy from the bill, which Johnson and Trump argue would offset the revenue losses. Johnson said Musk had promised to help reelect Republicans just a day before savaging Trump’s bill, adding that he did not want to ascribe a personal motive. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.Separately, Jared Isaacman, a financial technology billionaire, appeared to suggest Trump withdrew his nomination to run NASA because of his close ties to Musk.“There were some people that had some axes to grind, I guess, and I was a good visible target,” Isaacman said on an episode of the All-In Podcast released on Wednesday. His ouster was driven by Sergio Gor, the head of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, according to people familiar with the matter.Gor and Musk had butted heads during the billionaire’s tenure running the Department of Government Efficiency, the people said, and Gor moved to have Isaacman’s nomination withdrawn after Musk pulled back from the administration.A White House spokesperson said Trump ultimately makes the decisions regarding who will serve in his administration.Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of about $377 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has become a crucial financial backer of the Republican party. After making modest donations most years, Musk became the biggest US political donor in 2024, giving more than $290 million.Most of Musk’s political giving was aimed at electing Trump but he also supported congressional candidates. America PAC, the super political action committee that Musk largely funded, spent $18.5 million in 17 separate House races. Though that total pales in comparison to the roughly $255 million he spent backing Trump, the spending means a lot in a congressional election, where challengers on average raise less than $1 million.Control of the House will likely be decided by the outcome of fewer than two dozen close races in the 2026 midterm elections. The GOP’s chances of holding their majority would suffer a major blow if Musk were to withdraw his financial support..2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Elon Musk rallies against Trump's tax bill, urges public to act

Key topics:

Related Stories