WASHINGTON — Trump White House confidants said Wednesday they were not surprised tech billionaire Elon Musk blew up at the House-passed “Big, Beautiful Bill” — noting the former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) luminary would have found something to beef with the administration about sooner or later.
The 53-year-old South Africa-born billionaire — who in April went chest-to-chest with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent over their respective visions for the IRS in the halls of the White House — shook up Washington Tuesday by decrying the signature GOP legislation as “a disgusting abomination” and vowing to campaign to “fire” Republican lawmakers who supported it.
“I’d say most knew he’d throw a fit sometime this year. It was exciting but not surprising,” one Trumpworld source told The Post of the outburst.
“I do think he didn’t leave on the best of terms,” added a second person close to the White House. “But I also think there’s a general awareness [that] this is just the way he operates.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO went on the warpath for a second straight day Wednesday, declaring: “A new spending bill should be drafted that doesn’t massively grow the deficit and increase the debt ceiling by 5 TRILLION DOLLARS.”
Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok!” he added in yet another X post. “KILL the BILL”.
The second insider added that it was understandable Musk would take issue with his May 30 departure as a special government employee coinciding with the White House working to pass a bill that the Congressional Budget Office predicted Wednesday will add $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit.
“His most legitimate point relates to DOGE and the fact that he exposed a bunch of waste and inefficiency with big government contractors like Accenture,” this person said, “but right as he leaves they get awarded massive new contracts and it feels like ‘back to business as usual.’”
On March 20, Accenture CEO Julie Spellman Sweet told Wall Street analysts that the IT and management consulting company had lost federal contracts after DOGE ran the rule over them.
Since then, however, business has picked up for the Ireland-based firm — including a $336 million contract with the Air Force announced six days after Sweet’s complaint.
Musk departed on seemingly good terms, with Trump handing him a key to the White House during an Oval Office ceremony.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt also played down the initial angry posts by Musk Tuesday, telling reporters during her regular briefing that “the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill” and that “it doesn’t change his opinion.”
Sources close to Musk confirmed to The Post Tuesday night that his rant against the legislation stems from four specific grievances with the administration.
Those include the House GOP overturning Biden-era electric vehicle tax credits, the White House refusing to let Musk stay beyond his statutory 130-day special government employee tenure, the Federal Aviation Administration not using Starlink satellites to help manage the nation’s air traffic control system, and Trump pulling his nomination for Musk ally Jared Isaacman to lead NASA over this past weekend.
“I think Elon doesn’t totally understand how this works, and you aren’t going to change the way the [government] operates,” argued a third source close to the White House, who noted that Musk’s specific grievances were “personal” rather than philosophical.
“I think there’s a gap from it getting done and reality,” the source added. “If Trump did [what Musk had asked], the media would be saying he’s giving Elon favorable treatment. So it’s a tough situation.”
A rep for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
