UPDATED: Donald Trump and Elon Musk feud over Trumps "Big Beautiful Bill" which has passed now

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THIS THREAD WILL BE UPDATED WITH LATEST NEWS ON THIS

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'Poky pig party': Musk attacks Trump's 'Big beautiful' bill

Elon Musk has continued his tirade against Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” domestic policy bill, vowing that if the “insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day”.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO – whose staunch opposition to the legislation played a significant hand in the public disintegration of his relationship with the President – has escalated his anti-Republican rhetoric this week as the Senate votes on unlimited amendments to the policy.

“If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” Mr Musk wrote on X.

“Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.”

In a separate post, he said the US was being governed by the “PORKY PIG PARTY!!”

“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” he wrote.

“Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people.”

In another post, he vowed to unseat those politicians who support Mr Trump’s legislation.

“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!” Mr Musk wrote.

“And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”

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No end in sight for 'vote-a-rama'

The Senate’s “vote-a-rama” has entered its 14th hour with no end in sight, as Republicans seek to pass Donald Trump’s flagship spending bill, an unpopular package set to slash social welfare programs and add an eye-watering $US3 trillion to the national debt.

The President wants his “One Big Beautiful Bill” to extend his expiring first term tax cuts at a cost of $US4.5 trillion, boost military spending and fund his plans for unprecedented mass deportations and border security.

But senators eyeing 2026 midterm congressional elections are divided over provisions that would strip around $US1 trillion in subsidised health care from millions of the poorest Americans and add more than $US3.3 trillion to the nation’s already yawning budget deficits over a decade.

Mr Trump wants to have the package on his desk by the time Independence Day festivities begin on Friday. But progress in the Senate has slowed to a glacial pace with no end in sight as the so-called “vote-a-rama” – a session allowing members to offer unlimited amendments before a bill can move to final passage – went into a 14th hour.

With little sign of the pace picking up ahead of a final floor vote that could be delayed until well into the early hours of Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called for Republicans to “stay tough and unified”. Vote-a-ramas have been concluded in as little nine or 10 hours in the recent past and Democrats accused Republicans of deliberately slow-walking the process.

“They’ve got a lot of members who were promised things that they may not be able to deliver on. And so they’re just stalling,” Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters.

“But we’re just pushing forward amendment after amendment. They don’t like these amendments. The public is on our side in almost every amendment we do.”

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Trump touts 'most important' bill as voting continues

Donald Trump has continued to tout his “big beautiful” spending bill as the Senate’s “vote-a-rama” drags on.

In a post on Truth Social, the US President warned that failing to pass the bill would result in a “whopping 68% tax increase, the largest in history”.

“Republicans, the One Big Beautiful Bill, perhaps the greatest and most important of its kind in history, gives the largest Tax Cuts and Border Security ever, Jobs by the Millions, Military/Vets increases, and so much more. The failure to pass means a whopping 68% Tax increase, the largest in history!!!” he wrote in the post.

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Massive threat as Musk, Trump war erupts

Donald Trump has fired back at Elon Musk, suggesting the Department of Government Efficiency may have to “take a good, hard, look” at its former head, who continues to slam the President’s “big beautiful” spending bill.

Mr Trump’s threat comes after Mr Musk labelled Mr Trump’s signature spending bill “utterly insane and destructive,” and slammed it for giving “handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future,” in a social media tirade earlier today.

Hitting back in a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump claimed that without government subsidies, the Tesla CEO “would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa” and suggested DOGE look into Mr Musk – who left his role in the cost-cutting department in May.

“Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate. It is ridiculous, and was always a major part of my campaign,” Mr Trump wrote.

“Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one. Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE”.

“Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”

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Musk claims majority voted for new party in X poll

Embedded Tweet

Elon Musk has claimed 80 per cent of people have voted for the creation of a new political party in a poll on social media.

In a post on X this afternoon, Mr Musk reshared a poll he created on June 6, asking: “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”

“VOX POPULI VOX DEI 80% voted for a new party,” he wrote in the new post.

It comes after the Tesla CEO vowed to launch a new political party if Donald Trump’s “big beautiful” spending bill passes Congress.

“If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” he wrote on X.

“Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.”

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Trump ponders deporting Musk

US President Donald Trump has suggested the mass deportations his administration has been responsible for may extend to Elon Musk, as their feud continues to escalate.

Speaking to reporters on his way to a new immigration detention facility on Tuesday, Mr Trump was asked whether his former friend – who was born in South Africa but has since been naturalised as an American – could be deported in the wake of his very vocal objections to the President’s Big Beautiful Bill.

“I don’t know,” he replied, “We’ll have to take a look.”

He went on to say that the Tesla CEO is upset about losing the electric vehicle subsidy and suggested he “could lose a lot more than that”.

“We might have to put Doge on Elon,” he said, “You know what Doge is? Doge is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies.”

Mr Trump is travelling to Florida for the opening of a new state-run immigration detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”. It’s expected to initially house up to 1000 undocumented immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In reply to a post on his X social network featuring Mr Trump’s deportation comments, Mr Musk said on Tuesday: “So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now.”

Shares of Tesla sank around five percent Tuesday after Mr Trump’s threats.

Mr Trump had made similar comments on Monday, saying Musk was attacking the bill because he was annoyed that it had dropped measures to support the electric vehicles (EV) industry.

“Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social network.

The tycoon and the president shared a brief but intense bromance after Mr Trump’s return to power in January.

Wearing MAGA baseball hats, Mr Musk was an almost constant presence at Mr Trump’s side.

Mr Trump returned the favor by promoting Tesla electric vehicles when protesters targeted them for Musk’s cost-cutting drive at DOGE.

But they had a huge public blow-up in May as Mr Musk criticised the spending bill and then left the government.

Mr Musk had kept a low profile in recent weeks but returned to the fray as the bill began its difficult path through Congress.

He has since posted a steady stream of posts against the bill on the X social network that he owns.

The billionaire’s criticisms center on claims that the bill would increase the US deficit. He also accuses Republicans of abandoning efforts to place the United States at the front of the EV and clean energy revolution.

“All I’m asking is that we don’t bankrupt America,” he said on social media Tuesday, accusing Republicans of supporting “debt slavery.” More worrying perhaps for Mr Trump is the way that Mr Musk is seeking to target vulnerable Republican lawmakers ahead of the 2026 US midterm elections.

Mr Musk has said he will set up his own political movement called the “America Party” if Trump’s bill passes.

And he has pledged to fund challengers against lawmakers who campaigned on reduced federal spending only to vote for the bill.

“VOX POPULI VOX DEI 80% voted for a new party,” he said after launching a poll on the idea on X.

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US Senate passes Trump’s megabill

US Senate Republicans narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on Monday (US time), sending it to the House for final approval following a 27-hour blitz of amendments.

US President Donald Trump described the Senate’s passage of his tax and spending bill as “music to my ears”.

The 51-50 vote — with Vice President JD Vance breaking the deadlock — puts Republicans on track to have the bill on Mr Trump’s desk by the self-imposed Fourth of July deadline, if enough House lawmakers stay on board.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined all 47 Democrats in voting “nay.”

“Today was a historic day for our country, and, we’re very excited to be a part of something that is gonna make America stronger, safer, and more prosperous,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters following the vote.

“This is historic in my time in Washington DC,” he added. “This is the first time we’ve done anything meaningful on entitlement reform.”

The megabill, which clocks in at nearly 900 pages, extends most of Mr Trump’s 2017 tax cuts; reduces taxes on tips and overtime pay; and increases spending on defense, border security, and energy exploration while slashing entitlement outlays.

The legislative bundle had inched through Congress, overcoming criticism from all parts of the Republican Party.

After more than a month of deliberation, the Senate modified the House version of the legislation to extend business tax reductions, deepen cuts to Medicaid, increase the debt limit by $5 trillion, and eliminate a moratorium on state restrictions against artificial intelligence.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) emerged as the key swing vote, with GOP leadership leaning on her aggressively — and even trying to exempt Alaska from some spending cuts to woo her, but those amendments were blocked by Democrats.

“I had to look on balance, I had to look on balance,” she told reporters. “We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination.”

“My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognise that we’re not there yet.”

Before the vote, fiscal hawks like Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) grumbled over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s impact on the deficit, even threatening to derail its passage.

Eventually, leadership agreed to deepen cuts to Medicaid from the version that passed the lower chamber last month, assuaging Johnson’s concerns.

“I’m convinced they’re committed to returning to reasonable pre-pandemic spending, and I’ll be highly involved in a process to achieve and maintain it,” Mr Johnson told “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning local time.

Leadership was also forced to grapple with moderate Republicans who were uneasy over reforms to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, aka food stamps).

“We can’t be cutting health care for working people and for poor people in order to constantly give special tax treatment to corporations and other entities,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told NBC News last week.

But ultimately, Mr Hawley backed the bill, and GOP leadership was able to keep enough moderates on board.

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'Vote YAY': Trump celebrates narrow win in Congress

Welcome to the madhouse we call “Earth”.

As mentioned in a previous post, the American Senate has passed the piece of legislation Mr Trump insists on calling the “Big, Beautiful Bill”. It’s essentially a budget megabill, including the renewal of tax cuts, slashes to spending on health, funding for immigration enforcement, and a bunch of other things that build up to a multi-trillion dollar expansion of America’s already considerable deficit.

“It is no longer a ‘House Bill’ or a ‘Senate Bill’. It is everyone’s Bill. There is so much to be proud of, and EVERYONE got a major Policy WIN,” Mr Trump, in a quite celebratory mood, posted on social media a short time ago.

“Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security Benefits are not being cut, but are being STRENGTHENED and PROTECTED from the Radical and Destructive Democrats by eliminating Waste, Fraud, and Abuse from those Programs.

“To my GOP (Republican) friends in the House: Stay UNITED, have fun, and Vote YAY.”

Is that a play on the word “yea”, which would usually be used in reference to a congressional vote? Or does Mr Trump merely not know how to spell it? Who can say, he’s a man of mystery. This is the guy who gave us “covfefe”.

The legislation only passed through the Senate by a margin of 51-50, with multiple Republican senators voting against it. Vice President J.D. Vance was forced to step in to cast the tiebreaking vote. Now it goes to the House of Representatives, where there is also very little margin for error, even though Mr Trump’s party has a majority – some Republican members have expressed their opposition.

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Another Trump feud slowly boiling away

The Musk-Trump feud continues but another feud has been bubbling away for months: the one between Mr Trump and Jerome Powell, the man he appointed during his first term to head up the equivalent of Australia’s Reserve Bank.

The President wants the Federal Reserve to lower America’s interest rates, and has been expressing his dissatisfaction with Mr Powell for some time. The Fed Chairman’s latest remarks, which come to us from a conference in Portugal, will not help their relationship.

Mr Powell essentially said the Fed would have already cut interest rates, fulfilling Mr Trump’s wish, if not for ……… the President’s own policies.

He was explicitly asked whether rates would have been cut, absent Mr Trump’s tariffs.

“I think that’s right,” said Mr Powell.

“In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs, and essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs.”

Mr Trump continues to insist the tariffs are not inflationary. And today he once again said “anybody would be better” as Fed Chairman than Mr Powell.