Trump-Musk Feud Reveals GOP’s Concerns About Speaker Johnson and Lack of Fiscal Discipline

“Where is the Mike Johnson of 2023!?" Musk asked, accusing the Speaker of abandoning fiscal responsibility.

In a dramatic turn of events this week, President Donald Trump and Elon Musk—the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX—have become embroiled in a public feud over H.R. 1, otherwise known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (OBBBA), a sweeping spending measure introduced by House Republicans. Its most controversial component is a suggested $5 trillion raise in the debt limit—at a time when the national debt is already barrelling toward nearly a record $37 trillion.

The conflict first began when Musk, who previously served as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, publicly denounced the OBBBA, labeling it a "disgusting abomination." He argued that there is a “MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK” in the bill, a claim which House Budget chairman Jodey Arrington refutes. 

"We're dealing with mandatory spending programs — entitlements, health care, welfare and the tax code," Arrington said. "We did a responsible bill. There's no pork in it.” 

In turn, Trump expressed his own disappointment in Musk, stating that until recently he had "a great relationship" with the billionaire and that Musk has “lost his mind.” Trump also suggested that Musk's opposition to the bill stemmed from the removal of electric vehicle subsidies, which would of course negatively impact Tesla. The President further threatened to revoke federal contracts with Musk's companies, including SpaceX, which holds approximately $21 billion in government contracts.

“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’” the President wrote on his Truth Social account. “I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”

Musk called this “such an obvious lie” then announced the decommission of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, set to launch on Tuesday, June 10th. He has since walked this back, but continues to accuse the President of ingratitude, purporting that he would have lost the 2024 election without Musk’s support. Musk also hinted at supporting Trump's impeachment and alleged that Trump was named in the confidential Epstein files—a claim that has not been substantiated and which X’s own AI chatbot—Grok—contests, clarifying that Trump’s name appearing on Epstein's flight logs was already known and correlates to “no indication of wrongdoing.”

“The files were released by Trump's administration on February 27, 2025, contradicting claims they were withheld to protect him,” Grok states. “While speculation persists, no new incriminating details about Trump have emerged from credible sources.”

The feud between Musk and Trump has already shown substantial economic repercussions. Tesla's stock price fell from over $322 per share to $277 in the span of six hours following Trump's criticisms—a 14.3% plummet and loss of $152 billion in market cap—marking its worst day since the COVID-19 pandemic. Short sellers accumulated significant positions, and Tesla became the second-most shorted stock in the U.S. by total value. 

But it’s not just bad for Musk; Trump Media & Technology Group shares also fell by 8%, and the value of Trump's cryptocurrency, $TRUMP, declined by 12%. 

As with any high-profile public falling out on social media, countless users, elected officials, and Silicon Valley investors are now debating, mudslinging, and scrambling to determine on whose side they will now stand. The general consensus is that both men make valid points—and perhaps the larger issue at the root of the issue is how the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives—including Speaker Mike Johnson—has handled the OBBBA and failed to maintain party unity.

With that in mind, perhaps the seeds that would one day grow into the current feud between Musk and Trump were actually sown long ago. In a recent interview with Fox News, Musk said that realizing how much the U.S. government spends paying down interest on its national debt was a “wake-up call” that has motivated his opposition to OBBBA. And for what it’s worth, Musk has been consistent about his position for at least several years. 

“The Defense Department budget is a very big budget. It's a trillion dollars a year. And interest payments on the national debt just exceeded the Defense Department budget. They're over a trillion dollars a year, just in interest and rising. We're adding a trillion dollars to our debt, which our kids and grandkids are going to have to pay somehow, every three months, and then soon it's going to be every two months and then every month.  And then, the only thing we'll be able to pay is interest... This does not have a good ending,” Musk said during last year’s All-In Podcast Summit. “We have to reduce the spending.”

In contrast, Speaker Mike Johnson has reportedly called the national debt “sort of a fictitious, arbitrary thing… an arbitrary deadline that puts everybody in crisis mode,” according to Senior Congressional Correspondent for Fox News Chad Pergram.

“If the debt ceiling is a ‘fictitious thing’ why raise it?” asked U.S. Senator Mike Lee. 

Indeed, Senator Lee, a Republican, has been a leading voice in both the call for unity and greater fiscal responsibility from the GOP. Recently, Lee announced that he is drafting a constitutional amendment that would make members of Congress ineligible for re-election if the federal deficit exceeds 3% of GDP or “whenever inflation exceeds 3%.” Of this, Lee has said that “it’s better to disqualify politicians than for an entire nation to suffer under the yoke of inflation.” Musk has fully endorsed Lee’s amendment. Whether or not Rep. Johnson—and those loyal to the Speaker of the House—would do the same very much remains to be seen. 

Johnson has also been criticized by Musk for seemingly changing his tune on fiscal discipline. In 2023, Johnson tweeted: “The federal debt has just topped $31.4 trillion, and the Congressional Budget Office now estimates federal spending for fiscal year 2023 will total $6.221 trillion—or more than $197,000 per second! This is not sustainable!” 

“Where is the Mike Johnson of 2023!?” Musk responded.

Johnson claims that he is still “a lifelong fiscal hawk,” as he works to shield the OBBBA from its detractors. He then stated he does not intend to get any more deeply involved in the squabble.

Meanwhile, other Republicans are taking a more active role in calling for unity. Sen. Lee asked his followers to repost if they agree that “the world is a better place with the Trump-Musk bromance fully intact," while Sen. Ted Cruz joined in sharing a similar note of optimism in an appearance on Hannity last night.

"I hope that both of them come back together because when the two of them are working together, we'll get a lot more done for America than when they're at cross purposes," said Sen. Cruz.