Bulwark Takes - Elon Musk Trashes Trump’s Budget!

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

Sarah Longwell breaks down the dramatic breakup between Elon Musk and Donald Trump and how this clash could fracture the MAGA coalition and reshape Republican politics.

Rural communities are being squeezed from every side. From rising health care costs to crumbling hospitals, from attacks on public schools to the fight for paid family and medical leave, farmers and small businesses are reeling from the trade war. And now, Project 2025 is back with a plan to finish what Elon Musk started. Trump and the Republicans won rural votes, then turned their backs on us. Join the One Country Project for the Rural Progress Summit, July 8th through the 10th.

This free virtual event brings together leaders like Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Governor Andy Beshear, and others for real talk and real solutions. Together we'll tackle the most urgent issues facing rural America. Register today or learn more at ruralprogress.com. Hey guys, Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark here,

and my team begged me not to do this video. They said Tim and Joe and Sam, they already cut an Elon video, but come on. No way I'm sitting this action out because I've got more takes. And also because this is, because Elon's always tweeting through it, this is a rapidly evolving situation.

Let me just read you what he has done so far in chronological order. Okay, so he starts out a couple hours ago and he says, I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it. You know you did wrong. You know it.

Do you know who voted for this bill? All the Republicans in Congress, except for Massey. Okay? So he is condemning right now every congressional Republican who voted for Trump's big, beautiful bill. He then goes on to say, it will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to 2.5 trillion three exclamation points and burdened American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt guess what he's right Elon's right this bill is ridiculous it is too big it is cutting Medicaid for lower-income people in order to give a massive tax cut to

higher-income people to billionaires and millionaires. And guess what? I love tax cuts. I've always liked tax cuts, but this bill is absurd and it does nothing. It adds like $20 trillion to the debt over 10 years. It is unsustainable. It is crushing. It would put us close to $60 trillion in debt at a time when inflation is high and we are paying more to service the Interest on the debt than we are on programs that help the American people This is not America first and Elon is correct about this now He was wrong when he thought he could roll in there with Doge and cut two trillion out of the budget, he learned the hard way that there's not a lot to cut unless you start cutting

Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and the military. And clearly nobody wanted to do that. And so they forced Elon out. And now Elon is going after, I mean, the Republicans have passed nothing else. This is the signature bill. They are trying to get it all in here and do everything with this bill. And Elon is trying to torpedo it. But he goes on, he goes on.

This is the, this is the best I'm having the best day. He goes on to say in November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people. He is talking about the 2026 midterms firing all the Republicans who vote for this bill. So he is lining up potentially his money, certainly his clout on his favorite, his favorite propaganda machine, Twitter.

He is gonna use it to beat up on these Republicans. I'll tell you what, I bet he was really annoying in the White House, but having him piss from outside the tent in is going to be a lot worse than having him piss inside out. But I just want to say Republicans, this is why I really wanted to do the emergency thing because they're already responding to Elon. Based Mike Lee, one of the worst senators in Congress, one of the most terminally online, former never-Trump-er, somebody who tried hard to keep Trump from becoming the nominee back in 2016, tweeted,

Federal spending has become excessive. The resulting inflation harms Americans and weaponizes government. The Senate can make this bill better. It must do so now. This is great. This is great. So first of all, I just want to say again, Elon is correct about this. The idea that Trump would do the big tax cuts right now

and add this much money to the debt after paying so much lip service and paying so much for the bill, and then the next thing you know, would do the big tax cuts right now and add this much money to the debt after paying so much lip service to saying how much money Democrats have added to the debt? No. I mean, this is the thing. Look, I've always been a debt and deficit hawk. It's one of the reasons I was conservative, right? Republicans talked about the need to reduce the debt. I believe this strongly. Okay? I think that it is a national security risk. China, other countries have to buy all of our debt. I think they're going to downgrade our ratings the more debt

we take on. It is unsustainable. We are saddling our children with an enormous amount of debt and an inability to spend money. But Donald Trump has acted like he was going to cut the debt and the deficit, but instead he is adding more to it than Democrats have. In fact, Democrats have consistently, I mean, if you do look back, Republicans talk about the debt and deficit while they increase it, and Democrats talk about spending, and yet they have been the ones who have been more fiscally responsible when they are actually in office. That has just been a reality. If you go back and look. And so we are now in an incredibly precarious spot.

But the political implications of this. So obviously, look, I had to unblock Elon from Twitter in order to read his posts because I have not wanted to see a thing that Elon has said for a very long time. I do not think Elon is smart about politics. I do not think he knows anything. I think he was idiotic to claim that. I think it belied how little he knew about the way government works. And look, again, a former squishy Republican here who was like yeah we should tighten up government it should be more limited. I'm pro that. That's not what Doge did. Doge first of all way over promised right there was never two trillion they were going to get out of that budget and then I think they just went in there as best I can tell and they hoovered up a bunch of our information

they fired a bunch of people including they cut fired a bunch of people, including, they cut off a lot of research. They fought, you know, they got rid of USAID, one of the most important and very inexpensive mechanisms for promoting soft power around the globe. And so he did nothing but damage. There was nothing smart about the way he approached cutting the federal government. He had his guy like big balls and these tech bros that came in. No evidence that when all was said and done, between what it cost the American people and what they actually cut, basically the whole thing was a wash. So Elon has been a massive failure in his role in the federal government.

Like there's a reason they kicked him out. It's because, you know, when Trump asked the other day, is it all bullshit? What Elon was doing? The answer is yes, it was all bullshit. But this rift between Trump and Elon, look, I think we used to ask ourselves this question. Can they sustain this relationship back when they were, you know, Elon was jumping up on stage in his short little shirt showing off his belly, and then once he got in the White House and was holding the bizarre press conferences,

you could tell that that was a relationship that could potentially end very badly. Now, they've done a lot. Like, Elon, Elon's a tough person for Trump to take on. It's not like firing one of the generals. And there's a reason he went into the Oval Office and had a pretty, like a nice sendoff for Elon and said, Elon will always be with us as though it were a funeral, and Elon is a specter that will haunt us.

But Trump wanted to stay on good terms with Elon because Elon controls a massive propaganda machine and has an infinite, an almost infinite amount of money. And for them to fall out like this. Now, Carolyn Levitt was asked by Peter Ducey about what Musk said about the bill at a press conference earlier, and she said the president is familiar with, you know, Elon's feelings about the bill. So fine. However, this is, I mean, Elon's clearly, I don't know if it's like ketamine withdrawal or if it's what happens on, I don't know anything about ketamine, but he is clearly going to shift his posture now to take a stand against this bill and threaten Republican legislators who are going to support it. That is a massive political development. It means that Elon's going to go after these people

and be mad on his website. It also creates real pressure on the Republicans in this sort of tenuous coalition between tech maga and populist maga, right? There was always like a Steve Bannon, Elon Musk, real tension, you know, Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon are over here. tension, Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon are over here, Elon Musk and the All In guys and the other tech bros, they're over here.

This is the beginning of a bunch of that uneasy alliance, sort of the tech side or the side that was really thought, Elon was going to be able to go in there and solve this problem. Now that it's clear he couldn't, he's going to say it is because Republicans wouldn't let him. They were not serious about cutting the debt or the deficit. And if he continues to agitate against this bill, it is going to make Republicans really nervous. It's going to put this bill in the crosshair of voters who really have supported the idea of what Elon is doing, who think we need to cut government, who have cited the debt. Now look, and look, I'm not naive about voters. I listen to them all the time. They can hold two competing ideas and hold them both as equally true and, you know,

without ever recognizing the contradiction. But this is the beginning of an all-out fight, and a political fight that Donald Trump doesn't want, but it seems like Elon might. Elon might want this fight. And part of that could be, I'm not sure about this, but it is possible that despite how little he knew about the federal government, that he is serious about the idea.

Like maybe he believes what he's saying. Like that's the worst thing for Trump. Cause the Trump, the whole ethos is, you put on the hat and the policy doesn't matter, right? You know, we don't have a, there's no Republican platform anymore. It's just whatever Donald Trump says. That's not what Elon's doing.

If Elon takes him on on policy and stands on, it's not exactly principle, but caring about a thing. And look, maybe he cares about it for his own reasons because he doesn't want to look like a failure. He wants to pass it off to somebody else. You know, he wants to, you know, this is about Elon. But like maybe he actually cares about this and that is the most dangerous thing for Trump because it means Elon won't stop pushing. The hat won't be enough. So I'm looking forward to see how this plays out. I'm looking

forward to see whether more Republicans in Congress quote tweet him to say that they're going to take a hard look at this bill. I am looking forward to the Senate trying to figure out what to do about this big beautiful bill. And for whatever fallout ensues between the MAGA wing and the Tech Bro wing, because that's going to be good. That's that's gonna be a positive development Now I look I hope they do cut spending out of this. I hope they do not jack up the debt but that because that's like genuinely important for our country, but I also hope that What was an?

enthusiastic alliance moved to an uneasy alliance, moved to a tense sort of standoff over this bill. I hope it melts into a full-on conflagration between these two guys, that their egos get into it, and in the process, they both alienate lots of members of their coalition. I think that would be a good outcome. So anyway, there, that's my two cents. Thanks guys for subscribing. I'm sure we're going to talk about this on the next level tomorrow. I'm sure there will be more tweets. I mean, this guy can't help it. He just de-tweets every five seconds. It's hard to even find the tweets consecutively on this issue because he tweets so many times. But I'm sure we're going to cover it again tomorrow and see whatever else is unfolding. I'll see you guys later.