Bulwark Takes - Elon Threatens To TAKE DOWN Republicans Who Vote for Bill

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Elon Musk just declared open political war on Republicans backing the controversial spending bill, promising to primary every single one of them. Tim Miller and Sam Stein take on the question of whether Musk is serious, just grandstanding, or completely clueless about GOP politics. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Bulwark fans get 10% off their first month at https://betterhelp.com/bulwarktakes

Hey guys, Tim Miller from the Boark back here with managing editor Sam Stein. I want to talk with one more subplot about what is happening on the hill with this big whatever, Bill, the reconciliation bill. I'm tired of coming up with different nicknames for it. The whole thing is so stupid that they named it this ridiculous name and that we all have to fucking deal with this. The building bill. Yes.

Yeah. The big fugly slut. All right. Elon has sent a tweet about the bill that has that is in line with a criticism he's been offering, but it offers one tantalizing other proposal about the potential political outcome here, which is a full on political campaign war from Elon Musk on the Republican Party. And we've seen, you know, the war of words with him and Trump, the idea of that Trump might be a pedophile. I mean, that got pretty intense, but here, Elon is actually, is actually suggesting he's going to put some

money where his mouth is and there's a real war here. So let's, let's read it. And I'll get your reaction. Elon, 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 and they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this earth. There you go. I mean, that seems like a pretty direct threat. Will anything actually come of that?

I don't know. What do you, what do you make of it? He, he is like the hyperbole from this man is truly something. If it's the last thing I do, I think there's going to be other things you do on earth, buddy. But I mean, good for him. Have other children through in vitro fertilization. Yeah.

My god, thanks. Yeah. How many people will be pregnant before he primarily someone is a good question. Plus or minus three. I think, I mean, look, I think I was waiting for whether he would do this because over the weekend he went off on this bill. The reason he doesn't like this bill is not just

the debt and deficit. This bill, I mean, if you, over the weekend, a bunch of reporting on just what it does to the clean energy subsidies, and it's kind of crazy actually. The degree to which it just absolutely wipes out an emerging industry in this country and really sets us back from an energy production standpoint.

But so he really cares about the stuff. And I was waiting after he went off on that like, well, you know, this guy's got a lot of power. He's got a lot of money. And in theory, all he needs to do is convince four House Republicans to vote against this thing. And he's got a lot of funds that he can do to get them to vote against this thing and then It would kill a bill like surely a man worth that much money can do that

uh, he's up the ante a little bit by saying he's gonna Guarantee the primary loss of every single member. I don't think he needs to spend that much money Just concentrate on like half a dozen but um, you know I guess you're listening to this sam has some advice on how to better bribe Republican house members. Right. Like it's a lot cheaper, but the same outcome. Um, I don't think he's going to fall through on it. I just, I just don't think he's going to, I know, nor do I think he's going to be

effective. It's actually shocking to the degree to which he has the world's richest man who helped elect all these people suddenly became like kind of ineffectual in Republican circles overnight because he went to war with Donald Trump. Yeah, that's because Trump had always had the political power within the party. We were debating that in real time, but I think the verdict is in. I'm pretty sure I was always on the side of it.

I don't know. As I recall, I was correct about that, but some people can go back to the archives. I'm talking a lot these days. I want to read a couple more tweets because I do also want to challenge the premise that he doesn't... Obviously, he cares about the green energy elements. But he goes on, it's obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record $5 trillion that we live in a one-party country, the Porky

Pig Party. I don't know if that one's going to stick, but time for a new political party that actually cares about the people. How can you call yourself the Freedom Caucus if you vote for a all caps debt slavery bill with the biggest ceiling increase in history at rep Andy Harris at Chip Roy's. So he's calling out two specific members there, which is actually- Doesn't he have the bill wrong though? I mean, yes, there is deficit spending. But the real problem for the deficit is that it just extends the Bush tax cuts, which are Trump. I'm sorry, Trump tax cuts, my bad. Yeah, important, important distinction. But isn't that the issue? I mean, yes, they're spending on ice and all that stuff. But like, really, the problem is they're just extending these tax cuts. Well, they're also

codified, like the extension of a lot of the increase in spending after COVID, this, you know, outside of the areas of green energy and poor people's healthcare. So, you know, there's some other areas where they're increasing higher spending levels. Okay. Yes, I guess I think it's more about like, if I'm, is Elon trying to be accurate? Probably not. I think a more precise critique of the bill is, regardless of like, you know, what your individual policy views are about tax cuts

for the wealthy and whether you think that's good for the economy or not, like the first Bush tax cuts, and then even then last Trump tax cuts, both came in an environment with like very low interest rates where like, yeah, it increased the debt and deficit, but you could make a prudential argument like in this moment, particularly, you know, it was important to stimulate the economy, get more money into the cut or whatever. That is not the case now, right? Like, so to add

the biggest amount to the debt out of all of those past efforts from from Bush or or the or the stimulus under Obama or Biden or the Trump tax cuts. And to do it at a time when interest rates are high, when the debt is higher than it's ever been, and when we have this massive obligation to pay for the financing of it, it is a particularly stupid time and insane time to do this bill. And so that's like an accurate critique from Elon that in a perfect, in a time where they weren't motivated by politics, a lot of the House Republicans would agree with. Hey guys, this is an ad by BetterHelp. Workplace stress is now one of the top causes of declining mental health with 61% of the

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BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash bulwarktakes. That's better, H-E-L-P dot com slash bulwarktakes. Yeah, no, no doubt. And they could have crafted this bill in a totally different way while extending

the vast majority of the tax cuts and it would have been demonstrated different debt and deficit scenario here. The question though is like, is he actually mad or is this just grandstanding? Could you even knock off these people in a primary? How would that work? Not for voting for this bill. And so does Elon understand that? I don't know.

Is there a way to primary them via on other topics? Like probably, you know, to like really the thing that makes you vulnerable to Republican primary right now is were you disloyal to the leader, Mr. Trump? And you know, who was disloyal? Elon. Elon. Which is going to make it hard for him to, I think, run an effective campaign. Boy, can I tell you I would love for him, you know who would really do well? Unfortunately, not my game anymore centrist Political consultants might be getting new beach houses based to have an Elon pump in a hundred million dollars in primary I was just gonna say that if he really wanted to kind of make a threat to them

You know, you would you would go after like the you know, Mike Lawler's of the world, he would say, Hey, you know, I'm going to find someone who's going to run against you in the general if you make it that far, and just hang that out there. Be like, Look, I'll spend 100 million, 100 million. That's a lot, but it's nothing for real. I'll spend $20 million in this congressional race, supporting a centrist Democrat. And I'll knock you off if you vote for this thing that might get their attention. Yeah, it is.

It's kind of delicious. I enjoy it. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the actual impact. And it's also kind of like really either way. It's kind of delicious. Like if Elon is just so limp that he's just like tweeting out into the ether, like unlike just equivalent of any other poster, if he's just been reduced to just a power

poster over a person of actual influence. One one thing that yeah, but one thing that might actually materially matters that it's clear that he's well, it's clear as of now, everything changes, right? That he's just done with Trump. And you know, there's all this talk about, well, maybe they could patch things up and whatever. I increasingly don't see it. I don't think he's going to go after Trump, but he's definitely not going to give him $100 million to go at it again.

So there's that. But I don't know. This thing just seems like on a glide path to me. Who knows? We'll see. Well, that's a downer. Say, don't you have anything? And is there anything that you look at and say

Well, isn't that great? No, is there something you know? Huh, I don't know. I was just looking at the kind of nuggets offseason options and it looks pretty bleak as well I'll come up with something everybody subscribe to the feed and the next time being Sam or together We'll come up with something positive, but I I just think that watching the show is fun I can I could grab some popcorn in the meantime and watch them fight. I hope we're giving people something to enjoy. But you know, if that's all you got, well, that's probably enough. All right. We'll see you guys soon. Subscribe to the feed. I think I said that already.

Do it again. Bye.