Trump reveals why he thinks Elon Musk is upset with his ‘big, beautiful’ bill

President Donald Trump explained why he thinks Elon Musk is upset with him and his bill, and he hinted at the future of their friendship during his Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz Thursday.

After the House of Representatives passed Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which incorporates many aspects of his legislative agenda, Elon Musk began repeatedly blasting the act on X. Trump addressed the criticism, telling reporters that Musk is upset because they took the electric vehicle (EV) mandate out of the bill.

“I’m very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people, he knew everything about it. He had no problem with it,” Trump said.

“All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate, because that’s billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair We want to have cars of all types, electric. We want to have electric, but we want to have a gasoline combustion we want to have different. We want to have hybrids. We want to have all. We want to be able to sell everything,” he continued. 

“And when that was cut, and Congress wanted to cut it, it became a little bit different, and I can understand that, but he knew every aspect of this bill,” he added.

Musk took to X shortly after the comments to say that he was never shown the bill.

“False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” Musk tweeted.

Trump also said that he and Musk had a “great” relationship but he is not sure if they will anymore.

House Speaker and Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson said something similar to Trump’s Thursday comments earlier, calling Musk’s criticism “very disappointing” and suggested that his opposition may stem from the bill effectively rescinding tax breaks for electric vehicles.

In the bill, which is now in front of the Senate, are historic investments in border security funding, an extension of the president’s 2017 tax cuts — will avert a $4.5 trillion tax increase on most Americans —  and provisions that eliminate taxes on tipped wages and overtime pay for certain individuals.

“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk posted Tuesday.

His last day in the federal government was Friday.

“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.” (RELATED: ‘Tough Call’: Daily Caller Reporter Appears To Stump Elon Musk With Question)

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.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025

Trump also noted that his former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had not yet attacked the president directly.

“I’ll tell you, it’s not…he’s not the first, people leave my administration, and they love us, and then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it, and some of them actually become hostile. I don’t know what it is. It’s sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it, but we have it with others too,” Trump told reporters.

“They leave, they wake up in the morning, and the glamor is gone. The whole world is different, and they become hostile. I don’t know what it is,” he added.