Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Big, Beautiful Blow-Up Could Tank the Megabill

The destiny of Donald Trump’s megabill within the Senate was once already unsure. Then got here the impressive dissolution of his alliance with Elon Musk, who started the week railing in opposition to the law and ended it with a battery of assaults—together with alleging that the president has ties to Jeffrey Epstein and suggesting that he must be impeached and changed by means of Vice President JD Vance. Suddenly, Republicans—who’d spent months observing with satisfaction as the 2 took flamethrowers to the country’s democratic establishments—discovered themselves stuck within the crossfire as the previous allies took goal at one some other.

Most, up to now, have aligned themselves with their authentic boss: “President Trump has done more than any person in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads,” Vance posted, a number of hours after Musk instructed he take the reins. “I’m proud to stand beside him.”

But the vice chairman’s cautious observation, and the general public efforts in Trumpworld to ease hostilities, had been telling: Trump would possibly command the bully pulpit and the powers of the presidency, however Musk’s cash, platform, and personal legion of fans can pose an impressive danger to the MAGA motion .

The maximum quick peril, in fact, could also be for Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill,” which might become a large, stunning blow-up if House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune can’t be able to diffuse the placement. Johnson, who narrowly handed the legislation throughout the decrease chamber, has been one among its leader lobbyists because it heads to the opposite aspect of the Capitol. And Thune, who can best find the money for 3 defections, is making an attempt to get a deal performed by means of Independence Day. “Failure is not an option,” he mentioned on Thursday. But with some in his convention fearful about cuts to Medicaid and different methods, and others announcing that the cuts don’t cross deep sufficient, failure is no doubt within the realm of chances.

Musk’s assaults—lobbed from his perch on X, the social media platform he owns—may just make the maths worse for Thune: “You don’t want the world’s richest guy with the biggest megaphone shitting on the bill in crunchtime,” as a most sensible Hill chief instructed Politico. He’d best wish to convince a couple of holdouts, the individual famous, and “if he spends [the] next few weeks shitting on the bill, that will move the numbers.”

With that during thoughts, Johnson has been keen to barter a truce between the combatants. Just one drawback, despite the fact that: “I called Elon last night and he didn’t answer,” the House chief instructed journalists Wednesday. “It’s very friendly,” he confident, “and we’ve laughed about our differences on policy before.”

But whilst a lot of the country certainly watched this drama play out with various mirth, there were extra tears than laughter in MAGAland for the reason that feud broke open: “It’s hard to see a path forward for these two to repair their relationship,” Fox News’ Will Cain lamented Thursday.

The worry, it sort of feels, is that the acrimony may just upend greater than the “big beautiful bill.” Since Musk threw in his lot with Trump, they and their allies have got the whole thing they sought after: Musk loved nearly unchecked energy; Trump loved a nearly limitless warfare chest; and Republicans loved rubbing their newfound political and cultural may within the faces in their combatants. The fracture in Trump and Musk’s dating threatens to fracture their broader political fable: “Who else really wants [Musk and Trump] to reconcile?” Senator Mike Lee requested on X. “The world is a better place with the Trump-Musk bromance fully intact.”