The Real Reason for the Trump-Musk Feud is Uglier Than You Think

Musk is angry about the $2.4 trillion those changes would add to the debt. But, crucially, he’s said little—if anything—about the role that those tax cuts for the rich would have in that outcome. He is primarily obsessed with the bill’s “pork,” meaning that he wants the bill to cut more spending—much, much more.

Where would that money come from? Musk’s cuts via his Department of Government Efficiency have already decimated foreign aid and other programs, producing more starvation, disease, and death among the global poor. Given that DOGE searched for “waste, fraud, and abuse” and found very little, if Musk wants massive additional cuts, by definition they would fall more heavily on important government programs, almost certainly ones that low-income Americans rely upon.

Another way to say this is that their real difference is over how far to push the “waste, fraud, and abuse” scam. Trump, who’s mindful of the MAGA-GOP’s image as a “working-class party,” has insisted the GOP won’t cut Medicaid and will target only fraud. That’s a lie—even some MAGA Republicans warn that the bill’s deep Medicaid cuts will hammer Trump’s working-class base and, in so doing, expose how Trump is betraying MAGA’s “populist” aura. Indeed, Trump is actively deceiving his base by pretending those cuts only target fraud. Musk, similarly, would use the “waste, fraud, and abuse” canard to absolutely annihilate the state if he could.