Johnson Sets the Record Straight After Musk's BBB Criticism

Leah Barkoukis | June 04, 2025 10:00 AM

House Speaker Mike Johnson is disappointed his “good friend” Elon Musk has been so critical of the Big, Beautiful Bill, and said the tech billionaire is “terribly wrong” in his criticism.

Responding to Musk calling the measure a “disgusting abomination,” Johnson told reporters “it’s very disappointing” to hear him say that.

"I have come to consider Elon a good friend," Johnson said. "He's obviously a very intelligent person, and he's done a lot of great work...but with all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong about the one big beautiful bill."

Johnson said he spoke with Musk by phone Monday and "extolled all the virtues of the bill."

"We had a very friendly conversation about it,” he said. "And I told him that we’re achieving not only all of our priorities, all the promises we made on the campaign trail…we’re also achieving, the top line on this is two very important things. We're making permanent a massive tax cut and were making a massive reduction in spending, 1.6 trillion is the calculation."

Johnson went on to say Musk "is missing it...and it’s not personal.”

The speaker noted that the electric vehicle tax credits will be revoked and he understands that affects his business.

“I know that the EV mandate is very important to him; that is going away because the government should not be subsidizing these things as part of the Green New Deal,” Johnson said. “I know that has an effect on his business and I lament that. We talked about the ramp down period on that and how that should be duly considered by Congress. But for him to come out and pan the whole bill is to me just very disappointing — very surprising, in light of the conversation I had with him yesterday."