Maybe it wasn’t “the big, beautiful bill” that Elon Musk was concerned about after all.
Fox News reported that a behind-the-scenes White House personnel move could have poured gasoline on the feud between Musk and President Donald Trump that escalated last week.
While Musk had already voiced concerns about the potential impact of Trump’s spending plan on the federal deficit, Musk’s criticism ratcheted up significantly after the White House in a weekend move pulled the nomination of Musk ally Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator.
Isaacman is a commercial astronaut and founder and CEO of payment processing company Shift4 Payments.
He is also an investor in Musk’s SpaceX company and also led two private spaceflight missions with the firm.
Trump in a post on Saturday, May 31, said that he’d pulled Isaacman’s nomination to lead NASA after “a thorough review of prior associations.”
The president said he would name a “new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space.”
Trump’s post came a day after Musk’s final day working for Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk escalated his criticism of Trump following Isaacman’s name being taken out of consideration for the top job at NASA, including alleging without proof that Trump’s administration hasn’t released all the records related to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein because Trump is mentioned in them.
Musk also ramped up his attacks on Trump’s spending bill, calling it a “disgusting abomination.” He urged Americans to contact their lawmakers and “KILL the BILL.”
Musk also said that Trump would have lost the 2024 election if Musk had not contributed so heavily to the president’s campaign.
Trump for his part said that Musk was irked about cuts to electric vehicle tax credits contained in the spending bill, cuts that could harm Musk’s Tesla vehicle company.
The president has also separately called for cuts to NASA, which could affect Musk’s SpaceX firm.
Trump said that while Musk had recommended Isaacman for the NASA job, Trump had grown wary of Isaacman’s ties to the Democratic Party.
During an appearance on the “All-In Podcast,” Isaacman said he suspected his ties to Musk were part of the decision to withdraw his NASA nomination.
He noted that he was told of the withdrawal in a phone call on the same day that Musk’s tenure with DOGE ended.
“I don’t need to play dumb on this,” Isaacman said on the podcast. “I don’t think that the timing was much of a coincidence, that there were other changes going on the same day.”
He said, “There were some people that had some axes to grind, I guess, and I was a good, visible target.”
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