BURSTTech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk came out against a stopgap deal as he pushes for the government to reduce spending.
The bipartisan legislation was released Tuesday night in a last-minute effort to avert a looming Dec. 20 shutdown deadline, spurring Republican rage toward Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Musk, shortly after the bill text's release, wrote on his social media platform X that the "bill should not pass," and called the 1,547-page document a big "piece of pork."
If it passes, the deal will push the funding deadline to March 14 to give the next Congress and incoming president more time to decide how the government should be funded for the majority of next year.
Musk, the world's richest person, joins a number of other GOP critics concerned with the prospect of adding to the national debt. He is co-leading President-elect Trump's new advisory panel, called the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) which aims to slash government spending and bureaucracy.
Johnson said he spoke with Musk and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — the other co-leader of DOGE — on Tuesday night about the controversial measure.
“I was communicating with Elon last night. Elon, Vivek and I are on a text chain together, and I was explaining to them the background of this. And then Vivek and I talked last night until almost midnight," he said on Fox News's "Fox and Friends." "And he said, 'Look, I get it.' He said, 'We understand you're in an impossible position. Everybody knows that.'"
"They understand the situation. They said, ‘It’s not directed at you, Mr. Speaker, but we don’t like the spending.’ And I said, ‘Guess what, fellas? I don’t either,'" Johnson added.
Johnson emphasized the bill is "clearing the decks" so Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress can achieve their fiscal goals in the new year.
"We got to get this thing done so we don't have the shutdown. So, we get the short-term funding measure, and we get to March where we can put our fingerprints on the spending," he said. "That's when the big changes start."
Ahead of the bill text's release, a number of GOP House members criticized the bill as working against DOGE's goals.
“It’s the opposite of what the DOGE Commission is trying to do. So, am I voting for it? No, I’m not,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told reporters Tuesday.
“I think that it’s shameful that people that celebrate DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] coming in, I can’t, and yet we’re going to vote for another billion dollars to be added to the deficit, and so it’s ironic. Personally, I’m disappointed,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) added.
Musk has increasingly waded into issues in Congress as he becomes more involved in Trump's inner circle.
Last week, he offered eleventh-hour support for a child online safety bill, which was stalled in the House amid conservatives' concerns.
The measure, called the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), did not make it into the funding package and Johnson said he plans to take up the issue when Republicans take back control of both chambers of Congress and the White House.