If anyone thought the authoritarian right would unite behind one dystopia, think again. This week, tech emperor Elon Musk and former U.S. President Donald Trump entered a public brawl over the soul of America’s spending — or what’s left of it.
The spark? Trump’s rebranded omnibus spending package, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” by supporters. Musk had another name for it:
“A disgusting abomination,” he declared during a livestream on XChat, his new encrypted communications platform.
→ https://www.theverge.com/elon-musk/679093/elon-musk-trump-budget-bill-abomination
According to Musk, the bill represents “everything broken about modern governance,” citing subsidies for defense contractors, fossil fuel kickbacks, and AI surveillance infrastructure. “It reads like a lobbyist’s dream and a citizen’s nightmare,” he added.
→ https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/elon-musk-calls-trumps-signature-bill-disgusting-abomination-122472983
While Musk didn’t name Trump directly, he didn’t have to. The “megabill” is Trump’s flagship legislative weapon in his 2025 campaign reboot — a Frankenstein law promising tax cuts, military stimulus, and a massive expansion of federal infrastructure surveillance. Musk’s own companies would benefit from parts of it. Still, he torched it in public.
Trump allies fired back instantly. One anonymous source told NewsNation that “Musk should stick to satellites and shut up about things he doesn’t understand.”
→ https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/disgusting-abomination-elon-musk-tears-into-trump-megabill/
But Musk understands one thing perfectly: chaos.
This isn’t a policy dispute. It’s a power flex — two men who built empires on narrative control, now clashing over who gets to script the next chapter. One sells nationalism as salvation. The other sells collapse as innovation.
Their spat reveals a deeper authoritarian truth: they don’t need to agree. They just need to distract. Both use populist spectacle to launder unpopular policy. Both call themselves outsiders while shaping everything from tax codes to content algorithms. And both believe transparency is optional.
The irony? Musk criticizes the budget for expanding surveillance — on the very week he launched XChat, a tool so opaque the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned it could become “a black box for election disinfo and political coercion.” But Musk doesn’t do irony. He does disruption-as-brand.
Meanwhile, Trump’s budget bill plows forward, padded with crypto clauses, media gag subsidies, and deregulatory gifts to donors. The only thing it doesn’t fund is accountability.
So yes, Musk and Trump are fighting. But don’t mistake the clash for resistance. It’s infighting among kings, not liberation for subjects.
And while they feud, the megabill advances — quietly, efficiently, disastrously.