Donald Trump has invested a fair amount of energy recently in trying to keep his party from splintering. In late April, for example, the president wrote via social media that he didn’t want anyone to think that there is “dissension” within the Republican Party. He added, “There is not, there is only LOVE and UNITY.”
In mid-May, Trump published a related message online, declaring, in reference to his party’s domestic policy megabill, “Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’”
The president’s continued efforts aren’t going especially well.
His top campaign donor, Elon Musk, free to speak with more candor now that he’s left his White House office, condemned the GOP legislation Tuesday, writing to the social platform he owns, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
The billionaire added soon after, in apparent reference to lawmakers who voted for the GOP reconciliation package, “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”
Republican leaders in the House and Senate scrambled to publicly disagree with Musk’s assessment of their bill, but some GOP lawmakers were equally quick to agree with their party’s megadonor, which complicated matters. Politico reported that some Republicans “were thrilled” by his criticisms.
‘These numbers are nothing short of stunning,’ Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) responded. ‘Congress has hollowed out America’s middle class through reckless deficit spending and the inflation it causes.’ Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has reiterated his opposition to the bill, said to reporters on Tuesday that Musk ‘has some of the same skepticism’ as him that the bill is ‘just not conservative.’
Republican Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, the chair of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, said lawmakers “ought to pay attention” to condemnations like Musk’s. Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, the former Freedom Caucus chair, said he’s also come to agree with Musk, despite having earlier voted for the bill. On the other side of Capitol Hill, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a critic of the House bill, said Musk’s opposition “helps bolster the case.”
Around the same, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked whether senators such as Johnson and Paul are “blatantly wrong” about the party’s megabill, and the president’s chief spokesperson said that they are. In other words, the problem for the White House isn’t just that Musk is using his platform and public profile to attack the legislation, it’s also that several Republican lawmakers have aligned themselves with those condemnations, splintering the party even as the president demands “unity.” Against this backdrop, The New York Times reported that some of the Republican lawmakers who rallied behind the bill “are claiming buyer’s remorse” and expressing “regret.” If Trump’s goal was to prevent intraparty “dissension,” he appears to be failing.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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