, July 16, 2025 - Tech billionaire, Elon Musk changed his cellphone number and stopped replying to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s texts following a dramatic fallout over the costs buried in the Republicans’ massive tax-and-spending bill, Johnson disclosed on the latest episode of Pod Force One, released Wednesday, July 16.
“I sent him a long text message, and then his phone number
changed after the blow-up,” Johnson told The Post’s Miranda Devine, explaining
how he realized too late that he was sending messages “into the ether.”
“I look forward to meeting with him in person. We got to make
that right,” the speaker added.
Johnson admitted that despite Musk ghosting him, he still
tried multiple times to reach out through intermediaries — and even held out
hope that Musk and Trump might eventually patch things up.
The high-profile rift erupted in late May, when Musk split
from the Trump administration and then railed against the One Big Beautiful
Bill Act, blasting it as “pork-filled” and a “disgusting abomination” over its
impact on the deficit. The tech mogul, who had made deficit reduction a top
priority while influencing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was
furious the bill didn’t go far enough.
Still, Republicans pushed it through Congress, and Trump
signed it into law on July 4.
A day later, Musk announced plans to launch a new centrist
“America Party,” calling for an alternative to the entrenched two-party system.
Trump quickly dismissed the idea as “ridiculous.”
“I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the
rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,” Trump
lamented on Truth Social.
Speaker Johnson said there were “a multitude of factors”
behind the Trump-Musk bust-up, and noted Musk’s frustration over the bill’s
handling of electric vehicles and Biden-era green mandates.
“He generally knew what we were doing, we talked about it for
months,” Johnson said. “The final product maybe didn’t meet all of his
expectations … but look, I let other people judge that. I’ve got to keep my
eyes on the prize.”
Johnson, who praised Musk as a “genius,” insisted he still respects the billionaire and wants him to better understand the Republicans’ long game on tackling the debt.
“We can’t fix this stuff overnight, but we have a plan. I think that’s going to be pleasing to everybody who’s worried about our deficit and our debt,” he said.
Meanwhile, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles also
weighed in on the once-close Trump-Musk relationship during last week’s
episode.
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