Snub of Musk's NASA nominee ally preceded sudden 'big, beautiful bill' criticism, Trump feud

A day after the White House held a farewell press conference for SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to highlight his efforts as outgoing leader of the Department of Establishment Efficiency DOGE President Donald Trump suddenly pulled Musk ally Jared Isaacman as his pick for NASA administrator While the White House issued a May video chronicling Musk s contributions to DOGE and several X posts thanking him and listing various DOGE wins the gestures were a few of the last final populace actions of goodwill between Trump and Musk On Saturday Trump released in a social media post he was pulling the nomination for Isaacman a commercial astronaut and founder and CEO of payment processing company Shift Payments after a thorough review of prior associations Trump also noted he would unveil a new Nominee who will be Mission aligned and put America First in Space MUSK CONFIDENT DOGE WILL SAVE TRILLION AS CABINET COST CUTTING CONTINUESIsaacman s affiliations with Musk include being an investor in SpaceX in addition to leading two private spaceflight missions with SpaceX including Inspiration The Inspiration mission was the first time an all-civilian crew orbited Earth Isaacman addressed his pulled nomination in an episode of the All-In Podcast which is hosted by four venture capitalists and covers business hardware and society that dropped Wednesday Specifically Isaacman disclosed he received a call from the White House May notifying him his nomination wouldn t advance because the White House had decided to go in a different direction DOGE STAFFING SHAKEUP AS ELON MUSK HANGS UP HIS HAT WHITE HOUSE CONFIRMSIsaacman mentioned he suspected his ties to Musk were part of the decision noting the call came the same day Musk s tenure with DOGE concluded I don t need to play dumb on this Isaacman disclosed in the podcast I don t think that the timing was much of a coincidence that there were other changes going on the same day There were specific people that had specific axes to grind I guess and I was a good visible target Tensions between Musk and Trump continued to escalate after Musk s departure as a special regime employee May and Isaacman s withdrawn nomination the following day Although Musk previously notified CBS News in an interview clip issued May that he was disappointed by the House s passage of Trump s massive tax and spending package the big beautiful bill because it would increase the federal deficit Musk s attacks on the measure ramped up exponentially after Trump rescinded Isaacman s nomination Specifically on Tuesday Musk labeled the measure a disgusting abomination and followed up by urging the American community to contact lawmakers to KILL the BILL in an X post Wednesday White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt notified reporters Tuesday that Trump was aware of Musk s position on the bill and that it didn t change the president s stance on the measure And Trump did not mince words Thursday as tensions between the two men reached a boiling point Trump noted Musk was irritated with provisions in the bill that would cut an electric carriage tax credit that benefits companies like Tesla He also suggested Musk may suffer from Trump derangement syndrome a term used to describe deeply negative reactions to the president UNFINISHED BUSINESS THE BUDGET CUTS MUSK COULDN T COMPLETE AND WHAT S NEXT FOR DOGE I'm very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here better than you people Trump declared in the Oval Office during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz He knew everything about it He had no concern with it All of a sudden he had a challenge and he only developed the predicament when he revealed out that we're going to have to cut the EV mandate because that's billions and billions of dollars and it really is unfair Trump also specifically mentioned Isaacman s nomination claiming Musk recommended Isaacman for the role But Trump voiced concern about Isaacman s ties to the Democratic Party He craved and rightfully you know he recommended somebody that he I guess knew very well I'm sure he respected him but to run NASA Trump described reporters Thursday And I didn't think it was appropriate And he happened to be a Democrat like totally Democrat And I say you know look we won We get certain privileges And one of the privileges is we don't have to appoint a Democrat NASA is very critical Trump then revealed he understood why Musk was upset over the pulled nomination The White House directed Fox News Digital to Trump's comments Thursday and Isaacman's previous donations to Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York Isaacman explained the All-In Podcast he doesn t think his past political donations to Democrats were a factor in his pulled nomination and that he identifies as right-leaning Isaacman and Musk did not forthwith respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital Trump and Musk continued to commerce barbs Thursday At one point Musk urged the removal of the disgusting pork included in Trump s tax and spending bill He also announced it was false that he was shown the measure even once Musk even went so far as to say Trump wouldn t have won the balloting if it weren t for Musk's backing Meanwhile Trump accused Musk of going CRAZY over cuts to the EV credits and noted Musk was wearing thin Although Politico published that Trump and Musk were slated to speak Friday over the phone Trump shut down speculation of a call between the two No I won t be speaking to him for a while I guess but I wish him well Trump commented according to CNN CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP I m not even thinking about Elon He s got a trouble The poor guy s got a trouble Trump noted Despite Musk s departure White House leaders have reported DOGE s efforts to address waste fraud and abuse will continue and Trump and cabinet members will oversee DOGE The agency is expected to formally shut down July