Intro

President Trump has been tweeting wildly and angrily over the fate of his “big, beautiful bill.” He’s been lashing out furiously at Democrats and at GOP Senators alike over their opposition, suggesting Senate passage may be in serious doubt. Then Elon Musk threw a grenade into the proceedings, unleashing a pair of tweets that ripped the bill as a “disgusting abomination” that will explode the deficit by trillions of dollars. Amusingly, Musk was being dishonest in his own way, but he still upended the scam that Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have concocted to sell this bill. We unraveled all this with New Republic senior editor Alex Shephard, author of a new piece arguing that Musk’s damage is only beginning. He explains how all this fits into the 50-year story of Republicans gutting programs for the poor to make the rich richer.

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