US House Speaker reveals billionaire Elon Musk changed his phone number after war of words with Mr. Trump
US House Speaker Mike Johnson said tech billionaire Elon Musk has changed his mobile phone number and is no longer responding to his messages.
Mr. Johnson said Mr. Musk did this while trying to convince the Tesla and SpaceX CEO of the benefits that President Donald Trump's massive bill, dubbed the "Big and Beautiful Bill," would bring.
Mr Musk, who became increasingly close to Mr Trump during the Republican presidential campaign and in the early months of his administration, has fiercely attacked the massive tax and spending bill, leading to a public rift between the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the president.
Appearing on the latest episode of the New York Post-linked podcast "Pod Force One," released on July 16, Mr. Johnson said he sent Musk a "long text message, and then his phone number changed."
“Then I realized I sent it off into the void somewhere and he never read it, so I look forward to meeting him in person,” the House Speaker added, saying he was trying to get Mr Musk and Mr Trump to reconcile. Mr Johnson explained that he wanted the billionaire to “fully understand what we’re doing and remind him of the strategy,” referring to the spending bill.
In a series of posts on social media platform X earlier this month, billionaire Musk warned that Mr Trump's key legislation, which would dramatically increase spending, cut social programs and sharply increase the budget deficit limit, "will bankrupt the country".
Mr Trump responded by suggesting he might consider deporting Musk to his native South Africa, and that cutting government subsidies for electric vehicles could force the billionaire to “shut down”.
Amid the controversy over the massive bill, Mr Musk earlier this month announced plans to form a new “America Party”.
In a post on Truth Social shortly afterward, the US president declared that his former partner had turned into a "train wreck," predicting that Musk's new party would fail and risk causing "total and complete meltdown and chaos."
