House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is not giving up on Elon Musk, saying he texted the tech billionaire who was feuding with President Donald Trump on Thursday “a lot of information” about the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that led to the dispute.

Holding what he said was his chief of staff’s baby, Johnson told reporters in the U.S. Capitol that Musk “is a friend,” indicating there remains hope for a resolution to the conflict, and said he had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get on the phone with Musk.

“I sent him a lot of information via text, hoping he reads it and considers it,” Johnson added. “And this isn’t personal. Policy differences should not be personal.”

Mike Johnson tells us: “Elon said I’ve changed? No, I’m the same guy who has always been a deficit hawk.”

Also downplays Musk’s attacks against bill and pushes back on Musk saying that Rs held House because of him. “If there’s one person (deserves credit), it’s Donald J. Trump.” pic.twitter.com/CXIedngRey

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 5, 2025

Last week, Musk began to criticize the bill as he wrapped up a stint as a special government employee helping to oversee Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort last week, and the conflict came to a boiling point on Thursday when Trump declared that he was “very disappointed” with Musk.

In a series of posts to X, Musk fired back at Trump and also highlighted old comments from Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) in which they railed against the growing national debt — a central focus for Musk as he critiques how the bill is expected to impact the U.S. deficit.

“I super agree with this guy,” Musk said in one post, pointing to a 2018 tweet from Johnson saying, “At some point, Congress has to stop this endless cycle of out-of-control deficit spending.” To a March 2023 post from Johnson warning about a federal debt topping $31.4 trillion (it is now approaching $37 trillion), Musk asked, “Where is the Mike Johnson of 2023?”

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Johnson shot back in a post that said, “The Mike Johnson of 2023 is the SAME Mike Johnson who has always been a lifelong fiscal hawk – who now serves as Speaker and is implementing a multi-stage plan to get our country back to fiscal responsibility and extraordinary economic growth.”

He continued, “It begins with the critically important One Big Beautiful Bill that includes the LARGEST mandatory spending cut to the federal government in history (by almost 400%), the LARGEST tax cut in history, the LARGEST investment in border security in a GENERATION, along with arguably the STRONGEST collection of pro-growth provisions EVER passed. The same CONSISTENT Mike Johnson who has ALWAYS supported the America First Agenda.”

X, which is owned by Musk, applied a Community Note to Johnson’s response, saying, “Multiple non-partisan groups have put out reports showing the reconciliation package will add over $2T in debt and potentially over $3T when you add increased debt payments.”

Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro broke down the schism that has erupted between President Donald Trump and his one-time wealthy ally, tech titan Elon Musk.

Trump and Musk went from close friends and allies to hurling insults and threats at each other as simmering tensions blew up into the public on Thursday. The fight escalated into Trump threatening the government contracts of Musk’s companies, while Musk teased launching a new political party and suggesting Trump might have had associations with the late Jeffrey Epstein.

“It’s gotten very, very personal between President Trump and Elon Musk. It doesn’t look like it’s going to calm down anytime soon because, again, you’re talking about two incredibly powerful men, two incredibly rich men with large egos who believe that they are in the right,” Shapiro said in an episode of “Ben Reacts” released on Thursday, adding, “so, this is likely to continue for some time.”

Shapiro said that the rift between Trump and Musk broke down over time along political and business lines, and that contributed to a massive blowup between the two men personally.

In politics, Trump and Musk’s objectives were in tension, according to Shapiro.

After Trump won the 2024 election and brought Musk into the administration, Musk’s goal had been to lead efforts inside the government to cut waste, fraud, and abuse through the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk believes that the financial footing of the United States is unsteady with massive deficit spending constantly adding to an already historic national debt.

For Trump’s part, while the president was happy to have Musk trim along the edges of government, Musk could not touch the main drivers of deficit spending in the United States’ budget, and Trump did not campaign on making cuts to programs such as Social Security and Medicare. The cuts that Musk envisioned making to the federal budget – in the trillions of dollars – were never going to materialize.

The unbridgeable political divide contributed to a rift between the two men over Musk’s businesses, namely his electric car company Tesla and his space exploration company SpaceX.

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” that passed the House with Trump’s backing cut electric vehicle tax credits without making significant cuts to the federal budget. While the tax credit cuts will harm Musk’s company, the tech titan would have been willing to absorb the cuts had he been able to point to meaningful savings for the United States, Shapiro said. But the bill lacked the deep cuts because political support for such cuts is too small and the risk too great to get through Congress.

Trump also pulled the nomination of his pick to head NASA, Jared Isaacman, “after a thorough review of prior associations,” referring to Isaacman’s past support for Democrats. Isaacman is a friend of Musk’s and likely would have worked with Musk on his longterm mission to make humanity “multiplanetary” through SpaceX. Isaacman’s nomination was pulled soon after Musk left the administration.

“The suggestion is that [Musk] was insulted. Between that and the EV stuff, he basically decided to go after President Trump. President Trump, of course, will not take a punch sitting down,” Shapiro said. “Now, you have two very big egos who do not take insults lightly going directly at each other.”

The online battle between the two culminated in Trump threatening to cut billions in government contracts with Musk’s companies and Musk suggesting that Trump was blocking the release of the Epstein files because the president is implicated in them.