Elon Musk has criticised US President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, calling it “outrageous” and a “disgusting abomination”.

The bill, which includes multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks, was passed by the House Republicans in May, and has been described by the president as a “big, beautiful bill”.

The tech billionaire hit out at the tax cuts on his platform X, writing: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.

“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.

“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

In American politics, “pork” is a political metaphor used when government spending is allocated to local projects, usually to benefit politicians’ constituencies.

Musk left the administration abruptly last week after working to cut costs with his team, the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency – known as DOGE – with the ambition of sacking federal workers and cutting red tape.

The White House brushed Musk’s comments aside, claiming they did not surprise the president.

In a press conference on Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill”.

She added: “This is one, big, beautiful bill.

“And he’s sticking to it.”

The White House on Tuesday asked Congress to cut back $9.4bn in already approved spending, taking money away from DOGE.

The billionaire tweeted: “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!!) and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”

He also suggested voting out politicians who advanced the president’s tax bill.

“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” Musk wrote in another X post.

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How Musk’s mission to cut government spending fell flat

Last Thursday, Musk revealed on X that his scheduled time as a “special government employee” was coming to an end.

Before the news broke, Musk’s father told Sky News his son was “not a very good politician”.

But speaking to Gillian Joseph on The World, Errol Musk insisted there was “no rift between Elon and Donald Trump”.

Musk’s time at DOGE was controversial, with drastic cuts to America’s humanitarian efforts sparking particular criticism.

Questions have also been raised about whether the department has actually saved taxpayers as much money as suggested.

Musk initially had ambitions to slash government spending by $2trn (£1.5trn) – but this was dramatically reduced to $1trn (£750bn) and then to just $150bn (£111bn).

The 53-year-old, who famously brought his son X Æ A-12 to the Oval Office, also expressed frustration about resistance to his ideas and clashed with other senior members of the Trump administration.

He recently told The Washington Post: “The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realised. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC to say the least.”

By law, status as a “special government employee” means he could only serve for a maximum of 130 days, which would have ended around 30 May.

The UK’s exemption from a doubling of duties on most US steel and aluminium imports is dependent on the ratification of May’s trade pact between the two countries, the White House has warned.

Tariffs of 50% were imposed on all shipments from early on Wednesday morning, except those arriving from UK shores which will still be subject to a 25% rate.

Donald Trump decided to “provide different treatment” to the UK as he doubled down on the rates that had been in place since March as part of his early trade war salvoes which are designed to encourage more domestic production.

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White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said of the move: “We started at 25 and then after studying the data more, realised that it was a big help, but more help is needed and so that is why the 50 is starting.”

The decision to spare UK products from the hike currently amounts to a reprieve of just over a month, however, as the clock ticks down to a US deadline of 9 July.

That is when wider “Liberation Day” tariff pauses for US trading partners could be applied.

President Trump’s executive order said of the UK’s situation: “On or after July 9, 2025, the Secretary may adjust the applicable rates of duty and construct import quotas for steel and aluminium consistent with the terms of the EPD [economic prosperity deal], or he may increase the applicable rates of duty to 50 percent if he determines that the United Kingdom has not complied with relevant aspects of the EPD”.

Even if the trade pact agreed with the UK was to be fully enacted by that time, quotas within that agreement could still technically mean that a higher rate will apply in future.

The government of Sir Keir Starmer has said it is continuing to work with US officials to agree the terms.

A spokesperson said: “The UK was the first country to secure a trade deal with the US earlier this month and we remain committed to protecting British business and jobs across key sectors, including steel as part of our Plan for Change.

“We’re pleased that as a result of our agreement with the US, UK steel will not be subject to these additional tariffs. We will continue to work with the US to implement our agreement, which will see the 25% US tariffs on steel removed.”

The UK steel industry was cautious in its own response, while welcoming the reprieve.

Gareth Stace, the director general of UK Steel, said: “Continued 25% tariffs will benefit shipments already on the water that we were concerned would fall under a tax hike.

“However, uncertainty remains over timings and final tariff rates, and now US customers will be dubious over whether they should even risk making UK orders.

“The US and UK must urgently turn the May deal into reality to remove the tariffs completely.”

One of Britain’s top corporate troubleshooters is being lined up to spearhead a multibillion pound rescue of Thames Water after the company’s preferred bidder walked away.

Sky News can reveal that Mike McTighe is working with Thames Water’s largest group of creditors on a plan to restructure the company’s debts and inject new funds in the hope of avoiding nationalisation.

Mr McTighe, whose portfolio of chairmanships includes the Daily Telegraph’s publisher and Openreach, BT Group’s infrastructure arm, is said to have begun meeting stakeholders in recent weeks.

If the Class A creditors’ proposal is successfully executed, Mr McTighe would probably take over as chairman of Thames Water, according to people close to the situation.

Mr McTighe has earned a reputation as a turnaround expert, but also chairs companies such as IG Group, the financial spreadbetting company, and Together Financial Services, the non-bank lender.

The recruitment of such a prominent businessman to lead the lenders’ efforts will add momentum to a plan which increasingly looks like the only alternative to landing British taxpayers with a vast rescue bill.

The group’s proposal would include swapping several billion pounds of Thames Water’s debt for equity, as well as injecting substantial new funding.

Thames Water is Britain’s largest water utility, serving more than 15 million customers.

However, decades of poor performance and financial engineering have left it carrying close to £20bn of debt and facing hundreds of millions of pounds in regulatory fines.

The Class A creditor group, which represents about £13bn of Thames Water’s borrowings, includes some of the world’s most powerful investors.

Elliott Management, the New York-based firm, is among those exposed to a collapse that could leave Thames Water in a special administration regime (SAR) – a government-sponsored insolvency process aimed at providers of key infrastructure services.

Other members of the creditor group include institutions such as Aberdeen, Invesco, Apollo Global Management and M&G.

A source close to the creditor group said: “We have done a huge amount of diligence and work on a plan to turnaround Thames.

“We are the only bidders who will be able to complete this transaction within the necessary timeframe.”

The fact that Mr McTighe has been persuaded to join their effort will revive hope that a private sector solution to Thames Water’s crisis can still be found.

On Tuesday, the company announced that KKR, its preferred equity partner for the last two months, had decided not to proceed with a deal.

Sky News revealed that talks between Henry Kravis, the KKR co-founder, and Sir Keir Starmer’s top business adviser had taken place over the weekend in an effort to prevent the deal from collapsing.

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It was unclear on Tuesday whether CKI, the Hong Kong-based company which controls swathes of UK infrastructure assets, might seek to revive its interest in a deal with Thames Water.

Sir Adrian Montague, the company’s current chairman, said: “Whilst today’s news is disappointing, we continue to believe that a sustainable recapitalisation of the company is in the best interests of all stakeholders and continue to work with our creditors and stakeholders to achieve that goal.”

In recent weeks, Thames Water has been fined a record £123m by Ofwat for separate transgressions relating to dividend payments and environmental pollution, and found itself embroiled in a bitter political row over whether retention payments it had lined up for executives were classified as bonuses.

The company has also been at the centre of a legal battle which culminated in the Class A group of lenders providing a £3bn emergency loan in March following a court challenge launched by a smaller creditor group.

The government described Thames Water as “stable” on Tuesday, but said it was ready to step in and take control of the company if required to.

The company effectively faces a deadline of late July to finalise a rescue deal because of a referral of its five-year regulatory settlement to the Competition and Markets Authority.

A spokesperson for the Class A creditors declined to comment on Tuesday evening.