The boxers put on their gloves again and jumped into the ring. Donald Trump and his former collaborator, Elon Musk, have resumed hostilities in the particular war that pits them against each other over the US president's tax plan, a far-reaching reform that is in the midst of its agonizing negotiation in the Senate. It's the same reason that pitted them against each other the first time, a month ago, in a bitter dispute involving threats and insults that ended with the breakdown of their relationship.

The first hook of the penultimate round was launched this Monday by Musk, the richest man in the world, who had already renewed his criticism over the weekend of the tax reform that Trump has dubbed “One Big Beautiful Bill” (a name that only he could have given it). Musk condemned the effects on the public deficit that this could have if it goes ahead (an increase of 3.3 trillion dollars, according to an independent agency of Congress) and suggested that he will finance the primary campaigns of those who run against the Republicans who support it on Capitol Hill, even if it is “the last thing” he does.

He also flirted again with founding a new political party, the “America Party.” “Our country needs an alternative to the one-party Democratic-Republican system so that the people truly have a voice,” he said in a message on X.

In a message on his social network, Truth, Trump suggested paying the tycoon, whose career includes companies such as Tesla, SpaceX and the social network X, back in his own right: applying scrutiny and cuts to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which the president put Musk at the head of with the task of slimming down the Administration. He also threatened his former “first friend” with suspending subsidies to his companies, which are heavily dependent on public money: “Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and return home to South Africa [where the entrepreneur was born 54 years ago],” he wrote.

“No more rocket launches, satellites, or electric car production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Maybe we should have the DOGE take a good look at all this. A LOT OF MONEY CAN BE SAVED!” Trump added, referring to Musk’s business dealings with Tesla and SpaceX, the Administration he served on until the end of May.

Trump went a bit further on the White House lawn early Tuesday morning before boarding the presidential helicopter to Florida to support the initiative to build the"Alcatraz for alligators," an immigration detention camp on a former airstrip in the Everglades, a wetland where these carnivorous reptiles reign. The US president said that Musk has"much more to lose" than Biden's "electric car mandate," which disappears with the new law."The DOGE monster can turn on Elon and eat him."

As Trump made these statements, the Senate was dawning on the fourth day of agonizing negotiations to approve the president's omnibus budget bill. It expands on the tax cuts passed in 2017, at the beginning of Trump's first administration, fulfills promises from his reelection campaign, such as eliminating taxes on tips, and allocates hundreds of billions of dollars to his mass deportation plan, as well as to the current administration's defense priorities.

Vice President J. D. Vance went to the Capitol at the time his boss was attacking Musk again, to be ready when the time comes to vote, in case his vote is needed to break the tie between Republicans (who have 53 representatives in the upper house) and Democrats (47).

Conservatives already know they have two casualties: two senators who don't intend to support the"big, beautiful bill." They are Rand Paul (Kentucky), who has opposed it from the start, and Thom Tillis (North Carolina), who finds the changes the bill will bring to Medicaid (a form of social security for the poor) intolerable, leaving 12 million people without coverage. Tillis announced Sunday that he will not run for reelection, in light of Trump's attacks and his threats to support another candidate in the primaries.

24 hours of debate

If Republicans lose another vote along the way (and given what can be assumed at this point is the Democrats' bloc of opposition), the vote would be tied, and Vance would have to step in; Senate rules provide that power for the vice president. If there were two or more defections, then Majority Leader John Thune (South Dakota) would have to drop his attempt to vote on the 940-page bill, which was completed Friday shortly before midnight and has undergone further changes in the 24 hours senators have been debating it on Capitol Hill since Monday morning, during which time they have introduced amendments that have had to be voted on one by one.

All eyes are on Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski and, to a lesser extent, legislators like Susan Collins (Maine) and Josh Hawley (Missouri), who, at least publicly, have criticized a law that could cause them problems when they return home and have to deal with their constituents.

This kind of spectacle, a mix of drama and nerves, is common in Washington, so even veterans don't rule out a last-minute fix in Trump's favor. The truth is that at this point, the bill's passage in the Senate can't be taken for granted, despite Trump's confident sentiment this morning after days of publicly pressuring them not to let him down.

It seems increasingly clear, however, that his hope for the bill to be passed before the great patriotic holiday of Independence Day, celebrated next Friday, July 4th, will not be realized. The bill, if it passes the Senate, will move on to the House of Representatives, where it was approved in May by a single vote. The text has changed so much along the way that it must be discussed again, and several members of the House, belonging to the more hawkish wing of the Republican Party, traditionally opposed to increased public spending, are already threatening not to support it.

The"One Big Beautiful Bill" is the bet Trump is banking on for the success of his domestic agenda, hence the threats, pressure, and nerves. Hence, also, the resurrection of his feud with the world's richest businessman. In the previous round, Musk even accused the Republican of involvement in Jeffrey Epstein's pedophile network. And Trump also threatened to cut aid for the tycoon, which he once again put on the table in the early hours of Monday morning. Or rather, in the center of the ring.