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There's a meme I see on the internet all the time. It’s a post by the satirical social media outfit Clickhole, and it’s a photo of this very serious-looking man, with the headline: “Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point.”
On social media, and even in real life, this can indeed be “heartbreaking,” and that post has taken on a life of its own over the last few years. Every time someone folks really don’t agree with suddenly shows up on their side of the issue, this poor guy gets his photo posted.
A few years back, reporters actually tracked down the man pictured in that stock photo that became a meme. He’s a Spanish marketing specialist who has eventually made his peace with becoming an online icon.
Seven years after its first appearance, that meme is getting a real workout, as plenty of the “worst people you know” have been making very good points about some of President Donald Trump's recent decisions. Like his decision to bomb Iran, which has drawn criticism from the likes of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, whose questioning of Sen. Ted Cruz over his hawkish Iran stance went viral.
But this week, we have a new contender: the world’s richest man and Trump’s former political benefactor, Elon Musk. The tech billionaire has been railing against Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill — proposed legislation that is almost suicidally self-destructive to America’s future. It's on the verge of becoming law after passing the Senate on Tuesday, after a 50-50 tie that was broken by Vice President JD Vance. The bill has moved to the House for consideration.
On and off over the past month, Musk has blasted the bill as fiscally irresponsible and full of insane pork that is damaging to America’s future. Last weekend, as the Senate marked up its version of the bill, including a provision that kills subsidies for solar and wind energy while boosting coal and oil, Musk posted to social media: “The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
In another post, Musk even threatened to form a new political party and to unseat Republicans who voted for the bill against their own stated principles: “Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
What Musk has been saying about the irresponsibility of the Trump bill, especially about its completely backwards, self-defeating energy agenda, is completely correct.
To be clear, Musk is also mad because the bill does away with a big subsidy on electric car purchases, which his car company, Tesla, relies on. He is not the good guy here. Remember, he was the DOGE founder who was running around pushing to cut things such as biomedical research and the United States Agency for International Development, known as USAID.
That said, what Musk has been saying about the irresponsibility of the Trump bill, especially about its completely backwards, self-defeating energy agenda, is completely correct. So, in this case, the worst person just made a great point.
Trump isn’t happy with Musk’s criticisms. He’s already said he’s considering deporting the South African-born billionaire.
The Trump administration has so many bad ideas that it is always turning some of the country's worst people into sensible-sounding critics by the sheer madness of its policies.
The president’s massive reconciliation bill is no exception. It really is astoundingly terrible in every direction. It doesn’t just take the country backward in terms of energy policy; it also enshrines massive tax cuts that primarily benefit rich people and corporations, financed, in part, by devastating cuts to health care and food assistance for poor and working-class Americans.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, almost 12 million people will lose health care coverage under the plan. Some hospitals across the country will be defunded. Even with those cuts, the bill adds more than $3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to the CBO.
Republicans are still voting for this toxic MAGA agenda even when they know it’s bad for Americans
But the other thing you should know about this bill is that it is also wildly unpopular, and when people are polled on its separate provisions, the giveaways to billionaires, the hits to programs for the poor, the sick and the elderly, it fares even worse.
Right now, this truly toxic agenda is being held together through the sheer force of an institutional Republican Party devoted to the plutocrats, and Trump’s ability to bully party members into submission.
If you have been following the fight over the bill, you will find oddly sensible statements from far-right Republicans over the bill’s fiscal irresponsibility and from centrists over its draconian cuts to services.
The bill is so bad that even the person who provided the crucial vote that made it pass out of the Senate can't defend it. On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska blatantly said she didn't like the bill. She also told reporters that she doesn’t actually want the version of the bill she voted for to become law, and she hopes that the House undoes some of the damage in the bill that she and her fellow senators did.
Democrats have, understandably, pounced on that statement. During a House Rules Committee, Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts referenced Murkowski's statement about her hopes for the future of the bill and asked: “I mean, my question to her is, if you really believe that, then why the hell did you vote for this bill?”
Republicans are still voting for this toxic MAGA agenda even when they know it’s bad for Americans. The only silver lining, and it's a real one, is that voters do seem to be paying attention. They are mad and are poised to force Republicans to answer for their votes on this one.