Even as Elon Musk urges Republicans to kill the president’s “one big beautiful bill” and refuses to take Speaker Johnson’s calls, senators are plowing ahead — with one lawmaker, when asked by the Sun about the billionaire’s comments, laughing off the remarks, called him “glamorous” but “not a big factor.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Musk went on a tirade against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is now projected to add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. The former DOGE chief and senior advisor to the president posted online about the legislation more than two dozen times on Wednesday alone. 

“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman,” Mr. Musk wrote in one X post. “Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.”

Speaker Johnson has been trying to reason with Mr. Musk since he called the bill a “disgusting abomination” in an X post on Tuesday, though the world’s richest man does not seem interested in any kind of talks. Mr. Johnson said Wednesday that he tried to call his “friend” the night before, though that call went to voicemail. 

“I called Elon last night and he didn’t answer, but I hope to talk to him today,” Mr. Johnson said at a press conference Wednesday. “He’s very friendly.”

Mr. Johnson was more stern outside of his office after the press conference, speaking directly to Mr. Musk via the press corps. 

“Elon, look: We don’t have time for a brand new bill,” the speaker said when asked about Mr. Musk’s call to kill the bill. “We worked on the bill for almost 14 months. You can’t go back to the drawing board, and you shouldn’t. We have a great product to deliver here. I know it’s not perfect. … But you cannot make perfect the enemy of the very, very good.”

Mr. Musk’s war against the Republican-controlled Congress is reminiscent of his war against the government funding bill back in December, when he told Mr. Johnson to kill that legislation just before Christmas. Ultimately, the then-incoming DOGE leader had the ear of the president and the adoration of most GOP members of Congress. 

Now, lawmakers say he’s a non-factor in this process. 

“If Elon is going to give me advice on how to get to the moon, I’d listen,” Senator Cramer tells the Sun. “But he doesn’t govern. To be honest, Elon’s not that big of a factor. I know he’s a glamorous sort of celebrity, but he’s not a big factor.”

“I think all the people that are interested in it are you,” he said with a laugh, referring to the press corps. “I don’t think very many senators are interested in what Elon has to say about it. It’s amusing, but we’re serious policymakers.”

“We have to govern and so we have to deal with reality,” the North Dakota senator added. 

The Senate seems to be so far working at a snail’s pace on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with countless issues outstanding and several lawmakers saying they cannot vote for the bill in its current form. 

At a closed-door meeting among Republican senators on Wednesday, lawmakers heard from the chairmen of the Senate Commerce and Senate Armed Services Committees about the progress they had made in ironing out specifics. Mr. Cramer says the meeting was more about the chairmen reporting on their respective bills than a wide-ranging discussion about how to satisfy all members. 

“It was more of a reporting by the chairs on their instructions and how they’re gonna meet them,” Mr. Cramer says. 

Senator Hawley told reporters that there was no discussion about the various issues Republicans have been bringing up for weeks, including concerns about the explosion of the deficit, the $5 trillion debt ceiling hike, reimbursement rates for states with respect to Medicaid, or the 10-year moratorium on states passing their own regulations on AI.