Elon Musk accused of helping 'cut childhood cancer research funding’ amid spending bill chaos

Tesla founder and Twitter/X owner Elon Musk – who is already being branded ‘President Musk’ over his influence on president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration – has attracted controversy and criticism once again, after chaos over a proposed spending bill he opposed resulted in a new bill being put forward without funding for research into paediatric cancer.

Musk - who is set to co-lead the Department for Government Efficiency under Trump - spent this week ranting over the “criminal” and “terrible” proposed congressional spending bill put forward by House Speaker Mike Johnson, with the billionaire stating House or Senate members that voted for the more than 1,500-page bill deserve “to be voted out in two years”.

Trump and vice president-elect JD Vance ended up issuing a joint statement on Wednesday attacking “Democrat giveaways” and no raise in the statutory debt ceiling, demanding Republicans vote against the bipartisan bill which would have kept agencies running until March 2025 and prevented a government shutdown.

“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF,” the pair wrote.

When a second, much lighter bill (and one approved by Trump) was put forward on Thursday, Democrats in the House of Representatives ended up tanking the proposals, when all but two of them voted against the bill along with 38 Republicans.

While saving trees by being significantly shorter than the original 1,500 or so pages, the new version was stripped of funding for paediatric cancer research, alongside money for breast and cervical cancer detection and treatments for sickle cell disease.

A government shutdown was narrowly avoided in the early hours of Saturday morning when a spending bill cleared Congress, and Democrat lawmakers Jennifer Wexton and Tim Kaine have praised the inclusion of the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act 2.0 in the ‘continuing resolution’, which concerns funding for paediatric cancer research.

Nevertheless, Twitter/X users have condemned Musk’s influence amid the spending bill chaos:

However, fact-checking site Snopes notes it is unclear “whether Musk directed Republicans to cut funding for children’s cancer research” and that the entrepreneur “has denied having a hand in writing the bill”.

And Musk himself has since rubbished the claim, branding senator Elizabeth Warren “lyin’ Liz” when she made such comments on CNN, and sharing a post from conservative filmmaker Robby Starbuck attacking media coverage of the spending bill and adding: “Seriously?”

It's not the only criticism being levelled at Musk currently, as he has also argued that only Germany's far-right AfD party can "save" the country.

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