Critics Say Musk’s Influence on Trump Led GOP To Cut Children’s Cancer Research. Here’s What We Know

In December 2024, House Republicans failed to pass a spending bill supported by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, leading to concerns of a government shutdown. The failed bill — a stripped-down version of a bipartisan funding deal — faced criticism from Democrats because of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s supposed influence in cutting key portions of the original bill, particularly spending on children’s cancer research.  

Democrats posted a “before” and “after” image of the bill on X, writing: “Trump and Republicans just eliminated funding for child cancer research in their new bill.”

Other critics of Musk and Trump blamed the billionaire more directly for influencing the cuts. MSNBC host Chris Hayes wrote on X, “The world’s richest man took $190 million away from kids with cancer.”

(X user @chrislhayes)

Musk, along with Trump, did influence the changes to the original spending bill presented to the House of Representatives, and supported cutting numerous sections of the bill. Musk also celebrated the new, slimmed-down bill after it was introduced to the House. We cannot state for certain that Musk advocated for removing funding for pediatric cancer research specifically, though he did support the cut.

Were Pediatric Cancer Research Funds Cut from the Bill?

In short, yes. The original bill, titled “Further Continuing Appropriations and Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2025” was a bipartisan effort from House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, who spent weeks negotiating its contents with Democrats. It can be found here.  Section 708 of the bill detailed funding for Gabriella Miller Kids First Research.

(House.gov)

Gabriella Miller was a 10-year-old girl who died from an inoperable brain tumor. An act in her name was signed into law by then-President Barack Obama in 2014, devoting $126 million over the next decade toward pediatric cancer research. Funding needed to be extended in 2024, and per a 2023 Senate report, the new bill would allocate around $190 million to cancer research until 2033.  

After Trump opposed the original spending bill on Dec. 18, Johnson presented a slimmed-down version to Congress the next day. That version, dubbed the “American Relief Act 2025” is 116 pages, compared with the 1,547 pages of the original bill — a point Musk applauded on X — and does not include the above section.  

A number of spending provisions were cut from the new bill, including any language about the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act. In fact, the new bill had no mentions of funding for cancer treatments.

Conservatives argued online that the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act was passed as a standalone bill by the Republican-controlled House earlier this year, but held up by the Democratic-controlled Senate. The House did pass a version of the bill in March, but the Senate had not voted on it.

However, the language in the original spending bill would have reauthorized program funding for seven years. The pared-down bill removed that reauthorization entirely. It simply adopted the language of the March 2024 version of the bill to include in government funding for next year, which was agreed upon by Republicans and Democrats before being scuttled as a result of Trump’s opposition.

Just before the bill was slimmed down, Democrats including Rep. Jennifer Wexton and Sen. Tim Kaine applauded the inclusion of the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act 2.0 in the continuing resolution to fund the government, assuming that it would pass with bipartisan support. 

How Much Influence Did Musk Have?

Musk had plenty of influence on the bill being cut down, though we cannot state for certain which areas he personally advocated cutting. Just before the bipartisan bill was presented to the House, Musk began posting his opposition to it on X, writing “Kill the Bill” and “Stop the steal of your tax dollars!”

Soon after Musk shared his views on X and riled up Republicans who opposed the bill, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance rejected the measures, saying they contained too many concessions to Democrats and too much wasteful spending.

In an interview with NBC News, Trump said he gave Musk permission to post his opposition to the original spending bill, after discussing it with the billionaire: “I told him that if he agrees with me, that he could put out a statement.”

According to some Republicans, constituents were calling their offices to oppose the bill. Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky said his phone was “ringing off the hook” and people were listening to Musk.

Hours after the new bill failed to pass, Musk shared a post on X that criticized “lumping” cancer funding in with other unrelated areas. “Why was cancer funding lumped in with a bill that included a raise for Congress and funding for a stadium? Why is separate bills for separate issues such a radical idea?” the post stated.

(X user @elonmusk)

Musk’s repost may have been a response to Democrats who targeted him for purportedly pushing to cut funding to children’s health, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York who said Musk received money from defense contracts so Republicans would never cut military funds. Many critics even referred to him as “President Musk” due to his visible influence over Trump. 

Musk did celebrate the scuttling of the original bill, calling the new one “clean and simple.” He denied authoring the new bill, giving credit to Trump, Vance, and Johnson. He also said the government should either pass “sensible” bills or shut down completely.

We thus have no evidence that Musk directed Republicans and Trump to cut funding from children’s cancer research, but we do know that he supported the new bill and was instrumental in getting it slimmed down by posting his opposition online.

However, the new slimmed-down bill also failed to pass on Dec. 19, 2024, with 38 Republicans opposing it. On Dec. 20, 2024, Republicans said they had a new funding bill they would try to put through the Rules Committee, but Democrats continued to push for the original bill. The original funding bill was necessary to keep the government functioning until mid-March 2025. Without it, the government faces a shutdown.

Sources