Billionaire Elon Musk has voiced criticism of Donald Trump’s signature spending bill, signaling his first significant policy divergence with the US president since he began to step back from his active role in cutting government spending.
The South African-born tech magnate asserted that Trump’s legislation would exacerbate the deficit and undermine the efforts of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative that has led to the dismissal of tens of thousands of government employees.
Musk, who was a consistent presence by Trump’s side before withdrawing to focus on his Space X and Tesla ventures, also expressed dissatisfaction that DOGE had become a “whipping boy” for discontent with the administration.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk stated in an interview with CBS News, an excerpt of which aired late Tuesday.
Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” which passed the US House last week and is now moving to the Senate, proposes extensive tax relief and spending cuts and stands as the cornerstone of his domestic agenda.
However, critics warn that the bill could severely impact healthcare services and potentially inflate the national deficit by as much as $4 trillion over the next decade.
“A bill can be big, or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion,” Musk commented in the interview, which is scheduled to air in its entirety on Sunday.
The White House, without directly naming Musk, attempted to downplay any apparent disagreements concerning US government spending.
“The Big Beautiful Bill is not an annual budget bill,” Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posted on Musk’s social network, X, after the tech titan’s comments were broadcast.
Miller added that, according to US Senate rules, any cuts proposed by DOGE would need to be implemented through a separate bill specifically targeting federal bureaucracy.
Nevertheless, Musk’s comments represent a rare public split with the Republican president, whom he significantly aided in his return to power as the largest donor to his 2024 election campaign.
‘Whipping Boy’ Designation
Trump had initially tasked Musk with spearheading efforts to reduce government spending as the head of DOGE. However, after an initial period of intense activity, Musk announced in late April that he was largely stepping back to recommit to managing his private companies.
In a separate interview with the Washington Post, Musk lamented that DOGE, which operated out of the White House with a staff of young technicians, had become a lightning rod for criticism.
“DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,” Musk told the newspaper at the Starbase launch site in Texas ahead of Space X’s latest launch on Tuesday.
“Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.”
Musk attributed DOGE’s failure to achieve all its objectives to deeply entrenched US bureaucracy. However, reports also suggest that his domineering management style and lack of familiarity with the intricacies of Washington politics were significant contributing factors.
“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,” he remarked. “I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.”
Musk has previously admitted that he did not fully achieve his goals with DOGE, despite thousands of individuals being removed from government payrolls and several departments undergoing significant restructuring or closure.
Meanwhile, Musk’s own businesses have faced setbacks.
Protesters against the cost-cutting measures targeted Tesla dealerships, and some electric vehicles were even subjected to arson, leading to a slump in the firm’s profits.
“People were burning Teslas. Why would you do that? That’s really uncool,” Musk told the Post.
Musk has also been intensely focused on Space X following a series of fiery setbacks to his ambitious dreams of colonizing Mars. The most recent incident occurred on Tuesday when its prototype Starship exploded over the Indian Ocean.
The tycoon also indicated last week that he would reduce his political spending, having already contributed approximately a quarter of a billion dollars to support Trump.
