Elon Musk seems to be unhappy with the sweeping spending bill narrowly passed by the House at the urging of President Donald Trump.
Musk, in unusual criticism of a cause favored by his ally the president, said in an interview excerpt released Tuesday that the Trump-backed “Big Beautiful Bill” contradicts the goals of his Department of Government Efficiency.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” the billionaire Tesla CEO said in an interview with CBS scheduled to run in full on Sunday.
The megabill, which passed through the House by a single vote last week, incorporates much of Trump’s domestic agenda on tax cuts, immigration and other matters.
“I think a bill can be big, or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both, in my personal opinion,” he added.
Musk launched DOGE with a promise of $2 trillion in savings. It has hollowed out or shut down 11 federal agencies and about 250,000 federal workers have left their jobs and says it has saved the taxpayers $160 billion. Meanwhile, total government spending has increased, according to the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model, which tracks weekly Treasury data.
The billionaire’s criticism could influence the eventual content of the megabill, which faces uncertain prospects in the Senate.
Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a Trump ally, is pushing for deeper cuts to reduce the deficit. Others in the GOP object to the extent of Medicaid cuts in the legislation and the rollback of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits.
