Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world
Elon Musk has strongly criticised Donald Trump’s showpiece tax bill, claiming it “undermines” the work done by his government cost-cutting team, in comments that are likely to widen the rift between the billionaire and the president he bankrolled last year.
In a preview of an interview with CBS Sunday Morning released late on Tuesday, the Tesla chief executive, who until recently led the Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, said he was “disappointed to see the massive spending bill, which increases the budget deficit . . . and undermines the work that the Doge team is doing”.
The US House of Representatives last week passed the bill by a single vote, paving the way for the first big legislative success of Trump’s second term. It will now be put to a vote in the Senate.
The president, who had browbeat several Republican holdouts in Congress into voting for what he dubbed the “Big Beautiful Bill”, called it “arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country!”
But while cutting some social spending, the bill has attracted strong criticism from deficit hawks, as it will ultimately increase the US national debt by more than $3.3tn over the next decade, according to non-partisan estimates.
Musk, who has long claimed that the US would go “bankrupt” if the deficit was not reduced, appeared to echo that criticism in his comments to CBS, saying: “I think a bill can be big, or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion.”
The comments by Musk are his strongest rebuke of the Trump administration to date.
They follow his criticism of the White House’s trade policy, calling trade tsar Peter Navarro a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” and saying he believed lower tariffs were “generally a good idea”.
Musk had also clashed with some cabinet secretaries over cuts made by Doge of personnel within their agencies.
Last month, Musk retreated from his role at Doge, opting to spend more time at his businesses, especially Tesla, which has suffered a sales slump caused in part by his association with the Trump administration.
The entrepreneur has since said he would be “back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms”. His companies include SpaceX and social media site X.
Last week, Musk, who spent nearly $300mn backing Trump and other Republicans in last year’s election, said he intended to spend a “lot less” on campaigns in the future, and that he had “done enough” donating to political causes.
Musk has also expressed his frustration with Doge’s cost-cutting efforts, which he suggested had been hobbled by legislators.
The initiative claims to have saved $175bn to date, far short of the $2tn originally forecast by Musk.
An Financial Times investigation concluded that only a sliver of the purported $175bn in savings could be verified, as Doge’s accounting was found to be riddled with duplicates and inflated estimates.
