Elon Musk has publicly expressed his disapproval of President Donald Trump’s recently passed House tax bill, a sweeping piece of legislation that the billionaire entrepreneur says runs contrary to his own efforts to curtail government spending.
Musk’s critique adds a high-profile voice to the growing chorus of concerns surrounding the bill’s fiscal impact.
In an interview with CBS News, an excerpt of which was released Tuesday night, Musk, who recently announced he is stepping back from his role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a body that quickly became emblematic of the second Trump administration’s cost-cutting vision—did not mince words.
He stated he 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.”
The full interview is scheduled to be broadcast on CBS Sunday Morning this weekend.
The legislation in question, frequently referred to by President Trump as his “big, beautiful bill,” encompasses a wide array of tax cuts.
Having narrowly passed the US House of Representatives last week, it now heads to the Senate for further deliberation.
Musk, the prominent chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, appeared to align his concerns with those of some Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate.
These legislators argue that the bill’s price tag is too high and are demanding more significant reductions in government spending to offset its cost.
Echoes of fiscal conservatism and legislative hurdles
The sentiment expressed by Musk mirrors the fiscal conservatism voiced by certain Republican factions.
Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, highlighted the considerable distance yet to be covered before the bill might find acceptance in the upper chamber.
When asked about a timeline for the Senate’s work, Johnson remarked, “We are so far away from an acceptable bill, it’s hard to say.”
However, the legislative path forward is complicated not only by calls for further cuts but also by opposition from other Republicans to existing provisions within the House version.
Some object to measures such as restrictions on Medicaid benefits and the proposed swift elimination of clean-energy tax incentives, indicating a challenging road ahead for the bill in the Senate.
Musk, offering his personal take on the ambitious legislation during the CBS interview, quipped, “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.”
This pithy remark encapsulates the tension between the bill’s expansive scope and its potential fiscal consequences.
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