Elon Musk says Trump’s new bill undermines DOGE’s work

In a first significant disagreement with US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk openly shared his disappointment with the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’.  “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, which increases the budget deficit, not decrease it, and undermines the work that our DOGE team is doing,” Musk said in a preview of his CBS interview scheduled to air on June 1.The proposed extension of Trump tax cuts, first implemented in 2017 and due to expire this year, may widen the primary deficit by $2.8 trillion over 10 years, according to a report dated May 22 from the University of Pennsylvania, contrary to Trump’s promise ahead of the last US election.

“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don’t think it can be both,” Musk added. Trump brought in his biggest donor Musk — the billionaire behind companies like SpaceX and the social media platform X (formerly called Twitter) — to lead Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to modernise government operations, streamline bureaucracy, cut wasteful spending, and reduce US debt, which currently stands at over $36 trillion.While DOGE has reported savings of over $175 billionMusk and his team have been criticised for a lack of transparency and faced legal challenges over the scope of their work. Musk had to step back from his role at DOGE to focus more on his businesses after Tesla’s April sales dropped to their lowest level in three years.

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