Topics: Elon Musk, Politics, US News, Donald Trump
Days after vowing to 'spend less' in his position as Department of Government Efficiency co-lead, Elon Musk has thrown shade at presidential pal Donald Trump for his new domestic policy bill.
Appearing at a SpaceX Starship launch event last night (27 May), the tech boss was asked by attending reporters about the bill backed by Trump, which is expected to increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion by 2034.
There, he claimed that the Republican leader's recent spending on said legislation 'undermines the work' that his team 'is doing'.
Musk, 53, was made DOGE co-head following Trump's return to the White House back in January, and therefore landed the responsibility of helping cut excessive spending by the federal government.
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His earliest days in the position saw the Tesla CEO threaten the jobs of thousands of workers while flexing his new power to circumvent conflict of interest/transparency requirements.
After being accused of planning a 'hostile takeover' with the controversial move, Musk insisted the measures made 'common sense' and were 'not draconian or radical' at all.
Despite having initially received mass support from Trump on these financial and federal matters, the pair's relationship is said to have slowly broken down in recent months.
Just last week a comment Musk made implied a pointed remark that could be interpreted as an insult to Trump. "I think, in terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future," the father-of-13 claimed during an interview with Bloomberg's Mishal Husain.
"I think I've done enough."
The same sentiment was seemingly reiterated by Musk during another public appearance this week, where he discussed the domestic policy bill passed by Republicans last week.
The 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' - which still needs Senate approval - would extend the president's tax cuts and increase border security spending, among numerous other aims.
"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 hit out on Tuesday during an interview with CBS.
"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."
Elsewhere during the interview, the billionaire went on to reference Trump's bill in respect to the criticism that he, as DOGE boss, has faced from across the country with regards to his spending.
"DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything," responded to a question asked by the Washington Post.
"Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it."
Musk went on to confess: "'The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realised."
He continued: "I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least."
