WASHINGTON — Elon Musk broke with President Donald Trump on the House-passed domestic policy bill, saying in an interview that he was “disappointed” that it would increase the federal deficit.
“I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk told CBS’ “Sunday Morning” in an interview that will air in full this Sunday.
Musk’s public break comes as the Republicans’ bill heads to the Senate, where several senators have also criticized the legislation for increasing the deficit. The legislative package encompasses many of Trump’s priorities, and the president has urged Congress to send the bill to his desk for a signature “as soon as possible.”
The tech mogul’s remarks in the interview also come as he has suggested he would be backing away from his administration role to return his attention to the private sector. Musk said in a post on X last week that he had to be “super focused” on his companies and was “back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms.”
Musk, a Trump ally and top White House figure, has also distanced himself from the president on his tariff policies. Musk, whose automaker Tesla has parts made in North America, China and Europe, has called for a “zero-tariff situation” between Europe and the U.S., and positioned himself as an advocate of “free trade and lower tariffs.”
In the “Sunday Morning” interview, Musk threw cold water on the title of the bill, which is officially called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, after Trump’s description of it.
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, I don’t know if it can be both,” Musk said, laughing. “My personal opinion.”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Department of Government Efficiency initiative, spearheaded by Musk, has slashed the size of the federal workforce, cut government programs and nixed contracts with the expressed goal of saving federal money. But DOGE efforts have led to a flurry of lawsuits, and critics argue the cuts and layoffs have hurt vital programs and instigated chaos.
At the same time, the Congressional Budget Office has projected that the tax cuts and spending in the bill would add $2.3 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years, which is a sticking point for conservative fiscal hawks.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., on Sunday likened outsize spending to “mortgaging our children’s future,” saying in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he believed there were “enough” Republicans to “stop the process” in order to make changes to the bill.
Similarly, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said on “Fox News Sunday” that he would have voted for the bill even if the spending cuts were “wimpy and anemic” except for the fact that the legislation would “explode the debt.”
GOP senators will also have to contend with a faction of their caucus that has expressed concerns over certain cuts to programs like Medicaid. The House-passed bill is expected to rescind health care for about 8.6 million people, according to the Congressional Budget Office, though House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has argued that the cuts were “working in the elements of fraud, waste and abuse.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., urged his colleagues in an op-ed in The New York Times this month to avoid Medicaid cuts.
“If Republicans want to be a working-class party — if we want to be a majority party — we must ignore calls to cut Medicaid and start delivering on America’s promise for America’s working people,” Hawley wrote in the op-ed, which was published before the House passed the bill.
Any changes made to the bill in the Senate would also have to be passed by the House. The bill passed the House on a razor-thin margin of 215-214 votes, largely along party lines.
Peter Alexander contributed.
