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Musk, who was appointed by Trump to lead the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), had been tasked with finding $2 trillion in spending cuts. But as the House rolled out its final version of the legislation, Musk made it clear he wasn’t celebrating.
In an interview with CBS News’ David Pogue, Musk didn’t hold back.
“So, you know, I was like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not decrease it and undermines the work the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said.
Pogue responded by pointing out that the new spending essentially wipes out all the savings Musk’s team had identified.
“I actually thought that when this big beautiful bill came along, I mean, like, everything he’s done on DOGE gets wiped out in the first year,” Pogue noted.
Musk agreed and didn’t mince words about the compromise involved in crafting such a sweeping package.
“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,” Musk added.
President Trump didn’t shy away from the criticism and admitted that the bill’s structure was shaped by the razor-thin Republican majority in the House. With zero support from Democrats, Trump said his team had no choice but to draft a compromise bill that could get the necessary 218 votes.
“Number one, we have to get a lot of votes, we can’t be cutting — we need to get a lot of support and we have a lot of support,” Trump explained during an Oval Office event. “We had to get it through the House, the House was, we had no Democrats. You know, if it was up to the Democrats, they’ll take the 65 percent increase.”
Trump emphasized that the bill is far from final and will face additional negotiations in the Senate, where he hopes to claw back more spending.
“We will be negotiating that bill, and I’m not happy about certain aspects of it, but I’m thrilled by other aspects of it,” he said. “That’s the way it goes. It’s very big, it’s the big, beautiful, but the beautiful is because of all the things that we have.”
Musk’s public dissatisfaction has sparked a broader conversation among fiscal conservatives, many of whom supported Trump’s return to the White House based on his promise to restore economic discipline and reduce government bloat.
The question now is whether this “big, beautiful” legislation will unite Republicans ahead of the election—or divide them over runaway spending. Musk’s remarks have already put pressure on House and Senate leadership to deliver deeper cuts and stay true to Trump’s original mandate of “America First, not budget last.”
The fight over spending isn’t over—but it’s clear even Trump’s closest allies aren’t giving him a blank check.
