Elon Musk Criticizes Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Before Stepping Down from DOGE

Elon Musk Criticises Trump: Elon Musk has announced his departure from the Trump administration, bringing an end to his role as a special advisor and the public face of the government’s cost-cutting campaign.

“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk posted Wednesday on the social media platform he owns, X. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

Musk’s announcement came a day after an interview clip showed him expressing dissatisfaction with Trump’s legislative priority: a giant tax-and-spending package dubbed the “big, beautiful bill.”

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Like some Republican lawmakers, Musk criticized the megabill over how it would significantly raise the national debt. In an excerpt released Tuesday night of an exclusive interview with CBS that will air in full on Sunday, Musk said he was “disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases.” He added that the bill “undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”

Asked about Musk’s criticism of the bill, Trump told reporters during a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday that Republicans “had to get it through the House” and will be negotiating the legislation.

“I’m not happy about certain aspects of it, but I’m thrilled by other aspects of it,” Trump said.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson praised DOGE’s work in a post on X, noting that the House “made sure to build on DOGE’s success within the One Big Beautiful Bill.”

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“The House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings so we can deliver even more cuts to big government that President Trump wants and the American people demand,” Johnson wrote. He said it would do so by passing a rescissions package Trump is planning to send to Congress to codify some of DOGE’s cuts and by “swiftly” implementing Trump’s 2026 budget through the appropriations process.

Amid calls from investors to spend more time focused on his businesses, Musk—who is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI—said in a Tesla investor call in April that he would dial down his “time allocation” to DOGE in May, claiming that “the large slug of work necessary to get the DOGE team in place and working in the government to get the financial house in order is mostly done.”

Musk told CNBC on May 20: “My rough plan on the White House is to be there for a couple days every few weeks. And to be helpful where I can be helpful.” But his regularity in Trump’s orbit has dropped off significantly, sparking rumors of a rift with the President. Politico published an analysis earlier this month that found that whereas Trump used to post almost daily about Musk on Truth Social, he hasn’t mentioned him at all in recent weeks. Also on May 20, Musk said that he would be cutting back his political spending, after sinking more than $250 million into Trump’s 2024 campaign. “I think I’ve done enough,” he told Bloomberg. “If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don’t currently see a reason.”

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