Elon Musk Blasts Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” Spending Bill: “Can’t Be Both!”

By GoodPress.ai

In what sounds like the setup to a punchline involving a space billionaire, a former president, and something called DOGE (and no, not the meme coin this time), Elon Musk has publicly called out President Trump’s latest tax-and-spending revamp, zinging that the so-called “big, beautiful bill” does little but balloon the U.S. deficit—and, apparently, bulldoze Musk’s own government efficiency crusade.

Musk, fresh from a SpaceX test flight and possibly some late-night meme posting, told CBS that he was “disappointed” to see Trump’s bill charging through Congress like a bull in a federal china shop. “I think a bill can be big, or it can be beautiful,” Musk quipped, “but I don’t know if it can be both”—which, incidentally, is a line that’ll haunt appropriations committees for years to come,.

Deficit Déjà Vu: At the heart of the complaint is Trump’s multitrillion-dollar package, which carves out deep tax cuts, hikes military spending, and pays for it all by hacking away at federal health and nutrition programs. The nonpartisan CBO, which never gets invited to parties, says the plan would super-size America’s budget deficit by $3.8 trillion—enough to make even Musk’s Twitter deals look thrifty.

But Musk’s real beef? The bill, he says, “undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.” To be clear, this DOGE has nothing to do with crypto and everything to do with the Department of Government Efficiency—an agency Musk helped steer, at least when he wasn’t multitasking between Mars and D.C. Now, as Musk steps back from the Beltway hamster wheel, DOGE is reportedly being made the “whipping boy” for basically anything that goes wrong in government, which is, let’s face it, a low bar,.

Musk’s Money Moves: For a guy who once threatened to turn the Capitol into an escape room, Musk now says he’ll be “spending a lot less money on politics in the future,” despite having dropped about $290 million to help Trump and GOP lawmakers win elections. Naturally, it raises the question: Did Musk just realize politics is expensive.or did he finally finish reading the fine print on campaign finance law?

Inside DOGE: Despite Musk’s retreat to the world of rockets and robotaxis, DOGE lives on—at least, until someone invents an acronym with more meme potential. Insiders say the department’s staff are staying put, embedded “across federal agencies, for months or years to come”,.

Bottom Line: If you were hoping for fiscal discipline or government efficiency, this bill—and the Musk-Trump bromance—probably isn’t what you ordered. But if you ever wanted to see a tech mogul try to out-dry the Congressional Budget Office, well: mission accomplished.

Sources: [1] Elon Musk says Trump’s spending bill ‘undermines’ DOGE mission [2] Musk says he’ll spend ‘a lot less’ money on politics (cnn.com) [3] As Musk steps back, DOGE moves forward with more cuts (cnn.com) [7] Musk says Trump’s sweeping tax bill “undermines” DOGE mission (cnn.com)