‘Big or beautiful – but not both’: Elon Musk criticises Trump’s tax bill

The quote, shared in a preview clip, appears to target Trump’s recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which combines sweeping tax cuts with deep benefit reductions and major spending expansions, including on border security.

“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful. But I don’t know if it could be both.”

Tech billionaire Elon Musk tells CBS Sunday Morning’s @Pogue he was “disappointed” to see the Trump-backed “big beautiful” spending bill, which passed in the House last week.

Musk said… pic.twitter.com/LUcuTaNYrs

— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) May 28, 2025

Musk’s remarks point to a growing rift between the world’s richest man and Trump, whom he once strongly backed — including with a $200 million donation to his re-election campaign via a super PAC. That support had earned Musk a lead role in the first introduced “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), a cost-trimming initiative announced earlier this year. However, the Tesla chief stepped away from the effort in April following a plunge in his company’s earnings and political investments that failed to deliver results.

The spending bill, narrowly approved by the House last week, extends tax cuts for individuals and corporations and ends many clean energy incentives introduced under Joe Biden. At the same time, it enacts roughly $1 trillion in cuts to social safety nets like Medicaid and food assistance, while still increasing the federal deficit by an estimated $2.3 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Musk told CBS he was “disappointed to see the massive spending bill, which increases the budget deficit … and undermines the work that the Doge team is doing.”

Adding to the friction are measures in the bill that directly impact Musk’s business interests, including the elimination of a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles and the imposition of a new $250 annual EV registration fee.

While Musk had earlier advocated for phasing out such incentives, that stance came before Tesla’s fortunes took a hit. The EV maker reported a staggering 71 per cent drop in first-quarter profits last month, with its stock shedding roughly a quarter of its value since Musk assumed his White House-linked role.