Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and recently departed White House adviser, harshly criticized a major budget bill supported by congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump on Tuesday, prompting a response from the administration.
In a post on X, Musk warned the legislation would dramatically worsen the national deficit.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” he wrote. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Musk further slammed the bill—officially titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—in a follow-up post, writing that it “will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”
His remarks came just days after stepping down as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a task force focused on reducing fraud, waste, and abuse in federal operations.
Musk appeared to base his warnings on projections from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which estimated in May that the bill could add $2.5 trillion to the deficit over ten years and $3.1 trillion to the national debt when including interest.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed Musk’s criticism.
“Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the president’s opinion,” she told reporters. “This is one big beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”
The bill passed the House last month by a narrow margin, with all Democrats voting against it. It now moves to the Senate, where some Republican senators have expressed doubts. The legislation includes tax cuts, boosts to military and border spending, and reductions in Medicaid funding.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion over a decade, a figure disputed by the Trump administration.
“In making its projections, the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] has refused to account for—or ‘score’ as they say in CBO lingo—any of the new revenues from the Trump reciprocal tariffs,” said White House adviser Peter Navarro on May 28.
Stephen Miller, another Trump adviser, defended the bill.
“The bill saves more than 1.6 TRILLION in mandatory spending, including the largest-ever welfare reform. A remarkable achievement,” he stated. “I’ve also seen claims the bill increases the deficit. This lie is based on a CBO accounting gimmick.”
Following his departure from DOGE, Musk and Trump appeared together at a White House press conference, where Trump praised Musk’s work. In an interview with CBS News aired Sunday, Musk reflected on his time in government, saying DOGE became a “whipping boy” for problems outside its scope.
Musk also expressed some philosophical distance from the Trump administration.
“It’s not like I agree with everything the administration does,” he said, though he added he agrees “with much of what the administration does.”
“But it’s difficult for me to bring that up in an interview because then it creates a bone of contention,” he continued. “So then, I’m a little stuck in a bind, where I’m like, well, I don’t want to, you know, speak up against the administration, but I also don’t want to take responsibility for everything the administration’s doing.”
