Washington — SA-born billionaire Elon Musk has criticised President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, saying it detracts from his efforts to shrink the US budget deficit.
"So, I was like disappointed to see the massive spending bill frankly, which increases the budget deficit not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the Doge [department of government efficiency] team is doing," Musk said in an interview with CBS broadcast late on Tuesday.
"I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both," Musk said in the interview.
Musk, the world’s richest man, was appointed by Trump in February to lead his administration’s chaotic reform of the federal government as head of Doge.
The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed the sweeping tax and spending bill that would enact much of Trump’s policy agenda and saddle the country with trillions of dollars more in debt.
Trump and his fellow Republicans, which passed the measure by a single vote, have dubbed the legislation the "big, beautiful bill".
It will add about $3.8-trillion to the federal government’s $36.2-trillion in debt over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The US Senate is now considering the measure.
A Doge website that claims it has saved US taxpayers billions of dollars has been criticised for numerous errors and corrections.
Reuters
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