Elon Musk on DOGE and his work in and out of government
Elon Musk on DOGE and his work in and out of government
09:51
Elon Musk says he is “disappointed” by the price tag of the domestic policy bill passed by Republicans in the House last week and heavily backed by President Trump. The billionaire who recently stepped back from running the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, made the remark during an exclusive broadcast interview with “CBS Sunday Morning.”
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said.
Musk’s comments appear to put him at odds with Mr. Trump, who has championed the massive spending package. The legislation — which still needs to pass the Senate — would extend Mr. Trump’s signature 2017 tax cuts, boost border security spending, impose work requirements on Medicaid and roll back clean energy tax credits.
The tax provisions of the package, titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” after Mr. Trump’s name for the bill, would increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful,” Musk told CBS News, “but I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion.”
Musk was a near-constant presence in the early months of the Trump administration, with his DOGE staffers sweeping through virtually every government agency to make widespread cuts — drawing concern from Democrats and even some Trump allies, as well as numerous legal challenges. Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has said he is wrapping up his involvement in government.
See the “CBS Sunday Morning” interview with Elon Musk in the video player above.
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David Pogue is a six-time Emmy winner for his stories on “CBS Sunday Morning,” where he’s been a correspondent since 2002. Pogue hosts the CBS News podcast “Unsung Science.” He’s also a New York Times bestselling author, a five-time TED speaker, and host of 20 NOVA science specials on PBS. For 13 years, he wrote a New York Times tech column every week – and for 10 years, a Scientific American column every month.
