Elon Musk-Trump bromance over? Tesla CEO's first major public disagreement with President sparks buzz
Elon Musk steps down from Trump team after criticising 'big or beautiful' spending bill
Tech mogul Elon Musk said he was "disappointed" by a big spending bill passed by House Republicans last week, which is strongly supported by US President Donald Trump. In an interview with CBS News, Musk voiced sharp criticism of the administration's latest spending proposal, dubbed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill", what could be seen as major public disagreement with President Trump.
"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, appearing to distance himself from President Trump's latest legislative push. The measure, which still awaits Senate approval, would extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts, ramp up border spending, slash clean energy credits, and enforce Medicaid work requirements.
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The comments of Musk appear to put him at odds with Trump, who has championed the massive spending package. The tax provisions of the package, titled the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" after Donald 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." In the early months of the Trump administration, Musk maintained a near-constant presence, with his DOGE staffers rapidly moving through nearly every government agency to implement broad budget cuts. This aggressive approach sparked concern among Democrats, some Trump allies, and led to numerous legal challenges. Musk — who also serves as CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and the social media platform X — has since stated that he plans to scale back his involvement in government affairs.
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A the heart of Elon Musk's criticism is the proposed extension of Donald Trump-era tax cuts from 2017, which are set to expire this year. A May 22 report from the University of Pennsylvania estimates that the extension could widen the primary deficit by $2.8 trillion over the next decade—contradicting Donald Trump's earlier campaign promises to reduce the federal deficit. The market reacted swiftly, with long-term US bond yields hitting their highest levels since 2007, reflecting growing investor concern over the country's ballooning debt, which now exceeds $36 trillion.Elon Musk's criticism comes amid a challenging period for his business ventures. Tesla's April sales fell to their lowest in three years, prompting Elon Musk to reduce his involvement in DOGE to refocus on his companies.The Tesla CEO has said he will step back from his role with the Trump administration's cost-cutting team known as Doge. Trump has said it has long been the plan that Musk would soon step away, but the news came as the billionaire's car business saw earnings plunge. President Donald Trump reinforced the message that the administration was preparing for Musk's departure.
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The president also said Tesla will "be taken care of" once Musk returns and alleged that Musk was being "treated very unfairly, I guess, by some of the public". "He's a great patriot, and [that] should have never happened to him," Trump added.Musk has been designated a "special government employee" (SGE) – a label that allows him to work at a paid or unpaid government job for 130 days each year.According to a 2007 Department of Justice memo, cited in an October 2024 guidance document from the Office of Government Ethics, any day on which an SGE performs any work for the government counts as a full day towards that limit.
( Originally published on May 28, 2025 )
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Time of India
30 minutes ago
- Time of India
US visa curbs on Chinese students may backfire on the administration's decision
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads One night in 1978, President Jimmy Carter got a phone call at 3 a.m. from a top adviser who was visiting China "Deng Xiaoping insisted I call you now, to see if you would permit 5,000 Chinese students to come to American universities," said the official, Frank Press."Tell him to send 100,000," Carter Christmas time that year, the first group of 52 Chinese students had arrived in the United States , just ahead of the formal establishment of US-China diplomatic relations on New Year's Day. A month later, Deng, then China's top leader, made a historic visit to America during which he watched John Denver sing "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and was photographed wearing a cowboy almost hard to believe how little contact there had been between the United States and modern China before that. Sinologist John K. Fairbank wrote in 1971: "Since 1950 Washington has officially sent more men to the moon than it has to China." The visits by Deng, and more important, by those first Chinese students, began a new chapter that would fundamentally change China -- and the world. The United States gained access to a vast market and talent pool, while China found a model and a partner for transforming its that chapter has closed, after the Trump administration announced that it would begin "aggressively" revoking the visas of Chinese students the millions of Chinese who have studied in the United States, myself included, it is a sobering and disheartening development. It marks a turning point that America, long a beacon of openness and opportunity, would start shutting its doors to Chinese who aspire for a good education and a future in a society that values freedom and human curbing people-to-people exchanges, President Donald Trump is taking a decisive step toward decoupling from China. 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One commenter remarked that the policy's narrow-mindedness would "make America small again."The shift also comes at a time when many young Chinese, disillusioned by political repression and economic stagnation under Xi Jinping's leadership, are trying to flee the country to seek freedom and opportunities."Xi is pushing many of the best and the brightest to leave China," said Thomas E. Kellogg, executive director of Georgetown's Center for Asian Law and a leading scholar of legal reform in China. "The US should be taking advantage of this historic brain drain, not shutting the door to many talented Chinese young people."The number of Chinese students in the United States dropped to about 277,000 in the 2023-24 academic year, a 25% decline from its peak four years earlier, according to government data. Students from China remained the second-largest group of international students, after those from India. 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Time of India
39 minutes ago
- Time of India
World Scientists Look Elsewhere as U.S. Labs Stagger Under Trump Cuts
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Hans India
an hour ago
- Hans India
Trump to double steel tariffs to 50 pc from next week
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