Musk attacks Trump's key tax and spending bill
Days after withdrawing from Washington, billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has criticized US President Donald Trump's key tax and spending bill.
Writing on X, Musk attacked the bill as "a disgusting abomination" and charged that it will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion and burden US citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.
The bill, which Trump calls the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed the House of Representatives by a narrow majority in May.
However, several members of Trump's Republican Party are blocking it in the Senate. They object to the planned increase in the debt ceiling and want deeper spending cuts.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: "Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it."
The bill aims to permanently extend tax breaks from Trump's first term. This is to be financed by cuts in social benefits, for example, which is being met with fierce resistance from the Democrats.
The tech billionaire received unexpected support for his criticism from Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders. "Musk is right," he wrote and also called the bill an "abomination."
Sanders pointed out that the richest Americans would receive $664 million in tax breaks while $290 million would be cut from food aid for the needy.
Musk donated more than $250 million to Trump's election campaign and became a close confidant of the president at times. When he withdrew from Washington, he referred to the rule that contracts for external government employees are limited to 130 days per year.
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