'I can't take it anymore': Elon Musk slams Trump-backed US spending plan
BILLIONAIRE AND FORMER Trump administration staff member Elon Musk has blasted a US spending plan, set to add $3tn (€2.68tn) to the country's budget deficit.
It is the most-pointed criticism Musk has weighed against US President Donald Trump and comes days after he left his role as the de-facto head of the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency', aimed at cutting back public expenditure.
'This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,' he wrote on his platform X. 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.'
Trump's 'big, beautiful bill', which is still being debated among those in the US Congress, seeks to add trillions to the country's 'debt ceiling' – a mandated limit on the amount the country is allowed to borrow.
This could potentially boost budget deficits and the national debt into the future. It also seeks to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts and expand them to workers' tips, state pension cheques and overtime payments.
Musk, who sat as a special advisor to Trump for the first five months of his term, focused largely on cutting back on areas of public spending which he deemed excessive – setting the goal to reduce $2tn (€1.8tn).
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DOGE failed to meet this goal, which Musk was criticised when stepping away from the Trump administration just days ago. Today, the billionaire said American politicians would 'bankrupt' the country if they approved the bill.
'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore,' the world's richest man said, before added that the spending bill would 'burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt'.
I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
June 3, 2025
The White House says the spending plan will lead to robust economic growth, despite the potential that it will further increase America's already burgeoning debt pile, which has ballooned to $36.9tn (€32.5tn).
The President's press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump 'already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill, it doesn't change his opinion'.
'This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it,' she said.
With reporting by AFP
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