Elon Musk extends critique of Big Beautiful Bill into second day

Donald Trump is trying to shore up support for his legislative centrepiece as Elon Musk continues to attack the bills.

Elon Musk looks on during a news conference with Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House. Picture: AFP.

Republicans are saying Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill could be dead unless it is overhauled to include deeper spending cuts, as Elon Musk urged Americans to call their elected representatives in the US Congress to kill-off the legislation.

Elon Musk: Your company is not going to exist if the ship of America sinks.

“A country is no different from a person. If a country overspends and doesn't spend wisely, just like a person, the country will go bankrupt.

The reason I'm here is because I'm very worried about… pic.twitter.com/hTK3WowIaC

— ELON CLIPS (@ElonClipsX) June 4, 2025

Continuing his assault on Mr Trump’s legislative centrepiece for a second consecutive day, Mr Musk made clear his own cost cutting initiatives at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) were being made completely redundant because the bill before the Senate would blowout the US deficit.

On Wednesday (local time), he reposted an image on his X social media platform of a bus being brutally crushed by a train. The bus represented the savings secured by the DOGE, while the train was labelled “Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.”

“It more than defeats all the cost savings achieved by the @DOGE team at great personal cost and risk,” Mr Musk said in another post.

The attack came as new figures were released by the Congressional Budget Office showing that Mr Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill would blow out the deficit by $US2.4 trillion ($3.7 trillion) by 2034, with GOP fiscal hawk Chip Roy telling CNN on Wednesday that he thought the bill could be “dead”.

“It’s not even close to passing,” Representative Roy said. “They (the Senate) need to go further, or the bill is dead.”

Republican Senator for Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, told CNBC that “this is immoral what us old farts are doing to our young people. This is grotesque. I can’t accept this scenario. I won’t vote for it.”

Republican Senator for Kentucky Rand Paul, who has drawn the criticism of the President in recent days, posted on social media that the Big Beautiful Bill was “the opposite of conservative, and we should not pass it”.

“We must cut taxes, rein in reckless spending and end Washington’s addiction to debt. Only then can we restore economic prosperity, preserve individual freedom and ensure that the American Dream remains alive for generations to come,” he said.

The world’s richest man took to social media to continue his political assault for a second consecutive day, urging the MAGA constituency to signal their opposition to the Big Beautiful Bill as the US President worked to shore up support in the Senate for his legislative centrepiece.

“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL,” Mr Musk posted earlier on Wednesday.

“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful. I don't know if it could be both.”

— Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/X3tRwaftGR

— The Rabbit Hole (@TheRabbitHole84) June 4, 2025

In a series of posts, Mr Musk said that “a new spending bill should be drafted that doesn’t massively grow the deficit and increase the debt ceiling by 5 TRILLION DOLLARS.”

“America is in the fast lane to debt slavery,” he said in another.

In a different post, Mr Musk warned: “Interest payments already consume 25% of all government revenue. If the massive deficit spending continues, there will only be money for interest payments and nothing else! No social security, no medical, no defence … nothing.”

The Congressional Budget Office released its latest cost estimates on the Big Beautiful Bill showing it would increase budget deficits by $US2.4 trillion over the decade. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said that, after accounting for interest costs on the new debt, the bill would increase debt by nearly $US3 trillion, lift the deficit to 7 per cent of GDP by 2026 and double interest costs between 2024 and 2034 to $US1.8 trillion or 4.2 per cent of GDP.

Some Republicans expressed frustration at Mr Musk’s intervention, with Republican Eli Crane telling CNN: “My issue is why wasn’t he talking about this before the bill? Because those of us who were actually trying to make cuts could have used his support.”

Mr Trump is trying to smooth the passage of the bill through the US Congress by his July 4 deadline.

So far, the US President has stayed silent on the criticisms of his Big Beautiful Bill being made by Mr Musk.

However, he did re-post on his Truth Social media platform a post made by Mr Musk at the end of May when he was stepping down as a special government employee and the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The

@DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” the post from Mr Musk said.

Mr Trump made no other comment, but senior White House officials are briefing journalists that the US President is not happy with Mr Musk.

The Wall St Journal reports that, asked whether Mr Trump and Mr Musk continue to have a strong relationship, a White House official said it is too soon to tell. The official said Mr Trump was a forgiving person, but he doesn’t forget slights like this.

The criticisms made by Mr Musk were also discussed in the House GOP’s weekly closed-door meeting in which Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back against the former leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Johnson told reporters of Mr Musk: “I think he’s flat wrong, and I’ve told him as much.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune was also in damage control mode, suggesting the intervention from Mr Musk would not change the calculus in the Senate for the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill.

“Obviously he has some influence, got a big following on social media,” he said. “But at the end of the day this is a 51-vote exercise here in the Senate, and I think … the question for our members is going to be, would you prefer the alternative? And the alternative isn’t a good one.

“There are going to be a lot of people who share commentary about this, and we just got to make sure we’re doing everything we can to get our arguments out there.”

Erica York, the Vice President of Federal Tax Policy with the Tax Foundation, told The Australian that Mr Musk was “correct when he points out that the Big Beautiful Bill increases the deficit.”

“The combination of about $4 trillion of tax cuts and $1.5 trillion of spending cuts is unambiguously an increase in the 10-year budget deficit,” she said. “On the tax side of the bill, fiscally responsible and pro-growth reforms are possible, lawmakers simply decided not to pursue that route.”

“The bill includes new carve-outs that will do little for growth, sunsets the most pro-growth provisions like expensing, and makes unnecessary expansions to complicated provisions like the pass-through deduction. Re-evaluating which provisions are most effective for incentivising growth and prioritising those, while cutting back on the other tax cuts, could tip the balance in a better direction.”