Donald Trump 'disappointed' with Elon Musk over spending bill criticisms, Tesla CEO fires back

Trump, meanwhile, said he was very disappointed with Musk over his criticism of the bill.

"I'm very disappointed with Elon. I've helped him a lot. He knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem & he only developed the problem when he found out we're going to cut EV mandate," Trump said while speaking to the American press.

After disagreeing with President Trump behind closed doors, Elon Musk quit the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last week.

Soon after, he publicly opposed Donald Trump's tax and spending bill. Taking to his social media platform X, Musk had written, "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."

Following Trump's rebuttal, Musk now posted: "False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!"

Following his criticism, the White House defended Trump's huge tax cuts and spending mega-bill.

"The president 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," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Elon Musk, who stepped down as the chief of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), meant to save "trillions" of American taxpayer dollars, was given a ceremonial farewell at the White House last week.

He had expressed his 'disappointment' earlier too and described it as a “massive spending bill” that increases the federal deficit and “undermines the work” of the DOGE.

"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 had said in an interview with CBS.

“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful. But I don’t know if it could be both,” he had said.

The bill, known as "One Big Beautiful Bill Act,"  is aimed at fulfilling Trump's vision for a new "Golden Age", led by efforts to shrink social safety net programmes to pay for a 10-year extension of his 2017 tax cuts.

The legislation also seeks to ramp up spending on border security, enforce Medicaid work requirements, and roll back clean energy tax credits.