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In a recent interview with CBS, Elon Musk insisted he was never in lockstep with the Trump administration.<\/span>Francis Chung\/Pool\/CNP\/ZUMA<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Elon Musk is <\/span>leaving DC<\/a> not with a bang but a whimper\u2026and, it appears, with some new enemies in the White House.<\/p>\n In an interview that aired<\/a> Sunday on CBS, <\/strong>days after he announced he was departing DOGE, Musk insisted he has never been in lockstep with the Trump administration, despite being President Donald Trump\u2019s self-proclaimed \u201cfirst buddy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like I agree with everything the administration does,\u201d Musk said on <\/strong>CBS News\u2019 Sunday Morning<\/em>. \u201cSo it\u2019s like, I mean, I agree with much of what the administration does. But we have differences of opinion. You know, there are things that I don\u2019t entirely agree with.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s difficult for me to bring that up in an interview,\u201d Musk continued, \u201cbecause then it creates a bone of contention. So then, I\u2019m a little stuck in a bind, where I\u2019m like, well, I don\u2019t wanna, you know, speak up against the administration, but I also don\u2019t wanna take responsibility for everything this administration\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Less than 24 hours before Elon Musk announced that his time as a Special Government Employee was coming to a close, Musk expressed some \u201cdifferences of opinion\u201d with the Trump administration in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning correspondent David Pogue. <\/p>\n “It’s difficult for\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/X18M36YFlm<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 CBS Sunday Morning \ud83c\udf1e (@CBSSunday) May 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n So what, exactly, didn\u2019t Musk like? DOGE becoming the boogeyman of the administration, for one thing: \u201cDOGE became the whipping boy for everything,\u201d the world\u2019s richest man complained. \u201cIf there was some cut, real or imagined, everyone would blame DOGE.\u201d (In fact, poll after poll showed most Americans disliked<\/a> DOGE, at least in part due to its lack of accountability and its slash-and-burn approach to critical government functions and personnel. That included\u00a0killing<\/a>\u00a0more than two dozen grants administered by the Department of Labor that supported getting more women into fields including construction and manufacturing; dismantling<\/a> USAID, the international humanitarian aid agency; impeding<\/a> scientific research; and firing<\/a> scores of federal workers, just to name a few examples.)<\/p>\n Musk said he was also \u201cdisappointed\u201d to see the \u201cmassive spending bill,\u201d which was passed by the Republican House last month and is now being debated in the Senate. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates<\/a> the bill would add $3.8 trillion to the national debt over the next decade\u2014a figure that would essentially render DOGE\u2019s purported<\/a> government savings of $175 billion pointless. Musk alleged that the bill \u201cundermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,\u201d adding, \u201cI actually thought that, when this \u2018big, beautiful bill\u2019 came along, it\u2019d be like, everything he\u2019s done on DOGE gets wiped out in the first year.\u201d<\/p>\n “I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful. But I don’t know if it could be both.”<\/p>\n Tech billionaire Elon Musk tells CBS Sunday Morning’s @Pogue<\/a> he was “disappointed” to see the Trump-backed “big beautiful” spending bill, which passed in the House last week.<\/p>\n Musk said\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/LUcuTaNYrs<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 CBS Sunday Morning \ud83c\udf1e (@CBSSunday) May 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Trump\u2019s allies scrambled to counter Musk\u2019s critiques on the Sunday shows. On NBC\u2019s Meet the Press<\/em>, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told<\/a> host Kristen Welker he \u201csent a long text message to my good friend, Elon Musk, after he made those comments the other day,\u201d adding that Musk and others \u201care missing\u2026the tremendous and historic level of spending cuts that are also in the same package.\u201d (Those \u201ccuts\u201d include the largest-ever proposed cuts to Medicaid<\/a>, which could lead to 8 million people losing coverage. The cuts would target<\/a> women\u2019s health services offered<\/a> by Planned Parenthood, coverage for abortions in Affordable Care Act plans, and gender-affirming care for all Medicaid patients, including transgender adults.) On CNN\u2019s State of the Union<\/em>, White House Budget Director Russ Vought<\/a> claimed<\/a>: \u201cI love Elon. This bill doesn\u2019t increase the deficit or hurt the debt,\u201d before critiquing the CBO\u2019s estimate.<\/p>\n \u201cI love Elon. This bill doesn’t increase the deficit or hurt the debt.\u201d<\/p>\n White House Budget Director @RussVought47<\/a> responds to criticism from Elon Musk that President Trump\u2019s tax and spending cut bill will make deficits worse. pic.twitter.com\/dHt69IJGWA<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) June 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n There have been signs of Musk\u2019s discontent prior to the CBS interview: for example, the time that he went after Peter Navarro, Trump\u2019s top tariff guy, saying,<\/a> \u201cHe ain\u2019t built shit,\u201d as I previously wrote<\/a>. (In the CBS interview, when asked if Trump\u2019s tariffs would affect his businesses, Musk demurred, replying, \u201cTariffs always affect things a little bit.\u201d) But Trump seems to think Musk wil be back before long: \u201cElon\u2019s really not leaving,\u201d he told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, as Musk stood nearby with a black eye he claimed<\/a> his son gave him. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be back and forth, I think. I have a feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n But Musk seems more tepid about returning to the White House amid a myriad of business problems, including tanking Tesla sales<\/a> and setbacks<\/a> at his aerospace company Space X\u2014not to mention Trump\u2019s withdrawal <\/a>of Musk ally Jared Isaacman\u2019s nomination to head NASA, as well as leaked allegations <\/a>about Musk\u2019s drug use. \u201cDOGE is gonna continue, just as a way of life,\u201d he told CBS. \u201cI will have some participation in that, but as I\u2019ve said publicly, my focus has to be on the companies at this point.\u201d Polling suggests that, for most Americans<\/a>, that\u2019s music to their ears.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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