President Trump on Wednesday punted on a query about tech billionaire Elon Musk’s criticism on the “big, beautiful bill” filled with the president’s legislative priorities the Home handed final week.
Musk, who spearheaded the cost-cutting efforts on the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), mentioned in an interview on “CBS Sunday Morning that he was “disappointed” in the spending bill because “it undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”
Trump was requested within the Oval Workplace about his response to Musk and replied, “Well, our reaction’s a lot of things” earlier than pivoting to the votes must get the invoice out of Congress.
“Number one, we have to get a lot of votes, we can’t be cutting — we need to get a lot support and we have a lot of support,” he mentioned. “We had to get it through the House, the House was, we had no Democrats. You know, if it was up to the Democrats, they’ll take the 65 percent increase.”
The invoice, which enhance the debt restrict by $4 trillion, is now within the Senate’s arms after it handed the Home on Thursday following a collection of last-minute negotiations and modifications.
Trump on Wednesday mentioned he’s not glad about some elements of the invoice, which extends his 2017 tax cuts, boosts funding for border priorities, imposes reforms like beefed-up work necessities on Medicaid and rolls again inexperienced vitality tax incentives.
“We will be negotiating that bill and I’m not happy about certain aspects of it, but I’m thrilled by other aspects of it,” Trump mentioned. “That’s the way it goes. It’s very big, it’s the big beautiful but the beautiful is because of all the things that we have.”
“The Senate, as you know, is negotiating with us and they have to then go back to the House and you know, it’s got a way to go,” he added.
He additionally praised Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Chief John Thune (R-S.D.) for his or her work on the invoice.
“I think we have an amazing — if we pull this off,” Trump mentioned.
Musk, who was an in depth ally of Trump, advised CBS that he doesn’t suppose a invoice will be each huge and delightful. The Tesla CEO has taken a step again from his function in Trump’s White Home after spending months slashing authorities spending and decreasing the scale of the federal workforce.
