President Donald Trump doesn't want to get into a public fight with tech billionaire Elon Musk as the latter denounces his "big, beautiful bill" on tax cuts, energy deregulation, and border security, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday.
The bill, which narrowly passed the House earlier this month, cuts hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid and food assistance, on top of a laundry list of other controversial provisions, to preserve Trump's 2017 tax cuts. It faces an uncertain path in the Senate as Republicans vow to make major changes.
Musk, who headed up Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force, left his direct role at the White House this month. His involvement in federal cuts and layoffs generated massive controversy, to the point that they both began to distance themselves from each other.
Tapper began by playing a clip of Musk from a recent interview with "CBS Sunday Morning, in which he said "I was like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing. I think a bill can be, can be, can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don't know if it can be both."
"So Trump was asked about this today," Tapper told Haberman. "He deflected, trying to blame Democrats for the bill, which is interesting. How do you think that comment from Musk is really actually going over with Trump?"
"I don't think it's thrilling Trump. I also don't think it's entirely surprising to Trump," said Haberman. "I think that Musk has been sort of trying to cleave some separation with the White House and his own work right now. I also don't know how much effect it is going to have. I think that if it ends up having a real material impact on the bill, then I think Trump will care a lot. But it was — as you say, he dodged it and clearly does not want to be in some kind of a public fight with Musk."
"Where is their relationship right now, do you think?" asked Tapper.
"I think they still deal with each other," said Haberman. "I think Musk — look, Musk was in that meeting with the South African president. Musk is still around. He is still, you know, allied with some people in the Trump administration, and he still has a lot of money. And so all of that is going to mean he will be around going forward. Just what quantities remain to be seen."
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