President Donald Trump gave a long, rambling answer on Wednesday when asked about Elon Musk’s criticism of his ‘big, beautiful bill’ that avoided any attacks on his biggest campaign backer. 

The president defended his signature legislation that funds the government and didn’t address Musk’s criticism that it would undermine the work of DOGE. And, notably.

Trump also didn’t attack Musk, as he’s done to other people who have criticized him. Musk, the world’s richest man, spent $290 million in the last election cycle to help get Trump and Republican candidates elected.

Instead Trump said he would negotiate parts of the bill as it makes its way through the legislative process.

‘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 told reporters, without directly addressing Musk’s concerns. 

‘That’s the way it goes,’ he added. ‘It’s very big. The big, beautiful bill, but the beautiful is because of all the things we have. The biggest thing being I would say the level of tax cutting that we’ll be doing.’

But Trump also said he was mindful he needed sufficient support in the Senate to secure passage of his legislation. 

Last week, House Republicans approved – by a single vote – the bill, which combines tax breaks, spending cuts, border security funding and other priorities. 

‘Remember, we have zero Democrat votes because they are bad people. There is something wrong with them,’ Trump said. 

He continued to ramble on about how tough he has it as president, pointing to court rulings against his policies and Democrats’ lack of support.

‘We’re having hard time because some judges aren’t making it easy for us and it’s tough enough. And they approved that they allowed that to happen to our country. We don’t have one Democrat vote and if I were a Democrat I would be voting for this bill and I would get elected to any position I want as a Democrat. They are crazy,’ he said. 

But he concluded of his trademark legislation: ‘It will be very successful.’ 

In an interview with CBS ‘Sunday Morning,’ broadcast late on Tuesday, Musk said he was ‘disappointed to see the massive spending bill’ because it increases the budget deficit and undermines the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

‘I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both,’ Musk said in the interview.

The legislation will add about $3.8 trillion to the federal government’s $36.2 trillion in debt over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. 

Musk has claimed to save the federal government billions through his DOGE efforts.

He and Trump became close during his four months of government service. Musk was seen everywhere – the Oval Office, Cabinet meetings, Air Force One, Marine One, and Mar-a-Lago.

But the Space X founder decided to turn his attention back to his private business ventures particularly after Tesla cars and showrooms became a target of protesters of his work. And Tesla shares fell in value.

The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is intended to be an encompassing piece of legislation to allow Trump to move forward with much of his agenda, with policies ranging from tax cuts to immigration. 

The legislation brings large spending increases that the GOP has fought against in recent years, including raising the debt limit by more than $4 trillion over the next two years.

Within the package is about $5 trillion in tax cuts, to be partially funded by repealing or phasing out more quickly the clean energy tax credits passed during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Several of the provisions Trump touted on the campaign trail would be temporary, lasting roughly through his second term in office.

The tax breaks for tips, overtime and car loan interest expire at the end of 2028. That’s also the case for a $4,000 increase in the standard deduction for seniors. 

A focal point of the package is nearly $800 billion in reduced spending in the Medicaid program.

To be eligible for Medicaid, there would be new ‘community engagement requirements’ of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents. 

The new requirement would not kick in until Jan. 1, 2029, after Trump leaves office. People would also have to verify their eligibility for the program twice a year, rather than just once.

But any increase in debt effectively makes moot the work that Musk and his team have already undertaken with DOGE, raising questions about whether the billionaire’s foray into politics – and the damage it caused his reputation and businesses – was ultimately worth it.

Musk saved an estimated $160 billion in what he labeled wasteful government spending by decimating or shutting down 11 federal agencies – putting about 250,000 federal employees out of work in the process.

But even that number is a far cry from the $2trillion he vowed to save when DOGE was launched, and it has cost him immensely with mounting lawsuits and global protests against both he and his companies.

His work became highly controversial. 

Musk stepped back from his high-profile role recently to refocus on his lifelong goal of colonizing Mars amid whispers his friendship with Trump was on the rocks and that he’d made enemies within the White House.

The work of DOGE continues without him. 

But Musk reappeared at the White House last week when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Trump in the Oval Office.

Musk, who has been a top critic of Ramaphosa, stood by watching as Trump hammered the leader on the policies in his country directed toward whites. The president also played a video that he said proved white farmers were being unjustly persecuted in South Africa.

Trump has taken a keen interest in the treatment of Afrikaners, who ruled in South Africa during apartheid, at the urging of Musk, who was born in South Africa but emigrated to Canada in 1989. Musk also holds an American citizenship.

The Trump administration also has also granted refugee status to dozens of white South Africans claiming discrimination and economic hardship in their home countries. 

Musk’s comments about the ‘big, beautiful bill’ came as he refocuses on his space ventures. 

‘I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics, it’s less than people would think, because the media is going to over-represent any political stuff, because political bones of contention get a lot of traction in the media,’ he told Ars Technica when asked whether he feels his focus on politics over the past year has ‘harmed’ his SpaceX company. 

‘It’s not like I left the companies. It was just relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side, and I’ve reduced that significantly in recent weeks.’

And he defended DOGE’s work, telling the Washington Post on Tuesday that the agency has become a ‘whipping boy.’

‘DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,’ he said. ‘So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.’