Elon Musk has announced his opposition to a second major plank of Donald Trump’s agenda (after previously turning on the president’s tariff plans) when he said with a new interview he was “disappointed” by the price tag of Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”
The bill “increases the budget deficit…and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” the world’s richest man said in a CBS interview that is scheduled to air in full this weekend.
And Musk is not the only one in the world of tech with questions.
The opposition to the bill has been in evidence among at least a few of Trump’s Silicon Valley allies largely due to a price tag that could see over $3 trillion in new red ink if the bill is passed as well as lawmakers declining so far to formalize cuts proposed by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“This thing is an albatross,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, a venture capitalist who co-hosted a fundraiser for Trump during the campaign, on a recent episode of the popular “All-In” podcast.
It was an episode that saw critiques leveled against the bill by three of the four co-hosts including Jason Calacanis, who called the bill a failure of leadership on Trump’s part.
The fourth member of the group was David Sacks, the most outspoken Trump ally of the quintet who currently works as the White House AI and crypto czar. He defended pieces of the bill — notably tax cuts — and added “you have to be realistic about how much we can get done here.”
But the critiques by the three others were withering and quickly noted by other like-minded figures in the tech world — and also gleefully highlighted by some the podcast’s hosts — with charges of fiscal irresponsibility and even that the bill was a sort of “deep state candyland.”
Others in Silicon Valley have offered their support over certain provisions — notably Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s praise over the inclusion of gig workers in Trump’s no tax on tips plans — but other leading voices have been wary or at least quiet on the plans since they passed.
And the next All-In episode came just a few days later and featured Sen. Ron Johnson, an outspoken critic of the bill who is promising major changes.
The opposition from Silicon Valley has been mirrored by at least some voters as well respondents to a new Morning Consult survey this week finding 50% opposed to the reconciliation package after its major components — from tax changes to decreased funding for Medicaid — were defined.
