Elon Musk’s criticisms of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill are rooted in his allegiance to his companies, the White House’s Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields told The Alex Marlow Show Wednesday.
Musk called Trump’s landmark reconciliation bill a “pork-filled Congressional spending bill” and “a disgusting abomination,” Monday after leaving his government post as a Special Government Employee (GSE) – a designation only permitted to last up to 130 days, which Musk reached.
He later instructed his X followers to reach out to their senators to “kill the bill,” even going so far as using a poster from the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill.
Republicans have charged that Musk’s criticism of the bill lies in its elimination of electric vehicle mandates and generous green energy subsidies that Musk’s company Tesla leans heavily upon.
Fields told host and Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow that Musk still supports the Trump agenda despite opposing the bill’s elimination green subsidies that benefit his company.
“There’s no daylight between this White House and Elon Musk,” Fields said. “Elon Musk has his priorities, and this White House and this president have their priorities. We may not be aligned on this issue; but let me tell you this, we’re grateful to Elon Musk for the work that he was able to do for this administration.”
The narrative that Musk has turned on Trump is being generated by establishment media, Fields told Marlow, who said Musk’s criticisms of the landmark America First legislation should not be a surprise now that he has relinquished his role in the administration.
“Two things can be true at the same time,” Fields said. “Elon Musk now is not an SGE, he’s a CEO, and he’s focusing on his company, and what would be good for his company. He is doing what a CEO has to do.
“But let me tell you this President Trump is the CEO of this country, and he owes it to the American people to pass one big, beautiful bill.”
While Tesla, which relies heavily on components from China and other foreign nations, might not like Trump’s bill, other American companies have poured praise upon it.
“Tesla on X has been very clear about their dislike of the bill,” Fields acknowledged before adding “you’ve got a lot of companies in America that are very favorable the bill.”
“If you look at Verizon, if you look at Uber, these are all CEOs that have come out in support of this bill,” Fields continued. “And you’ve got a lot of Chambers of Commerce that are also supportive as well. So, at the end of the day, I can’t speak for Elon Musk or his companies, but they have proper spokespeople. Elon Musk doesn’t hold back on anything, so I’ll let him speak to what his company’s interests are here, but the interest of this White House is the American people and making sure the bill gets passed.”
Before departing the administration, Musk led Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in identifying government waste, fraud, and abuse, a perch which has given him credibility when it comes to eliminating pork. But Marlow said Musk’s criticisms of the reconciliation bill as a pork-filled spending bill are based in a conflation of the mandatory spending addressed by reconciliation bills with discretionary spending, which is addressed through the annual congressional appropriations process.
DOGE cuts championed by Musk are overwhelmingly on the discretionary spending side and cannot be addressed through strict rules governing reconciliation.
Musk “did a yeoman’s job helping Trump get elected and trying to identify some places for cuts in the government,” Marlow said. “But a lot of those are sort of the pork related things, Harrison. They’re not necessarily the mandatory spending that we’re talking about in reconciliation like this.”
“There’s something a little dishonest to me about it,” he added.
Fields agreed that the distinction is important. “This is a reconciliation bill,” he said. “This is not a spending bill. This is not to address anything other than the reconciliation process which tax cuts are able to go through.”
Despite Musk’s criticisms and the limits on what can be included, the reconciliation bill cuts $1.6 trillion in mandatory spending. And the White House has shown an appetite for going further to attack waste, fraud, and abuse.
The White House sent a rescissions package to Congress Monday which would eliminate $9.4 billion in wasteful spending, much of it unearthed by DOGE. Fields said the White House will continue working with Congress through the appropriations process and future rescissions packages to carry out DOGE’s mission.
“DOGE will continue to yield historic results, and this president will be committed to working with the Senate to get one big, beautiful bill passed,” Fields pledged.
The Senate has begun debating how it will amend the House-passed big, beautiful bill, with Trump calling for an ambitious goal of final passage by July 4. That timeline might slip, but “the White House and the president feels confident that this bill will get across the finish line,” Fields said.
The debate on the details might get heated, but the framework from which Senators are working allows Congress to deliver on goals they’ve all campaigned on, Fields said.
“We are lowering taxes, we are securing our border, we are bolstering our military, we are creating MAGA accounts for newborn babies,” he told Marlow. “I’m the father of an eight month old, so that’s going to be great for the next one. We are also cutting taxes on tips, cutting taxes on overtime, protecting our seniors. We are cleaning up Medicaid, securing it for future generations by taking 1.4 million illegals off the system, we are ushering in work requirements.”
“This is Republican policy that Republicans have been promising for decades all in one big, beautiful bill,” Fields said. “Let’s just put it this way, when this is passed, it’s going to be promises made, promises kept, once again, by this president.”
The Alex Marlow Show, hosted by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, is a weekday podcast produced by Breitbart News and Salem Podcast Network. You can subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Rumble, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
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