Trump gives shock response to Elon Musk's public criticism of his 'big, beautiful' tax bill

The bromance could be well and truly over, and even though Elon Musk has implied he's still firm friends with President Donald Trump, it's highly likely the pair will be seeing a lot less of each other moving forward.

While we always knew Elon Musk's time in politics was going to be short-lived thanks to his designation as a special government employee, that doesn't make his departure from the Department of Government Efficiency any less sensational. There are sure to be plenty of scandalous headlines, especially considering he stepped down just days after calling out Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax bill.

The POTUS' plans include eliminating taxes on Social Security, cuts to funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), and allocating $50 billion for the construction of new border fortifications.

There are fears this will actually increase the deficit, and after Musk was recruited to help bring it down, he's blasted the Commander-in-Chief's math skills. According to the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (via Forbes), Trump could be adding $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. If lawmakers 'extend temporary provisions,' this could go up to as much as an additional $5.2 trillion.

Not holding back, Musk said he was "disappointed to see the massive spending bill, which increases the budget deficit" because it "undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing."

The Trump administration has reassured us that these tax cuts will pay for themselves by encouraging business growth, but not everyone is convinced.

Asked for his response to Musk's tax takedown, Trump told the press: "Well, my reaction is a lot of things. Number one, we have to get a lot of votes, we can't be cutting, you know?

"We need to get a lot of support, and we have a lot of support - we had to get it through the House."

He also warned that if his bill isn't approved, taxpayers could have to pay 65% and said there could be 'lots of other big problems' instead of 'the largest tax cut in the history' of the USA.

There was a bizarre twist where Trump seemed to criticize his own bill. Continuing to discuss the cuts, Trump said: "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 - that's the way they go.

"It's very big, it's the big beautiful bill but the beautiful is because of all of the things we have - the biggest thing being I would say the level of tax cutting that we're going to be doing."

As for Musk, he's downplayed the idea that he and Trump have had a fallout, also saying he'll return to his other business ventures with the likes of SpaceX and Tesla.