(DCNF)—Former State Department official Mike Benz said on Fox News Friday that Elon Musk’s frustration with the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ seems to go deeper than his personal business interests.
President Donald Trump and Musk clashed publicly Thursday, exchanging attacks and financial threats. During an appearance on “The Will Cain Show,” Benz said that Musk’s frustration stems not from a desire to control the presidency but from his belief that he has earned a place in the political conversation to help shape fiscal policy.
“It’s more that side of it that’s inflaming him. So I don’t really see it as him thinking that he bought the presidency, but that he has sort of earned a place at the table in order to have his vision, you know, at least partially accomplished,” Benz said.
Benz said that the real source of Musk’s anger lies in the failure to secure key fiscal cuts he has long pushed for.
“I think the thing that Musk is most inflamed about is the failure to codify the cuts that he proposed rather than the subsidies for his own businesses. It seems to me that him, you know, identifying $200 billion worth of DOGE fraud and then seeing only $9 billion of it codified in this bill,” Benz said.
Benz said he believes Musk is “sincere” in his push to control deficit spending, seeing it as essential for the nation’s survival.
“And I know that there are promises that there will be additional bills to do this, but I believe that Musk is sincere in his idea that we need to control deficit spending in order to actually have a country again,” Benz added.
Trump said that Musk’s criticism of the bill only surfaced after learning it removed the EV mandate, suggesting the conflict was rooted in financial motives rather than principle. In response, Musk took to X, rejecting Trump’s claims and saying he had never even seen the bill, which he criticized for being rushed through Congress “in the dead of night.”
Shortly after his 2024 election victory, Trump appointed Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency, tasking the tech mogul with fulfilling his promise to cut wasteful federal spending. By the end of May, Musk announced that his tenure as a special government employee had ended, marking the end of a highly controversial period that saw strong opposition from Democrats, particularly after his team moved to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development.
(Featured Image Media Credit Screenshot/Fox News)
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Team Elon all the way with this one! We need to slash spending dramatically of we wish to continue as a country.
I voted for trump each time and he’s definitely better than most but on budgetary issues he’s just as bad as democrats.. He’s about to give the Pentagon (the military industrial complex) its largest check ever.. That’s not what i voted for and it’s pathetic.. Zero deep state arrests isn’t a good look either.. No one who really has power ever gets in trouble.. The fact is government will never ever fix government only we can do that..
On a side note i read yesterday the Nancy pelosi outperformed every single large investment firm in America last year.. She made 54% on her 2024 investments 11% higher than any large investment company.. Oh and she has also outperformed Warren Buffet for the last two decades.. She not the only one Democrat dan crenshaw did better than her last year.. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤣🤣🤣
Agreed with you 100%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At this point Trump is screwing the US taxpayer, not the kids. Thats a win, at least for the kids.
Trump promised repeatedly that he will not touch Medicaid and this bill places work requirements and tons of red tape filing requirements aimed at tiring people out. A person in his 50’s who has been laid off and is unlikely to regain similar employment without a massive search and likely relocation would lose medical coverage. The cost would likely destroy retirement. Many small businesses do not offer medical benefits and required work would not only take his time away for work search it would force him to pay for medical insurance since earning 20,000 dollars or more makes him ineligible for enhanced medicaid. this is how it kicks people off. His medical costs would far exceed his income at lets say a Walmart. With Engineers being laid off in droves, no requirement to let go of cheaper H1-B’s first, and AI already causing job losses. This is a recipe for disaster and I mean bringing in real socialism as many of these people feel cheated after paying taxes for 30+ years and a government who worked against them aiding businesses to hire foreign workers.
No DOGE cuts??
No additional 2% tax on 2.5 million + in income reverting to previous tax bracket for that income level.
Border wall will just be destroyed by next administration.
He needs to remove 30,000 per day not 3000… If you were serious about removing illegal aliens you levy heavy fines on employers who hire illegal Aliens.
All kinds of liability escapes for health insurance companies in the bill.
This Bill stinks… And Republicans will lose after it it is passed.
Love your thoughts !
Elon is behaving much like Trump did in 2016, thinking like a CEO. I come in with a mission and tell everyone under me take this mission and execute it. Trump learned the hard way that he is in pit of vipers. No way Trump is happy with the bill and the spending, but he understands that Mike Johnson is a RINO snake and Trump sees the short term and its problem and knows the big long term problem is resurrecting the US Economy. So take what you can get and kick-start the economy so you can win in 2026 and hopefully flip a few RINO places to Red. (Cornyn in Texas, DeWine in Ohio, etc.).
Musk is naive and just doesn’t understand the political system is not a business where people toe the line the CEO sets.