Washington [US], May 29: Billionaire Elon Musk has left the US government after disagreements over a spending bill that he said would cause a trillion-dollar federal budget deficit, the White House later confirmed.
On May 29, AP news agency cited sources saying that billionaire Elon Musk had left the administration of US President Donald Trump , after efforts to streamline the federal apparatus and cut spending caused many uproars.
Earlier, in an interview with CBS on May 28, Mr. Musk expressed his "disappointment" about a policy bill passed by the Republican Party in the House of Representatives last week and strongly supported by President Trump. Mr. Musk said that this bill would increase the federal budget deficit.
Frankly, I am disappointed to see this massive spending bill that increases the deficit, not just reduces it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," he said, referring to the acronym for the Department of Government Efficiency.
Mr Musk's comments signaled a break with Mr Trump, who has backed a massive spending package. The bill, which still needs to be approved by the Senate, would extend Mr Trump's signature 2017 tax cuts, increase border security spending, impose work requirements on the Medicaid health insurance program and eliminate clean energy tax credits.
The bill's tax provisions would increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Billionaire Musk has been a near-constant presence in the early months of Trump's second term, with his DOGE staff combing through virtually every government agency to implement sweeping cuts that have alarmed Democrats and even some Trump allies, as well as multiple legal challenges.
Mr Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, has said he will reduce his involvement in government.In the latest developments, Reuters quoted a White House official confirming that the news that Mr. Musk was leaving the administration was "accurate" and that "the process of leaving will begin tonight" (morning of May 29, Vietnam time).
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper