Bromance at an end? "In the end, Trump will take Elon's money"

He can't take it any longer, writes Elon Musk on his platform X: Donald Trump's Big Beuatiful Bill is a danger because of the rising debt. The White House smiles away the criticism, but Musk follows up.

On Sunday, June 1, Donald Trump handed Elon Musk a golden key to the White House. Today, you have to wonder whether the richest man in the world will really be welcome there in the future.

The reason: the 53-year-old continues to beat the drum against the White House's so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which hides legislative projects and, above all, the government's upcoming budget.

Musk initially spoke to "CBS News" on the subject: the interview was conducted before his last day in the White House.

Fear of Trump's budget deficit"It's immoral, it's wrong, it has to stop"

The South African native expressed his "disappointment with the massive spending bill that increases the budget deficit, doesn't reduce it and undermines the work of the DOGE team".

"A disgusting abomination"

And now Musk is following up - and barely holding back with his criticism. "I'm sorry, but I just can't take it anymore," begins his tweet. So it's clear that this is not followed by a song of praise for the Trump administration.

Then the sentence: "This massive, outrageous, pork-filled spending bill from Congress is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: You know you made a mistake. You know it."

Four minutes later, Musk adds: Trump's budget will swell the national deficit to 2.5 trillion and burden the nation with "crushing, unsustainable debt".

"My friend Elon is terribly wrong"

The White House takes a completely different view: it is "patently false" that the new budget increases the national debt, says spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, brushing aside doubts about the Big Beautiful Bill. "That doesn't change the president's opinion. This is a big beautiful bill, and it stays that way."

"It's very disappointing," comments Mike Johnson Musk's criticism. The speaker of the House of Representatives explains that he is a friend. "But he's obviously a very intelligent person and he's done a lot of good work." But - "with all due respect": Musk is "terribly wrong" when it comes to the budget.

Other Republicans are clearer: Musk "doesn't understand how the law works", said Congressman Darin Lahood to CNBC.

Musk follows up

What is actually the problem? The Trump administration is counting on positive effects from its economic policy. Others disagree. The official Congressional Budget Office predicts a deficit of 2.3 trillion dollars over ten years.

Now the conservative Tax Foundation has also done the math. It claims to have included the effects of tax cuts and other measures - and it too comes up with a deficit of 1.7 trillion dollars. This is grist to Elon Musk's mill.

He now seems to be on a kind of crusade against the Big Beautiful Bill: On his X account, he is advertising for Republicans such as Ron Paul, who are warning of a rising national deficit, and posting and reposting admonishing words about the US debt himself.

MSNBC asks Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen what he thinks about the looming "end of the bromance"? "Donald doesn't care about anything or anyone but himself," he replies. He didn't think the relationship with Musk would last long from the outset. "I'll even go one step further: I say Trump will end up taking Elon's money."