Mike Benz narrows down why ‘big beautiful bill’ is ‘inflaming’ Elon Musk

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.

WATCH: 

“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.

Latest posts by Mariane Angela (see all)

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.