President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he intends to renegotiate parts of the “big, beautiful” tax bill, voicing frustration with certain provisions while expressing satisfaction with others.
His remarks came just one day after billionaire Elon Musk criticized the legislation, arguing that it undermines efforts to rein in the growing U.S. budget deficit. “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,” Trump told reporters, without directly addressing Musk’s concerns.
He also highlighted the need to secure enough support for the bill’s passage in the GOP-controlled Senate, stating, “we can’t be cutting, you know, we need to get a lot of support.”
In an interview with CBS “Sunday Morning,” broadcast late on Tuesday, Musk told the network he was “disappointed to see the massive spending bill” because it actually increases the budget deficit, though not as quickly, and undermines the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts. “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both,” Musk said in the interview.
The White House plans to send Congress a targeted package as early as next week to formally implement spending cuts identified by Elon Musk’s team, according to a White House official familiar with the plan.
Republican lawmakers have been pressing the administration for months to codify the federal spending reductions proposed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Also Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the Republican-controlled chamber would begin work on that.
The Louisiana Republican pointed to several alarming examples of waste, fraud, and abuse identified by DOGE—most notably, the revelation that USAID had been allocating funds tied to over 12 million Social Security recipients listed as being more than 120 years old.
“The House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings so we can deliver even more cuts to big government that President Trump wants and the American people demand,” Johnson wrote on social media.
Johnson stated that the House will move swiftly to pass legislation codifying the DOGE cuts as soon as the White House submits its rescissions package. He said the savings will be folded into the upcoming appropriations bill to implement President Trump’s 2026 budget.
