Trump Gives Frank Take On His Relationship With Elon Musk As Tesla CEO Attacks Budget

Forbes Breaking News

While meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office, President Trump spoke about Elon Musk and the Tesla CEO's opposition to the Big Beautiful Bill.

Transcript

00:00It's an achievement, actually.

00:01Mr. President, can we follow up on the autopilot?

00:04Thank you, Mr. President.

00:05The criticism that I've seen, and I'm sure you've seen, regarding Elon Musk and your big, beautiful bill,

00:10what's your reaction to that?

00:12Do you think it in any way hurts passage in the Senate, which, of course, what is your seeking?

00:17Well, look, you know, I've always liked Elon, and I was always very surprised.

00:20You saw the words he had for me, the words.

00:23And he hasn't said anything about me that's bad.

00:25I'd rather have him criticize me than the bill, because the bill is incredible.

00:31It's the biggest cut in the history of our country.

00:33We've never cut.

00:35It's about 1.6 trillion in cuts.

00:37It's the biggest tax cut.

00:40Tax, you would say, people's taxes will go way down.

00:45But it's the biggest tax cut in history.

00:47We are doing things in that bill that are unbelievable.

00:51And when you look at what we're doing for small businesses, for people, for middle-income people,

00:58all of the things that we're doing, nobody's ever seen anything like it.

01:03And, you know, Elon's upset because we took the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles.

01:10And, you know, they're having a hard time, the electric vehicles.

01:13And they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy.

01:18And, you know, Elon knew this from the beginning.

01:22He knew it for a long time ago.

01:23That's been in there.

01:24That's been, I would say, J.D., that hasn't changed.

01:27That's been right from the beginning.

01:29I think, Mr. Secretary, that hasn't changed at all, right from the beginning.

01:33But I know that disturbed him.

01:35He wanted, and rightfully, you know, he recommended somebody from, that he, I guess, knew very well,

01:43I'm sure he respected him, but to run NASA, and I didn't think it was appropriate.

01:48And he happened to be a Democrat, like, totally Democrat.

01:53And I say, you know, look, we won.

01:55We get certain privileges, and one of the privileges, we don't have to appoint a Democrat.

01:59NASA is very important.

02:00We have great people.

02:01General Cain is going to be picking somebody with our, we'll be checking him out, seeing,

02:09but he wanted that person, a certain person, and we said no.

02:14And, you know, I can understand why he's upset.

02:16Remember, he was here for a long time.

02:19You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval Desk,

02:24and even with a black eye, I said, do you want a little makeup?

02:28We'll get you a little makeup.

02:29But he said, no, I don't think so.

02:31Which is interesting and very nice.

02:34He wants to be who he is, so you could make that statement, too, I guess.

02:38Look, Elon and I had a great relationship.

02:42I don't know if we will anymore.

02:44I was surprised, because you were here.

02:46Everybody in this room practically was here, as we had a wonderful send-off.

02:50He said wonderful things about me.

02:51He couldn't have nicer.

02:52He said the best thing.

02:54He's worn the hat.

02:55Trump was right about everything.

02:57And I am right about the great, big, beautiful bill.

03:01We call it a great, big, beautiful bill, because that's what it is.

03:05And, again, biggest tax cuts in history, biggest economic development moves anywhere.

03:10We've never done anything like it.

03:13Businesses spurred.

03:15And I don't know if you've seen the numbers, but the numbers came out.

03:17Even the CBO, which is run by Democrats, said that we're going to be doing it.

03:23You know, I'd like you to discuss it, the 2.8 trillion, that CBO.

03:27So, this is a group of people that are Democrats.

03:31They're very hostile to us.

03:33They just came out with phenomenal numbers what it does.

03:36Do you want to mention that, Scott?

03:37Yes, sir.

03:38So, what...

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