White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went out of her way to avoid answering a question about Elon Musk slamming the budget bill backed by President Donald Trump.
Musk, in a clip from a CBS interview which premiered Tuesday, argued the “big, beautiful” budget bill currently awaiting a vote in the Senate will explode the national deficit.
“I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not decrease it and undermines the work the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said. He added, “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both.”
Trump was confronted, during a press engagement Wednesday, about Musk’s comments — and he replied by focusing on the bill itself, rather than Musk’s criticism.
CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, during Thursday’s briefing, tried again.
“President Trump was asked what he thought about Elon Musk’s claim that the big, beautiful bill increases the budget deficit and undermines the work of DOGE, and the president didn’t actually comment on those remarks,” Jiang said. “He just talked about the need to support the bill. So what does the president think about what Elon Musk said?”
Like Trump, Leavitt brushed right past Musk and instead focused on hyping the legislation.
“The president is very proud of the one big, beautiful
Jiang followed up.
“So he doesn’t have any comment about Musk saying it adds to the deficit and it undermines all his work?”
Leavitt chided Jiang for pressing her to comment directly on Musk.
“The president commented on this,” Leavitt said. “I commented on it. I told you that this bill saves $1.6 trillion, according to the Council of Economic Advisers, and the analysis that the president believes in. So he gave a comment, I gave a comment. Just because you don’t like that comment doesn’t mean it’s not a comment.”
Watch above, via Fox News.