CNBC Hosts Drop Blistering Rants on Trump and Elon Musk’s Failures to Cut Spending

The hosts of CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe, Ben Boulos and Steve Sedgwick, made their opinions on President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk abundantly clear on Thursday in a scorching rant on the pair’s failures to cut spending.

Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for roughly five months in 2025 before departing the White House. Earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office released a report revealing that some of DOGE’s claimed savings “are incorrect or lack supporting evidence.”

Responding to Wednesday’s news that the U.S. national debt crossed the $40 trillion mark, Sedgwick questioned, “Anyone else remember the acronym D-O-G-E? Anyone?… That was Elon Musk coming in to rip up the vast amount of spending — wasteful spending — that is leading to these big deficits.”

“In fact,” he continued, “the Big Beautiful Bill plus DOGE was gonna actually get that deficit down. I remember [National Economic Council Director] Kevin Hassett on CNBC many, many times. He’d probably still say the same thing now… Where’s the evidence that this is working? That’s what’s worrying me, Ben.”

Boulos chimed in next, citing calculations from the Financial Times. “The gross federal debt has grown by $3 trillion over the past year alone,” he said. “They reckon that’s the fastest pace outside of the pandemic, so to your point about efforts to try and scale back the growth of the deficit and how much is being added to the total debt pile, it doesn’t seem to be working.”

Notably, many conservatives spoke out after the national debt hit $4o trillion, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Rand Paul (R-KY).

“This is bad. Congress needs to get spending under control and BALANCE THE BUDGET. Americans deserve better,” wrote Scott via X on Wednesday.

Watch the clip above via CNBC.

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