What is the budget law that pits Trump and Elon Musk against each other about?

The "One Big Beautiful Bill" law, an ambitious legislative package from the Republican Party that includes tax cuts, increases in border security, defense, energy, and the elimination of environmental regulations inherited from the Biden administration, allows most of Trump's campaign promises to be fulfilled in a single vote in Congress.

The legislation, already passed by the House of Representatives in the last days of May and strongly backed by Trump, has been presented by the White House as "the largest tax cut in United States history" and "the largest military and national security expansion in history."

Elon Musk's criticism

Despite this, the law found a strong detractor in Elon Musk, who, while the legislation was being approved, was finishing his term as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and launched harsh criticism against the project for "undermining" his team's efforts and called it a "monster full of unnecessary spending."

This is because in the original legislation sent by Trump, each Republican representative added articles as it passed through their offices, and it ended up having thousands of pages with small increases in public spending outside the strictly Trumpist agenda.

Another major criticism made by the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX is the "inaction" regarding subsidies and tax exemptions for gas and oil. Although these are part of the backbone of the U.S. economy, Elon argues that eliminating them could help balance the budget and also boost the competitiveness of solar energy and electric cars.

Finally, Musk argued that the broad Republican majority in both chambers gave Trump a historic opportunity to try to pass the first budget without a fiscal deficit in more than 30 years. However, the U.S. president indicated that now is not the right time for such reform, and that the priority in a world at war is military rearmament and securing the border.

Historic tax cut and mass deportations

The projected economic impact has also caused great expectations. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the project would reduce the taxes Americans have to pay by 3.7 billion dollars per year.

Considered the largest tax reduction in United States history for middle-class families, workers, and small businesses, it is twice as large as the one Trump approved in 2017 and the one Reagan pushed in the 80s. Taxes on tips and overtime are also eliminated, and tax deductions are created for the purchase of vehicles manufactured entirely in the U.S.

This project also aims to carry out the mass deportations promised during the campaign and necessary to remedy the open border policies maintained by Biden during his 4 years, which have caused so much harm to the country.

Within that objective, the completion of the border wall and the rearmament of the armed forces are also contemplated, which entails an expansion of public spending that, together with the tax reduction, leads to an increase in the fiscal deficit.

The future of the project

The project now heads to the Senate, where Trump has urged that it be approved before July 4, so he can sign it on Independence Day.

Despite political tensions, the Republican government remains aligned with the approval and enactment of the project, which, although it doesn't solve the historic fiscal problem the United States has had since the 90s, will bring a necessary tax cut for the middle class, battered by the previous Democratic government, and will give the White House the resources to reactivate the military machine that led the country to have a dominant position in the world.