Elon Musk trashes Donald Trump's big tax bill
Americast
BBC
4.2 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 4 June 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill is causing a rift with Elon Musk after the Tesla founder labelled it a "disgusting abomination". If passed, it would add trillions of dollars onto America?s deficit over the next decade.
After the bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives it now faces an even tougher passage in the Senate after senior figures like Rand Paul and Ron Johnson called for spending cuts to go further.
Justin Webb and Anthony Zurcher assess why Elon Musk has such a problem with the bill and whether his criticism will embolden other Republicans to speak out. Could U.S. debt spiral out of control, and what impact would that have on the world economy?
HOSTS: ? Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter ? Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent
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This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's porkfield and it's disgusting. In fact, it's a disgusting abomination. That is Elon Musk's take on the centrepiece legislation of Donald Trump's second term. It sent Republicans into a bit of a spin. The big beautiful bill, as it's officially called, at least by the President, is a big story this week, |
| 0:25.6 | adding trillions to the national debt, sparking rouse about how much self-imposed national debt America should be putting itself in |
| 0:34.6 | and what the US economy might do as a result of this bill. Is it a ticking time bomb? |
| 0:41.4 | Is it going to bankrupt America? Welcome to AmeriCast. |
| 0:47.3 | AmeriCast from BBC News. You're gambling with lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War III. |
| 0:55.5 | President Trump's message is very simple. We are done being taken advantage of. |
| 0:59.3 | Mr. President, in the name of our God, have mercy upon the people. We're scared now. |
| 1:04.8 | Are you supportive of these onesies? I'm supportive of vaccines. |
| 1:08.4 | What is happening? Like, this is not America. |
| 1:11.3 | This is a terrible nightmare. |
| 1:12.8 | This is what victory feels like. |
| 1:16.2 | Yeah. |
| 1:26.5 | Hello, it's Anthony in Arlington, Virginia. |
| 1:29.4 | And it's Justin in Bath in the English West Country. |
| 1:32.9 | And I'm not giving too much away, Anthony, if I say, I'm in a room where you soon will be yourself. |
| 1:38.9 | I know. I'm looking over your shoulder, checking it out to make sure. |
| 1:42.2 | I mean, you're only the latest American friend to come here, but you're very welcome. |
| 1:45.8 | You're not the first American to come to Bath or Bath, as you'll doubtless call it. |
| 1:50.0 | That is also the case. |
| 1:51.8 | But anyway, you will be welcome when you get here, which isn't for a little bit, is it? |
| 1:56.5 | Look, let's start with Elon Musk, because we've got an awful lot to fit in and we've got some quite |
| 2:01.7 | serious objections to this bill that are coming from members of Congress and from various |
... |
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