Scott Bessent Praises Elon Musk For ‘Fantastic Job’ In Helping Downsize US Government Spending: Report

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This comes after a public fallout between Musk and President Donald Trump, after the Tesla CEO criticized the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” over spending concerns.

  • Bessent stated in the interview that Musk set the Trump administration on a path to reduce the federal government’s deficit by cutting wasteful expenditures.
  • Musk led the Trump administration’s newly instituted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in an attempt to cut down excessive government spending before exiting in May.
  • Bessent also noted that the federal deficit for fiscal year 2025 had declined compared to fiscal 2024.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday reportedly stated that Tesla Inc. (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk did a “fantastic job” in helping downsize the United States government.

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During an interview with CNBC, Bessent discussed the U.S. government’s fiscal deficit and stated that federal spending has decreased over the past two quarters. “We’re going to keep it down,” he added.

Praise For Musk

Bessent stated in the interview that Musk set the Trump administration on a path to cut the federal government’s deficit by slashing wasteful expenditure. To recall, Musk led the Trump administration’s newly instituted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in an attempt to cut down excessive government spending, before exiting in May.

“Elon and I were very passionate about what needed to be done with the government. He did a fantastic job in setting a trajectory for downsizing government, which we’ve continued,” Bessent said in the interview.

This comes after a public fallout between Musk and President Donald Trump, following the Tesla CEO’s criticism of the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” over spending concerns.

Declining Deficit

Bessent also noted that the federal deficit for fiscal year 2025 had declined compared to fiscal 2024. He added that, due to a combination of a lower fiscal deficit and the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) growing during the year, the deficit-to-GDP ratio decreased from 6.4% in 2024 to 5.9% in 2025.

“I think we can continue bringing that down,” he added.

The U.S. government shutdown has now entered its 35th day.

Meanwhile, U.S. equities were down in Tuesday’s pre-market trade. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was down 1.1%, the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) declined 1.48%, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) rose 0.63%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘extremely bearish’ territory.

The iShares iShares U.S. Technology ETF (IEF) was up 0.07% at the time of writing.

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