Bessent Gives Blunt Response to Elon Musk Attacks on Trump Bill
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Treasury Secretary gave a blunt reply when asked to respond to Elon Musk's criticism of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill.
"I admire Elon's leadership on rockets. I will take care of the finances," Bessent told Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning.
Musk has attacked the "porky" bill—the tax-cutting centerpiece of President Donald Trump's domestic agenda—saying the trillions of dollars of additional federal debt push the U.S. toward bankruptcy.
Bessent and Musk, who until May spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), clashed in the White House.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, was a close ally of Trump until the two had a dramatic and public falling out over the bill.
This is a developing article. Updates to follow.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump's citizenship database could become a tool for voter suppression
Happy Tuesday. Here's your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week's top stories from the intersection of technology and politics. In recent months, there's been widespread speculation over the Trump administration's reported plans to work with controversial tech company Palantir to compile a massive database of Americans' personal information. Now we have a bit of clarity on how some of that data could be used. NPR reported Monday that the administration has developed a national citizenship data system that it wants states to use to crack down on noncitizen voters — a fascination of Donald Trump's, despite the lack of evidence that such voters have affected the result of any U.S. election. One wonders whether and how this tool might be used to fuel Trump's conspiracy theories. Experts have raised concerns about the accuracy of the data being used, as well as whether this administration — which is currently trying to ramp up efforts to strip some Americans of their citizenship — can be trusted to deploy this tool ethically. Read more at NPR. Trump did the bidding of large tech companies when he said Friday that he was ending trade negotiations with Canada in response to the country's digital services tax on tech companies — foreign and domestic — that was set to go into effect on the last day of June. Canada then rescinded the tax. Read more at CNBC. After a tentative deal appeared to have been reached between Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., it appears a 10-year ban on states instituting regulations around artificial intelligence has been dropped from Republicans' budget bill. For now. Read more at Time. One of the top executives at Tesla — Omead Afshar, who has been called Elon Musk's 'fixer' by The Wall Street Journal — has reportedly left the company. Tesla has been mired in a sales slump and ongoing tumult, partially stemming from backlash over Musk's role in crafting Trump's policies. Read more at Forbes. The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been cozying up to Trump, in an effort that the newspaper frames as an attempt to secure funding for Bezos' aerospace company, Blue Origin, and capitalize on Trump's rift with Musk. Read more at The Wall Street Journal. Republicans have sought to crack the whip on companies that choose not to advertise on right-wing media platforms — in some cases, because said platforms have been known to promote hate speech. The Trump administration has made clear that it has no issue with holding up corporate mergers in order to extract political concessions, and that seems to have been the case last week when Trump's handpicked FTC chairman announced that he was approving a merger of large advertising firms on the condition that the newly formed organization doesn't take part in any ad boycotts based on political or ideological viewpoints. Read more at Ars Technica. As Americans look for ways to navigate a country in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — many of them masked — are seizing people off the streets and placing them in detention facilities, one developer has launched an app, ICEBlock, that tips people off as to where ICE agents have been sighted. The Trump administration, which has sought to crack down on reporting on ICE raids, clearly isn't happy about this creation and responded — in dictatorial fashion — by threatening the app's developer with DOJ scrutiny and even threatening CNN with prosecution for reporting on the app. Read more at CNN. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Chabria: Elon Musk learns that bullies aren't your friends. Now what?
The thing about bullies is they don't have real friends. They have lieutenants, followers and victims — sometimes all three rolled into one. Most of us learn this by about third grade, when parents and hard knocks teach us how to figure out whom you can trust, and who will eat you for lunch. Elon Musk, at age 54 with $400 billion in the bank, just learned it this week — when his feud with our bully-in-chief devolved into threats that the president will have the South African native deported. Speaking about Musk losing government support for electric cars, Trump this week warned that Musk "could lose a lot more than that." "We might have had to put DOGE on Elon," Trump said, referencing Musk's cost-cutting effort called the Department of Government Efficiency. "DOGE is the monster that ... might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn't that be terrible?" Yes, I know. Schadenfreude is real. It's hard not to sit back with a bit of "told ya" satisfaction as we watch Musk — who has nearly single-handedly demolished everything from hurricane tracking to international aid for starving children — realize that Trump doesn't love him. Read more: Trump threatens to sic DOGE on Musk as feud over megabill escalates But because Musk is the richest man in the world, who also now understands he has the power to buy votes if not elections, and Trump is grabbing power at every opportunity, there's too much at stake to ignore the pitiful interpersonal dynamics of these two tantrumming titans. What does it have to do with you and me, you ask? Well, there's a potential fallout that is worrisome: The use of denaturalization against political enemies. In case you've been blessedly ignorant of the Trump-Musk meltdown, let me recap. Once upon a time, nine months ago, Musk and Trump were so tight, it literally had Musk jumping for joy. During a surprise appearance at a Butler, Pa., political rally (the same place where Trump was nearly assassinated), Musk leaped into the air, arms raised, belly exposed, with the pure delight of simply being included as a follower, albeit one who funneled $290 million into election coffers. Back then, Musk had no concern that it wasn't his own dazzling presence that got him invited places. By January, Musk had transitioned to lieutenant, making up DOGE, complete with cringey swag, like a lonely preteen dreaming up a secret club in his tree house. Only this club had the power to dismantle the federal government as we know it and create a level of social destruction whose effects won't be fully understood for generations. Serious villain energy. But then he got too full of himself, the No. 1 sin for a lieutenant. Somewhere along the line, Trump noticed (or perhaps someone whispered in the president's ear) that Musk was just as powerful as he is — maybe more. Cue the fallout, the big "see ya" from the White House (complete with a shoving match with another Trump lieutenant) and Musk's sad realization that, like everyone else in a bully's orbit, he was being used like a Kleenex and was never going to wind up anyplace but the trash. So Musk took to his social media platform to start bashing on Trump and the "Big Beautiful Bill," which passed in the Senate on Tuesday, clearing the way for our national debt to skyrocket while the poor and middle class suffer. "If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day. Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE," Musk threatened, conjuring up a new political party the same way he ginned up DOGE. Musk even promised to bankroll more elections to back candidates to oust Trumpians who voted for the bill. "And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth," Musk wrote. Presumably before he leaves for Mars. It was those direct — and plausible — threats to Trump's power that caused the president to turn his eye of Sauron on Musk, flexing that he might consider deportation for this transgression of defiance. It might seem entertaining if Musk, who the Washington Post reported may have violated immigration rules, were booted from our borders, but it would set a chilling precedent that standing up to this president was punishable by a loss of citizenship. Because the threat of deporting political enemies didn't start with Musk, and surely would not end with him. For days, Trumpians have suggested that New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen in 2018, should be deported as well, for the crime of backing policies that range in description from progressive to socialist to communist (pretty sure the ones labeling them communism don't actually know what communism is). On Tuesday, Trump weighed in on Mamdani. Read more: Chabria: Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump have a lot in common. California should pay attention 'A lot of people are saying he's here illegally,' Trump said, which of course, no one is except for Trump's attack dogs. 'We're going to look at everything." Denaturalization for immigration fraud — basically lying or misrepresenting stuff on your official application — is nothing new. Obama did it, as did Trump in his first term, and it has a long history before that. But combing the documents of political enemies looking for pretexts to call fraud is chilling. "This culture of weaponizing the law to go after enemies, it's something that is against our founding principles," Ben Radd told me. He's a professor of law and an expert in political science at UCLA. "It is very much an abuse of executive power, but [Trump] gets away with it until there's a legal challenge," Radd said. While Musk and Mamdani have the power to fight Trump in a court of law, if it comes to it, other naturalized citizens may not. There are about 25 million such citizens in the United States — people who immigrated in the "right" way, whatever that means, jumped through the hoops, said their pledge of fealty to this country and now are Americans. Or so they thought. In reality, under Trump, they are mostly Americans, as long as they don't make him mad. The threat of having citizenship stripped for opposing the administration is powerful enough to silence many, in a moment when many immigrants feel a personal duty and impetus to speak out to protect family and friends. Aiming that threat at Musk may be the opportunistic anger of a bully, and even seem amusing. But it's an intimidation meant to show that no one is too powerful to be punished by this bully, and therefore, no one is safe. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Fight brewing over New Jersey budget's quest for state health benefit savings
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin on the Assembly floor on June 30, 2025 (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor) Another fight is brewing over New Jersey's already beleaguered public worker health plans. A provision in the $58.8 billion budget Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Monday night calls for the state or its unions to identify $100 million of savings within the state part of the State Health Benefits Program for the first half of 2026. It spurred alarm among public-sector unions and a promised fix from Assembly Democrats, all of whom are on the ballot this fall. 'It's clear that there is no immediate need to require state workers to pay more for their health benefits,' said Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Camden). New Jersey's public health plans are in distress amid rising health care costs, spiking prescription drug utilization, frequent deadlocks in Plan Design Committees that set coverage rules, and soaring premiums spurred by — and spurring — municipal departures. Treasury in May warned local government workers' public plan was at risk of complete collapse as more and more municipalities with larger, healthier workforces leave for cheaper private options. The state workers' plan is shielded from that dynamic because its workers cannot choose private alternatives, but it too faces the threat of more premium increases. In 2024, the state workers' plan lost roughly $113 million, and it is loaning funds to mitigate costs in the local workers' plan, which Treasury has said could not repay its debts without a mid-year rate increase in 2025. Union leaders say hospital pricing is the main driver of growing health benefit costs. 'Until you control the costs, you're not controlling the dollars. When hospitals are getting paid four to five times as [much as] Medicare for service because they allow the state's vendors to negotiate in their interests instead of directly negotiating with them,' said Kevin Lyons, executive director of the New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association. Lyons, a member of the State Health Benefits Program's Plan Design Committee, said New Jersey also could seek to impose caps on the growth of health services. The state's actuary in March reported per-visit costs had increased 7% for outpatient services and 12% for outpatient emergency visits in the 12 months preceding October 2024, with similar increases for behavioral health visits, lab work, and primary care appointments. Per-visit costs for urgent care declined by 8% over that period. Administration officials appear to favor less generous health plans. Plans under the State Health Benefits Program typically cover between 93% and 98% of health care costs. Lowering that number — called an actuarial value — could shave off a significant portion of the state's health benefit spending, which is expected to total roughly $2.9 billion in fiscal 2026. Health benefit committees are due to approve rates for the 2026 plan year later this month. The state's actuaries will make their recommendations public during committee hearings next week. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) in a statement following Monday's budget vote said legislators last week had learned of an additional $200 million in revenue that could be used to forestall the $100 million cut to the State Health Benefits Program. 'Although I firmly believe New Jersey's public worker health plans need significant reforms to control costs, the funds allow us the opportunity to find ways to reduce those costs, while treating workers fairly,' Coughlin said, adding his chamber would hold rare hearings July hearings on public worker health benefits. But it's not clear what revenue he's referring to. A spokesperson for Assembly Democrats initially pointed to revenue growth in taxes on energy sales and the state's pass-through business alternative income tax, but those figures were unveiled in mid-May. The spokesperson then deferred to Coughlin and Greenwald's statements, which noted the windfall but made no mention of its source. Overall revenue projections for the state's general fund were $247.9 million higher in the budget signed Monday than they were in the budget Murphy presented in February. The budget's $305 million increase to a $250 million transfer from the state's Debt Defeasance and Prevention Fund Murphy proposed in February more than covers the difference. Lawmakers have limited ability to use gross income tax and other Property Tax Relief Fund revenues to reduce state worker health benefit costs. The state's constitution requires those monies be used 'exclusively for the purpose of reducing or offsetting property taxes.' A Treasury spokesperson did not return a request for comment. Spokespeople for the governor did not address the discrepancy. 'Labor and management can work together over the next five months to find real, sustainable health care savings that ultimately help both workers and taxpayers. With public health benefit plans facing astronomical rate increases, all sides must roll up their sleeves to do the hard work necessary to address this problem,' said Natalie Hamilton, a Murphy spokeswoman. The proposed cut represents about 3.4% the state's expected spending on its employees' health benefits in the current July-to-June fiscal year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
