
Marjorie Taylor Greene split with Trump over 'big beautiful bill'
Elon Musk has loudly been bashing the bill online, calling it a pork-filled abomination while Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has also skewered the bill for growing the debt. Since voting for president Donald Trump's signature 'big, beautiful bill' legislative package at the end of May, Greene has since renounced her support for the package. In a stunning reversal, the Georgia Republican has said that a portion of the massive bill that would force states to cede power to the federal government when it comes to artificial intelligence is so rotten that she no longer can support it.
Now as the bill is before the Senate, Greene is urging lawmakers in the upper-chamber to take out the AI regulations. 'This is an incredible clause, and I hope the Senate fixes it, and it's so important, and I believe it's so important that it's worth saying that if it doesn't come out, I don't think I can vote for it,' Greene told the Daily Mail in a phone call Wednesday. Her issue is not with the president or GOP leadership though, she claims.
'It's incredibly important to clarify that there's no daylight between President Trump and I,' she added, noting that the bill should be about securing the border and cutting taxes and not about regulating how states oversee artificial intelligence. Greene has already told the White House's Office of Legislative Affairs and Speaker Mike Johnson about her opposition to the AI regulations. The bill specifically prohibits states from 'limiting, restricting, or otherwise regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems entered into interstate commerce' for the next ten years.
Taking her grievances to the House floor, Greene delivered an impassioned speech about her opposition to the bill on Wednesday. Her broadside is the latest in a GOP civil war that is brewing over the measure. 'This clause would take away state rights to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years,' Greene shared on the floor. She explained how the federal legislation would hamper state's ability to self-regulate the nascent technology, posing a threat to federalism. 'I think federalism is something that we must always protect, and I warn against the dangers of protecting a tech industry where we have no idea the future of what this industry will hold.'
MTG reasoned that since AI is 'rapidly developing' it is unwise to shackle state's ability to regulate the space. 'When we look to the future, we cannot take away states rights to regulate or make laws to protect the people in their state, or to regulate businesses that operate in their state. That would be destroying the very foundation of this country, which is federalism,' she added. 'We must always limit federal power and protect state power.' If the GOP goes ahead with the bill and its AI measure, the GOP and Trump could open themselves up to attacks over federalism.
'I don't want to be the Congress that destroys federalism, and I don't think President Trump wants to be accused of that as well,' she told the Daily Mail. Greene's opposition to the measure comes as it has faced increasing scrutiny from Republicans. Though the Georgia Republican voted for the measure when it passed out of the House on May 22, she admitted that she did not read the entire bill, which is over 1,000 pages. The shocking admission came as she announced her opposition to the measure unless the AI-related provision is taken out. That opposition may prove to be a headache for GOP leadership as the bill may get sent back to the lower chamber after the Senate makes revisions to the package.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (pictured), R-S.D., and Trump have said they want the Senate to finish tweaking the Big Beautiful Bill Act before July 4th. Once the upper chamber finishes its edits, the bill will likely head back to the House for them to sign off on the changes. This is politically tenuous for Speaker Mike Johnson, who was able to just barely pass the measure the first go around. The measure passed 215 - 214 - 1, meaning if Johnson loses a single vote, the entire Trump-backed package is at risk. If the bill needs a second vote in the House, MTG's opposition could mean that the bill won't move on to the president's desk for final authorization.
Other conservatives in the House have also expressed frustration with the bill, including many dissatisfied House Freedom Caucus members, who generally want deeper cuts to social programs like Social Security and Medicaid. If the Senate does not scrape the AI measure before sending the bill back to the House for another vote, MTG says she will withhold her support for it. 'With this warning, I urge all of my colleagues that when the House gets to vote on the one big, beautiful bill again after it leaves the Senate, that we make sure we protect federalism,' Greene said Wednesday. 'At the same time [I] urge our colleagues in the Senate to pull this clause out of the one big, beautiful bill,' she concluded.
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The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Between ‘rollover UK' and ‘retaliatory China': will EU hardball secure trade deal with US?
In Brussels' corridors of power, quiet optimism is growing that the EU's hardball strategy to secure a US trade deal is working. While Britain quickly moved to try to cushion the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs with a deal agreed last month – and US-Chinese relations are a tit-for-tat situation – the EU has taken a different stance. 'We are positioning ourselves between 'rollover UK' and 'retaliatory China',' said a Brussels source. The stakes are not just the £706bn in transatlantic trade between the EU and US but the fallout from what diplomats and businesses say is a dangerous assault on the global rules-based system that governs western democracy. 'The only thing that appeals to Trump is power. Amid all the nausea and uncertainty here, there is a significant chance the EU will go the whole way and not do a deal,' said a diplomat in the Belgian capital. 'If the EU doesn't stand up to Trump or demand the rigours of rules, the question will be: what is left of the international rules based system?' the source added, noting the risk to employment rights, free speech, social welfare and public care. The EU's steadfast strategy is high-risk, and has weeks to play out before the 90-day pause in Trump's threat to impose 20% tariffs on all EU imports ends in July. He has already slapped a 10% tariff on all exports, with more on autos and steel, which this week went to 50%. 'If in the end, if we are the only ones on the pitch, people will start to say we should have been more like the Chinese,' said one EU official, with demands for retaliation expected to arise 'very quickly from member states'. The biggest pothole in what threatens to be a bumpy road ahead may be a Nato summit on 24 June when Trump, who has shown visceral antipathy towards the EU, may find fault in what he considers freeloading allies. Right now, EU member states are united in their resolve not to capitulate in the face of his demands, which include the removal of non-tariff barriers such as food standards. 'What the US is doing has brought us together, and there's a sense of urgency of that cooperation within the 27 that is quite important,' says one diplomat. There is even a growing acceptance that US tariffs of more than 10% are a long-term reality. 'Ideally less than 10%, so it doesn't look like we have rolled over,' says one Brussels official. Before Trump took office for the second time the average tariff on US imports in the EU was about 2.5%. The EU's chief negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, said on multiple occasions this week that he was 'optimistic' a deal would be done, but back at base, trade war preparations continue. 'We are keeping the gun on the shelf. We don't want to use it, but we want them to know it is there,' said one diplomat. Šefčovič said on Friday he had held another call with the US secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick. 'Our time and effort fully invested, as delivering forward-looking solutions remains a top EU priority. Staying in permanent contact,' he wrote on X. Meanwhile, twin talks took place this week in Paris at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and in Washington with a team of EU officials led by Tomas Baert, trade adviser to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. Those talks helped 'clean the slate, clear the table', Šefčovič told a conference organised by the European Policy Centre, a thinktank, on Thursday in Brussels. He added that he had also discussed the continued threat of sectoral tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors with the US trade representative Jamieson Greer in Paris. Šefčovič said his message was that the US and the EU had mutual interests in re-industrialisation on both sides of the Atlantic, and in minimising China's unstoppable rise in key sectors such as electric vehicles and steel. 'Any obstacle in the middle of the Atlantic would simply make them less competitive and more vulnerable. This is the diplomatic, political but also very technical discussions we are having,' he said. Up to now negotiations have been somewhat hampered by the parallel universe occupied by the US president, and White House and EU officials. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Last month, Trump, out of the blue, threatened and then unthreatened to slap a 50% tariff on all EU imports, claiming Brussels was dragging its feet 'to put it mildly'. 'This came as a surprise to Maroš, because he had been in talks since February,' said one source. 'But because this is an imperial court, it is the emperor who will decide when talks are happening.' The volatility in the transatlantic relationship on European business is unprecedented. 'I have been here 10 years and I have never seen this level of nervousness, not during the pandemic, not after the invasion of Ukraine,' said a director at one trade group representing dozens of multinationals in Brussels, who declined to be named. Luisa Santos, the deputy director general at Confederation of Business Europe, which represents 42 national business federations, said trade would, like water, find its course but investment could prove the collateral damage. 'The whole basis of trade is WTO [World Trade Organization] rules,' she said. 'We agreed on the rules and they were accepted the consequences. Now the rule is the power game: 'I will impose what I think is best for me, and the bigger players with more power determine the rules and that is a huge change.' Santos added: 'I think the biggest shock in Europe is that we were supposed to be the traditional allies. But now we are basically put on the same basket as China.' Kyle Martin, the vice-president of European affairs at the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, whose members include Boeing and Airbus, said tariffs would end a 45-year-old US-EU agreement that aviation construction, which relies on a global supply chain, was duty-free. A Boeing 787 gets its front fuselage from Italy, its wings from Japan and doors from France, with assembly at home in Seattle, he pointed out. 'I don't see this having a positive [outcome] for either Boeing or Airbus or any other manufacturer. Everyone will be impacted because everyone's got an interconnected supply chain.' But while negotiations with the US continue, new EU agreements with India, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, South Africa and Australia are also on the cards. Ultimately it is the profound shift in the world order that is bothering many in Brussels. The US was behaving 'like a very unevolved state', said one EU source, like a developing country that relied on customs duties for national revenue in the absence of income tax, corporate tax and VAT. 'Maybe this is what Trump wants, a smaller, leaner weaker state where everybody has to pay for themselves,' they said.


The Independent
37 minutes ago
- The Independent
As World Pride flows straight into the military parade, DC officials say they're ready for anything
Officials in the nation's capital generally express full confidence in their ability to handle large, complicated events and huge crowds. As Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith recently put it, 'We are really the experts in this space when it comes to crowd management.' Over the next eight days. in the sprawling city that is the nation's capital, that expertise will be put to the test. The District of Columbia is playing host to massive events on back-to-back weekends. Two wildly divergent events each carry the extra possibility of counterprotests or disruption, adding a layer of anxiety to the usual logistical hassles. June 7 and 8 brings the peak of the two-week World Pride celebration with two days of mass gatherings — a parade on Saturday and a rally and protest March Sunday. Both days culminate in a giant street party and concert covering a multi-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue. Then as cleanup from World Pride wraps up, preparations will begin for the much-hyped June 14 military parade to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army (and the 79th birthday of a certain White House resident). And while D.C. officials can claim they have seen it all before in terms of mass events, June 14 will present some genuinely unique challenges — actual 60-ton M1 Abrams battle tanks and Paladin self-propelled howitzers rolling through the city streets. The cost of potential repairs is a concern D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has gone out of her way to stay on the good side of President Donald Trump, has not disguised her discomfort at the prospect of armored vehicles chewing up the downtown asphalt. And she is still openly leery, despite assurances from the military that it will cover the costs of all repairs, and a plan to install protective plates at intersections. 'I think that there has been time and attention paid to how to move this heavy equipment in a way that doesn't hurt (roads),' Bowser said last week. "I remain concerned about it. If they are rendered unusable, we have to make them usable and then go seek our money from the feds.' For each of these high-profile weekends, police and security officials are on alert for any sort of counterprotest or attempts to disrupt the proceedings. Trump's campaign against transgender protections and oft-stated antipathy for drag shows have fueled fears of violence against World Pride participants; at one point earlier this spring, rumors circulated that the Proud Boys were planning to disrupt this weekend's celebrations. Those fears have proven to be unfounded so far, although one D.C. queer bar was vandalized last week. With those fears in mind, organizers will install security fencing around the entire two-day street party. 'We wanted to provide some extra safety measures (based on) concerns from some people in the community,' said Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance. The bi-annual World Pride has, in the past, drawn as many as 1 million visitors to its host city. It remains to be seen just how large the final influx will be for the nation's capital. Early hotel reservation numbers had indicated that attendance would be down somewhat, a possible result of international participants staying away out of either fear of harassment or in protest of Trump's policies. But Elliott Ferguson, president of Destination D.C. — which tracks hotel reservations — told reporters last week they were witnessing 'a surge at the last minute' of people coming in for the final World Pride weekend. Protests planned for military parade The military parade, meanwhile, is expected to draw as many as 200,000 people, according to Army estimates. A large counterprotest against Trump — dubbed the No Kings rally — will march down 16th Street to within sight of the White House but isn't expected to get close enough to the military parade to disrupt things. Lindsey Appiah, the deputy mayor for public safety, acknowledges that longstanding plans for the Army's 250th birthday 'got a lot bigger on short notice' when Trump got involved. 'You have to be very flexible, very nimble. Things change and you have plans and then those plans change," she said. "I think we've really learned to do that.' Appiah points out an example of the District's capabilities from early this year, when the city hosted the congressional certification of Trump's electoral win, the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter and then Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20 — all in the span of two weeks and in the midst of a huge winter storm. D.C. officials also point out that the logistical challenge facing the capital city doesn't actually end on June 14. The military parade will be followed by three matches for the FIFA Club World Cup starting on June 18 and running through June 26, which will then roll straight into preparations for the traditional July 4 fireworks extravaganza. Clint Osborn, head of the city's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, said the summer planning schedule "feels like Super Bowl after Super Bowl after Super Bowl.'


Daily Mail
41 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Musk's attack on Trump sparks fears that 'Dark MAGA conspiracy' is coming true
A chilling conspiracy theory claims to know the reason behind Elon Musk 's attacks on President Donald Trump, saying it was his plan all along. Since the 2024 presidential campaign, Musk has been seen wearing and promoting the 'Dark MAGA' cap, a black-colored version of Trump's famously red Make America Great Again apparel. However, believers of the 'Dark MAGA conspiracy' claim this was a signal of Musk's real intentions for joining the campaign despite not having any concrete evidence of a plot existing. The conspiracy claims that a secret group of tech elites is plotting to undermine Trump and turn the US into a 'giant company' run by a new CEO that they would hand-pick. This theory started to gain more attention on social media after JD Vance was chosen as the vice presidential candidate, despite reports that Trump was leaning towards other choices, including Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. Now, as Musk has fired off shocking claims about Trump, including that the president is deeply connected to Jeffrey Epstein and should be replaced by Vice President Vance, the Dark MAGA conspiracy appears to be coming true in real time. Among the tech bosses allegedly part of this plot are Musk and Peter Thiel, the founders of PayPal. Conspiracy theorists believe that the group's ultimate goal is to dismantle American democracy and transform the country into a 'corporate monarchy' run by tech billionaires. Both Musk and Thiel wanted Vance chosen as Trump's running mate last year, according to The Daily Beast. Moreover, their multi-million-dollar campaign war chest for Trump was allegedly tied to the president picking the Ohio senator. According to the Dark MAGA conspiracy, however, the so-called 'PayPal Mafia' and Silicon Valley billionaires have been secretly grooming Vance to eventually replace Trump. Despite the claims Vance is a corporate plant, the vice president came to Trump's defense on Friday morning as he slammed 'corporate media lies' about the president. 'There are many lies the corporate media tells about President Trump. One of the most glaring is that he's impulsive or short-tempered,' he posted on X. 'Anyone who has seen him operate under pressure knows that's ridiculous.' Vance added in a follow up post that 'it's (maybe) the single biggest disconnect between fake media perception and reality.' Also a part of the Dark MAGA (also called the Dark Enlightenment) conspiracy is Curtis Yarvin, a former computer coder and self-proclaimed 'Dark Elf' philosopher. Writing under the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug in a 2008 blog, Yarvin advocated for a dictator-led monarchy to replace democracy in the US. Yarvin's ideas, once fringe, have allegedly gained a following among tech giants like Musk, Thiel, and billionaire software engineer Marc Andreessen. Yarvin compared democracy to 'outdated software' and called for the creation of a tech-driven government where the federal workforce was significantly slashed, elections became obsolete, and billionaires made all decisions for the country. The parallels between Musk's work with the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Dark MAGA conspiracy appear eerily similar. Under Musk's leadership, DOGE has been credited with slashing over 250,000 government jobs since the start of the Trump Administration on January 20. That same day, Dark MAGA conspiracy theorists took note of the eye-opening sight of several tech billionaires in attendance at President Trump's second inauguration. The guests included Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The alleged plot has only gained more attention this week, as Musk's sudden falling out with President Trump reached a new level of animosity. The clash began over Musk's opposition to Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' which will reportedly add trillions to the national deficit and wipe out the savings from DOGE. The fight quickly devolved into a string of personal insults between the two men, prompting the president to consider terminating all of Musk's multi-billion-dollar government contracts for SpaceX and Tesla. 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,' Trump said on Truth Social. Musk fired back right away, saying that SpaceX would begin 'decommissioning' its Dragon spacecraft immediately in response to the threat. The spacecraft is vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Steve Bannon, a former senior adviser to Trump during his first administration and a fierce critic of Elon Musk, quickly weighed in during his 'War Room Live' broadcast on Thursday. He urged the president to seize SpaceX from the billionaire entrepreneur and invoke the Defense Production Act - a national security measure dating back to the Korean War era - to seize control of the company. has reached out to Musk and SpaceX for comment on the status of the Dragon program. In this grim conspiracy, Trump is painted as an unwitting 'messenger of chaos,' with Musk acting as the true director of a tech-driven dystopian society. 'Some of Washington's biggest institutions have been briefed about Dark Enlightenment. They are taking it seriously,' The Daily Beast claimed on Friday. Ironically, Democrats have continued to claim that President Trump is a threat to democracy because of his policies on immigration and government spending. However, the Dark MAGA conspiracy alleges that the real threat comes from those seeking to unseat the 47th president and replace him with a tech-backed CEO. On Friday, Musk continued his assault on the president, re-sharing a stunning clip showing Trump partying with Jeffrey Epstein. The clip was from 1992, showing the president and notorious pedophile surrounded by women and dancing at a club. The footage was posted by X user Natalie Danelishen, before Musk re-shared it with an inquisitive faced emoji.