Trump might ‘take a look' at possible Elon Musk deportation
'DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.' Donald Trump said he would 'take a look' at the possibility of Elon Musk being deported. Musk has criticised Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' for what he called 'insane spending' and renewed his call for a new political party.
Video Duration 00 minutes 55 seconds 00:55
Video Duration 00 minutes 27 seconds 00:27
Video Duration 00 minutes 51 seconds 00:51
Video Duration 02 minutes 40 seconds 02:40
Video Duration 01 minutes 29 seconds 01:29
Video Duration 01 minutes 28 seconds 01:28
Video Duration 01 minutes 13 seconds 01:13
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
‘Cops in the form of alligators': Trump visits Florida's Alligator Alcatraz
United States President Donald Trump has travelled to the southern tip of Florida to inaugurate a new immigration detention facility, nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz. On Tuesday, Trump joined Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at the remote facility, located in a vast wetland region known as the Everglades. 'This is what you need,' Trump said. 'A lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops in the form of alligators.' The president then quipped about the dangers: 'I wouldn't want to run through the Everglades for long.' The facility, built on the site of the former Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, is designed to help address the need for more beds and more space to carry out Trump's campaign for mass deportation. State Attorney General James Uthmeier first announced Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' two weeks ago, sharing a video on social media that featured bellowing alligators and pulsing rock music to underscore the forbidding nature of the facility. 'This 30-square-mile [78sq-km] area is completely surrounded by the Everglades. It presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don't need to invest that much in the perimeter,' Uthmeier said. 'If people get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.' Its nickname draws from the lore surrounding the Alcatraz federal prison, an isolated, maximum-security detention centre built on a rocky island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay in California. That facility, closed since 1963, gained a reputation for being unescapable — though there were, indeed, five escapees whose fates remain unknown. 'It might be as good as the real Alcatraz site,' Trump said of the Florida site on Tuesday. 'That's a spooky one too, isn't it? That's a tough site.' Alcatraz has long been a source of fascination for Trump, who mused earlier this year about reopening the San Francisco facility, despite cost and feasibility concerns. Similarly, the Alligator Alcatraz facility has spurred criticism for its human rights implications, its location in an environmentally sensitive landscape and its proximity to communities of Miccosukee and Seminole Indigenous peoples. But the Trump administration has embraced its location as a selling point, as it seeks to take a hard-knuckled stance on immigration. 'There is only one road leading in, and the only way out is a one-way flight. It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife in unforgiving terrain,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday. ' This is an efficient and low-cost way to help carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history.' Dressed in a baseball cap that read, 'Gulf of America: Yet another Trump development', Trump flew to Ochopee to inspect the Alligator Alcatraz facility on its opening day. Florida officials have celebrated the fact that it took only eight days to set up the detention centre, which appears to use temporary structures on the pavement of the former airport. Governor DeSantis, who ran against Trump in 2024 for the Republican presidential nomination, said that Alligator Alcatraz would take advantage of the adjacent airstrip to facilitate expedited deportations for migrants. 'Say they already are been ordered to be deported,' DeSantis told reporters on Tuesday. 'You drive them 2,000 feet [667 metres] to the runway. And then they're gone. It's a one-stop shop, and this airport that's been here for a long time is the perfectly secure location.' The head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie, added that the facility will be equipped to hold up to 3,000 migrants — up from an initial estimate of 1,000 — with the potential for expanding the premises. A further 2,000 people will be held at Camp Blanding, a National Guard base on the other side of the state, in northern Florida. A poster on display at Trump's news conference in Ochopee also advertised 1,000 staff members on site, more than 200 security cameras and 28,000 feet — or 8,500 metres — of barbed wire. Guthrie sought to dispel concerns that the facility might be vulnerable to natural disasters like hurricanes. The Everglades, after all, collects overflow from nearby Lake Okeechobee and drains that water into the Florida Bay, making it a region prone to natural flooding. 'As with all state correctional facilities, we have a hurricane plan,' Guthrie said, pointing to the detention centre's 'fully aluminium-frame structure'. He said it was capable of withstanding winds up to 110 miles per hour (177 kilometres per hour), equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane. 'All in all, sir,' Guthrie told Trump, 'this has been a perfect state logistics exercise for this hurricane season.' Still, human rights advocates and environmental groups gathered on the highway leading to Alligator Alcatraz on Tuesday to show their opposition to Trump and his deportation plans. Protesters chanted through megaphones, 'Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go.' Some picket signs read, 'Communities not cages' and 'We say no to Alligator Alcatraz!' The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida released a statement prior to the facility's opening, denouncing the Trump administration for conflating immigration with criminality. The creation of Alligator Alcatraz, it said, was an extension of that mentality. 'The name 'Alligator Alcatraz' reflects an intent to treat people fleeing hardship and trying to build a better life for themselves and their families as dangerous criminals, which is both unnecessary and abusive,' the ACLU branch said. Meanwhile, the Friends of the Everglades, an environmental group, called upon its supporters to contact Governor DeSantis to oppose the 'massive detention center'. It noted that the construction of the airport itself had raised similar environmental concerns nearly 50 years earlier. 'Surrounded by Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve, this land is part of one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country,' the group said in a statement. 'The message is clear: No airports. No rock mines. No prisons. Only Everglades. Let's not repeat the mistakes of the past. This land deserves lasting protection.' Trump, however, argued in Tuesday's news conference that the construction mostly built upon the existing airport. ' I don't think you've done anything to the Everglades,' he said, turning to Governor DeSantis. 'I think you're just enhancing it.' DeSantis himself brushed aside the environmental criticisms as attempts to derail the president's deportation initiative. ' I don't think those are valid and even good faith criticisms because it's not going to impact the Everglades at all,' the governor said, promising no seepage into the surrounding ecosystem. Trump hinted that the Alligator Alcatraz site could be the first of many similar, state-led immigration detention facilities. ' I think we'd like to see them in many states — really, many states,' he said. 'At some point, they might morph into a system where you're gonna keep it for a long time.'
Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Israel kills 102 in Gaza as Trump says he will be ‘firm' with Netanyahu
Israeli forces have killed at least 102 Palestinians in attacks across the Gaza Strip, medical sources told Al Jazeera, even as United States President Donald Trump claimed that he would be 'very firm' with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on ending Israel's war on the Palestinian enclave. Israeli attacks on Tuesday destroyed clusters of homes in the north and south of Gaza, amid fears of yet another looming ground invasion. The attacks come ahead of a planned visit next week by Netanyahu to Washington, DC. Trump said on Tuesday that the Israeli prime minister wanted to end the war on Gaza, even as his forces ramp up attacks in Gaza. Among the Palestinians killed were 16 hungry aid seekers who died when Israeli soldiers attacked crowds at aid distribution hubs run by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to medical sources. They are the latest victims in a wave of daily killings at these sites, which have killed nearly 600 Palestinians since GHF took over limited aid deliveries in Gaza in late May amid a crippling Israeli blockade. More than 170 major international charities and nongovernmental organisations have called for an immediate end to GHF, which rights groups say is operating in violation of international principles. 'Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,' a joint statement read. GHF brings 'nothing but starvation and gunfire to the people of Gaza,' it added. Israeli forces also attacked Gaza City in the north, where it recently issued forced evacuation orders for residents of the area, which has already been bombarded into rubble. At least five people were killed when an Israeli quadcopter struck a gathering of people, local news agency Wafa reported. At least 82 percent of Gaza is now an Israeli-militarised zone or under forced displacement threats, according to the United Nations, warning people have nowhere to go. Ismail, a resident of the Sheikh Radwan suburb of Gaza City, said that newly displaced families were setting up tents in the road, after fleeing from areas north and east of the city and finding no other ground available. 'We don't sleep because of the sounds of explosions from tanks and planes. The occupation is destroying homes east of Gaza, in Jabalia and other places around us,' he said. 'Waiting room for death' In Khan Younis and its al-Mawasi area in the south, at least 12 Palestinians were killed when a home belonging to the al-Zanati family was targeted. Separately, a child was killed and several others wounded when an Israeli air strike struck a displacement camp. Several more were killed in an Israeli attack west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to sources at al-Awda Hospital, while two others were killed and several wounded in a separate attack on a UN-run school sheltering displaced families in the al-Maghazi refugee camp. In a statement, the Israeli army said it attacked Gaza more than 140 times in the past 24 hours, claiming all those hit were 'terror targets' and 'militants'. The attacks come as hospitals in the devastated enclave struggle to cope with the influx of people amid a severe shortage of medical supplies and much-needed fuel. Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said critical services at the al-Shifa Hospital – which has come under attack and besieged several times throughout Israel's assault on Gaza – will soon come to a halt. 'Critical services at al-Shifa Hospital have either stopped or will stop in the coming hours as backup generators are running out of fuel,' Mahmoud said. 'This hospital was once the largest healthcare facility in Gaza, but has slowly turned into a waiting room for death, not just because of the war wounds, but because of a lack of fuel that keeps everything running,' he said. Hope for deal 'next week' The desperate situation in Gaza is increasing the pressure on world leaders to secure a deal that would end the war. Trump continues to maintain that a ceasefire deal is close, and that he hopes one will be secured 'sometime next week', during Netanyahu's White House visit. Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close Netanyahu ally, is in Washington this week for talks with senior officials on a Gaza ceasefire, Iran and other matters. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said pressure by Trump on Israel would be key to any breakthrough in stalled ceasefire efforts. 'We call upon the US administration to atone for its sin towards Gaza by declaring an end to the war,' he said. Al Jazeera's Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, said there is 'cautious optimism' in Israel regarding a ceasefire. 'But there are still a lot of concerns, especially among family members of Israeli captives who have been calling for a deal,' Salhut said, adding that Netanyahu 'has never signalled he wants to end the war'. But Hamas has insisted it would not agree to any deal that does not include a full Israeli withdrawal from the Strip and a permanent halt to the war, which has so far killed more than 56,000 Palestinians since it began in October 2023.
Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump threatens to review subsidies on Musk-owned companies
Amid their public feud over the looming tax bill, US President Donald Trump has suggested that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) review subsidies tied to once ally Elon Musk, including those received by Tesla and SpaceX, in order to save money. 'Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!,' the president said in an early morning post on Trump's social media platform Truth Social. Trump's remarks on Tuesday came after Musk renewed his criticism of the sweeping tax-cut and spending bill — which the White House hopes to sign into law by July 4th — pledging to unseat lawmakers who supported it after campaigning on limiting government spending. Shortly after, Senate Republicans hauled Trump's big tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage Tuesday on the narrowest of margins, pushing past opposition from Democrats and their own GOP ranks after a turbulent overnight session. The outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work at the Capitol, the president's signature legislative priority teetering on the edge of approval or collapse. In the end, that tally was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. Musk and Trump spar over bill Feuding with Trump could create hurdles for Tesla and the rest of Musk's business empire. The US Transportation Department regulates vehicle design and would play a key role in deciding whether Tesla can mass-produce robotaxis without pedals and steering wheels, while Musk's rocket company SpaceX has about $22bn in federal contracts. Trump previously threatened to cut Musk's government contracts when their relationship erupted into an all-out social media brawl in early June over the bill, which non-partisan analysts have said would add about $3 trillion to the US debt. But after weeks of relative silence, Musk rejoined the debate on Saturday as the Senate took up the package, calling it 'utterly insane and destructive' in a post on X. On Monday, he said lawmakers who campaigned on cutting spending but backed the bill 'should hang their heads in shame!' 'And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,' Musk added. The criticism marked a dramatic shift after the billionaire spent nearly $300m on Trump's re-election campaign and led the administration's controversial DOGE initiative. Musk has argued that the legislation would greatly increase the national debt and erase the savings he says he achieved through DOGE. Conflicts of interest Musk was long slammed for his conflicts of interest while leading DOGE — accused of going after government agencies that had open investigations against him and his associated companies. A report from the left-leaning think tank Public Citizen found that 70 percent of the agencies in May found that Musk aimed to make significant cuts to agencies, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which had been investigating Tesla. The Food and Drug Administration, which had been investigating his brain implant chip, Neuralink, and cuts to the Department of Defense, which has been called for by both progressive Democrats as well, comes as SpaceX receives more than $22bn in federal contracts from the agency, according to the report. The market response There are conflicts with Musk within the bill he's actively rallying against. The bill, which Trump eliminated the EV tax credit, Musk originally said would not hurt Tesla. The EV tax credit, however, has helped other carmakers make more affordable electric vehicles for more consumers, and Musk has recently changed his tune. In a note last month, JP Morgan said cutting the EV tax credit could cost Tesla $1.2bn annually. Now the market is reacting as these plans might come to fruition in a matter of days, and amid the president's Truth Social post, spooking investors. Tesla stock tumbled roughly 6 percent as of 11:00am ET (15:00 GMT) and about 13 percent over the last five days. '[This] BFF situation has now turned into a soap opera that remains an overhang on Tesla's stock with investors fearing that the Trump Administration will be more hawkish and show scrutiny around Musk related US government spending related to Tesla/SpaceX and most importantly the autonomous future with the regulatory environment key to the future of Robotaxis and Cybercabs,' Dan Ives, senior analyst at Wedbush Securities said in a note provided to Al Jazeera earlier this morning. Musk's other companies include SpaceX, X Corp, and Neuralink are privately held companies. More broadly the markets erased some of the gains in the last few days. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is down by about a full percentage point and the S&P 500 down 0.3 percent. Dow Jones Industrial Average, on the other hand, is trending upwards, roughly 0.6 percent higher than the market open.
