Trump v Musk is the final battle before a catastrophe
Who needs reality TV when there's the psychodrama of Donald Trump's White House to keep us all entertained? As plot lines go, the falling out between Trump and Elon Musk was perhaps about as predictable as they come, but the sheer venom, speed and combustibility of the divorce has nevertheless proved utterly captivating.
Even the best of Hollywood scriptwriters would have struggled to do better. The stench of betrayal hangs heavy in the air, a veritable revenger's tragedy of a drama.
Beneath it all, however, lies a rather more serious matter than the sight of two of the world's richest and most powerful men breaking up and exchanging insults.
And it's one that afflicts nearly all major high-income economies. Slowly but surely – and at varying speeds – they are all going bust. Yet few of them seem even capable of recognising it, let alone doing anything to correct it.
None more so than the United States, where the Congressional Budget Office last week estimated that Trump's 'one big, beautiful bill' would add a further $US2.4 trillion ($3.7 million) to the national debt by 2034.
Loading
Let's not take sides, but Musk was absolutely right when he described the bill as 'a disgusting abomination'. It taxes far too little, and it spends far too much. It is hard to imagine a more reckless piece of make-believe.
Musk had backed Trump not just out of self-interest – more government contracts, protection of the electric vehicle mandate, personal aggrandisement and so on – but because he genuinely believed he could help stop the US from bankrupting itself.
This has proved a monumental conceit. The $US2 trillion of savings in federal spending he initially promised has turned out to be at most $US200 billion, and probably substantially less once double accounting and wishful thinking is factored in.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Age
35 minutes ago
- The Age
Albanese must make Trump an offer he can't refuse
And it's in that second option, change, that there is an opportunity for Anthony Albanese and the Labor government to cement the deal. Put simply, Albanese needs to make AUKUS great again by super-sizing the deal and offering the Trump administration more than was agreed to under Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden. As a former Defence official, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely, puts it, Trump's view is that the AUKUS deal began to be negotiated during his first term before Biden took over and closed the deal. Instinctively, Trump supports AUKUS because of the advantages it offers the United States in terms of additional basing in the Indo-Pacific theatre but 'it now needs to be bigger than the Biden plan', according to the official. 'We can't just offer them more money [Australia has promised to pay the US about $4.5 billion to help ramp up production of the submarines], it has to be bigger than that,' the official said. Loading 'The way to get support for it is to make Trump feel like it is his again. Australia will need to offer something like better facilities at Henderson [the submarine base in Western Australia]; a second graving yard, though they are expensive, would be ideal as it offers maintenance on US submarines and would take the pressure off Guam and Pearl Harbour.' Top US officials, including AUKUS skeptic Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's Deputy Under Secretary of Defence, have spoken recently about the need for increased submarine availability - that is, for the US fleet submarines to be able to spend more time in the water and less time in maintenance. That's where the graving yard - a dry dock that raises submarines out of the water for more involved maintenance work - comes in. One is planned for the Henderson submarine base already but increasing the offer to two, so that US submarines can be serviced in Australia - and spend more time in the water and on duty - is the sort of offer the US would welcome. Albanese's first face-to-face meeting with Trump is expected to take place next week at the G7 summit in Canada. Between now and then, the prime minister and defence officials will be crafting an offer for the US president to consider while the review takes place. The prime minister will not be willing to cede any ground on the sovereign control of the US-made submarines and nor would he be willing to settle for a deal that sees US submarines rotate through Australian ports but for us to miss out on the submarine capability. But if Albanese comes up with an offer to make AUKUS great again, there will be little to worry about in terms of the subs deal proceeding.
Sydney Morning Herald
35 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Albanese must make Trump an offer he can't refuse
And it's in that second option, change, that there is an opportunity for Anthony Albanese and the Labor government to cement the deal. Put simply, Albanese needs to make AUKUS great again by super-sizing the deal and offering the Trump administration more than was agreed to under Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden. As a former Defence official, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely, puts it, Trump's view is that the AUKUS deal began to be negotiated during his first term before Biden took over and closed the deal. Instinctively, Trump supports AUKUS because of the advantages it offers the United States in terms of additional basing in the Indo-Pacific theatre but 'it now needs to be bigger than the Biden plan', according to the official. 'We can't just offer them more money [Australia has promised to pay the US about $4.5 billion to help ramp up production of the submarines], it has to be bigger than that,' the official said. Loading 'The way to get support for it is to make Trump feel like it is his again. Australia will need to offer something like better facilities at Henderson [the submarine base in Western Australia]; a second graving yard, though they are expensive, would be ideal as it offers maintenance on US submarines and would take the pressure off Guam and Pearl Harbour.' Top US officials, including AUKUS skeptic Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's Deputy Under Secretary of Defence, have spoken recently about the need for increased submarine availability - that is, for the US fleet submarines to be able to spend more time in the water and less time in maintenance. That's where the graving yard - a dry dock that raises submarines out of the water for more involved maintenance work - comes in. One is planned for the Henderson submarine base already but increasing the offer to two, so that US submarines can be serviced in Australia - and spend more time in the water and on duty - is the sort of offer the US would welcome. Albanese's first face-to-face meeting with Trump is expected to take place next week at the G7 summit in Canada. Between now and then, the prime minister and defence officials will be crafting an offer for the US president to consider while the review takes place. The prime minister will not be willing to cede any ground on the sovereign control of the US-made submarines and nor would he be willing to settle for a deal that sees US submarines rotate through Australian ports but for us to miss out on the submarine capability. But if Albanese comes up with an offer to make AUKUS great again, there will be little to worry about in terms of the subs deal proceeding.
Sydney Morning Herald
35 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Trump hails ‘done deal' on China trade. What's actually in it is fuzzy
US President Donald Trump has declared that a deal with China has been done, with Beijing agreeing to supply rare earths and magnets, and the US committing to rolling back restrictions on technology sales and visa curbs on Chinese students. But it remains unclear whether this agreement – hashed out over two days of negotiations in London – represents a final deal between the two sides, or a de-escalation measure with a broader pact still to be pursued. 'We made a great deal with China. We're very happy with it,' Trump told reporters before a Wednesday evening (Thursday AEST) performance at Washington's Kennedy Centre. 'We have everything we need, and we're going to do very well with it. And hopefully they are too.' The full details of the agreement have not been released, but it appears to be limited to winding back the recent punitive measures that the two sides had slapped on each other's economies since Trump kicked off his global trade war in April. Loading This included an agreement by Beijing to temporarily restore rare earth licences to allow shipments to continue – but The Wall Street Journal reported China has imposed a six-month limit on the licences, signalling the fragility of the agreement. Rare earths are critical for the manufacturing of many products, including electrical vehicles, wind turbines and defence technology. The agreement did not seem to address other key issues that were the rationale for the trade war, including China's massive trade surplus with the US or its role as a chemical manufacturer in the fentanyl crisis. Trump's declaration of a deal has been met with scepticism by many analysts.
