Elon Musk reacts to his brother's criticism of Donald Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill'
has echoed the concerns of his brother Kimbal Musk over the future of American energy independence and about the impact of President
Donald Trump
's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' on renewable energy growth. Kimbal Musk criticised the new legislation, arguing that it would halt the expansion of
solar and wind power
in the United States. He asserted that the bill's provisions would necessitate the construction of 25 new natural gas plants per year to compensate for the renewable energy growth that would be lost.
"American Energy Independence is critical to our national security. The new bill will drive solar and wind energy growth to zero. Zero," he said.
Kimbal Musk fired 'China warning' in terms of energy consumption
He also questioned where the US will get enough energy to compete with China.
"We will need 25 new natural gas plants built per year to replace our amazingly successful solar and wind energy growth that this bill will kill. Do the math. It takes 5-7 years to build a natural gas plant. The AI race will be won or lost in the next few years. Our energy grids are already collapsing," he added.
"We need more energy now, not in 2032. American Energy Independence goes away because of a grudge against solar? Come on guys, we can do better than this," Kimbal Musk noted.
His post got a reply from Jesse Peltan, co-founder and CTO of HODL Ranch, who shared a graph that showed how China's solar and nuclear energy is better than the US.
"They don't understand," said Peltan. Musk shared Peltan's post, saying, "They sure don't."
The bill is argued to effectively roll back key
clean energy tax incentives
established by previous administrations, particularly under the Inflation Reduction Act. It is also argued that it will accelerate the phase-out of existing clean electricity production and investment tax credits for solar, wind, and other renewables.
As per draft bill, solar and wind incentives cuts will be 60% of their value in 2026 and end by 2028. Under current law, the phase-out will not begin until 2032.
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First Post
a few seconds ago
- First Post
Of jets, handshakes and smiles: How Putin steamrollered Trump and deflated his deal-making hyperbole
Donald Trump called the Alaska summit hoping for a breakthrough he could tout for his domestic audience and impress upon the Nobel committee. Instead, he was bulldozed by the Russian president Westerners often struggle to grasp Russian psychology. As biographer Richard Lourie observes in his book Putin: 'America's experts know Russia, they just don't know Russians.' That gap becomes sharper when the subject is Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy trained to mask his fragility and exploit the vulnerabilities of his opponents. This ignorance was on full display in Alaska, where US President Donald Trump hosted Putin for peace talks on Ukraine. The summit was choreographed as a display of American might:B-2 bombers thundered overhead and F-22s lined the runway as Trump clasped Putin's hand with a practised tug meant to project dominance—as though optics alone could substitute for substance. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD But for Putin—an intelligence veteran skilled in reading and exploiting weakness—the theatrics must have bordered on the absurd. Each flyover, each staged handshake, and each show of strength would have highlighted Washington's insecurity. True strength does not need to be advertised—it imposes itself. Trump's 'show of power' revealed the innate American anxiety, and his pompous vanity showcased the inner decay. Behind closed doors, the optics gave way to reality. For nearly three hours the two men spoke, but when they emerged, Trump appeared like a surrendered general, admitting, 'We didn't get there.' His self-proclaimed reputation as master dealmaker was punctured, and he conceded, 'There's no deal till there is a deal.' Putin, by contrast, walked away without ceding an inch. Moscow gained everything it sought: An end to Putin's diplomatic isolation in the Western world, the optics of equality with the president of the world's sole superpower, and the widening of cracks in transatlantic relations, besides Ukraine being pushed further into despair—excluded from the talks and left alone to lick its wounds. The meeting vindicated what everyone knew except, of course, Trump: That tariffs don't stop war; it didn't during Operation Sindoor, and it won't in Ukraine. More importantly, it showed the American dispensation that it was left with fewer cards, especially after the initiation of the tariff war, more so amidst the rebellions led by Bharat and China, along with other Brics nations such as Brazil and South Africa. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Know Your Enemy Coming back to the Alaska summit, had Trump studied Putin more closely, he might have avoided such puerile missteps. He would have known that the Russian President is at his best when pushed to a corner, thanks to his street-fighting experience during his childhood in Leningrad. As Lourie writes: 'The lesson that the streets of Leningrad taught was simple, and it stayed with Putin his whole life: The weak get beaten. Weakness is both disgrace and danger.' That street code shaped Putin's worldview and his political tactics. 'The streets of Leningrad taught me one thing: if a fight is unavoidable, throw the first punch,' the Russian president would concede much later in an interview. Putin thrives on others' aggression, and in Alaska, Trump provided him just that. However, Putin's drive is not just personal psychology. As historian Orlando Figes writes in The Story of Russia, Ukraine is an 'existential war' for him—he will fight until he can claim a credible victory. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Ukraine being non-negotiable for Russia makes Putin doubly lethal—and an almost impossible war for the West to win. Ukraine's importance comes from the fact that it has always been central to Russia's identity, both historically and strategically. 'All Russian history flowed from Kiev. Every schoolchild learned: Kiev is the mother of Russian cities, Ukraine is Russia's breadbasket,' Lourie notes. During the Soviet Union's 75 years, Ukrainian leaders—including Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Chernenko—ruled for three decades. A Missed Opportunity At the heart of the Ukraine conflict lies Russia's enduring apprehension of encirclement by the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). Lourie recalls how, in 1990, US Secretary of State James Baker promised Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that if Moscow pulled its forces from East Germany and allowed reunification, Nato would not move 'one inch east'. In the three decades since, Nato has expanded not by inches but by hundreds of kilometres. The policy was so fundamentally flawed that it had even drawn criticism from George Kennan, America's foremost Russia strategist and author of the Cold War containment doctrine. Kennan called Nato's enlargement 'the most fateful error of American policy in the post-Cold-War era', predicting it would revive 'nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Ukraine war is a making of the West's own folly, envy, and ambition. In his first presidential term, Putin actually sought integration with the West. He frequently emphasised that Russia was part of European culture and even entertained the idea of joining Nato or the EU. But the Western European nations rebuffed him—repeatedly. Orlando Figes describes this rejection as part of a 'recurring pattern running right through Russian history since at least the eighteenth century'. Russia 'sought respect and recognition as part of Europe, but when humiliated, it turned inward, rebuilt, and armed itself against the West'. Putin soon realised Russia's destiny couldn't lie with the West, possibly inspired by thinkers like Nikolai Danilevsky. Figes writes, 'His (Putin's) thinking here was possibly derived from Danilevsky's Russia and Europe, written in the wake of the Crimean War, in which the Pan-Slav thinker had maintained that Russia was a distinctive multicultural civilisation, neither understood nor recognised by Europe, which saw it only as an aggressor state and wanted to diminish it.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Western condescension—rooted in a sense of cultural and even racial superiority—pushed Russia to reposition itself, not as European but as a Eurasian power. It started looking afresh at its Asian roots and allies. Conclusion There's no solution to Ukraine without understanding these moot points and differences. Peace comes through negotiations, understanding and fair play, sometimes imposed through the barrel of a gun. It just cannot happen because a leader is in a hurry to gain Nobel nominations or even impress his domestic audience. Trump went to Alaska hoping for a breakthrough he could tout to his domestic audience and impress upon the Nobel committee. Instead, he was steamrolled. For Putin, it was a win-win situation. He secured global legitimacy, widened Western divisions, and strengthened the impression that Russia dictates terms on the Ukrainian issue while Washington scrambles to catch up. However, we are yet to hear the last word on Ukraine—and of course, the Trump-Putin saga. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
NDTV
16 minutes ago
- NDTV
"You Can Singlehandedly...": What Melania Trump Said In Letter To Putin
US First Lady Melania Trump wrote a "peace" letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the plight of children in the Ukraine war, urging him to "protect their innocence". US President Donald Trump hand-delivered the letter to his Russian counterpart during their meeting in Alaska on Saturday. Without naming Ukraine, Ms Trump highlighted the impact of the conflict on children and said that every child "dreams of love, possibility, and safety from danger". "Every child shares the same quiet dreams in their heart, whether born randomly into a nation's rustic countryside or a magnificent city-center. They dream of love, possibility, and safety from danger. As parents, it is our duty to nurture the next generation's hope. As leaders, the responsibility to sustain our children extends beyond the comfort of a few. Undeniably, we must strive to paint a dignity-filled world for all - so that every soul may wake to peace, and so that the future itself is perfectly guarded," she wrote. Ms Trump further said that "each generation's descendants begin their lives with a purity - an innocence which stands above geography, government, and ideology". "Yet in today's world, some children are forced to carry a quiet laughter, untouched by the darkness around them a silent defiance against the forces that can potentially claim their future. Mr. Putin, you can singlehandedly restore their melodic laughter," the letter read. She told Mr Putin that by protecting the innocence of children, he would do "more than serve Russia alone" - serve humanity. "In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone you serve humanity itself. Such a bold idea transcends all human division, and you, Mr. Putin, are fit to implement this vision with a stroke of the pen today. It is time," she said. Our incredible First Lady @MELANIATRUMP shared this powerful, deeply moving letter with President Putin. She speaks from the heart of every American in calling for a world where children, regardless of where they are born, can live in peace. — Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) August 16, 2025 The letter comes a month after Ukraine accused Russia of abducting children during its ongoing invasion, forcing them into military service once they turn 18, and sending them to fight against their own people. Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the disturbing practice is part of a "coordinated, state-driven plan" approved by Mr Putin. The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which partnered with Kyiv to trace missing Ukrainian children, documented dozens of Russian-run indoctrination camps, reported The New York Post. According to the report, children are immersed in Russian culture, forbidden from speaking Ukrainian, and shaped into what the Kremlin calls "ideal citizens" in the camps. In 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued an arrest warrant to Mr Putin, citing child abductions as a central charge. The Kremlin, however, had denied any wrongdoing and called the warrant "outrageous and unacceptable".
News18
an hour ago
- News18
'Meeting Times, Locations, Gifts': Trump-Putin's Meeting Details Left In Hotel Printer In Alaska
According to hotel guests, eight pages were found, containing material that appeared to have been prepared by State Department officials A set of sensitive US State Department documents were left in a public printer at Hotel Captain Cook in Alaska, just miles from the military base where US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held their high-stakes summit on Friday. According to hotel guests, eight pages were found, containing material that appeared to have been prepared by State Department officials. The documents included schedules, internal phone numbers of government employees, and even details of the summit luncheon, reported NPR. One page listed the sequence of meetings between American and Russian delegations, specifying room names inside Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. It also mentioned that Trump intended to present Putin with an 'American Bald Eagle Desk Statue." Other pages contained names and contact details of three US officials, a list of leaders from both countries, along with phonetic pronunciations of their names, and instructions for a formal lunch described as being 'in honour of his excellency Vladimir Putin." The Alaska summit, which lasted three hours, was the first face-to-face engagement between Washington and Moscow since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Notably, after Putin's meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy is also scheduled to meet the US President in Washington on Monday, with European leaders expected to participate. view comments First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
