Letters: Elon Musk's break with Donald Trump may offer opportunities to Ireland and rest of the EU

Irish Independent

14 hours ago

This is no ordinary falling-out. For once, Mr Trump is confronting a rival with genuine leverage – technological, communicative, financial and, perhaps, psychological. The implications could extend far beyond American shores.
If this rupture holds, I could see Mr Musk pivoting towards Brussels, offering the EU and countries like Ireland his full innovation portfolio – satellites, electric vehicles, AI – at preferential rates. He may well find European regulators less volatile than a president nursing a grudge.
Enda Cullen, Tullysaran Road, Armagh
Tesla boss made a mistake trusting president, but he will be formidable enemy
Monica Hesse doesn't hold back on the character of billionaire Elon Musk ( 'Good riddance to Musk, who did not need to do any of this', Irish Independent, June 4). But that's what drives billionaires, that's how they get there. Sitting back is not within Musk's DNA.
While it is hard to have any sympathy for a billionaire who gets fired, he was naive to trust Trump. Perhaps if nothing else, Musk will be a man scorned and a formidable enemy for President Trump. In that his destructive stint into politics may prove invaluable and electrifying to America and democracy at large.
Aidan Roddy, Cabinteely, Dublin 18
Billionaire's attack could turn Republicans against their leader and his bill
For months, US president Donald Trump has been heralding his 'big, beautiful' spending bill as being a key piece of his agenda, containing tax cuts for the rich and benefits cuts for the vulnerable. We now know that this will also add trillions to America's debt, to the point that some are now sounding the alarm, warning of a 'debt bomb' about to hit the US economy.
What the White House didn't bet on was that one of those leading critics would be Elon Musk, who has turned fire on his former boss in spectacular fashion, calling the legislation a 'disgusting abomination' and ominously warning US senators that voters will fire those politicians who 'betray America'. I am not an advocate of Musk but on this one , I believe that he's not wrong.
It leaves me wondering: will the words of Musk spook Republicans into defying Donald Trump? I am also curious as to how the president will react to Musk's missives.
John O'Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary
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Israel will stop at nothing in its war on Gaza, so it's time for Ireland cut all ties
The US representative to the UN, Dorothy Camille Shea, repeated Washington's message as part of the veto of a resolution calling for an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, that Israel has the 'right to defend itself'. Unsurprisingly, there was no mention of the right to life for Palestinians.
This was the latest example of the United States' unwavering support of Israel's annihilation of Gaza.
Israel's UN representative, Danny Danon, eerily replied to the veto: 'Don't waste more of your time.' He added that no resolution, no vote, 'will stand in our way'.
If the UN can't put a stop to the carnage, then it falls to small nations such as our own to take a stand, and at least to end our own complicity.
The Irish Government must, like TCD, cut all ties with Israel. It must enact the Occupied Territories Bill, enact the Arms Embargo Bill, and stop the Central Bank regulating Israeli war bonds.
After 20 months, 56,000 Palestinians are dead. How many more need to die before our Government honours its obligations as a signatory to the Genocide Convention?
Aisling Brady, Drumcondra, Dublin 9
Thunberg's voyage to Palestine offers haunting echoes of famine ship
Kudos to Martina Devlin for highlighting the humanitarian ship Madleen on its way across the Mediterranean with vital food, medicine and other essential supplies ('Greta Thunberg's aid ship for Gaza won't get through – but that doesn't make it a failure', Irish Independent, June 6).
Readers may recall the story of the Jeanie Johnston, now parked on Dublin's Custom House Quay and which began its journey in Blennerville, just outside of Tralee.
This replica 'famine ship' tells the unique story of Ireland's past and the thousands of Irish people who crossed the Atlantic to escape starvation and destitution. Not one soul was lost on the original ship, which crossed the ocean dozens of times.
Former RTÉ journalist Fintan Drury, whose new, deeply researched book on what is happening in Gaza, Catastrophe, asks: 'Where is the outrage?' He convincingly argues that what is now being perpetrated on a defenceless people did not begin on October 7, 2023, but rather eight decades earlier ('Author hoping to convert Kerry readers not convinced of Palestinian cause at talk in ­Listowel', The Kerryman and Irish Independent, May 28)
The Madleen ship may be turned away by Israel but world is watching as Netanyahu and co deliberately use starvation as a shocking and cowardly tactic in their latest attempt to suppress an indigenous race.
Tom McElligott, Listowel, Co Kerry
Income tax may be deeply unfair, but its burden should fall evenly on us all
The news that so many workers are exempt from income tax in one way or another presents a real moral dilemma (Irish Independent, June 5).
On the one hand, income tax is a 200-year-old hangover from the Napoleonic wars; an immoral way for the State to monetise our waking hours that has no place in a free and democratic society in which the particularly altruistic can donate what they please to the Exchequer. As such, bully for those who don't have to pay it, whatever the reason.
On the other hand, if the blight of income tax is to exist, it should be applied evenly, if for no other reason than to reduce the burden it places on those of us who do have to pay it.
In that sense, the workers who don't pay should have to, with a view to reducing what is due from the rest of us.
Killian Foley-Walsh, Kilkenny city