Assessing Trump's Send-Off for Elon Musk
President Trump celebrated Elon Musk on Friday as the billionaire's tenure as the White House's chief cost cutter was ending.
The gathering, styled as a news conference in the Oval Office, signaled an end to a remarkable period of upheaval across the federal bureaucracy, supervised by Mr. Musk and the initiative he led, the Department of Government Efficiency.
'Elon has worked tirelessly, helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations,' Mr. Trump said, omitting that Mr. Musk fell far short of an oft-stated goal of achieving $1 trillion in savings.
Here's a fact-check of some of their claims.
What Was Said
'We'll remember you as we announce billions of dollars of extra waste, fraud and abuse.'— Mr. Trump
This is exaggerated. In listing a litany of contracts and grants canceled by the cost-cutting initiative, Mr. Trump misrepresented several of them and omitted context about others.
He repeated the misleading claim that the Department of Government Efficiency eliminated a payment of '$59 million to a hotel in New York City' to house unauthorized migrants. The figure is the amount for a federal grant awarded to the city in the 2024 fiscal year, not the amount paid to one hotel.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
17 minutes ago
- New York Times
China Rejects Trump's Accusation That It Violated Trade Truce
China said on Monday that the United States had 'severely undermined' the trade truce the two countries reached last month, striking back against President Trump's accusations that it was violating the terms of their agreement. In a statement, China's Ministry of Commerce called Mr. Trump's attacks on social media last week 'baseless.' He had accused Beijing of failing to live up to its end of their trade deal, a 90-day rollback of tariffs and other trade barriers to give the two countries more time to negotiate and prevent an all-out trade war. China's commerce ministry said it had continued to honor its agreement responsibly and accused the United States of 'erroneous practices' by introducing a series of 'discriminatory restrictive measures.' These included restrictions on the sale of chip design software to China and barring American companies from using or financing artificial intelligence chips from the Chinese technology giant Huawei. It also criticized the Trump administration's announcement that it planned to 'aggressively revoke' the visas of Chinese students and that it would enhance scrutiny of all future applications from China, including Hong Kong. 'The U.S. side has unilaterally escalated new economic and trade frictions, exacerbating the uncertainty and instability of bilateral economic and trade relations,' the ministry wrote in its statement. 'Instead of reflecting on its own actions, it has turned the blame onto China.' China said it would take measures to 'safeguard its legitimate rights and interests' if the United States continued to harm Chinese interests. The growing confrontation over the fragile trade truce between the world's two largest economies has raised questions about whether they can strike a permanent accord within the 90-day deadline. The United States has grown increasingly concerned about access to rare earth magnets, which are crucial for producing cars, semiconductors, aircraft and other vital items. China maintains a near monopoly on the production of rare earth metals. American companies' ability to keep factories running could be in jeopardy without a sufficient supply of those magnets. Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative who negotiated the deal along with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, said during a Friday appearance on CNBC that China was 'slow-rolling their compliance' and that the flow of some critical minerals has not returned to levels that American officials were expecting. The agreement, announced on May 12, offered a temporary reprieve to the escalating trade tensions between the two largest economies. The United States had pushed tariffs on Chinese imports to 145 percent and China responded by raising import duties on American products to 125 percent. Under the truce, the United States agreed to lower its tariffs to 30 percent, while China cut its import tax to 10 percent for 90 days. Amy Chang Chien contributed reporting from Taipei.
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Caraway has HR, 4 RBIs to help Oregon St. beat USC 14-1, stay alive at Corvallis Regional
CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — Trent Caraway had a double, a home run, and four RBIs, Gavin Turley also hit a homer and Oregon State beat Southern California 14-1 at the Corvallis Regional on Sunday night. Oregon State (44-13-1) can win its second consecutive regional title with another win over the Trojans on Monday. Advertisement The Beavers — who lost 6-4 to Saint Mary's Friday, then won games Saturday against TCU and earlier Sunday against Saint Mary's, avenging their opening-round loss by beating the Gaels 20-3 — have won three consecutive elimination games. Oregon State starter Wyatt Queen gave up back-to-back singles to lead off the fifth, walked Ethan Hedges to load the bases and struck out Bryce Grudzielanek before Kellan Oakes came on and struck out Adrian Lopez looking and then got Abbrie Covarrubias swinging to end the threat. Oakes (3-0) had four strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings before before Zach Kmatz struck out seven across three scoreless innings for his first save of the season. Wilson Weber and Caraway led off the second with back-to-back singles before a sacrifice bunt by AJ Singer moved both runners into scoring position. Weber scored on a bunt single by Canon Reeder, who was thrown out at second on a bunt by Dallas Macias, who reached on a fielder's choice to drive in Caraway. Tyce Peteron — who finished with four hits — had an RBI single up the middle Macias scored on a sacrifice bunt by Easton Talt to make it 4-0. Maximo Martinez had an RBI single in the second for USC (37-22). Advertisement Brayden Dowd led off the first with a single but was thrown out at home when Hedges followed with a double. Dowd appeared to be shaken up after a collision at the plate and left the game in the second inning. ___ AP college sports:
New York Times
21 minutes ago
- New York Times
Pacers beat Knicks for Eastern Conference title, will face Thunder in 2025 NBA Finals: Live reaction and analysis
The Indiana Pacers, led by 31 points from Pascal Siakam, beat the New York Knicks in Game 6 to close out the Eastern Conference finals at home and advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000. The Knicks kept the game close until the third quarter, when the Pacers' pressure on both ends began to swing the game. Indiana forced 18 New York turnovers, resulting in 34 points, and scored 25 points in transition. Tyrese Haliburton was quiet until the fourth quarter but scored 11 points late, finishing with 21 points and 14 assists. Indiana's role players stepped up as well. Thomas Bryant scored 11 points on 3-5 shooting, including 2-2 from 3, in 12 minutes while Obi Toppin scored 18 points off the bench, shooting 7-11 from the field. The Pacers did an excellent job on Jalen Brunson, holding him to 19 points on 8-18 shooting with five turnovers. Karl-Anthony Towns, battling through a knee injury, finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds. OG Anunoby helped New York hang around, scoring 24 points on 10-18 shooting. Game 1 of the NBA Finals is set for Thursday, June 5th at 8:30 p.m. ET in Oklahoma City. GO FURTHER Pacers head to NBA Finals for first time since 2000, besting Knicks in Game 6
