Meet the Maga mothers who are inspired to have children to meet Trump's fertility drive
President's fervent followers embrace a baby boom 'for good of country'
Los Angeles-born and Ivy League-educated, Peachy Keenan isn't the typical picture of a pro-natalist.
Yet the married, mother of five is part of a growing movement of mostly Catholic, well-educated women in deep blue California inspired by Donald Trump's calls to have more children.
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3 hours ago
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Musk and Trump's big, beautiful breakup
Joining Hugh Linehan and Cormac McQuinn on today's Inside Politics podcast is Ellen Coyne, the newest member of The Irish Times politics team. Together they look back on the week in politics, in Ireland and beyond: The crisis at Children's Hospital Ireland deepens Growing international disquiet over Israel's conduct in Gaza Planning exemptions for 'granny flats' - can such tinkering make a real difference to the housing crisis? The spectacular breakup of Donald Trump and Elon Musk Plus the panel pick their favourite Irish Times articles on the week, including the impact of Airbnb in a rural town , the dreaded one-star review and a disappearing rainbow crossing .
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5 hours ago
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US economy adds 139,000 jobs in May as labour market weakens
The US economy added 139,000 jobs in May, beating expectations but still signalling that the labour market in the world's biggest economy is weakening. Friday's figure from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was below the downwardly revised 147,000 posts added in April but above the 126,000 predicted by economists polled by Bloomberg. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2 per cent. The number of jobs in the federal government continued to slide amid a cost-cutting effort by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led until last week by billionaire Elon Musk. READ MORE Treasury bond yields edged higher after the data publication as traders marginally cut back expectations of interest rate cuts this year. Futures markets now expect two further reductions, with a small chance that the US Federal Reserve could move just once in the remainder of 2025. On Tuesday, after separate data pointed to lacklustre private-sector hiring, US president Donald Trump lashed out at Fed chair Jay Powell, calling on him to lower interest rates. S&P 500 futures extended gains, trading 0.8 per cent higher. The OECD warned this week that the global economy was heading into its weakest period of growth since the Covid-19 pandemic as Trump's trade war weighs on the world's top economies. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
Elon Musk and Donald Trump to speak on Friday following public feud
Donald Trump 's aides scheduled a call between the US president and Elon Musk for Friday after a huge public spat that saw threats fly over government contracts and ended with the world's richest man suggesting Mr Trump should be impeached. A White House official said the two men would speak on Friday. The official did not give a time for the call, which could ease the feuding after an extraordinary day of hostilities - largely conducted over social media - that marked a stark end to a close alliance . Mr Trump attacked Mr Musk as 'crazy' and threatened to rip up his government contracts, as the row between two of the world's most powerful men erupted into an all-out public feud. Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, the US president said he was 'very disappointed' in Mr Musk for criticising his signature tax Bill, and suggested he was trying to defend his business interests. READ MORE 'He's not the first ... people leave my administration and some of them actually become hostile,' Mr Trump said of Mr Musk's broadsides in recent days. 'They leave, and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour's gone, the whole world is different, and they become hostile.' He added: 'I'm very disappointed in Elon. I helped Elon a lot.' [ Keith Duggan: Bromance descends into jaw-dropping feud that is funny, dismal and nauseating Opens in new window ] In a follow-up post on his social media site, Mr Trump said Mr Musk, who is upset that the tax Bill now before the Senate would increase the US deficit, had been 'wearing thin' and that he had 'asked him to leave' government. [ Tesla suffers biggest one-day drop in market value after Trump-Musk spat Opens in new window ] The president claimed Mr Musk opposed the 'big beautiful bill' because the administration was ending policies that benefited Tesla and that Mr Musk 'just went crazy'. 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget ... is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,' he added, in an apparent threat to end billions of dollars' worth of business between the US government and Musk companies including SpaceX. The comments prompted an explosive riposte from Mr Musk, who had thus far refrained from criticising the president directly. US president Donald Trump with Elon Musk in the Oval Office. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP Mr Musk, who in April retreated from politics because of the 'blowback' against his businesses, suggested he regretted backing Mr Trump with more than $250 million during last year's election, after the president claimed he would have won without the billionaire's cash. 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,' he posted on his social media site X soon after the Oval Office tirade. 'Such ingratitude.' He later claimed that Mr Trump appears in files related to the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. 'That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!' he wrote on X. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt gave a statement to CNN, describing Mr Musk's Epstein files claim as an 'unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted'. He also posted that Mr Trump's tariffs 'will cause a recession in the second half of this year'. Shares in Tesla fell by almost 11 per cent following Mr Trump's remarks and were down 13.5 per cent on the day, sending the stock to a one-month low. Mr Musk, the US's largest political donor, also suggested that Republican lawmakers should side with him over the president. 'Some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years,' the billionaire wrote on X. He floated the idea of forming a new party. He also hit back at Mr Trump's suggestion that he had opposed the 'big beautiful bill' because it removed tax credits for electric vehicles and clean energy, which have long benefited Tesla in the US. 'Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill,' Mr Musk posted. Elon Musk boasted that his cost cutting department would reduce federal spending by trillions, but the savings so far have been much more modest to date. Photograph: Eric Lee/The New York Times Mr Musk had already announced that he was stepping back from his involvement in the Trump administration, where he had led the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). He boasted that Doge would cut trillions of dollars from federal spending, although the savings so far have been much more modest. Steve Davis, one of Mr Musk's lieutenants at SpaceX who led Doge on a day-to-day basis, had also now left the administration, according to a government official. More senior figures close to the billionaire were set to abandon the initiative in the coming days, the official said. Mr Musk himself has suggested that the tax bill would wipe out any savings made by Doge, which claims to have identified roughly $180 billion in cuts to date. On Wednesday, the congressional fiscal watchdog said the legislation would add $2.4 trillion to the US debt by 2034. Mr Musk also said his company SpaceX would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft in response to Mr Trump's threats to cancel his government contracts. 'In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,' Musk posted on the social media platform X, which he owns. He later withdrew this threat, responding to an X user who advised him to cool off and step back for a couple of days: 'Good advice. Ok, we won't decommission Dragon.' Nasa relies on SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Since 2008, SpaceX has received more than $20bn in government contracts, largely from Nasa and the Department of Defense. In March, two Nasa astronauts returned to Earth in a Dragon capsule after being stranded on the ISS for nearly nine months, after their Boeing Starliner capsule faced technical issues and returned to Earth without them. The next SpaceX Dragon launch is scheduled to take place on June 10th. The Dragon is expected to carry four people to and from the ISS on Axiom Mission 4. Nasa press secretary Bethany Stevens, in a statement on X after Mr Musk's announcement, said the agency 'will continue to execute upon the president's vision for the future of space'. 'We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the president's objectives in space are met,' she added. – Agencies
