Australia news LIVE: Wong meets Quad powers in Washington; Musk's X wins fight against eSafety Commissioner; Trump's ‘One Big Beautiful Bill' passed in US Senate
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Trump's marquee bill passes Senate as feud with Musk roars back to life
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The United States Senate passed Donald Trump's marquee tax and spending bill, bringing it close to becoming law, as the president's feud with Elon Musk exploded again over the world's richest man's antipathy toward raising the debt ceiling.
Three Republican senators broke from their party to oppose the One Big Beautiful Bill, requiring Vice President J.D. Vance to cast a deciding vote and break the 50-50 tie on the Senate floor.
The omnibus bill advances major planks of Trump's agenda, including about $US4.5 trillion ($6.9 trillion) worth of tax cuts – most of which are extensions of income tax cuts from his first term, which were due to expire at the end of the year.
It also includes spending on defence and immigration enforcement, and cuts to healthcare programs such as Medicaid, which the Trump administration describes as savings attributable to eliminating fraud and waste.
It must now return to the House of Representatives, where the Republicans also hold a slim majority, and if passed will go to Trump's desk for assent.
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Elon Musk, you're in a hole. Stop digging!
The world's richest man Elon Musk is in a self-dug hole. The problem for Tesla shareholders is he keeps on digging. Doubling down in his attack on Donald Trump is about as far out as one could go on the risk scale. The break-up of the wealthiest man on the planet and the world's most powerful is playing out like any romantic split – with cross-court lashings of invective, threats and recriminations. But this divorce is being played out in the public on the combatants-owned social media platforms, X and Truth Social. And neither man possesses the self-regulation switch that would interrupt an escalation. So BYO popcorn! Musk can't win, but he can inflict a load of self harm and damage on Tesla shareholders. Loading With each breakout in hostilities, the electric carmaker's share price dives – and with it, Musk's wealth. Even without Musk's meltdown, Tesla is already under pressure over a consistent sales slump of its cars and its struggling introduction of robotaxis. The company is expected to announce a 12 to 13 per cent drop in quarterly sales again this week – a challenge that Musk needs to overcome even before dealing with any further regulatory pain that Trump is capable of inflicting on the company or his other interests, like SpaceX. The feud escalated into the stratosphere this week when Musk threatened to form a new US political party if Trump's Big Beautiful Bill was passed – which happened on Tuesday US time.
