Trump openly warns Elon Musk, reacts to Abrego Garcia's return, Tax bill
During a press briefing aboard Air Force One on June 6, U.S. President Donald Trump openly threatened Elon Musk after their public feud. Trump's warning came after Musk fiercely attacked the administration's signature tax and spending bill, calling it bloated and unfair, and accused Trump of 'ingratitude' for his past political and financial support. Trump also reacted to the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, reiterating his tough stance on immigration enforcement. Watch for more
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News18
15 minutes ago
- News18
Musk Vs Trump: Dark MAGA Conspiracy Theory Sparks Fears Of Tech-Backed Coup In US
Last Updated: The 'Dark MAGA' theory claims Musk and other tech elites aim to replace Trump with a CEO-style leader, raising fresh questions amid Musk's public feud with the former president. Elon Musk's now-deleted post claiming Donald Trump's name appears in sealed Jeffrey Epstein files has sparked new scrutiny and reignited a conspiracy theory that links the Tesla CEO to a wider tech elite allegedly working to reshape American politics. The theory, dubbed 'Dark MAGA," suggests Musk was never truly backing Trump but was instead part of a secretive tech elite aiming to replace him with a CEO-style leader of their choosing, reports by the Daily Beast and the Daily Mail said. Musk's now-deleted post accusing Trump of being named in Jeffrey Epstein's files has only intensified speculation. The tech mogul claimed the documents have been kept secret before allegedly quietly erasing the post. The theory stems from Musk's symbolic shift during the 2024 campaign, where he was frequently seen wearing the black 'Dark MAGA" cap, a twist on Trump's red MAGA branding. Conspiracy theorists now argue this was always a signal and Musk's way of declaring he had infiltrated the movement with a different agenda. According to believers of the conspiracy, a shadowy network of billionaires including Musk and Peter Thiel, often referred to as the 'PayPal Mafia," want to dismantle democracy and transform the US into a corporatocracy led by a tech-appointed figurehead. Their supposed top pick? Vice President JD Vance. The firestorm erupted after Musk shared, then deleted, a tweet saying: 'Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT." He later doubled down by sharing a resurfaced 1992 video showing Trump partying with Epstein, adding only an inquisitive emoji. The explosive post caused chaos online before Musk allegedly abruptly took it down. Responding to the allegation, JD Vance firmly rejected the claim, stating, 'Absolutely not, Donald Trump didn't do anything with Epstein." Vance also struck a conciliatory tone toward the Tesla boss, saying, 'I hope eventually Elon comes back into the fold." The feud between Musk and Trump reached boiling point after Musk blasted the president's multi-trillion-dollar tax-and-spend bill. In response, Trump warned he might cancel Tesla and SpaceX's government contracts to cut the deficit. Musk shot back, threatening to begin decommissioning SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft which is a vital link in NASA's space missions. Former Trump aide Steve Bannon took things further, urging the president to seize SpaceX using national security laws and punish Musk for disloyalty. Bannon called Musk a tech oligarch trying to 'hijack the republic." Adding fuel to the theory is the involvement of Curtis Yarvin, a coder-turned-philosopher whose 'Dark Enlightenment" ideas have reportedly influenced Silicon Valley's elite. Writing under the name Mencius Moldbug, Yarvin advocates for replacing democracy with a monarch-like CEO government, where billionaires call the shots, elections vanish, and the bureaucracy is gutted, according to the report by the UK-based Daily Mail. Advertisement The overlap between these views and Musk's real-world role in the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is striking. Under DOGE, more than 2.5 lakh government jobs have already been axed since Trump returned to power in January. top videos View All Meanwhile, JD Vance, who some believe is the group's chosen successor to Trump, continued defending the president, calling recent attacks 'corporate media lies". He said Trump was far more disciplined than critics claim, and that the gap between perception and reality is 'maybe the single biggest disconnect". About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar News18's viral page features trending stories, videos, and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz from india and around the world, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : donald trump elon musk MAGA Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA) First Published: June 07, 2025, 21:01 IST News viral Musk Vs Trump: Dark MAGA Conspiracy Theory Sparks Fears Of Tech-Backed Coup In US
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First Post
33 minutes ago
- First Post
Musk deletes controversial post targeting Trump in online feud
Musk said on Thursday that the Republican leader is named in classified government papers on former Epstein associates. Epstein committed suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges read more US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House, May 30, 2025, in Washington. File Photo/AP Tech billionaire Elon Musk has deleted a controversial social media post that alleged a connection between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, shared amid a heated exchange with the US president this week. Musk, who left his position as a key White House advisor last week, said on Thursday that the Republican leader is named in classified government papers on former Epstein associates. Epstein committed suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Trump administration has stated that it is evaluating tens of thousands of documents, recordings, other investigation materials, which his 'MAGA' campaign claims will reveal prominent people involved in Epstein's crimes. 'Time to drop the really big bomb: (Trump) is in the Epstein files,' Musk posted on his social media platform, X as his growing feud with the president boiled over into a spectacularly public row on Thursday. 'That is the real reason they have not been made public.' Musk did not reveal which files he was talking about and offered no evidence for his claim. He initially doubled down on the claim, writing in a follow-up message: 'Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.' However, he appeared to have deleted both tweets by Saturday morning. Supporters on the conspiratorial end of Trump's 'Make America Great Again' base allege that Epstein's associates had their roles in his crimes covered up by government officials and others. They point the finger at Democrats and Hollywood celebrities, although not at Trump himself. No official source has ever confirmed that the president appears in any of the material. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Trump knew and socialized with Epstein but has denied spending time on Little Saint James, the private redoubt in the US Virgin Islands where prosecutors alleged Epstein trafficked underage girls for sex. 'Terrific guy,' Trump, who was Epstein's neighbour in both Florida and New York, said in an early 2000s profile of the financier. 'He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' Just last week Trump gave Musk a glowing send-off as he left his cost-cutting role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But their relationship imploded within days as Musk described as an 'abomination' a spending bill that, if passed by Congress, could define Trump's second term in office. Trump hit back in an Oval Office diatribe and from there the row detonated, leaving Washington and riveted social media users alike stunned by the blistering break-up between the world's richest person and the world's most powerful. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With real political and economic risks to their row, both then appeared to inch back from the brink on Friday, but the White House denied reports they would talk.
Time of India
35 minutes ago
- Time of India
Trump's tariffs could pay for his tax cuts -- but it likely wouldn't be much of a bargain
The tax cuts in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act would likely gouge a hole in the federal budget. The president has a patch handy, though: his sweeping import taxes - tariffs. The Congressional Budget Office, the government's nonpartisan arbiter of tax and spending matters, says the One Big Beautiful Bill, passed by the House last month and now under consideration in the Senate, would increase federal budget deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade. That is because its tax cuts would drain the government's coffers faster than its spending cuts would save money. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Kardioloog: Buikvet na je 50e? Stop dit in je schoenen Gezondheidstip By bringing in revenue for the Treasury, on the other hand, the tariffs that Trump announced through May 13 - including his so-called reciprocal levies of up to 50% on countries with which the United States has a trade deficit - would offset the budget impact of the tax-cut bill and reduce deficits over the next decade by $2.5 trillion. So it's basically a wash. Live Events That's the budget math anyway. The real answer is more complicated. Actually using tariffs to finance a big chunk of the federal government would be a painful and perilous undertaking, budget wonks say. "It's a very dangerous way to try to raise revenue," said Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Wharton Budget Model, who served in President George W. Bush's Treasury Department. Trump has long advocated tariffs as an economic elixir. He says they can protect American industries, bring factories back to the United States, give him leverage to win concessions over foreign governments - and raise a lot of money. He's even suggested that they could replace the federal income tax, which now brings in about half of federal revenue. "It's possible we'll do a complete tax cut,'' he told reporters in April. "I think the tariffs will be enough to cut all of the income tax.'' Economists and budget analysts do not share the president's enthusiasm for using tariffs to finance the government or to replace other taxes. "It's a really bad trade,'' said Erica York, the Tax Foundation's vice president of federal tax policy. "It's perhaps the dumbest tax reform you could design.'' For one thing, Trump's tariffs are an unstable source of revenue. He bypassed Congress and imposed his biggest import tax hikes through executive orders. That means a future president could simply reverse them. "Or political whims in Congress could change, and they could decide, 'Hey, we're going revoke this authority because we don't think it's a good thing that the president can just unilaterally impose a $2 trillion tax hike,' '' York said. Or the courts could kill his tariffs before Congress or future presidents do. A federal court in New York has already struck down the centerpiece of his tariff program - the reciprocal and other levies he announced on what he called "Liberation Day'' April 2 - saying he'd overstepped his authority. An appeals court has allowed the government to keep collecting the levies while the legal challenge winds its way through the court system. Economists also say that tariffs damage the economy. They are a tax on foreign products, paid by importers in the United States and usually passed along to their customers via higher prices. They raise costs for U.S. manufacturers that rely on imported raw materials, components and equipment, making them less competitive than foreign rivals that don't have to pay Trump's tariffs. Tariffs also invite retaliatory taxes on U.S. exports by foreign countries. Indeed, the European Union this week threatened "countermeasures'' against Trump's unexpected move to raise his tariff on foreign steel and aluminum to 50%. "You're not just getting the effect of a tax on the U.S. economy," York said. "You're also getting the effect of foreign taxes on U.S. exports.'' She said the tariffs will basically wipe out all economic benefits from the One Big Beautiful Bill's tax cuts. Smetters at the Penn Wharton Budget Model said that tariffs also isolate the United States and discourage foreigners from investing in its economy. Foreigners see U.S. Treasurys as a super-safe investment and now own about 30% of the federal government's debt. If they cut back, the federal government would have to pay higher interest rates on Treasury debt to attract a smaller number of potential investors domestically. Higher borrowing costs and reduced investment would wallop the economy, making tariffs the most economically destructive tax available, Smetters said - more than twice as costly in reduced economic growth and wages as what he sees as the next-most damaging: the tax on corporate earnings. Tariffs also hit the poor hardest. They end up being a tax on consumers, and the poor spend more of their income than wealthier people do. Even without the tariffs, the One Big Beautiful Bill slams the poorest because it makes deep cuts to federal food programs and to Medicaid, which provides health care to low-income Americans. After the bill's tax and spending cuts, an analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model found, the poorest fifth of American households earning less than $17,000 a year would see their incomes drop by $820 next year. The richest 0.1% earning more than $4.3 million a year would come out ahead by $390,070 in 2026. "If you layer a regressive tax increase like tariffs on top of that, you make a lot of low- and middle-income households substantially worse off,'' said the Tax Foundation's York. Overall, she said, tariffs are "a very unreliable source of revenue for the legal reasons, the political reasons as well as the economic reasons. They're a very, very inefficient way to raise revenue. If you raise a dollar of a revenue with tariffs, that's going to cause a lot more economic harm than raising revenue any other way.''
