Trump's approach to Russia-Ukraine war ‘doomed to fail'
We speak to retired US general Ben Hodges, who's a former commander of United States Army Europe. He endorsed the Democrat candidate, Kamala Harris, in the US elections.
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Metro
2 hours ago
- Metro
Donald Trump says he has 'no desire' to mend bromance with Elon Musk
Donald Trump has 'no desire' to mend his broken relationship with Elon Musk and believed their bromance is over. The US president also warned the billionaire, who helped propel him back to the White House, there would be 'serious consequences' if he starts funding Democrat candidates. They traded vicious insults this week after the Tesla and SpaceX owner used his social media site X to trash Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill'. Musk has since deleted some of his more incendiary barbs, including one post in which he alleged that Trump was 'in the Epstein files'. He has also removed another suggesting his former boss should be removed from office, appearing to seek a de-escalation in the feud. But in a telephone interview with NBC, Trump was asked whether his relationship with Musk is now over, to which he replied: 'I would assume so, yeah.' When pushed on whether he has any desire to repair it, he said: 'No.' Dr Katie Pruszynski, a Trump specialist and researcher at the University of Sheffield, told Metro the public falling out between the president and Musk was 'inevitable'. 'Trump has long rejected the human causes of climate change, but Musk's flagship company, Tesla, remains one of the world's largest manufacturers of electric cars,' she explained. 'Musk, himself an immigrant, supports visas for highly skilled workers, while Trump's advisors briefly flirted with the idea of ending the scheme in their major crackdown on immigration numbers. But she added: 'These differences pale into insignificance compared to the real problem between the two; their enormous egos and desire to be the centre of attention. 'There simply isn't room in the Oval Office for both of them, and it was always going to end like this.' The spectacular spat could potentially have 'significant' consequences, Dr Pruszynski said, with White House advisors hoping it doesn't divert attention away from the administration's work. Musk, meanwhile, will be keen to avoid the choking off of the huge government subsidies and funds his companies receive. Earlier, Trump's vice president JD Vance said Musk had made a 'big mistake' in going after him. But he also tried to downplay Musk's blistering attacks, saying he is an 'emotional guy' who got frustrated. More Trending 'I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold. Maybe that's not possible now because he's gone so nuclear,' Vance said. 'Look, it happens to everybody. I've flown off the handle way worse than Elon Musk did in the last 24 hours.' Trump late on Friday suggested a review of federal government contracts held by Musk. People who have spoken to Musk said his anger has begun to recede and they think he will want to repair his relationship with Trump. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: The Dark MAGA conspiracy about Trump, Musk and a new world order MORE: Zelensky refutes Trump's take on war and calls Putin 'murderer who came to kill the kids' MORE: Urgent recall of 1,700,000 air conditioners over fears they harbour mold
Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Oscar winner reveals his friends 'canceled' him for voting for Trump
An Oscar winner revealed that he had been 'canceled' by close friends after revealing he had voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Producer Brian Grazer, 73 - who is known for working on films such as A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13 - opened up about the reaction he received for supporting Trump during a Fox Nation docuseries titled Art Of The Surge. The star - who has previously been a donor to the Democratic party - could be seen in the documentary at the Army vs. Navy football game in December 2024 which Trump also attended. At one point, Grazer paused to take a photo with the then-president elect inside a VIP suite at the stadium and informed those nearby that he had cast his vote for Trump, per The New York Times which reported on the docuseries. Brian also recalled telling a few women who he had voted for - and expressed that it had felt like he was 'getting canceled.' The producer added, 'All the women looked in and go, "You mean, you're not voting for Kamala?" And I go, "I just can't do that."' Brian continued, 'And then, one of them leaned in further, and said, "Are you voting for Trump?" And I said, "I am." I swear!' He later further explained the reasoning behind his vote for Trump in the election last year while talking to the New York Times. 'As a centrist, it was because I could feel and see Biden's deterioration and the lack of direction in the Democratic Party at that time,' Grazer stated. The Hollywood producer has supported Kamala Harris in the past - and was one of the contributors to her U.S. Senate campaign back in 2015. Brian also was a producer on the movie Hillbilly Elegy (2020), which notably is based on the memoir written by current vice president JD Vance. The film - which was directed by Ron Howard - garnered mixed reviews upon its release on Netflix, but received two Academy Award nominations. Grazer is known for his decades-long career in the entertainment industry, and has collaborated with Howard on a number of projects. The pair won an Oscar for Best Picture for the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind - which raked in seven additional Academy Award nominations. Aside from A Beautiful Mind, Grazer has been nominated for three other Oscars for the movies Splash (1984), Apollo 13 (1995) and Frost/Nixon (2008). Other projects that Brian has produced over the years include How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), 8 Mile (2002), Cinderella Man (2005), and The Da Vinci Code (2006). He has also been involved on a number of TV shows such as Arrested Development, Parenthood and Friday Night Lights. Both Grazer and director Ron Howard also founded the production company Imagine Entertainment together back in 1985. While talking to the Los Angeles Times in 2019, Brian opened up about why both he and Howard decided to adapt JD Vance's memoir Hillbilly Elegy. 'Ron and I like making movies about family. Everybody roots for family,' the producer explained to the outlet. 'We had the slightly dysfunctional extended family in "Parenthood," and we had the highly dysfunctional family in "Arrested Development," and this is another extension of the American family.' He continued, 'Everybody thinks their family is [messed] up. You cherish your family, no matter how [messed] up you think your brother is.' Other Hollywood stars have voiced their public support for Donald Trump - such as actor Zachary Levi. During a recent interview with Variety, the Shazam! star stated that he knows people who also voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential election - but were 'afraid' to go public. 'I know it to be true because I've gotten messages from lots of people who I won't name but who were very grateful to me for taking the stand that I took,' Levi said. 'And also they would tell me, "I want to do that, but I'm so afraid." And I would tell them, "Listen, you're on your journey. I'm on my journey. You've got to keep trusting God."' He added, 'And if you feel compelled to step out in that way, then do it boldly and know that you're going to be OK. And if you don't feel that conviction yet, then don't. It's all good.' In October of last year, Zachary also urged 'closeted conservatives' in Hollywood to publicly speak out for Donald Trump ahead of the election. The actor - who had initially been in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - said on Instagram at the time, 'My cry to all of you out there, you closeted conservatives, closeted Trump voters, y'all, it's now or never, you know what I mean? 'Do whatever you feel like you need to do. If you need to come out publicly and say it, if you feel like you still can't, then don't.' Levi added, 'I would never pressure you to do that, but know that if what you're afraid of is somehow the backlash of an industry that's not going to exist very soon, then don't let that hold you back.' While he admitted to disliking Trump in the past, Zachary stated that he was straying away from voting Democrat due to the 'massive corruption' in the government. Other Hollywood celebrities who have voiced support for the 47th president of the United States also include Vince Vaughn, Mel Gibson and James Woods.
NBC News
12 hours ago
- NBC News
Breaking down 20 years of election data that shows how the two parties have evolved in the Trump era
President Donald Trump's second election win was different from his first in one big, important way: He won the popular vote, just the second time in the last two decades that Republicans had done so. And in the time between those two victories, from 2004 to 2024, there have been dramatic shifts in the nation's politics along geographic, racial, educational and economic lines. Trump is operating in a very different Republican Party than George W. Bush was 20 years earlier. A look at where the vote has shifted most in that time tells an eye-catching story. Over the last 20 years, the counties where Republicans have improved their presidential vote share by the largest margins are predominately centered in Appalachia and the surrounding areas. The 100 counties that saw the largest shifts include: 11 of West Virginia's 55 counties, 27 of Tennessee's 95 counties, 18 of Arkansas' 75 counties and 17 of Kentucky's 120 counties. These counties, on the whole, are much more heavily white than average, according to census data, with white residents making up at least 90% of the total population in about two-thirds of these counties. All but 12 of those counties are at least 75% white. The unemployment rate across these counties is about twice the national average. Residents are more likely to be reliant on food stamps and less likely to have moved in the last year. Residents of these counties, on average, also are significantly less likely to have a bachelor's degree or higher. While the national average in the American Community Survey's most recent five-year estimate is that 35% of Americans have a bachelor's degree or higher, the average in these counties is just 14%. In short, the shifts show how Trump has brought more white working-class voters into the GOP, causing spectacular changes in some localities. Elliott County, Kentucky, with about 7,300 people, shifted the most over this time period. While Democrat John Kerry carried the county over Bush 70%-29%, the county shifted significantly to the right by Democrat Barack Obama's 2012 re-election, when Obama narrowly outran Republican Mitt Romney 49%-47%. The county continued to shift with Trump on the ballot, ultimately with Trump winning a higher vote share in 2024 (80%) than Kerry did in 2004. It's a similar story in many of these other counties — particularly those in states like West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, where rural voters that once voted Democratic have been leaving the party, especially at the presidential level. In the Trump era, heavily Hispanic counties shifted right A different look — at the counties with the largest pro-Republican shifts between Trump's three elections, from 2016 to 2024 — shows some major differences in the types of places that have moved to the right specifically within the Trump era. On average, the 100 counties that shifted most toward Republicans in the Trump era are significantly more Hispanic than the national average. These counties are also wealthier and more educated compared to the counties that moved most from 2004 to 2024, although they are still below the national average. While the biggest Republican-shifting counties from 2004 to 2024 are largely concentrated around Appalachia, the counties that shifted the most to the right in the Trump era are more spread out and predominantly in the South and West. Twenty-nine Texas counties show up in the list of 100 counties that saw the greatest gain in GOP presidential vote margin between 2016 and 2024, and 12 of those are among the 20 that saw the biggest shifts. All of these Texas counties are majority-Hispanic, and some are more than 90% Hispanic, emblematic of Trump's dramatic improvement among Hispanic voters in 2024 as well as his success in heavily Hispanic areas along the border in 2020. Another heavily Hispanic county, Miami-Dade County, saw the 15th-largest shift in margin toward Republicans between 2016 and 2024 out of more than 3,000 counties nationwide. Other major population centers in New York City — including the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens — are in the top 100 too. And the 14 counties in Utah are typical of another trend: Many Republicans initially skeptical of Trump in 2016 (including Mormons, who make up a significant part of the electorate in Utah) largely fell in line eight years later. Where Democrats have made their biggest gains Democrats have seen their own shifts — the flip side of those GOP gains in a country that has remained tightly divided even as the two party coalitions have shifted significantly from 20 years ago. While the counties that saw the largest GOP gains over the last two decades were predominantly rural and small, the counties where Democrats improved the most are much larger, primarily in suburban and urban areas. The 100 counties where the GOP presidential vote margin grew most over the last two decades cast just 782,000 votes in 2024. The 100 counties that saw the most improvement in the Democratic presidential vote margin cast almost 20 million votes all together in 2024. Those Democratic-trending counties include key constituencies that have become more important to the party's coalition in recent years. On average, they are more heavily Black, more wealthy, more educated and more urban, an unsurprising mix of voters mobilized in the Obama era and those who have fled the Republican Party in the Trump era. They're also broadly more likely to have more newer residents — according to census data, those Democratic-trending counties have higher-than-average shares of residents who have recently moved to the county. Many of those major trends intersect in exurban and suburban Georgia, particularly in the Atlanta metro area. Seven Georgia counties are among the top eight that saw the most movement toward Democrats the two decades since 2004: Rockdale, Henry, Douglas, Gwinnett, Newton, Cobb and Fayette counties. All but Newton are in metro Atlanta, all are at least one-quarter Black, and most have higher incomes and education rates than the national average. Extremely wealthy and highly educated areas in northern Virginia, as well as counties like Teton County, Wyoming — home to the ritzy Jackson Hole ski resorts as well as major national parks — and Los Alamos County, New Mexico — home to the Department of Energy laboratory that helped develop the atomic bomb — are also among the counties that swung most toward Democrats over this period. Los Alamos County is particularly symbolic: It has the highest share of Ph.D.s among residents of any county in the country. Two more notable counties included in this list are Sarpy and Douglas counties in Nebraska, which make up the vast majority of the state's 2nd Congressional District — the 'blue dot' that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris carried in the last two presidential elections, securing one electoral vote even as Trump carried the state. Democrats have gained in wealthier, whiter and more educated counties in the Trump era The counties that shifted most toward Democrats between 2016 and 2024, the Trump era, are significantly whiter and slightly older than those that moved most over the last two decades. Twenty are in Colorado and nine are in Utah, but there are a handful of important counties in the Midwest too. The two counties that saw the biggest Democratic shifts in the last eight years are both in Utah: Utah and Davis counties, around Provo and Salt Lake City, respectively. There's an important caveat here: In 2016, independent candidate Evan McMullin won 21% of the vote, deflating both parties' vote shares. Looking at more competitive states, almost one-third of Colorado's counties were among the 100 with the largest Democratic shifts in the Trump era, as were 11 in Georgia. Grand Traverse County, Michigan, and Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, have also seen more recent shifts, emblematic of how some educated, suburban Republican strongholds have been moving toward Democrats with Trump on the ballot. But those gains have been more moderate, an increase of 7 percentage points in the Democratic margin between 2016 and 2024 in Ozaukee, and 8 percentage points in Grand Traverse.
