
Musk fumes as Trump tax bill cuts electric vehicle credits
The Senate tax bill would bring a quicker end to a popular US$7,500 (RM31,627) consumer tax credit for electric vehicles. — AP
Elon Musk slammed the US Senate's latest version of President Donald Trump's multi-trillion dollar tax bill last Saturday, warning that the cuts to electric vehicle and other clean energy credits would be "incredibly destructive' to the country.
Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc and SpaceX, posted on his social media platform X about the bill, which the Senate advanced in a contentious vote late Saturday. Musk recently left Trump's side after working for several months as the head of Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
The bill would destroy millions of US jobs and give "handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future,' Musk said.
The tech billionaire's latest criticism of the package threatens to reawaken his public rift with Trump that began after the world's richest man left his cost-cutting job in the administration.
Trump was asked about Musk in an interview that was recorded on Friday before the billionaire's most recent posts.
"I haven't spoken to him much, but I think Elon is a wonderful guy, and I know he's going to do well always,' Trump said on Fox News's Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, which aired Sunday. "But he got a little bit upset, and you know that wasn't appropriate.'
The Senate tax bill would bring a quicker end to a popular US$7,500 (RM 31,627) consumer tax credit for electric vehicles.
While the earlier proposal would have ended the incentive at the end of this year for most EV sales, the new version terminates the credit after Sept 30. Tax credits for the purchase of used and commercial electric vehicles would end at the same time. – Bloomberg
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US Senate debates whether to adopt revised state AI regulation ban
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The Star
an hour ago
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The Star
an hour ago
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It also deepened fears that other revisionist powers could use nuclear blackmail to intimidate their neighbours. The lesson of Ukraine could end up being, 'If you have nuclear weapons, keep them. If you don't have them yet, get them, especially if you lack a strong defender like the US as your ally and if you have a beef with a big country that could plausibly lead to war,' wrote Bruce Riedel and Michael E. O'Hanlon, analysts at the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington, in 2022. Saudi Arabia, an ally of the US and arch rival of Iran, has watched Tehran's nuclear ambitions with alarm. Experts say it would feel huge pressure to develop its own weapon if Iran ever obtained one. The US has tried to reassure the Saudis by dangling assistance for a civil nuclear programme, but those negotiations were interrupted by Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. And yet, for all the predictions of a regional arms race, it has yet to occur. Experts say that is a testament to the success of non-proliferation policies, as well as to the chequered history of countries that pursued weapons. The Middle East is a messy landscape of dashed nuclear dreams. Iraq, Syria, and Libya all had their programmes dismantled by diplomacy, sanctions or military force. In the category of cautionary tales, Libya's is perhaps the most vivid: Moammar Gadhafi gave up his weapons of mass destruction in 2003. Eight years later, after a Nato-backed military operation toppled his government, he crawled out of a drainpipe to face a brutal death at the hands of his own people. Iran's strategy of aggressively enriching uranium, while stopping short of a bomb, did not ultimately protect it either. 'To the extent that people are looking at Iran as a test case, Trump has shown that its strategy is not a guarantee that you will prevent a military attack,' said Gary Samore, a professor at Brandeis University who worked on arms control negotiations in the Obama and Clinton administrations. Samore said it is too soon to say how the Israeli and American strikes on Iran would affect the calculus of other countries. 'How does this end?' he said. 'Does it end with a deal? Or is Iran left to pursue a nuclear weapon?' Experts on proliferation are, by nature, wary. But some are trying to find a silver lining in the events of the last week. Einhorn said that in delivering on his threat to bomb a nuclear- minded Iran, Trump had sent a reassuring message to US allies facing their own nuclear insecurities. 'In Moscow, Pyongyang, and Beijing,' Einhorn said, 'they've taken notice not just of the reach and capacity of the US military, but the willingness of this president to use that capability.' — 2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.