Australia's Soft GDP Growth Vindicates RBA's Dovish Rate Stance
Australia's economy opened 2025 on a softer-than-expected note as both public demand and exports detracted from growth, vindicating the Reserve Bank's decision to cut interest rates last month and adopt a dovish stance.
Government data released Wednesday showed gross domestic product advanced 0.2% in the first quarter, slower than the predicted 0.4% pace. The 1.3% annual expansion compared with a forecast 1.5% gain.
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Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Musk feud presents 'unprecedented' dynamic compared to past Trump disputes: expert
The ongoing feud between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, his one-time "special government employee," has brought an "unprecedented" dynamic compared to other famous disputes, long-time Democratic political strategist and Fox News contributor Jacques DeGraff said. After somewhat muted rumblings from Musk about why he opposed a Trump-endorsed Republican spending package, the DOGE leader launched complaints after Trump began firing back this week, including threats aimed at Musk's business revenue. "It's unprecedented, but the reality is that what makes it a singular moment in history is that no single figure has ever been able to say, 'I made a president and then (fell) out with that individual," DeGraff told Fox News Digital Friday. "There have been groups, there have been individuals who wanted to pretend that they did, but the record is clear. And, I mean, this man (Elon) brought his son into the Oval Office. He wore a hat and didn't wear a suit to the Oval Office. He clearly had carte blanche. … The president, in effect, did a Tesla ad in the Rose Garden … and now they've fallen out in life." DeGraffe, who has been a political advocate and strategist for years, quipped that, ordinarily, "we would have to go to family court," adding "what's the court here?" Trump is no stranger to quarrels with his staff. During his first term, his relationship soured with his National Security Advisor, John Bolton, and his press secretary, Anthony Scaramucci, after they diverged on different issues and publicly criticized Trump. But, for DeGraffe at least, this quarrel has "distinguished itself from anything in the past." One major difference he pointed to is the implications for both parties in this spat. "Tesla stock has dropped $150 billion, Trump stock has dropped but it also occurs at the same time as this legislation and so that is going to have – no matter how it turns out – it's going to have massive political and public policy implications for the country," DeGraffe said. "So this is no small dispute." DeGraffe also contended that this is "the first time" there has been a major deviation from Trump "from the MAGA side of the aisle." He suggested the split could be bad news for Trump and others who hope to see the GOP's budget package pass the finish line in its current form. "This major split will allow other players to take positions other than the party line, and it gives them room and comfort and cover in order to do so," DeGraffe suggested. "Will senators who follow Musk, or, better yet, disagree with Musk, face intensely funded primaries? "That's a consideration that everyone involved will have to take. … As a lifelong Democrat, I'm sitting with my bowl of popcorn saying, 'Go at it.' Because anything that slows this horrific legislation has got to be good news to the rest of the country." However, while DeGraffe sees the Trump-Musk feud as having wide-ranging and lasting implications, GOP political strategist Dallas Woodhouse says he thinks the feud is unimportant to most Republicans. "I am currently at the North Carolina State GOP convention, and this is not a topic of concern among activists," Woodhouse said. "No doubt it makes for funny and entertaining X posts, but the GOP faithful are laser-focused on growing the new diverse GOP/Trump winning coalition."
Wall Street Journal
3 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
The Republican at the Center of the War Between Trump and Musk
Caught in the middle of President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's spectacular fallout is a Republican operative with close ties to both men. Katie Miller, 33, is a former Trump White House staffer married to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. Over the last year, she became a top adviser to Musk and worked at his side as he slashed and reshaped the federal government from his position as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
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In win for Trump, Supreme Court lets DOGE access Social Security data
WASHINGTON – A divided Supreme Court on June 6 said Department of Government Efficiency can have complete access to the data of millions of Americans kept by the U.S. Social Security Administration. The court paused a judge's order blocking DOGE from immediately getting broad access to the data which includes Social Security numbers, medical and mental health information, tax return information and citizenship records. The court's three liberal justices − Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson − disagreed with that decision. "The Government wants to give DOGE unfettered access to this personal, non-anonymized information right now —before the courts have time to assess whether DOGE's access is lawful," Jackson wrote in a dissent joined by Sotomayor. "In essence, the `urgency' underlying the Government's stay application is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes." Jackson said the court has "truly lost its moorings" when deciding what's worthy of emergency intervention and may be showing preferential treatment for the administration. "It says, in essence, that although other stay applicants must point to more than the annoyance of compliance with lower court orders they don't like," she wrote, "the Government can approach the courtroom bar with nothing more than that and obtain relief from this Court nevertheless." In a brief and unsigned decision, the majority said access is warranted now because the courts are likely to ultimately decide that DOGE can have the information. A delay would harm the administration's reorganization efforts and not be in the public's interest, the majority wrote. In March, U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of Maryland said DOGE was intruding on "the personal affairs of millions of Americans" in a fishing expedition that's based on little more than suspicion.' Hollander limited DOGE's access to the information while the courts assess the legality of the Trump administration's actions. The administration argued the judge overstepped, viewing DOGE staffers as the equivalent of intruders breaking into hotel rooms rather than as employees trying to modernize the agency's technology and root out waste – as DOGE officials said they intended to do. 'District courts should not be able to wield the Privacy Act to substitute their own view of the government's 'needs' for that of the President and agency heads,' Solicitor General John Sauer told the Supreme Court in an emergency appeal. DOGE has sought access to multiple agencies as part of its mission to hunt for wasteful spending and dramatically overhaul the federal government. Musk has falsely claimed that millions of Americans who are deceased are still receiving Social Security checks. Two labor unions and an advocacy group sued the SSA after DOGE began digging into personal data. They told the Supreme Court justices they shouldn't intervene because the administration hadn't shown an emergency need to access data beyond what the district judge allowed. In addition to overseeing Social Security benefits for retirees and disabled people, the Social Security Administration helps administer programs run by other agencies, including Medicare and Medicaid. A divided federal appeals court on April 30 rejected the Trump administration's request to block the district judge's order. U.S. Circuit Judge Robert King of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia, said the government hadn't shown a need for unfettered access to the highly sensitive personal information that the American people had every reason to believe would be 'fiercely protected.' DOGE's mission can be largely accomplished through anonymized and redacted data, which is the usual way the agency has handled technology upgrades and fraud detection, he wrote. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court lets DOGE access Social Security data for now
