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Mint
21 minutes ago
- Business
- Mint
Donald Trump brushes off Elon Musk's disappointment over Tax Bill spending, says, ‘have to get a lot of votes'
US President Donald Trump brushed off criticism from billionaire donor and adviser Elon Musk regarding the cost of his flagship tax bill, telling reporters Wednesday that certain compromises were necessary to ensure the legislation's passage. 'Number one, we have to get a lot of votes,' Trump said. 'We can't be cutting — you know, we need, we need to get a lot of support.' Elon Musk, who headed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce federal spending, expressed his frustration in an interview with CBS News. He said he was 'disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.' Musk's comments echo some fiscal hawks who have argued that Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' — which pairs new tax cuts with an increase to military and border spending — could add trillions to the deficit. 'I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both,' Musk said. The bill narrowly cleared the House last week, but it is anticipated to undergo substantial revisions in order to gain the backing of the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate. 'We will be negotiating that bill, and I'm not happy about certain aspects of it, but I'm thrilled by other aspects of it,' Trump said. 'That's the way they go.' The president said ultimately the legislation was worth it because of 'the level of tax cutting that we're going to be doing.' In a separate interview with the Washington Post, Elon Musk expressed frustration that DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency he led, had become a scapegoat for criticism. 'DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,' Musk said at the Starbase launch site in Texas ahead of SpaceX's latest launch on Tuesday. 'Whenever something goes wrong anywhere, we get blamed even if we have nothing to do with it.' I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both. He also remarked, 'The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized. I knew there were problems, but trying to improve things in D.C. is definitely an uphill battle, to say the least.' (With inputs from agencies) Number one, we have to get a lot of votes.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Trump's brutal response to CBS' offer to settle $20 billion 60 Minutes lawsuit
President Donald Trump has rejected a multimillion-dollar offer from CBS News to settle his lawsuit over an allegedly doctored 60 Minutes interview. Nearly a month into settlement talks over Trump's explosive $20 billion lawsuit against the network, sources confirm that Paramount Global has quietly offered $15 million to make the scandal disappear. But Trump has blasted the network's proposal as 'not even close,' and is demanding tens of millions more (at least $25 million) together with a formal apology. The lawsuit, filed last October, accuses CBS, its parent company Paramount and its flagship program 60 Minutes of deceptively editing a high-stakes interview with then–Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris just weeks before the 2024 election. Trump alleges the footage was manipulated to 'tip the scales' in Harris's favor and irreparably damage his image with voters. CBS denies the claim and said the broadcast was 'not doctored or deceitful.' It has called the allegations 'completely without merit.' But the legal and political aftershocks are now threatening to derail a much bigger deal: Paramount's $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media, which is currently under review by Trump's Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The rejection of the settlement offer from CBS comes as Trump threatens to block billions in federal approvals for Paramount's merger with Skydance Media and insiders say the president is nowhere near backing down. The footage at the heart of the lawsuit was aired on 60 Minutes in October 2024, and featured CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker interviewing Harris in a prime-time election special. Trump's lawsuit claims CBS selectively removed a series of stammering, confused answers from Harris on topics including the Israel–Hamas war, replacing them with cleaner responses from a different part of the interview. Legal analysts note that the First Amendment gives CBS broad protections, and say the lawsuit likely wouldn't survive in court. But the fear of retaliation from a sitting president - and one who's threatened to revoke broadcast licenses and jail journalists - has changed just how much risk CBS/Paramount are prepared to bear. The lawsuit has now ballooned into one of the largest defamation-related claims ever filed against a media company. CBS is facing a $20 billion damage claim, a federal probe by the FCC into potential 'news distortion,' and a growing internal revolt as journalists accuse Paramount of trying to appease Trump to save the merger. According to The Wall Street Journal, Paramount floated a $15 million offer to Trump's legal team, citing similar settlements in other media-related suits. But Trump's recent victories against other media companies have emboldened him to push CBS harder and demand much more. He not only wants a significantly larger financial payout, but also a formal public apology from CBS News. Trump has already won multi-million dollar settlements from other media companies, including Meta, which paid him $25 million in January, ABC News, which agreed to a $15 million settlement in December and X, which paid $10 million in February. 'This was not just a bad edit,' one source close to the Trump team said. 'It was election interference. You don't settle that quietly.' Paramount, under the leadership of chairwoman Shari Redstone, has entered mediation to try to resolve the conflict. Redstone, 71, is said to be personally involved in weighing whether to settle quickly even as legal experts warn that any payout could be seen as a 'bribe' to fast-track FCC approval of the Skydance deal. 'If settling Trump's demands looks like a payoff, Paramount could be opening the door to criminal liability and shareholder lawsuits,' one media attorney told The New York Post. 'This is legally radioactive.' The legal saga has already claimed major casualties inside CBS. Wendy McMahon, CEO of CBS News, announced her abrupt resignation earlier this month, citing 'differing views on the path forward.' In a memo to staff, she wrote, 'It's become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward. It's time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.' Before her departure, Bill Owens, longtime executive producer of 60 Minutes, also stepped down, citing concerns over 'editorial independence.' And during a broadcast, anchor Scott Pelley stunned viewers by saying on air that 'Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,' suggesting interference from corporate leadership. These resignations have deepened fears among CBS journalists that Redstone and the Paramount board are sacrificing the newsroom's integrity to preserve a corporate merger. Shari Redstone, the heiress of CBS parent Paramount Global, has sought to settle the ongoing suit while pursuing a massive media merger with Skydance Sources now say Redstone is prepared to offer up to $50 million to settle the lawsuit and move on with her life, possibly walking away with $2 billion if the Skydance sale is completed. Award-winning television newsmagazine broadcast 60 Minutes, which pulls around 10 million viewers weekly, is a leading target of Trump's offensive against the media. The program has continued to air investigations critical of the Trump administration since his return to the White House. In response, Trump has called for its cancellation, while his billionaire advisor Elon Musk has said he hoped the team behind 60 Minutes would receive long prison sentences.
Express Tribune
an hour ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
Musk says 'disappointed' by Trump mega-bill
Billionaire Elon Musk, who has stepped back from his role of slashing US government spending by firing tens of thousands of people, has criticized President Donald Trump's signature spending bill. The "One Big, Beautiful Bill Act" — which passed in the House of Representatives and now moves to the Senate — would usher into law Trump's vision for a new "Golden Age," led by efforts to shrink social safety net programs to pay for a 10-year extension of his 2017 tax cuts. But critics say it will decimate health care for the poorest Americans and cause the national debt to balloon. "I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk said in an interview with CBS News. An excerpt was aired Tuesday evening with comments that put him at odds with Trump, who tasked Musk with cutting government spending as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The spending bill is the centerpiece of Trump's domestic policy agenda and could define his second term in the White House. Independent analysts have warned it would increase the deficit by as much as $4 trillion over a decade. "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful," Musk told CBS News, "but I don't know if it can be both. My personal opinion." The full interview will be aired Sunday. In a separate interview with the Washington Post, Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, looked back on his work leading the reforms, in which many civil servants lost their jobs with little or no warning. "The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized," he said. "I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC, to say the least." Musk announced in late April he was stepping back from government to run his companies again. He said in May that he did not achieve all his goals with DOGE even though tens of thousands of people were removed from government payrolls and several government departments were gutted or shut down altogether.
The National
2 hours ago
- Business
- The National
Elon Musk departs Trump administration
Elon Musk on Wednesday said he was leaving his position within the US government after leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency in a controversial effort to slash federal spending. 'As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,' he wrote on his social media platform X. A White House official told Reuters that Mr Musk is leaving the administration and his 'off-boarding will begin tonight.' Mr Musk's 130-day mandate as a special government employee in the Trump administration was set to expire around May 30. The administration has said Doge's efforts to restructure and shrink the federal government will continue. 'The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,' he wrote. Mr Musk and Doge have cut nearly 12 per cent, or 260,000 people, from the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce largely through threats of firings, buyouts and early retirement offers, Reuters reported. Mr Musk's departure comes after he criticised the price tag of Republicans' tax and budget legislation making its way through Congress. 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the Doge team is doing,' Mr Musk told CBS News. The richest person on the planet's political activities have drawn protests and some investors has called for Mr Musk to leave his work as Mr Trump's adviser and manage Tesla more closely. He leaves Washington dramatically changed. Doge's firings exploded the US capital's long-held boast that it is immune to economic shocks that buffet the rest of the country. The Tesla and SpaceX chief joined the Trump administration in January and claimed he would cut $2 trillion from the $7 trillion federal budget. It became clear that was wildly overambitious, and as of today, Doge says it has saved an estimated $175 billion. But the taxpayer may end up on the hook for more than that as the government is forced to settle lawsuits over the mass firings, as well as hire expensive contractors to fill the gaps left by an overzealous Doge. Plus, any savings will be dwarfed by new deficit spending under the Republicans' tax bill that is currently under Senate consideration. Mr Musk's role working for Mr Trump was always intended to be temporary, and he had recently signalled that he would be shifting his attention back to running his businesses.
Hans India
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Hans India
US halts student visas; plans expanded social media vetting
Washington: US President Donald Trump's administration has ordered US embassies around the world to stop scheduling appointments for student visas as it prepares to expand social media vetting of such applicants. An official memo said social media vetting would be stepped up for student and foreign exchange visas, which would have "significant implications" for embassies and consulates. It comes during a wide-ranging Trump crackdown on some of America's most elite universities. He sees these institutions as too left-wing - accusing them of failing to combat antisemitism when pro-Palestinian protests have unfolded on campuses. Responding to the move, China called on the US to protect international students. "We urge the US side to earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of international students, including those from China," an official was quoted as saying. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students attend US universities. The universities themselves are likely to be disquieted as well. Many of them rely on foreign students for a significant chunk of their funding - as those scholars often pay higher tuition fees. Foreign students who want to study in the US are usually required to schedule interviews at a US embassy in their home country before approval. State department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday: "We take very seriously the process of vetting who it is that comes into the country, and we're going to continue to do that." The memo, viewed by the BBC's US partner CBS News, directed US embassies to remove any unfilled appointments from their calendars for students seeking visas, but said those with appointments already scheduled could go ahead. The pause would last "until further guidance is issued", Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote.
