Latest news with #MuskTrumpFeud
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Is "centrism" making a comeback? OK, sort of — but blink and you'll miss it
Who wasn't mesmerized by last week's epic, if profoundly embarrassing, catfight between Elon Musk and Donald Trump? No one, that's who. I browse a lot of random publications from all over the world, and the online feud between the president of the United States and the richest person on the planet (along with the associated memes: 'high-agency males going at it'!) was front-page news in Finland, Italy, Kenya and Argentina, just for starters. So I'm not here to tell you that the Musk-Trump throwdown was some kind of calculated distraction or, as in the vivid imaginations of some right-wing influencers, a 5D-chess gambit meant to force the 'Big Beautiful Bill' through the Senate and compel the release of the so-called Epstein files. Seriously, can you believe the stupidity of the times we live in? I recently read a lengthy book extract about the devastating impact of the asteroid that struck Earth 66 million years ago, wiping out nearly all life for millions of years after that, and found myself wondering whether that would be such a bad idea. But 'the girls are fighting' — no disrespect to girls, or to fighting! — definitely obscured a handful of disconnected but related events whose consequences might last a lot longer. Much of the Elon-related pseudo-news emerged from one of Trump's hair-raising Oval Office encounters with a foreign leader, in this case newly-elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Before that meeting devolved into chaos, it had in fact already gone off the rails: Trump clearly assumed that Merz must be sad about the Nazis losing World War II, and seemed mildly puzzled to learn otherwise. There's certainly room for historical cynicism about postwar Germany and the role of Merz's center-right party, the Christian Democratic Union, in laundering the reputations of many former Nazis or collaborators. But please don't try to convince yourself that Trump knows anything about that. He is simply too ignorant, and too small-minded, to imagine a scenario in which you're glad your country didn't conquer all of Europe, or to understand that the avowed purpose of the CDU, over its eight decades of existence, has been to rehabilitate Germany as a modern democratic state, free of antisemitism and ultra-nationalism. Merz put a brave face on this moment of grotesquerie, because that's his job; the European media was justifiably horrified, because that's theirs. But there was an intriguing undertow below all this that wasn't readily discernible; bear with me for a minute while we work through it. As I wrote here a few weeks ago, Merz is in an unlikely position and he knows it: He's a finance-capital multimillionaire from an aristocratic Catholic family who emerged from an indecisive federal election as the accidental leader of European democracy. In more innocent times he was described as the most pro-American politician in Germany. Now, with Trump back in the White House, Britain self-extracted from the EU and French President Emmanuel Macron fading into irrelevance, Merz more than anyone else is tasked with charting the course of European independence and fending off the continent-wide rise of the far right. Merz's electoral victory over the somewhat-fascist AfD — which has been the object of transatlantic mash notes from JD Vance and Elon Musk — coupled with recent wins by center-left parties in Canada and Australia, suggested something of a global "centrist" comeback. (Setting aside, for the moment, the question of whether that deliberately meaningless word actually means anything.) This wasn't entirely an illusion, and for those with a candle burning in the window for democracy, it was a sign of hope. The grandiose overreach of the second Trump regime has clearly fueled a normie backlash in many parts of the world, pumping new life into mainstream political parties that had seemed to be in terminal decline. As it happens, Merz's visit to Washington coincided with a strange only-in-2025 event taking place in a nearby hotel basement: WelcomeFest, a day-long series of speeches and events billed as the 'largest public gathering of centrist Democrats.' (There's that word again!) I wasn't there, and reports from the no-doubt-riveting scene were decidedly mixed. It sounds like a blend of entirely reasonable debate about how Democrats can craft a broadly popular message and a full-on declaration of war on the Bernie/AOC left and 'the groups,' a codeword used to denigrate social justice movements of many varieties without quite naming them. The groups in question would seem to include LGBTQ activists, the climate justice movement, police and prison reformers or abolitionists, and anyone who utters the word 'Palestine.' As Aída Chávez of The Nation reports, pundit Matt Yglesias — pseudo-intellectual poster boy for this entire phenomenon — still thinks it was a bad idea for Democrats to give a crap about Kilmar Ábrego García's illegal deportation to El Salvador. Pollster David Shor told Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, according to David Weigel of Semafor, that 'voters really hate electric cars.' Slotkin, who clearly hopes to be the Democrats' centrist savior in 2028, politely demurred: What voters actually hate is too much regulation, blah blah blah. Talk of 'abundance' was abundant — speaking of meaningless catchphrases of the moment — and in some cases deployed to attack labor unions or suggest that left-wing rhetoric about oligarchy and corporate power was strictly for the kids' table. So is this the centrist moment? Is neoliberalism back from its remarkably brief and partial ideological exile, under the inspiring and all-unifying banner of not being quite as bad as Trump? Are we about to witness the end of the end of the end of history? I'm sorry for posing such dumb questions, especially since the answer to all of them is 'kind of.' In domestic politics, the agenda of WelcomeFesters like Yglesias, Slotkin, Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington is clear enough: They want to party like it's 1992. They want to make sex less fun, freedom less free and state repression more repressive, on the endlessly disproven hypothesis that surrendering your principles, cowering in fear and giving hateful people most of what they supposedly want might win the next election. I try to avoid overt editorializing in this space, but as my Uncle Fred would have said: F**k that for a game of specifically, the centrist vanguard wants to use the Democratic Party's post-Kamala crisis to cancel the 2020 peace treaty between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders and return to the time-honored ritual of punishing and purging the left. God knows there's enough blame to go around for the failures of the 2024 Harris campaign, but the not-so-hidden message here is a thoroughgoing rejection of the former president that basically all these people claimed to adore until about this time last year: Biden was too old, too stubborn and too woke, and led us into this disaster. On the global stage, there are already signs that the centrist renaissance may be a transitory phenomenon, not much more than 'kicking the can down the road,' as Armida van Rij of Chatham House wrote last week in Foreign Policy. Poland's presidential election ended in a narrow victory by far-right nationalist Karol Nawrocki, a conspicuous Trump ally in one of Europe's largest and most strategically important countries. Poland is deeply divided along lines of class, culture and geography (not entirely dissimilar to America's), and Nawrocki's win shouldn't be simplistically understood as a referendum on Trumpism, even if Kristi Noem, without the slightest idea of where she was or what she was doing there, showed up to campaign for him. This is likely to mean several more years of political paralysis in between authoritarianism and democracy, and increasingly fraught relations with Ukraine, which is directly to Poland's east. Meanwhile, the Dutch government has collapsed (once again) after anti-immigrant agitator Geert Wilders pulled his newborn far-right party out of an already wobbly coalition, clearly hoping to win a greater share of power in an October election. It's entirely possible, as many analysts believe, that Wilders has overplayed his hand and that the migrant crisis is no longer the dominant issue in European politics, largely thanks to Trump 2.0. But Wilders' chaos-agent antics, along with the Polish result and the startling gains made in recent British local elections by Nigel Farage's shambolic Reform UK, should make clear that reassuring narratives about the global demise of the Trump-style far right — politics is healing itself! — must be taken with several kilos of salt. "Centrist" leaders like Merz, Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have repeatedly tried to triangulate toward some democracy-salvaging consensus by repackaging the right's most seductive ideas and offloading all remaining vestiges of left-flavored economic populism. Whether that's hard-headed realpolitik or deep-seated cynicism and corruption is up for debate, but it should sound familiar to anyone acquainted with the Democratic Party's 40-year trajectory. Look how well that has worked.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Stephen Miller's Wife Torn Between Two Men As White House Break-Up Rages
Katie Miller, the wife of a top Donald Trump aide who now works for Elon Musk, is in a 'tricky situation' amid the two men's messy breakup, her friends told The Wall Street Journal. Miller, 33, is the wife of Stephen Miller, 39, the high-profile staffer who masterminded Trump's mass deportation initiative. Having risen through the White House ranks herself to become a top DOGE aide, Musk took Miller with him to work in the private sector upon his exit from government—and then promptly torpedoed his relationship with Trump and his supporters. (Stephen Miller is among those who have called out Musk in recent days.) Musk and Trump exchanged a flurry of blows beginning on Thursday. Musk alleged that Trump was implicated by government files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, while Trump fired back that Musk's drug use might be responsible for his behavior. At some point during the battle, Musk unfollowed Miller's husband. The ugly spat has cooled off—but some commentators predict it's far from over. Friends of Miller, who declined to speak to the Journal herself, told the paper that she has 'conflicting interests,' which has made the break-up especially tough for her. The White House did not immediately return a request for comment. This isn't the first time Miller has found herself torn between Musk and Trump. Insiders told the Journal that tensions flared on occasions when senior White House staffers didn't feel that Miller was doing enough to push Musk to operate in step with the rest of the administration. For many White House aides, Miller was the main point of contact for Musk and his team, but they still felt she was not sharing enough information about what the tech billionaire was doing, the Journal reported. Miller told some people that she was struggling to keep up with the pace of Musk's eccentric behavior as he gutted agencies and slashed funding. Some White House aides blamed her for delivering updates from DOGE with inaccurate intel—like a claim, later parroted by Trump, that the government had sent $50 million worth of condoms to Gaza. Miller signed onto the Trump administration during the president's first term. She met her husband while working at the Department of Homeland Security. Trump attended their February 2020 wedding, which took place at the president's hotel in Washington D.C. Later, Miller joined Vice President Mike Pence's office. After the January 2021 insurrection, which saw Trump turn on Pence for his refusal to impede the certification of the 2020 election results, Miller, like now, found herself backed into a corner. While her husband stayed with Trump, Miller worked for Pence's post-presidency. But when Trump began to attack Pence after leaving office, the ex-VP's advisers decided the situation was 'untenable,' and Miller left, per the Journal. Last summer, she emerged as a an effective liaison between Musk and the Trump campaign. When the Musk's DOGE was announced before Trump came into office, she was one of the first employees to be revealed. Before Trump's second term, Miller had cultivated a reputation for being a tough, fiery, and vocal advocate of Trump's platform. If there was any doubt that Miller is unafraid to take the road less traveled, insiders told the Journal that she has a tattoo on the inside of her lip that says 'YOLO'—which stands for the slogan 'you only live once.'
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Dejected' Trump Says Relationship With Musk Is Over; Calls Him a ‘Big-Time Drug Addict': Report
Elon Musk's insults toward Donald Trump left the president 'dejected' and 'rattled,' The Washington Post reported Saturday. Now it's apparently Trump's turn to trash his former ally, saying he will not make amends. Musk's departure from the Trump administration was announced last week after Trump pulled his nomination for Musk's ally, Jared Isaacman, to lead NASA. Musk then made the feud public when he began dumping on Trump's tax bill, calling it a 'disgusting abomination.' A Trump administration official said they are 'taking away Elon's friends,' Rolling Stone reported, and now, Trump has deemed the relationship over. On Saturday, Trump told NBC News that he is too busy to speak to Musk. The president called Musk, who reportedly took so much ketamine during the 2024 campaign that he could not pee right, 'a big-time drug addict' in a phone call, a source told The Post. Trump reportedly made several phone calls to those in his inner circle as well as acquaintances about the split. Musk's drug habits on the campaign trail included ketamine, Ecstasy, and psychedelic mushrooms, The New York Times reported late last month. His drug usage, and the media discussion surrounding it, helped drive the breakup, White House officials told the Post. The former head of the Department of Government Efficiency lobbed insults at Trump earlier this week that culminated into one alleging there were files showing the president's connections to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which he has since deleted. Vice President J.D. Vance said in response that Trump 'didn't do anything wrong' with Epstein. 'Most entertaining outcome is most likely,' Musk, who has been posting less often than usual, wrote on X Saturday. Those close to the president expected him to be more vitriolic toward his new adversary, The Post reported, but he was quieter at first this time, reportedly telling people not to escalate the situation. He even reportedly told Vance to be diplomatic. 'I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,' Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday. 'Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!' he wrote in another post. The furthest Trump went earlier this week was to threaten to cancel Musk's government contracts. Now the president is looking more and more like his regular self. When NBC News asked on Saturday whether he had any interest in making amends, Trump said, 'No.' The outlet also asked whether he thought his relationship with Musk was over. 'I would assume so, yeah,' he said. When NBC News asked Trump whether he would speak to Musk soon, he said he was otherwise occupied. 'I'm too busy doing other things,' he said. 'I have no intention of speaking to him.' He also told the outlet that Musk had been disrespectful. 'I think it's a very bad thing, because he's very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the President.' Even so, this sounds tepid for a person who, for example, insulted how Heidi Cruz, Ted Cruz's wife, looks and suggested Cruz's father was linked to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He called Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley 'birdbrain' and Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 running mate Tim Walz 'tampon Tim.' Musk has been the recipient of Trump's classic insults as well. 'When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, 'drop to your knees and beg,' and he would have done it…' Trump posted on Truth Social in 2022. Trump's biggest escalation was a threat toward Musk in the NBC News interview. He said that there would be 'serious consequences' if Musk funds Democrats to run against Republicans who support Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' 'He'll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,' he told NBC News. He did not say what those consequences would be. Musk had previously slammed the bill in a post on X. 'This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,' he wrote. The political arm of SpaceX, Musk's company, has made donations to Democrats. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) received $24,000 from SpaceX's PAC, which she donated to a food bank, Axios reported. Overall, Democrats are not interested in Musk's help. 'I don't give a shit about Elon Musk,' Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) told Axios. 'I just don't. We've got real problems.' 'He doesn't need to come back into our fold, if he ends up being a spoiler on their end, that ends up helping us,' Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) told the outlet. Musk does not seem interested in joining the Democrats either. 'Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?' he posted on X earlier this week. More from Rolling Stone Vance Says 'Trump Didn't Do Anything Wrong With Jeffrey Epstein' Dropkick Murphys and Veterans Rally Against Trump for 'Disrespecting the Vets' 'We Are Taking Away Elon's Friends' Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Vance Responds in Real Time to Musk's Trump-Epstein Bombshell
JD Vance has slammed Elon Musk for launching an all-out campaign of hate against President Donald Trump following the Tesla CEO's social media meltdown earlier this week. 'I just think it's a huge mistake for the world's wealthiest man, I think one of the most transformational entrepreneurs ever, to be at war with the world's most powerful man, who I think is doing more to save our country than anybody in my lifetime,' the vice president said. 'I just think you've got to have some respect for him and say, 'yeah, we don't have to agree on every issue',' he went on. 'But is this war actually in the interest of the country? I don't think so.' Vance's comments, made during a sit-down with podcaster Theo Von released Saturday, follow Musk lighting a match to his already fraying relationship with Trump on Tuesday, and then proceeding to pour several gallons of kerosene over the resulting blaze in the days since. The feud first kicked off after Musk described the president's 'Big Beautiful Bill', which contains spending proposals for many of the Trump administration's flagship policies, as 'a massive, outrageous, pork-filled[,] disgusting abomination' that threatens to 'defeat all of the cost savings achieved' by DOGE. Musk had led the White House government efficiency drive, taking an axe to federal programs and government departments as well as scything away an estimated two million federal jobs, until stepping down last week after reaching the 130 day limit granted to 'special government employees.' Things escalated drastically after Trump said Thursday he was 'very disappointed' by the tech broligarch's criticism of his administration's spending proposals, adding that 'Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore.' Musk responded later that night on X later that night, publishing a series of posts in which he lamented Trump's 'ingratitude' and claimed the president would have lost the election were in not for the estimated quarter of a billion dollars the Tesla CEO invested in his campaign. He later proposed the formation of a new political party, at one point appearing to position himself as a prospective leader of that movement, and even accused Trump in a now-deleted tweet of refusing to publish the full 'Epstein Files' for fear of revealing the alleged extent of his relationship with the deceased financier and convicted pedophile sex trafficker. Musk's increasingly erratic behavior also follows after a bombshell report by The New York Times on his alleged drug habits, which include reportedly abusing ketamine with such regularity as to have given him issues with his bladder, a common symptom of chronic use. Despite suffering perhaps one of the most spectacular public meltdowns in U.S. political history, vice president Vance appears to think there may still be scope for the SpaceX founder to eventually find his way back into Trump's good graces. 'Hopefully, Elon figures it out, comes back into the fold. I know the president was getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon. But I think it has been very restrained, because the president doesn't think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk,' Vance told Von on Saturday. 'I actually think that if Elon chilled out a little bit everything would be fine,' he added.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vance Says ‘Trump Didn't Do Anything Wrong With Jeffrey Epstein'
Elon Musk, who has not been taking so much ketamine that he can't pee right, had a meltdown about his former bromance partner Donald Trump on his website, X, this week. Vice President J.D. Vance, caught up in the petty feud, has naturally taken Trump's side, including when it comes to allegations about Trump's ties to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. As he railed against Trump, Musk escalated his attacks: '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 added: 'Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.' The posts have since been deleted. Vance, who was speaking with podcaster Theo Von, reacted to the social media broadside in real time. When Von read that post aloud, Vance first responded, 'Man.' 'First of all, absolutely not,' Vance continued. 'Donald Trump didn't do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein… Whatever the Democrats and the media say about him, that's totally BS.' The vice president added that his 'loyalties are always gonna be with the president.' Trump and Musk spent part of the week publicly feuding, just days after the world's richest man and head of Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, departed the administration. Musk, who spent about $290 million to support Trump and Republicans in the 2024 election, started the attacks by calling Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' a 'disgusting abomination' and 'pork-filled.' 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election… such ingratitude' Musk posted. Trump, famous for his own social media insults, wrote on Truth Social, 'I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.' Musk took it further, bringing up Trump's well-known ties to Epstein. Trump had a long friendship with Epstein and has appeared in multiple photos with him. Musk also appears in a notorious photo with Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, at the Vanity Fair Oscars party in 2014. The image is frequently circulated on X. Musk has claimed that Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role helping Epstein, 'photobombed' him. Trump's Justice Department made Epstein, who died in prison after he was charged with sex trafficking minors, something of a pet issue when Attorney General Pam Bondi promised to release documents in February. She caused MAGA conspiracy theorists — who hope to uncover a Moloch-worshiping cabal among elites — to melt down when nothing that she released was new. She released Epstein's flight logs and his book of contacts, which had both already been made public. Trump told New York Magazine in 2002 that he liked spending time with Epstein. 'I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,' he said. '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. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.' Following Musk's claims, Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) wrote a letter to Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel asking them to 'immediately clarify' whether the claims were true, Axios reported. The White House called the lawmakers 'lunatics.' Joe Rogan also asked Patel about Musk's Epstein claim. Patel said he was 'not participating' in the Trump-Musk discourse. Speaking on Von's podcast, Vance said he thinks Musk is 'an incredible entrepreneur,' adding that Musk and DOGE's 'effort to root out waste, fraud and abuse in our country is really good.' He expressed hope that Musk can mend fences, noting that 'Maybe that's not possible now, because he's gone so nuclear.' He also said Musk was making a mistake to turn against Trump. 'I just think it's a huge mistake for the world's wealthiest man, I think one of the most transformational entrepreneurs ever, to be at war with the world's most powerful man, who I think is doing more to save our country than anybody in my lifetime,' Vance said. 'Mom and dad were fighting so he got sent to a friend's house,' reads the top comment on YouTube. More from Rolling Stone Dropkick Murphys and Veterans Rally Against Trump for 'Disrespecting the Vets' 'We Are Taking Away Elon's Friends' Trump Finally Brings Back Illegally Deported Man - to Indict Him Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
