Latest news with #SteveBannon
The Guardian
an hour ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Trump's tax bill helps the rich, hurts the poor and adds trillions to the deficit
The blush is off the rose, or, rather, the orange. The erstwhile 'First Buddy' and born-again fiscal hawk Elon Musk recently said he was 'disappointed' by Donald Trump's spendthrift budget currently under debate in the US Senate. Squeaking through the House of Representatives thanks to the capitulation of several Republican deficit hardliners, this 'big, beautiful bill' certainly increases the federal debt bigly – by nearly $4tn over the next decade. Equally disappointed are those who have been busy burnishing Trump's populist veneer. Steve Bannon had repeatedly promised higher taxes for millionaires, but he has confessed he's 'very upset'. That's because the bill would cut taxes by over $600bn for the top 1% of wage-earners, also known as millionaires. It amounts to the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history. Yet this double betrayal will do nothing to impede the sundry Maga apparatchiks' breathless support for their dear leader. Musk has already tweeted his gratitude to the president for the opportunity to lead Doge (that is, slash funding for cancer research). So this bill has once again proven Republicans' willingness to relinquish their convictions as long as they can keep their grasp on power. And for Trump, it has reaffirmed that his pledged golden age is really just a windfall for the uber-wealthy like him. Now there can be no mistaking that Republicans' governing philosophy is neither conservatism nor populism but unabashed hypocrisy. Expecting the self-proclaimed King of Debt to balance the budget – or hoping workers would be protected by the billionaire whose personal motto is 'You're fired' – was always imaginative thinking at best. In his first term, Trump added $8tn to the national deficit. Even excluding Covid relief spending, that's twice as much debt as Joe Biden racked up during his four years in the White House. Almost $2tn of that tab came from Trump's vaunted tax cut, which delivered three times more wealth to the top 5% of wage earners than it did to the bottom 60%. Nor did its benefits trickle down, with incomes remaining flat for workers who earn less than $114,000. Trump's disingenuousness on the deficit continues a hallowed Republican tradition. All four Republican presidents since 1980 have increased the federal debt. By combining reckless militarism with rampant corporatism, George W Bush managed to balloon it by 1,204%. When Bush's treasury secretary Paul O'Neill expressed concern about that spending, Dick Cheney, the then-vice president, reportedly retorted: 'Deficits don't matter.' Except, of course, when a Democrat occupies the Oval Office. During his campaign for the US Senate in 2022, JD Vance derided Biden's signature $1tn infrastructure package as a 'huge mistake' that would waste money on 'really crazy stuff'. Like improving almost 200,000 miles of roads and repairing over 11,000 bridges across the country. Apparently less crazy, but certainly more callous, are the vertiginous cuts to the social safety net proposed in Trump's current budget bill. Its $1tn evisceration of Medicaid and Snap would leave 8 million Americans uninsured and potentially end food assistance for 11 million people, including 4 million children. When the Democratic Representative Ro Khanna introduced an amendment to maintain coverage for the 38 million kids who receive their healthcare through Medicaid, Republicans blocked it from even receiving a vote. But for all the budget's austerity, it also provides $20bn in tax credits to establish a national school voucher program. And equally outrageous are its provisions that have nothing to do with the pecuniary, from easing regulations on gun silencers to hamstringing the power of courts to enforce injunctions. Perhaps most breathtaking of all, though, is how shamelessly the bill enriches the already mega-rich. In its first year, its tax breaks will grace Americans in the top 0.1% of the income bracket with an additional $400,000, while decreasing the earnings of people in the bottom 25% by $1,000. In other words, those who can least afford it are financing relief for those who least need it. When the 50% of working class Americans who broke for Trump in last year's election realize they voted for a pay cut, they might begin to feel a bit disillusioned with the crypto trader-in-chief. They might even feel pulled to the authentically populist vision outlined by the progressives Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on their nationwide Fighting Oligarchy Tour. In the meantime, it is almost an inevitability that Republican senators will wring their hands before pressing the green button to vote 'yea.' Josh Hawley has called the budget bill 'morally wrong and politically suicidal', criticism which Trump has previously mocked as 'grandstanding'. The insult contains a typically Trumpian flash of psychological insight, because Hawley and his colleagues will no doubt do exactly what their counterparts in the House have already done – cave. Once Trump has scribbled his oversized signature onto the bill, his vision for the US will have become unmistakable. Try as they might, not even the spinmeisters at Fox News will be able to deny that he runs this country the way he ran his Atlantic City casinos, leading working Americans to financial ruin while he emerges all the richer for it. Katrina vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of the Nation, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a contributor to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times
ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Elon Musk may come to wonder if DOGE was worth the fights
If it wasn't for his shock-and-awe destruction of government agencies, Elon Musk's DOGE era might have been defined by his many MAGA feuds. The first big schism, before Trump was even inaugurated, set the standard for some of the personal attacks to come. "We're going to rip your face off," Trump ally Steve Bannon said in his podcast late last year, an apparent warning to Musk during a dispute over specialist worker visas. Bannon, who was Trump's chief strategist in his first term, had already declared he'd "made it my personal thing to take this guy down". "Musk is a parasitic illegal immigrant," he later said. Leaks from inside the White House suggest Musk soon made some more powerful enemies. "F*** you! f*** you! f*** you!" Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly screamed at Musk in the West Wing hallway in April. Tensions exploded after Musk hand-picked a new tax-agency boss without Bessent's knowledge, according to reports citing witnesses. Musk had already clashed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at a cabinet meeting a month earlier, where he criticised both for firing too few workers. No fan of tariffs, Musk also fought with Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, on his own X platform. After Navarro mocked Tesla as a car "assembler" rather than "manufacturer", Musk called him "a moron" and "dumber than a sack of bricks". Then, perhaps deciding he hadn't been offensive enough, he followed up by calling him "Peter Retarrdo". "Boys will be boys," Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said later. "We will let their public sparring continue," she said, adding it "speaks to the president's willingness to hear from all sides". The public sparring also spoke to perceptions in Trump's circles that Musk was a chaos agent with too much access and power. Some of the president's allies were no doubt relieved to see his Wednesday tweet confirming his time in government was coming to an end. "This is a way to make a lot of enemies and not that many friends," Musk said of his work about a month before his announcement. Musk has been in frequent fights on every front. He's facing multiple legal battles over DOGE's actions. States like New York are looking at ways to punish his businesses. And he's in regular stoushes online and elsewhere with Democrats and, on occasion, Republicans. A lot of it could be written off as the rough-and-tumble of American politics, which is more intense and extreme than ever. But what's especially hurt Musk and his businesses — particularly his electric-vehicle venture — is the public backlash. Tesla was battered by a stock sell-off campaign and a sharp drop in sales, as well as protests and vandalism at dealerships, before reporting a 71 per cent profit plummet in the first quarter of this year. (It should be noted some analysts expect Musk's business interests will come out ahead overall, given the benefits his other companies — like SpaceX — could enjoy after his influential White House stint.) Musk has expressed frustration he couldn't get more done at DOGE. "I think we've been effective — not as effective as I'd like," he told his final cabinet meeting. But certain MAGA priorities, which have recently come into clearer view, could now prove even more frustrating for him to watch play out from afar. Musk had frequently talked about the DOGE mission as a nation-saving one. He argues the US's rising debt puts it at risk of bankruptcy. That's why he's so unhappy with Trump's spending bill — official name: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful," Musk told CBS. "But I don't know if it can be both." The bill raises the debt ceiling — that is, the legal limit placed on federal government borrowing — by $US4 trillion ($6.2 trillion). It includes new tax cuts, and extends income tax cuts from Trump's first term, which Democrats and others criticised for disproportionately benefiting the rich. At the same time, it puts new requirements on access to food stamps and health insurance for low-income Americans, projected to impact millions of people. It's now before the Senate after passing the House of Representatives by one vote. Musk told CBS: "I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit — not decrease it — and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing." In what may have been his final White House press conference on Friday, local time, Musk wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "The Dogefather". He was also sporting a black eye, which he said was the result of inviting his five-year-old son to punch him in the face. The shiner, rather than the shirt, might be the symbol that best represents his government stint. In many ways, it's been bruising. And Musk may come to wonder if it was worth all the fights.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE DOGE loses its head Elon Musk but his 'super-genius' nerd army troops are now inside the deep state
Elon Musk is loosening his grip on the Department of Government Efficiency but as his followers have scattered, many have been absorbed into the federal government with the hopes of continuing the mission. The group of young 'super-geniuses' who stepped away from prominent jobs or their pursuit of a college degree volunteered for working long hours, through weekends, sleeping in their offices, and earned a renegade reputation. 'They're doing a hell of a job, it's an amazing job they're doing,' President Trump said. 'You know that force is building, I call it the force of super-geniuses,' he said in February. But with Musk's exit Friday, the days of DOGE in the spotlight have come to an end. 'DOGE is Done,' former Trump advisor Steve Bannon told the Daily Mail on the day of Musk's departure, tying up the Elon-run effort. As Trump bid farewell to Musk in the Oval Office, the billionaire wore a shirt describing himself as the 'Dogefather,' indicating his desire to be remembered as the father of a political movement he hoped would continue. 'This is not the end of DOGE but really the beginning,' he said, promising that the DOGE team would only get stronger. The president agreed. 'Elon's really not leaving, he's going to be back and forth i think ... it's his baby,' Trump said. Today, DOGE employees have been sent to different departments, and are quietly working within the system. Some of them view themselves as more missionaries than mercenaries, and even as Musk's public role fades, they expect the work to go on. The work of cutting government waste and dismantling the 'administrative state,' one of Bannon's biggest priorities, would continue in the Office of Management and Budget which is 'where DOGE is housed' to begin with, he said. OMB director, Russ Vought, who helped co-author Project 2025, remains engaged with the efforts, but ultimately the traditional hierarchy of the federal government has snapped back into place. Some of Trump's most visible cabinet members view the DOGE brand as a net positive, as they have worked to implement it into their departments. One DOGE 'agent' told Fox News host Jesse Watters in an interview that his work was thriving at the State Department with Secretary Marco Rubio. 'There are people in the State Department that will stop you, in all the agencies that we've been to that will stop you in the hallways or write emails and say I was scared to write this or I don't know if you were interested in this but they usually have great ideas, they usually have the best ideas,' he said. 'They often have the best ideas.' Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo on Friday giving the department's DOGE team 'the opportunity to provide input on all unclassified contracts' he noted proudly on Thursday. Even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who famously clashed with Musk at the White House, has absorbed the DOGE effort into his department. 'The 'E' in DOGE is efficiency,' Bessent said in an interview. 'It's not elimination. It's not extinction. We are trying to make the government do better for the American people and right-size it.' The White House confirmed that the Trump administration would continue the job of DOGE in Musk's absence — even though it would effectively be the federal government. 'The DOGE leaders are each and every member of the president's cabinet and each and the president himself,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. The outsiders of DOGE have now been absorbed into the government or politely decided to leave. With the departure of its founder comes the end of the myth that Musk created - that somehow a group of outsider tech geniuses could fix the problems and root out government corruption and waste. Musk's efforts were impossible to ignore, fueled by a an excited MAGA base that was delighted with his antics. 'What is it you say you do here?' he asked, channeling the film Office Space by sending government employees an order to email him to prove their worth by asking them what they had accomplished that week. The decision to shutter USAID entirely won the respect from even the most cynical political interests, as cutting off the slush-fund for so many non-profits connected to left-wing causes signaled a major victory. At the White House, Musk's appearances at cabinet meetings symbolized the uncanny clash of two worlds - buttoned up bureaucrats vs the more free ranging tech genius of Silicon Valley. 'Even my hat has a hat,' Musk said, putting one of Trump's Gulf of America hats on top of his existing MAGA hat. 'Elon, I love the double hat, but he's the only one can do that, and get away with it,' Trump said, shaking his head. Musk's untraditional antics became the fodder of legends for some and cringe for others. 'I have become meme,' Musk declared at CPAC in February, wearing sunglasses and welding a bright shiny chainsaw given to him by Argentine President Javier Milei. 'This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy!' he shouted waving it in the air with enthusiasm. 'Yeah!' Musk was entranced by Milei's ability to capture the imaginations of not only his country but the entire world, as the chainsaw welding wild haired libertarian delivered a victory in 2023 against all odds. When Milei took power, he cut the number of government ministries, fired over 40,000 government employees, lowered inflation, cut reduced government spending, and dismantled large parts of the federal bureaucracy. Imagine what the United States, the birthplace of the idea of limited government could accomplish. But Musk's dreams of single-handedly slashing $2 trillion from the federal government fell short. It was limited government that ended up as the biggest block to Musk's dreams. Musk's experiment demonstrated that the power of the executive branch to make significant cuts is limited. Only Congress can deliver the trillions of dollars in savings that Musk so desperately wanted. After all, it is Congress that controls the power of the purse. With the dream of DOGE established, Musk indicated he was ready to leave. 'That's it really,' he said at the conclusion of his remarks on Friday, shrugging his shoulders.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
'Next Victory: H-1B scam': MAGA now rallies behind Steve Bannon after China visa crackdown
US crackdown on Chinese students' visa is seen as a victory of the Bannon camp. Donald Trump's former aide Steve Bannon shot to the centerstage Friday as the Trump administration's recent visa decisions were seen as a victory of the Bannon camp. Bannon, an avid hater of the H-1B visa programs that allows US companies to hire foreign talent, quickly reacted to the accolades, as he wrote, "Next Victory: H1B Visa Scam". A POLITICO report gave the verdict that it was the Bannon camp's win over the tech camp as Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the administration would now revoke the visas of Chinese students. The Silicon Valley camp would definitely not like this decision as 70 per cent of Silicon Valley's highly educated tech employees are from overseas and China supplies more than any country except India, the report said noting how silent the tech industry is on this major policy change -- though very little has been shared by Rubio. Meta, Google, Microsoft and NVidia formally declined to comment to POLITICO and it said Tesla, Amazon and Apple did not respond to its emails. "The visa move looks like another win for the Bannon wing," the report gave its verdict. What Steve Bannon thinks about H-1B Steve Bannon has openly called the H-1B program a scam. Openly declaring a war against Elon Musk, he called for an end to the program. Bannon thinks H-1B is a scam of the highest order that deprives Americans of their jobs. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like USDJPY đang đi lên không? IC Markets Đăng ký Undo Reacting to the USCIS's latest approval of over 120,000 H-1B applications for 2026, Steve Bannon said it's outrageous at a time when AI is posing a threat to US jobs. "The number of H-1Bs we need this year is ZERO. Everyone issued one should go home, and every billet should be filled by an American," Bannon said. The recent layoffs announced by companies, including Walmart, have been linked to the H-1B and US tech workers are demanding H-1B ban.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Insane moment Elon Musk 'SHOVED' Trump's treasury secretary Scott Bessent during screaming match
Elon Musk 's swift departure from his signature Department of Government Efficiency and the White House was escalated by an outburst that turned violent, according to a high-profile insider. Former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon told that Musk's turbulent time in the White House was marred when he physically 'shoved' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after he was confronted over wild promises to save the administration 'a trillion dollars'. 'Scott Bessent called him out and said, 'You promised us a trillion dollars (in cuts), and now you're at like $100 billion, and nobody can find anything, what are you doing?'' the prominent MAGA figure revealed. 'And that's when Elon got physical. It's a sore subject with him. 'It wasn't an argument, it was a physical confrontation. Elon basically shoved him.' Bannon said the physical altercation came as the two billionaires moved from the Oval Office to outside Chief of Staff Susie Wiles' office, and then outside the National Security Advisor's office. 'Trump 100%' sided with Bessent after the clash, he added. 'I don't think Bessent has any bad blood, but he's got a job to do and he's going to do it.' The revelation of a confrontation between the pair was confirmed by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday. 'It's no secret President Trump has put together a team of people who are incredibly passionate about the issues impacting our country', she said in a statement to 'Disagreements are a normal part of any healthy policy process, and ultimately everyone knows they serve at the pleasure of President Trump.' Musk's time in the Trump White House was scheduled to only last five months, but it comes the same week he broke ranks by publicly trashing the administration's 'Big Beautiful' domestic bill. As Musk's time at the White House came to a close, Bessent took to his X platform to publicly thank the Tesla CEO on his way out, saying he did 'very important work' and said he was 'committed to not letting the bureaucracy slow it down' now Musk is gone. The revelations of the Musk Bessant clash follow an explosive New York Times report that alleged Musk was using a cocktail of drugs on the campaig n trail including ketamine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. Bannon added that Musk also lost status in Trump's orbit when it was leaked to the New York Times in March that the billionaire was preparing to receive top-secret military briefings on China, which Trump abruptly stopped. The former chief strategist in Trump's first administration said the mounting issues with DOGE and the China briefings led to Musk losing face in the White House. 'The president backed (Bessent) just like the president didn't allow the briefing on China,' he said. 'People in the administration and the White House realized he didn't have any idea what he's doing. 'They cauterized the damage.' Bannon said the president's decision to block Musk from receiving briefings on China 'made (Musk) realize that Trump was going to back his cabinet.' 'That's the inflection point, you see Elon all changed from that moment.' The fight between Musk and Bessent was initially reported in April, however the extent of the alleged physicality of the clash was not previously known. Bannon said Musk's alleged shortcomings with DOGE were exacerbated when Trump gave his State of the Union address earlier this year, when the president listed through millions of allegedly fraudulent Social Security recipients aged over 100. Despite Musk claiming to have found a scandal, it was later alleged that these were primarily due to an accounting error and no significant money was sent to these recipients. 'Not one penny was ever shown to have been sent to these people,' Bannon said. 'Is anyone trying to talk to Elon now? No.' Musk's departure from the White House comes as the Trump administration is grappling with its 'Big Beautiful Bill' in Congress. The billionaire broke ranks earlier this week as he trashed the bill for its spending increases, which Musk fumed had 'undermined' the work he had done at DOGE. But Bannon blamed the fallout from the bill squarely on Musk's shoulders, saying the White House and Congressional Republicans relied on him to cancel out the spending with his DOGE cuts and he didn't deliver. 'The political class on Capitol hill willingly got behind a pied piper and wasted five months,' he said. 'The people at fault here are Congress,' he continued. 'They wanted to have a fairy godmother come in and wave a magic wand and say, its all fraud, and get them off the hook. 'Particularly (Speaker) Johnson… they didn't invite Musk to Capitol hill because they think he's politically radioactive, and they all lined up and didn't do the work on these bills... There's no cuts.' Bannon insisted that he was a supporter of the DOGE mission and said 'we have to cut out every penny we can', but felt Musk failed to live up to the promise. With the nation's finances set to fall under the spotlight as Congress works to pass the 'Big Beautiful Bill', Bannon said the most pressing crisis will be the impact on the bond markets, and said the fallout could become a 'Liz Truss moment.' 'This is a crisis, unless we get our arms around this we're going to have a Liz Truss moment.' Bannon clarified that he did not mean the crisis could bring Trump down in the way that it did with the former UK Prime Minister, but warned that the looming financial fallout could have the same impact on the markets that her bungled premiership had. 'Where is the fraud? The Pentagon is a cesspool of fraud, where is it? Where are the criminal referrals?' he added.
