Latest news with #SubsidiesandContracts
Business Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
Trump and Musk to speak on Friday after alliance descends into public feud
[WASHINGTON] Donald Trump's aides scheduled a call between the US president and Elon Musk for Friday (Jun 6) after a huge public spat that saw threats fly over government contracts and included the world's richest man suggesting Trump should be impeached. A White House official said the two men would speak on Friday. The official did not give a time for the call, which could ease the feuding after an extraordinary day of hostilities – largely conducted over social media – that marked a stark end to a close alliance. Representatives for Musk's Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the planned call. Shares in the electric vehicle maker closed down over 14 per cent on Thursday, losing about US$150 billion in market value in the largest single-day decline in value in its history. In pre-market trading on Friday they pared some of those losses, rising as much as 5 per cent after the news that the two men were scheduled to speak. Politico first reported the planned call. Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company for Trump's Truth Social platform, ended down 8.04 per cent to US$20.12 on Thursday and was up 0.2 per cent in pre-market trade. Musk had bankrolled a large part of Trump's presidential campaign and was then brought as one of the president's most visible advisers, heading up a sweeping and controversial effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The verbal punches erupted on Thursday after Trump criticised Musk in the Oval Office and the pair then traded barbs on their social media platforms: Trump's Truth Social and Musk's X. The falling-out had begun brewing days ago when Musk, who left his role as head of the Department of government Efficiency a week ago, denounced Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill. The president initially stayed quiet while Musk campaigned to torpedo the Bill, saying it would add too much to the nation's US$36.2 trillion in debt. Trump broke his silence on Thursday, telling reporters he was 'very disappointed' in Musk. 'Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore,' Trump said. As Trump spoke, Musk responded on X. 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election,' wrote Musk, who spent nearly US$300 million backing Trump and other Republicans in last year's election. In another post, Musk asserted that Trump's signature import tariffs would push the US into a recession later this year. 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, billions and billions of US dollars, is to terminate Elon's governmental Subsidies and Contracts,' Trump posted. Minutes after the closing bell, Musk replied, 'Yes,' to a post on X saying Trump should be impeached, something that would be highly unlikely given Trump's Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress. Musk's businesses also include rocket company and government contractor SpaceX and its satellite unit Starlink. Musk, whose space business plays a critical role in the US government's space programme, said that as a result of Trump's threats he would begin decommissioning SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. Dragon is the only US spacecraft capable of sending astronauts to the International Space Station. Late on Thursday, Musk backed off the threat. In another sign of a possible detente to come, Musk subsequently wrote: 'You're not wrong,' in response to billionaire investor bill Ackman saying Trump and Musk should make peace. Punching back Trump and Musk are both political fighters with a penchant for using social media to attack their perceived enemies, and many observers had predicted a falling-out. Musk hit at the heart of Trump's agenda earlier this week when he targeted what Trump has named his 'big, beautiful Bill', calling it a 'disgusting abomination' that would deepen the federal deficit. His attacks amplified a rift within the Republican Party that could threaten the bill's prospects in the Senate. Nonpartisan analysts say Trump's bill could add US$2.4 trillion to US$5 trillion to the nation's US$36.2 trillion in debt. A prolonged feud between the pair could make it harder for Republicans to keep control of Congress in next year's midterm elections if it leads to a loss of Musk's campaign spending or erodes support for Trump in Silicon Valley. 'Elon really was a significant portion of the ground game this last cycle,' said a Republican strategist with ties to Musk and the Trump administration who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. 'If he sits out the midterms, that worries me.' On Tuesday, Musk posted that 'in November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.' Musk had already said he planned to curtail his political spending in the future. Musk's increasing focus on politics provoked widespread protests at Tesla sites, driving down sales while investors fretted that Musk's attention was too divided. REUTERS
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
President Donald Trump threatens to cut Elon Musk's government contracts as their public feud escalates
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump threatened to cut Elon Musk's government contracts as their fractured alliance rapidly escalated into a public feud Thursday. Hours after Trump lamented his breakup with Musk and said he was 'disappointed' in his former backer and adviser and Musk responded on social media, Trump escalated the feud by threatening to use the U.S. government to hurt Musk's bottom line. 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,' Trump wrote on his social media network. 'I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!'WASHINGTON (AP) — The breakup between the president of the United States and the world's richest man is unfurling much like their relationship started — rapidly, intensely and very publicly. As President Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office on Thursday with Germany's leader, he lamented his soured relationship with Elon Musk, his adviser-turned-social media antagonist. Trump said he was 'very disappointed' with Musk after the billionaire former backer lambasted the president's signature bill of tax cuts and spending plans. 'Whatever,' Musk wrote on his social media platform while responding to Trump in real time. Musk later offered up an especially stinging insult to a president sensitive about his standing among voters: 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election,' Musk retorted. 'Such ingratitude,' Musk said in a follow-up post. Politicians and their donor patrons rarely see eye to eye. But the magnitude of Musk's support for Trump, spending at least $250 million backing his campaign, and the scope of free reign the president gave him to slash and delve into the government with the Department of Government Efficiency is eclipsed only by the speed of their falling out. Musk announced his support for Trump shortly after the then-candidate was nearly assassinated on stage at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally last July. News of Musk's political action committee in support of Trump's election came days later. Musk soon became a close adviser and frequent companion, memorably leaping in the air behind Trump on stage at a rally in October. Once Trump was elected, the tech billionaire stood behind him as he took the oath of office, flew with him on Air Force One for weekend stays at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, slept in the White House's Lincoln Bedroom at the president's invitation and joined his Cabinet meetings wearing a MAGA hat (sometimes more than one). 'I'll be honest, I think he missed the place,' Trump said Thursday. 'He got out there, and all of a sudden he wasn't in this beautiful Oval Office.' Musk bid farewell to Trump last week in a subdued news conference in the Oval Office, where he sported a black eye that he said came from his young son but that seemed to be a metaphor for his messy time in government service. Trump, who rarely misses an opportunity to zing his critics on appearance, brought it up Thursday. 'I said, 'Do you want a little makeup? We'll get you a little makeup.' Which is interesting,' Trump said. The Republican president's comments came as Musk has stewed for days on social media about Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill,' warning that it will increase the federal deficit. Musk has called the bill a 'disgusting abomination.' 'He hasn't said bad about me personally, but I'm sure that will be next,' Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office. 'But I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot.' Observers had long wondered if the friendship between the two brash billionaires known for lobbing insults online would flame out in spectacular fashion. It did, in less than a year. 'Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore,' Trump said. The president said some people who leave his administration 'miss it so badly' and 'actually become hostile.' 'It's sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it,' he said. He brushed aside the billionaire's efforts to get him elected last year, including a $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes in Pennsylvania. The surge of cash Musk showed he was willing to spend seemed to set him up as a highly coveted ally for Republicans going forward, but his split with Trump, the party's leader, raises questions about whether they or any others will see such a campaign windfall in the future. Trump said Musk, the CEO and founder of Tesla, 'only developed a problem' with the bill because it rolls back tax credits for electric vehicles. 'False,' Musk fired back on his social media platform as the president continued speaking. 'This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!' In another post, he said Trump could keep the spending cuts but 'ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill.' The bill would unleash trillions of dollars in tax cuts and slash spending but also spike deficits by $2.4 trillion over a decade and leave some 10.9 million more people without health insurance, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, which for decades has served as the official scorekeeper of legislation in Congress. Besides Musk being 'disturbed' by the electric vehicle tax credits, Trump said another point of contention was Musk's promotion of Jared Isaacman to run NASA. Trump withdrew Isaacman's nomination over the weekend, days after Musk left his government role. 'I didn't think it was appropriate,' Trump said, calling Isaacman 'totally a Democrat.' Musk, reverting to his main form of political activity before he joined forces with Trump, continued slinging his responses on social media. He shared some posts Trump made over a decade ago criticizing Republicans for their spending, musings made when he, too, was just a billionaire lobbing his thoughts on social media. 'Where is the man who wrote these words?' Musk wrote. 'Was he replaced by a body double!?'
