Latest news with #politicalconflict
Yahoo
3 days 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
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Called Musk ‘Big-Time Drug Addict,' Said Physical Fight With Treasury Secretary Was ‘Too Much'
Donald Trump and Elon Musk's friendship imploded well before the Tesla CEO fired off a series of (since deleted) scathing X posts last week, as the president told insiders that the former DOGE head was a 'big-time drug addict' and felt that a physical fight with the treasury secretary was 'too much,' the Washington Post reported Saturday. Trump has cautioned insiders at the White House to be careful with Musk, telling JD Vance to 'be cautious' when speaking of the fallout. Musk is further accused of having 'alienated key members of the White House staff, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and quarreled with Cabinet members' and even physically assaulting one. The Post spoke with 17 people with knowledge of the events, including many on the condition of anonymity. The officials explained the two men disagree about the best ways for the country to save money, including the potential passage of the 'Big Beautiful Bill' spending package. The White House began to realize Musk was 'a real political problem' on April 1 after a Trump-approved candidate lost his race for the state's Supreme Court. Musk also got into a physical confrontation with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after Trump supported Bessent's choice for acting IRS commissioner over Musk's suggestion. The men began to 'exchange insults' after the meeting with Trump and 'Bessent brought up Musk's claims that he would uncover more than $1 trillion in wasteful and fraudulent government spending, which Musk had not succeeded at doing.' Musk ended up shoving his shoulder into Bessent's ribs 'like a rugby player' and Bessent responded with blows, something Trump later said was 'too much.' Toward the end of April, Musk announced he would retreat from D.C. to focus on his own companies. One of the final blows came after Trump told Musk he was not nominating Jared Isaacman for NASA administrator, despite Musk's encouragement (Isaacman had donated to several Democrats). Musk took this as an affront to his own space-related goals, including colonizing Mars, and launched his tirade against Trump on X days later. And while some 'hope that there's going to be a reconciliation' a White House insider told the Post, 'it'll never be the same.' Read the entire report at the Washington Post. The post Trump Called Musk 'Big-Time Drug Addict,' Said Physical Fight With Treasury Secretary Was 'Too Much' appeared first on TheWrap.
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Musk-Trump Breakup Leaves GOP in the Lurch
With Donald Trump in charge of the base and Elon Musk in charge of the money, the growing daylight between them had already put Republicans in a bit of a pickle. The president's one-time right-hand man spent the past week attacking the GOP's tax-cut bill just as Trump was pushing for its passage. Party members counting on the blessings of both men didn't know which way to turn. On Thursday, the conundrum got much worse. Open tweet-war broke out between the 78-year-old Republican and the 53-year-old South Africa native. They traded insults over a range of topics: the pending legislation, why Musk left the White House and how Trump may owe the fact he's there at all to Musk's millions. Things quickly escalated as Trump immediately threatened Musk's contracts and Musk threatened to kneecap a key tool of the US space program. The Tesla CEO even suggested Trump should be impeached for a third time.
