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'A disgusting abomination': Musk tears into Trump budget bill days after leaving White House
Elon Musk has significantly upped the ante in his criticism of Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending cut bill, calling it a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled … disgusting abomination” that will expand the “already gigantic” budget deficit.
The billionaire, who only formally left his top role in the White House last week, wrote on his X platform:
I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. 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.
It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.
The broadside comes as Trump pressures Republicans in the Senate to approve the legislation, which narrowly passed in the House of Representatives.
Asked about Musk’s criticism, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it,” she added.
Last week, Musk had sharply criticised Trump’s spending plan, saying he was “disappointed” with the response to the federal cost-cutting efforts of his signature “department of government efficiency” (Doge) that would increase the budget deficit.
In an interview with CBS News, he called the bill too expensive and a measure that would “undermine” his work to make the government more “efficient”.
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US announces visa restrictions for several central American government officials
Secretary of state Marco Rubio has announced visa restrictions for several unnamed central American government officials and their families for allegedly exploiting Cuban medical professionals.
Rubio, who did not name the officials or the countries they are from, said the officials are responsible for Cuban medical mission programs that include elements of forced labor and the exploitation of Cuban workers.
“These steps promote accountability for those who support and perpetuate these exploitative practices,” he said in a statement.
“Attacks on the judiciary itself are dangerous to the rule of law and to the actual judges themselves,” says Dick Durbin, citing a spike in violence and threats against judges and their families in light of the president’s rhetoric.
“Let us recognise that violence begets violence,” he says. “Threats of violence … are never acceptable.
“People are welcome to debate the merits of any particular judicial decision but we cannot condone personal attacks and threats against judges who rule against this administration, and we can’t allow partisan politics or the latest outrage from the president to undermine the judicial branch and our constitutional order.”
Durbin cites language used by Trump and his allies to attack the “authority and legitimacy” of the judiciary and to intimidate judges, including demanding impeachment of a judge who ruled against him.
It is difficult to imagine either President Bush, President Obama or President Biden using such unhinged, bombastic and childish language, or calling for the impeachment of a judge simply for ruling against his administration.
The reason it’s difficult is because Obama or Biden never did anything like this.
Durbin goes on to say that Trump and “his allies go after anyone who dares to speak up because fear of political retribution is now at the core of this Maga world, and my Republican colleagues have been silent as the president has made the statements he has about judges”.
Democratic senator Dick Durbin points out the “flood the zone” context, saying Trump had “signed more executive orders than any president in history, leading to more court challenges than any president in history”.
“Seems pretty logical to me,” he said.
The Republican senator Ted Cruz highlighted that the number of nationwide injunctions during the second Trump administration so far is “greater than the entire 20th century and greater than all of those issued against Bush, Obama and Biden combined”.
However, among the factors contributing to this high number are the several executive orders signed by Trump and a high number of policies being challenged in court.
Democratic senator Dick Durbin has just posted about the hearing on X:
Donald Trump and his extreme allies keep using unhinged language to threaten judges … even calling for impeachment. Just imagine if President Obama had done that. Republicans would’ve thrown a fit.
Senate judiciary committee hearing on judicial branch's oversight of executive authority
The senate judiciary subcommittees are holding a joint hearing on the judicial branch’s check on executive power, amid federal judges halting several of Donald Trump’s orders with nationwide injunctions. I’ll bring you any key lines here.
Trump was not informed of Ukraine drone attacks in advance, says White House
Donald Trump was not informed in advance of Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russia, Karoline Leavitt said.
On Sunday, Ukraine said it launched 117 drones in an astonishing operation code-named “Spider’s Web” to attack Russian nuclear-capable long-range bomber planes at airfields in Siberia and the far north of the country.
Trump to sign order doubling metals tariffs, White House says
Donald Trump will sign an executive order today making official his vow to double tariffs on steel and aluminum, Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Last Friday Trump announced that he would increase tariffs on the two metals from 25% to 50%. Yesterday, Us steel and aluminum prices jumped while shares of foreign steelmakers fell.
White House says it is aware of reports of Israelis firing on Palestinian people seeking aid in Gaza
The White House said that it is aware of reports of Israeli troops firing on Palestinian people seeking aid near a food distribution site in southern Gaza.
“We’re going to look into reports before we confirm them from this podium or before we take action,” Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
At least 27 people were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for food at a distribution point set up by an Israeli-backed foundation in Gaza, according to health officials in the strip – the third such incident in three days. Israel admitted on Tuesday for the first time that its forces shot at individuals who were moving towards them.
'A disgusting abomination': Musk tears into Trump budget bill days after leaving White House
Elon Musk has significantly upped the ante in his criticism of Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending cut bill, calling it a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled … disgusting abomination” that will expand the “already gigantic” budget deficit.
The billionaire, who only formally left his top role in the White House last week, wrote on his X platform:
I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. 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.
It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.
The broadside comes as Trump pressures Republicans in the Senate to approve the legislation, which narrowly passed in the House of Representatives.
Asked about Musk’s criticism, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it,” she added.
Last week, Musk had sharply criticised Trump’s spending plan, saying he was “disappointed” with the response to the federal cost-cutting efforts of his signature “department of government efficiency” (Doge) that would increase the budget deficit.
In an interview with CBS News, he called the bill too expensive and a measure that would “undermine” his work to make the government more “efficient”.
White House says it's monitoring China's compliance with trade deal
The White House said that it is actively monitoring China’s compliance with last month’s tariff agreement, in response to questions on how it is handling Beijing’s curbs on rare earth minerals.
Karoline Leavitt also reiterated that Donald Trump would soon be speaking with Chinese president Xi Jinping.
“I can assure you that the administration is actively monitoring China’s compliance with the Geneva trade agreement,” she told reporters. “Our administration officials continue to be engaged in correspondence with their Chinese counterparts.”
Fema 'taking hurricane season seriously', says White House after agency head 'joked' that he didn't know about it
The White House said that Fema (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is taking severe storms seriously, following a Reuters report that the head of the agency said he was not aware of hurricane season.
“We know that we are into hurricane season now, and I know Fema is taking this seriously, contrary to some of the reporting we have seen based on jokes that were made and leaks from meetings,” Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Reuters reported that David Richardson, who has led Fema since early May, had told baffled staff he had not been aware that the US has a hurricane season. It was not clear to staff whether he meant it literally, as a joke, or in some other context.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Fema’s parent agency, told Reuters the comment was a joke and that Fema is prepared for hurricane season.
Trump has said Fema should be shrunk or even eliminated, arguing states can take on many of its functions, as part of a wider downsizing of the federal government. About 2,000 full-time Fema staff, one-third of its total, have been terminated or voluntarily left the agency since the start of the Trump administration in January.
At the same time, data seen by the Guardian has showed that more than a dozen National Weather Service (NWS) forecast offices along the hurricane-prone Gulf of Mexico coast are understaffed as the US plunges into an expected active season for ruinous storms. There is a lack of meteorologists in 15 of the regional weather service offices along the coastline from Texas to Florida, as well as in Puerto Rico – an area that takes the brunt of almost all hurricanes that hit the US. Several offices, including in Miami, Jacksonville, Puerto Rico and Houston, lack at least a third of all the meteorologists required to be fully staffed.
And the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the Miami-based nerve center for tracking hurricanes, is short five specialists, the Guardian has learned, despite assurances from the Trump administration that it is fully staffed ahead of what’s anticipated to be a busy hurricane season that officially started on Sunday.
Experts have warned the turmoil unleashed by Trump upon the NWS and Fema, which has had multiple leadership changes and still does not have a completed plan for this year’s hurricane season, will dangerously hamper the response to a summer that will likely bring storms, floods and wildfires across the US.
