11 hours ago
3
Trump tells CNN: 'I'm not even thinking about Elon. He's got a problem'
CNN’s Dana Bash joined anchor John Berman on CNN News Central earlier to recap her brief phone call with Donald Trump this morning on a potential reconciliation with Elon Musk.
Asked about the feud, Trump said:
I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem.
Bash added that the president said he won’t be speaking to Musk for a while, but he wishes him well.
She said that Trump said he’s not interested in the spat, he’s moving on, and instead wanted to talk about what he wanted the story to be today – which is the economy.
Indeed Trump has been posting all morning about how well he thinks the economy – and the US in general – is doing.
He wrote:
Prices are down, income is up, our Border is closed, gasoline is CHEAP, inflation is DEAD — Our Country is BOOMING! Companies are pouring into America like never before!
Followed by:
AMERICA IS HOT! SIX MONTHS AGO IT WAS COLD AS ICE! BORDER IS CLOSED, PRICES ARE DOWN. WAGES ARE UP!
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Trump asks supreme court to halt court order over education department
Joanna Walters
Donald Trump has appealed to the US supreme court to stop in its tracks a judicial order that blocked the executive branch from dismantling the US Department of Education.
The US president requested the highest court moments ago to act, in response to a federal appeals court that on Wednesday declined to lift a judge’s order blocking the Trump administration from carrying out the president’s executive order to tear down the DoE, Reuters reports.
That court order had also required the government to reinstate employees who were terminated in a mass layoff.
The Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals rejected the Trump administration’s request to put on hold an injunction issued by a lower-court judge at the urging of several Democratic-led states, school districts and teachers’ unions.
Trump issued an executive order in March to eliminate the department, to the fury of opponents.
The Department of Education’s role is primarily financial, dispensing federal funds nationwide. It also upholds civil rights protections such as Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination.
Martin Belam
Breaking up is hard to do, and even harder if you are a billionaire who decides to break up with another billionaire on the two social media platforms you own, while the world watches in real time.
Here are the key moments as the relationship between the US president, Donald Trump, and his former senior adviser Elon Musk unravelled in spectacular fashion, precipitated by a dispute over a colossal spending bill that could have major consequences for years to come.
Dan Milmo
The falling-out between the world’s richest person and the president of the world’s largest economy will have consequences – for both of them.
Elon Musk, as the boss of multiple companies including Tesla, and Donald Trump, who has benefited from Musk’s support in his journey to the White House, have had a mutually beneficial relationship up until now.
Here are 10 ways in which Musk and Trump could hurt each other if they fail to broker a peace deal:
Here’s the New York Post’s front page illustrating the big, beautiful breakup.
Trump tells CNN: 'I'm not even thinking about Elon. He's got a problem'
CNN’s Dana Bash joined anchor John Berman on CNN News Central earlier to recap her brief phone call with Donald Trump this morning on a potential reconciliation with Elon Musk.
Asked about the feud, Trump said:
I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem.
Bash added that the president said he won’t be speaking to Musk for a while, but he wishes him well.
She said that Trump said he’s not interested in the spat, he’s moving on, and instead wanted to talk about what he wanted the story to be today – which is the economy.
Indeed Trump has been posting all morning about how well he thinks the economy – and the US in general – is doing.
He wrote:
Prices are down, income is up, our Border is closed, gasoline is CHEAP, inflation is DEAD — Our Country is BOOMING! Companies are pouring into America like never before!
Followed by:
AMERICA IS HOT! SIX MONTHS AGO IT WAS COLD AS ICE! BORDER IS CLOSED, PRICES ARE DOWN. WAGES ARE UP!
Trump says Fed should cut rates by a full point
Donald Trump has called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by a full point.
“‘Too Late’ at the Fed is a disaster! Europe has had 10 rate cuts, we have had none. Despite him, our Country is doing great. Go for a full point, Rocket Fuel!” he said in a post on Truth Social.
In a second post he wrote: “If ‘Too Late’ at the Fed would CUT, we would greatly reduce interest rates, long and short, on debt that is coming due. Biden went mostly short term. There is virtually no inflation (anymore), but if it should come back, RAISE ‘RATE’ TO COUNTER. Very Simple!!! He is costing our Country a fortune. Borrowing costs should be MUCH LOWER!!!”
There was a lot of tremendous content on X yesterday as the Musk-Trump breakup went global, with many users joking about Putin being called in to negotiate a peace deal between the former buddies.
But the Russians are actually weighing in on the feud, which – predictably – has provoked chatter, mockery and amusement among the ruling class in Moscow, with one senior official joking about hosting peace talks and another saying Musk should bring his businesses to Russia.
Nationalist senator Dmitry Rogozin, who once ran Russia’s space programme, wrote on X:
Elon, don’t be upset! If you encounter insurmountable problems in the US, come to us. Here you will find reliable comrades and complete freedom of technical creativity.
Dmitry Medvedev, a senior security official and former Russian president, posted:
We are ready to facilitate the conclusion of a peace deal between D and E for a reasonable fee and to accept Starlink shares as payment. Don’t fight, guys!
The public feud between the US president and the world’s richest man is an easy target for Russian politicians who have a history of gloating over perceived turmoil in Washington.
Margarita Simonyan, one of Russia’s most powerful state media executives, mocked it as an example of “modern US political culture” – adding it’s “sort of like the English Industrial Revolution. Only in reverse.”
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, who has in the past tried to interest Musk in cooperating with Russia on flights to Mars, asked on X: “Why can’t we all just get along?” He then asked Grok, X’s AI chatbot, how Musk and Trump could reconcile. (Grok’s response was alarmingly emotionally intelligent?)
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the clash, said it was an internal matter for the US, though he was confident that Trump would handle it. He said:
Presidents handle a huge number of different things at the same time, some more and some less important.
On a far more serious and sinister note, others saw clear benefit for Russia from the feud distracting Washington. “We can just be glad that they won’t have time for us,” said Konstantin Malofeyev, a hardline nationalist tycoon, who said it was now “the best time to strike back” against Ukraine.
Musk loses $33bn in net worth as Tesla stocks tank amid dramatic bust-up with Trump
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Elon Musk’s net worth took a $33bn hit yesterday. He is still by far the world’s richest person, with a net worth at the time of writing of $335bn, but as Bloomberg notes it’s one of his worst wealth losses ever.
As his feud with Trump exploded into public view yesterday, Tesla’s shares dropped by about 14.2% at market close, wiping roughly $152bn off the value of the company and decreasing the value of the company to roughly $900bn.
The business has struggled throughout the year amid declining sales and buyers around the world rejecting the automaker due to Musk’s association with far-right politics and his highly contentious role at the White House and Doge. Stock traders who had shorted Tesla shares made billions amid the spat, per the Wall Street Journal.
Trump considering getting rid of his Tesla – WSJ
Trump is considering getting rid of his red Tesla, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
Citing a White House official, the WSJ reports that the president, who bought the car as part of a photo-op at the White House to promote Musk’s company amid global anti-Musk protests and calls to boycott Tesla, is considering selling or giving away his car.
As of yesterday evening, the car was still parked outside the West Wing. CBS reported it has been parked there for weeks.
I’m old enough to remember Trump once telling a cabinet meeting that he had spent “a lot of money” on his “beautiful” Tesla and that his White House team enjoyed taking turns driving it around the grounds. Oh how quickly times change.
Here are some pics from those heady before days.
In this video produced by my colleagues, people in California, Washington and Texas call the feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk “two egos going at it” and say their bromance was “doomed from the beginning”. There’s a general sense that things can only end one way when, as one man tells the camera: “Each of them thinks they’re God’s gift to mankind.” As a billionaire once said, you’re not wrong.
US-China trade meeting expected within seven days, White House adviser says
The planned meeting between US and Chinese officials on trade is expected to take place within seven days, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said this morning, after Donald Trump and Xi Jinping spoke yesterday.
'You mean the man who has lost his mind?' Trump says he's 'not particularly' interested in speaking to Musk – ABC News
In a phone interview this morning, hours after his blistering exchange with Elon Musk, Donald Trump sounded remarkably unconcerned about their feud, according to ABC News.
Speaking on a phone call this morning shortly before 7am ET, ABC asked him about reports he had a call scheduled with Musk for later in the day.
“You mean the man who has lost his mind?” he asked, saying he was “not particularly” interested in talking to him right now.
He said Musk wants to talk to him, but he’s not ready to talk to Musk.
