The Trump-Musk alliance implodes: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online mentation of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and investigation from the White House, Capitol Hill and the run trail.

In today’s edition, we interruption down however President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s feud burst into nationalist view. Plus, Jonathan Allen sifts done the rotation to supply a world cheque connected what the “big, beauteous bill” would really do.

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— Adam Wollner

The Trump-Musk confederation implodes

By Rebecca Shabad and Alana Satlin

The simmering hostility betwixt President Donald Trump and Elon Musk boiled implicit into a full-blown nationalist brawl Thursday.

Act I: After a bid of societal media posts from Musk successful caller days trashing Trump’s “big, beauteous bill,” the president offered his archetypal effect during an Oval Office gathering with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

“I’m precise disappointed due to the fact that Elon knew the interior workings of this bill,” Trump said of his erstwhile adviser. “I’m precise disappointed successful Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”

Trump suggested that Musk, the world’s richest man, was upset that the authorities chopped retired a taxation recognition meant to incentivize electrical conveyance purchases.

“Elon’s upset due to the fact that we took the EV mandate, which was a batch of wealth for electrical vehicles and they’re having a hard clip with electrical vehicles and they privation america to wage billions of dollars successful subsidy,” Trump said. “Elon knew this from the beginning.”

Act II: Musk initially brushed disconnected Trump’s criticism, posting “whatever” connected X earlier firing disconnected dozens of posts blasting the Republican measure and the president himself.

“Without me, Trump would person mislaid the election, Dems would power the House and the Republicans would beryllium 51-49 successful the Senate,” Musk said, referring to the hundreds of millions of dollars helium spent connected the past election. “Such ingratitude,” helium added.

Act III: Trump past fired backmost connected Truth Social, claiming that Musk “went crazy” aft the president “asked him to leave” his White House role. Trump besides suggested the authorities could sever ties with Musk’s companies, which person billions of dollars successful national contracts.

Act IV: In response, Musk claimed that the president was successful what are known arsenic the “Epstein files” — a notation to a trove of documents and files dispersed crossed a fig of investigations and lawsuits involving the precocious Jeffrey Epstein. The Justice Department earlier this twelvemonth released hundreds much pages of documents related to the Epstein investigations.

Although Trump and Epstein knew each other, determination person been nary caller revelations astir their narration successful immoderate of those files. Trump has ne'er been implicated successful Epstein’s maltreatment of underage girls. He denied immoderate wrongdoing, saying successful a station past year, “I was ne'er connected Epstein’s Plane, oregon astatine his ‘stupid’ Island.”

Act V: Trump’s latest word connected the matter: “I don’t caput Elon turning against me, but helium should person done truthful months ago.”

Read much connected the back-and-forth →

Related: Tesla’s shares person fallen 16% since Musk began bashing Trump’s measure past week, and the banal remains astir 33% little than connected Inauguration Day, Steve Kopack reports.

Reality check: What the big, beauteous measure would really do

Analysis by Jonathan Allen

As the Senate considers President Donald Trump’s “one big, beauteous bill” (or “OBBB”), there’s a batch of dubious rhetoric flying astir and, successful immoderate cases, hitting the fan.

It tin beryllium hard for voters to cognize what to believe. So, it’s worthy assessing the intent of the legislation, which the House has already passed a mentation of, and what it would really do.

The conveyance for the catchall measurement is called fund reconciliation, a process created by Congress fractional a period agone to supply a accelerated way to bills that would bring spending and taxing into person balance. That means it can’t beryllium filibustered, truthful Republicans lone request a bare bulk to get it done the Senate.

But implicit the years, Republicans and Democrats alike person perverted the intent of reconciliation, utilizing the vantage of the accelerated way to stroke ever bigger holes successful the budget. That’s what OBBB would do, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The astir evident archer is that its enactment would necessitate an summation successful the ineligible headdress connected the nationalist debt. If the indebtedness were going down, determination would beryllium nary request to rise the limit.

Specifically, the House-passed measure would chopped taxes by $3.7 trillion oregon truthful implicit a decennary — mostly by extending the rates that Trump and Congress enactment successful spot successful 2017. At the aforesaid time, it would slash “mandatory” spending — the accounts that wage retired based connected eligibility for long-standing programs alternatively than done yearly “discretionary” appropriations — by $1.3 trillion implicit a decade. The indebtedness spread that’s near is astir $2.4 trillion.

The White House argues that the CBO’s bottommost enactment is incorrect due to the fact that it wants legislature accountants to disregard the information that existent taxation rates are acceptable to expire. Instead, Trump’s squad contends, the CBO should presume that existent rates volition beryllium extended — similar an jock assuming his income volition proceed to travel successful erstwhile his existing declaration is up. If Congress does nothing, taxes volition spell backmost up, which would bring a burst of gross astatine a outgo to taxpayers.

In his bid to decision the measure, oregon astatine slightest rewrite it, Elon Musk has charged that it is afloat of “pork” — a word that, until helium utilized it, was reserved for earmarks successful the yearly discretionary spending bills that are unaffected by OBBB.

Calling the measurement a “disgusting abomination,” Musk treats it arsenic a spending bill. But portion determination are immoderate increases successful backing — chiefly for the Defense Department and efforts to combat amerciable migration — the main provisions are focused connected slashing taxes and national programs, including Medicaid and nutrient stamps.

The indebtedness comes from the information that the measure would not chopped spending astir arsenic overmuch arsenic it would trim revenue. And that’s conscionable arithmetic.

That’s each From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Dylan Ebs.

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