President Donald Trump has reignited his feud with Elon Musk, his former friend, ally and patron, over his threat to set up a third political party in the United States.
In a lengthy Truth Social tirade on Sunday, Trump said Musk has gone “off the rails” in recent weeks and become a “trainwreck”, again claiming that his opposition to the president’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” – signed into law on Friday – stemmed from its elimination of incentives beneficial to electric vehicle manufacturer’s like Musk’s company Tesla.
“When Elon gave me his total and unquestioned endorsement, I asked him whether or not he knew that I was going to terminate the EV Mandate,” Trump wrote. “He said he had no problems with that – I was very surprised!”
Earlier in the day, the president had branded the world’s richest man “ridiculous” for threatening to found a new party to challenge Republicans and Democrats.
The billionaire has since retaliated by again taunting the president over his friendship with deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Elsewhere, Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday and has promised further announcements relating to his “reciprocal” tariffs on other countries after his 90-day pause on their implementation was again extended to August 1.
If the “trainwreck” Tesla boss goes through with launching his new “America Party,” bankrolling a new presidential candidate with his almost limitless wealth, it could do much more than just derail Trump’s second term, says Sean O’Grady.
Trump’s tariffs on European goods threaten to shake up the world’s largest two-way trade relationship
America’s largest trade partner, the European Union, is among the entities awaiting word Monday on whether U.S. President Donald Trump really will impose punishing tariffs on their goods, a move economists have warned would have repercussions for companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Trump imposed a 20 percent import tax on all E.U.-made products in early April as part of a set of tariffs targeting countries with which the United States has a trade imbalance. Hours after the nation-specific duties took effect, he put them on hold until July 9 at a standard rate of 10 percent to quiet financial markets and allow time for negotiations. He has since extended that pause to August 1.
Expressing displeasure, the E.U.’s stance in trade talks, however, the president said he would jack up the tariff rate for European exports to 50 percent. A rate that high could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals much more expensive in the U.S.
Here are important things to know about trade between the United States and the European Union.
US tariffs on European goods threaten to shake up the world’s largest 2-way trade relationship
Ex-Treasury secretary pans Congress for passing ‘shameful’ Trump megabill he says will hurt economy
One of Bessent’s predecessors in the job, Larry Summers, was also interviewed on the Sunday shows and hit out angrily at the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which was forced through the House of Representatives last week and threatens to slash welfare and hike up the national debt to pay for defense spending and tax breaks.
“In my 70 years, I’ve never been as embarrassed for my country on July 4th,” Summers told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week.
“These higher interest rates, these cutbacks in subsidies to electricity, these reductions in the availability of housing, the fact that hospitals are going to have to take care of these people and pass on the costs to everybody else, and that’s going to mean more inflation, more risk that the Fed has to raise interest rates and run the risk of recession, more stagflation, that’s the risk facing every middle-class family in our country because of this bill.
“And for what? A million dollars over 10 years to the top tenth of a percent of our population? Is that the highest priority use of federal money right now? I don’t think so. This is a shameful act by our Congress and by our president that is going to set our country back.”
Bessent spars with CNN over whether Trump’s tariffs count as deals
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent got into a row with Dana Bash on Sunday over the administration’s claim that it would be announcing 90 deals in 90 days in response to its tough tariff policy.
“The president has a reputation, a self-described dealmaker, so why haven’t we seen the kind of deals that he promised in the last 90 days?” Bash asked.
Bessent, rightly, pointed out that it was trade adviser Peter Navarro who had made that ill-advised claim, not Trump, and continued: “When we send out the 100 letters to these countries, that will set their tariff rate. So we’re going to have 100 done in the next few days.”
Bash responded: “But that’s not a deal. That’s a threat.”
“No, that’s the level,” Bessent insisted. “That’s the deal.”
He continued: “President Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don’t move things along, then on August 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level.”
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