Best of the Babylon Bee: Elon Musk leaves DOGE for the easier job of sending humans to Mars
Elon Musk said that he is looking forward for the much more relaxing job of safely transporting people to Mars. READ MORE
The United Nations still hopes an agreement can be reached despite that the terms require the continued death on Jews. READ MORE
At publishing time, Trump was reportedly playing hardball by also demanding that China provide the secret recipe for General Tso's Chicken. READ MORE
Historians discovered the auto-feather while looking through an old storage cupboard in Mt. Vernon. READ MORE
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Gizmodo
17 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
Elon Musk Rekindles Trump Criticism, Attacks ‘Big, Beautiful Bill'
The long-simmering feud between President Donald Trump and his former 'first buddy' Elon Musk is showing signs of boiling over once more. Following the passing of Trump's signature 'One Big Beautiful Bill' that will offer tax breaks to the wealthy while kicking millions off of Medicaid, Musk publicly supported Senator Rand Paul's criticism (one of the few Republican 'no' votes in the Senate), specifically Paul's assertion that the bill would 'explode the deficit. Rand posted on X, 'The Big Not-So-Beautiful Bill has officially passed both chambers. Despite a few conservative provisions, it explodes the deficit in the near term. This is Washington's MO: short-term politicking over long-term sustainability.' Musk reposted this comment, expressing agreement with a '100' emoji, his first public statement on the bill since its official passage. 💯 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2025 Musk has been criticizing the bill for some time: it marked an early point of contention in his relationship with the President, ultimately culminating in a significant public spat during which Musk accused Trump of appearing in Jeffrey Epstein's black book (an attack he would later deleted and retracted). He previously referred to the spending bill as the 'Debt Slavery Bill.' He also offered some very salient and well-reasoned critiques, like 'I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both,' and 'we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!' Really makes you think. Despite his significant opposition to the Big, Beautiful Bill—one so strong that he was seemingly willing to throw away his relationship with the President over it—he didn't flex his political power, whatever of it remains, to stop it from passing. He did issue a pretty lame threat to oust the members of the Republican party who cast their vote for the bill one day before the Senate voted on it, but that reads more like jeering from the sidelines from a guy who used to be in the arena. For a guy who is online all day to only offer up a single threat and a couple of critical posts, it just feels a little phoned in. Musk insists that his opposition to the bill comes from a place of being a true budget hawk, which maybe he is. But Trump has called him out for covering up his self-interest in opposing the legislation, as it cuts clean energy credits for solar projects and electric vehicles, which Musk's companies would have benefited from. Musk has issued no objection to the cuts to food benefits and healthcare, by the way. Austerity is fine for everyone else, it seems.
New York Post
25 minutes ago
- New York Post
Elon Musk teases plans for ‘America Party' after fury over Big, Beautiful Bill Act
Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk spent July 4 publicly plotting a strategy for his proposed 'America Party' to gain control of the balance of power in Washington following next year's midterm elections. Peeved by Republicans' passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Musk declared on X that 'Independence Day is the perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system! 'Should we create the America Party?' the 54-year-old South Africa-born billionaire polled his followers, more than 62% of whom had answered 'yes' as of 2:30 p.m. 'One way to execute on this,' Musk continued, 'would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts.' 4 Tech baron Elon Musk has been publicly flirting with the idea of forming some sort of third party. REUTERS 4 House Speaker Mike Johnson has been forced to navigate an ultra-slim majority in the lower chamber. AP 'Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.' Last month, Musk dramatically turned against President Trump and his second-term agenda legislation, calling it 'pork-filled' and a 'disgusting abomination.' Publicly, the Tesla and SpaceX has cited concerns about the bill's impact on the deficit, to which the legislation is projected to add about $3.9 trillion over the next decade. Musk served as the driving force behind the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost-cutting initiative, causing fierce personal and professional backlash. 4 Senate Republicans have a 53 to 47-seat majority. Getty Images 'What good is Doge saving $160B when this bill increases the debt ceiling by $5T? It makes [a] mockery of the work,' Musk groused on X Tuesday. Trump and GOP leaders have alleged that Musk's animus is really motivated by rollbacks to Biden-era green energy tax credits, which are expected to harm Tesla. 'Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future,' Musk had complained last week ahead of the Senate's passage of the megabill. Over recent days, Musk has amplified social media posts by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who voted against the measure due to deficit concerns. 4 President Trump has traded barbs with Elon Musk, but largely held back against his former billionaire buddy. AP Trump and his allies have set their sights on ousting Massie in a Republican primary, but Musk has indicated he intends to support the legislator's expected re-election effort in 2026. As the world's richest man, Musk's pockets run deep, with an estimated net worth of $405 billion. During the 2024 election cycle, Musk doled out a whopping $290 million to support Trump, according to financial disclosures. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate and a 220-212 majority in the House of Representatives.
Miami Herald
43 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Why Tesla needs to fire Elon Musk: It's business, not politics
President Donald Trump and the Republican part have ignored climate change and demonized electric vehicles (EV). The president's so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" phases out the tax credit for buying an EV with it disappearing in September. He has also repeatedly called out EVS as being unreliable and "not going very far." Before he became buddies with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, he ridiculed him and his businesses. Related: Costco has a massive labor problem nobody is talking about When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, 'drop to your knees and beg,' and he would have done it," Trump wrote on social media. Musk, however, became a Trump advisor when he donated nearly $300 million to his election campaign. That got him appointed to lead the childishly-named Department of Government Efficiency where he gleefully harassed long-time federal workers and eliminated programs that wasted money doing things like feeding hungry people. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter It was a hard-right turn for Musk, which was and odd choice given who the buyers fro EVs. are Democrats: "On every dimension, Democrats view EVs more favorably than Republicans do," shared Pew Research. Image source: Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images While many CEOs lean right, or openly embrace right-wing ideology, but it's common to step down from any leadership positions before joining the government. Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, for example, served in the first Trump administration and stepped down from his position running the team. New York is overly liberal, but Johnson separated his two live. Musk did not do that and that's a problem because the Pew data suggests that Republicans are not a real market for EVs. Environmental benefits: Democrats and those who lean to the Democratic Party are much more likely than Republicans and GOP leaners to say EVs are better for the environment than gas vehicles (69% vs. 24%).Cost to buy: A majority of both Democrats and Republicans say EVs cost more to buy than gas vehicles. But fewer Democrats than Republicans say this (65% vs. 81%).Cost to charge/fuel: Half of Democrats say EVs cost less to charge than gas vehicles do to fuel. That compares with a quarter of Very few Democrats or Republicans think EVs are more reliable than gas vehicles, but Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say this (14% vs. 5%). Half of Democrats say EVs and gas vehicles are about the same on reliability, while 34% say EVs are less reliable. Republicans are even more negative, with 69% saying EVs are less reliable. Musk's hard-right turn and eventual return to the middle, has had major consequences on Tesla. When a CEO does something that overshadows the brand, they get fired. Both Best Buy and McDonald's removed successful CEOs over inappropriate, but not illegal, relationships. Musk has done something far worse, He has made it so Tesla's (TSLA) core audience, liberals, sees the Tesla name as a sort of swear word. That has led to many existing owners adding a "I bought this before Elon went crazy" bumper sticker and new liberal customers staying away. Tesla sales dropped 13.5% in the second quarter, after also dropping in the first quarter. The company faces the Musk backlash, and concerns over its aging vehicle lineup. Musk has not hurt Tesla irreparably, but his presence makes it harder to fix the problem. About half of U.S. adults have an unfavorable opinion of Tesla, including 30% of Republicans, according to a June AP-NORC poll. Related: As shoppers ditch Shein and Temu, these stores are winning "Musk has acknowledged that his work as head of the Department of Government Efficiency and his embrace of European far-right candidates have hurt the company. But he said earlier this year that much of the sales plunge is due to customers holding off while they waited for an ugrade to Tesla's best selling Model Y. That new version has been out for months now," reported. Take Musk off the top off the masthead, and liberals can go back to saluting the brand for its social responsibility, but leave him there, and your target audience simply won't buy. That's not a political decision. It's just business. The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
