Smithsonian: Bulk of Discovery moving costs would go toward building Houston exhibit
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time Magazine
3 hours ago
- Time Magazine
Trump Blasts Musk's New Political Party as ‘Ridiculous'
Donald Trump fell in love with Elon Musk when the richest man in the world bankrolled his reelection campaign. Then he fell out of love with Musk when the tech titan openly criticized his 'Big Beautiful Bill.' The two briefly seemed like they might be able to coexist amicably, but that quickly changed last week when Musk reignited his criticisms of the President's massive tax-and-spending legislative package that was streamrolled through Congress and which is expected to add trillions to the national debt. Musk promised to campaign against Republicans who voted for the bill, and Trump pondered whether to deport the South Africa-born billionaire. Read More: Can Trump Deport U.S. Citizens Like Elon Musk and Zohran Mamdani? But after Musk announced over the weekend the formation of his planned third political party, the 'America Party,' Trump seemed to feel less love or hate than pity. 'I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely 'off the rails,' essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,' Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday. Trump told reporters earlier, 'I think it's ridiculous to start a third party. We have a tremendous success with the Republican Party. The Democrats have lost their way, but it's always been a two-party system, and I think starting a third party just adds to confusion. It really seems to have been developed for two parties. Third parties have never worked.' He added of Musk: 'He can have fun with it, but I think it's ridiculous.' On Truth Social, Trump expanded on his political analysis about third parties, writing: 'They have never succeeded in the United States - The System seems not designed for them. The one thing Third Parties are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS, and we have enough of that with the Radical Left Democrats, who have lost their confidence and their minds! Republicans, on the other hand, are a smooth running 'machine,' that just passed the biggest Bill of its kind in the History of our Country.' While most Americans seem to disagree with Trump that the Republican Party is running the country smoothly, experts agree that the American political system is not designed for third parties to succeed. Challenges include institutional barriers, such as ballot access, as well as political and financial barriers, though the latter should be of no problem to Musk. Musk has suggested in posts on X that his party will aim to elect lawmakers in the 2026 midterms who will 'caucus independently' in Congress. 'One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts. 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,' he posted. 'Backing a candidate for president is not out of the question, but the focus for the next 12 months is on the House and the Senate,' he added later. In response to Trump, Musk mocked, 'What's Truth Social?'—referring to the platform Trump started in 2021 as an alternative to what was then known as Twitter (now X), which Musk bought in 2022. Musk also suggested that Trump is scared, invoking a line from Frank Herbert's epic sci-fi novel Dune: 'Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total Obliteration.' Trump, despite telling TIME in December that 'Elon puts the country long before his company' and insisting that Musk had the credibility to lead the Department of Government Efficiency amid concerns about conflicts of interest, continued to insist that Musk's opposition to the 'Big Beautiful Bill' is self-interested. 'It is a Great Bill but, unfortunately for Elon, it eliminates the ridiculous Electric Vehicle (EV) Mandate, which would have forced everyone to buy an Electric Car in a short period of time,' Trump posted on Truth Social. 'I have been strongly opposed to that from the very beginning. People are now allowed to buy whatever they want - Gasoline Powered, Hybrids (which are doing very well), or New Technologies as they come about - No more EV Mandate. I have campaigned on this for two years and, quite honestly, 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 - It was in every speech I made, and in every conversation I had. He said he had no problems with that - I was very surprised!' While there has never been a federal mandate to buy electric vehicles, Trump's bill does eliminate federal tax incentives for electric-vehicle owners, which is expected to hurt Musk's company Tesla. Musk insists that his main issue is with the deficit. 'What the heck was the point of @DOGE if he's just going to increase the debt by $5 trillion??' he posted Sunday. The non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Budget estimates that the 'Big Beautiful Bill,' as written will add more than $4 trillion to the national debt through 2034, and if various temporary provisions are made permanent, that figure would rise to $5.5 trillion. Column: The Budget Bill's Big Consequences Trump also aimed to contrast his own allegiance to the nation with Musk's supposed self interest—and responsibilities to the companies he runs, including Tesla and SpaceX—by referencing, not by name, Jared Isaacman, a Musk associate whom Trump nominated to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration before withdrawing the nomination after his breakup with Musk. 'Additionally, Elon asked that one of his close friends run NASA and, while I thought his friend was very good, I was surprised to learn that he was a blue blooded Democrat, who had never contributed to a Republican before. Elon probably was, also. I also thought it inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon's corporate life,' Trump ended his Truth Social rant. 'My Number One charge is to protect the American Public!'
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Democrats try to spoil Trump's victory party by slamming his greatest domestic win
Is it the start of something bigger? Or the beginning of the end of the GOP House majority? President Donald Trump's triumph in forcing his massive agenda bill into law before his July Fourth deadline was the most significant domestic triumph of his two terms in office. And his show of dominance in forcing Republican holdouts to back down has left GOP leaders wanting more at a time when his presidency is gathering momentum at home and abroad. It was a holiday weekend of celebration for the Republican Party, though shock over the unspeakable tragedy in Texas — where flash floods claimed many lives and swept away young girls at summer camp — kept some of the heat out of partisan clashes on Sunday talk shows. The GOP victory lap imposed huge pressure on Democrats to finally step up with an effective political strategy to take on an increasingly dominant president — and to turn his achievement into an anvil. Party leaders will now anchor their midterm election strategy for next year on their warning that Trump's law further enriched his billionaire friends and stuck working Americans with the bill. 'I cannot believe Congress was willing to pass this. I mean, it's awful,' Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told CNN's Dana Bash on 'State of the Union' on Sunday. Beshear, who said he was considering a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, warned the bill could end Medicaid for 200,000 people in his commonwealth alone and would buckle state budgets. Rep. Ro Khanna pressed home the new Democratic offensive against the new law. 'I just don't think that taking away the health care with the Medicaid cuts and food assistance to give the tax breaks for the very wealthy is going to be good for working- and middle-class Americans,' the California Democrat said on 'Fox News Sunday.' But House Speaker Mike Johnson doubled down Sunday on a plan to pass two more bills packed with Trump priorities using reconciliation — the budgetary trick the GOP used to ram through the president's tax cuts along with huge boosts in spending on border enforcement, carbon energy and defense. And he predicted Democrats would fail to make Trump's bill a political loser for the president. 'Everyone will have more take-home pay, they'll have more jobs and opportunity, the economy will be doing better and we'll be able to point to that as the obvious result of what we did,' Johnson said on Fox. Republicans deny the Democrats' claims about the effect of cuts to Medicaid, potentially the most emotive and politically sensitive aspect of the bill. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on 'State of the Union' that new work requirements for access to the program would preserve its viability and do nothing to hurt the most vulnerable Americans. And despite multiple independent assessments that the new law is a gift to the rich, Bessent highlighted its move to cut taxes on tips for some service workers for several years as proof that Trump had reoriented the economy toward workers. Bessent called his boss the 'most economically sophisticated president we have had in 100 years, maybe ever.' But legislation of this size and complexity, which has left many Americans unsure of what is actually included, always triggers a messaging war. Republicans, for instance, falsely presented the Affordable Care Act as a massive far-left takeover of government health care on the way to winning back the House in 2010. Democrats hope to inflict similar punishment on Trump. When Americans were suffering from rising grocery prices and inflation, Republicans were successful in blaming former President Joe Biden's billions of dollars in Covid-19 recovery legislation for making the situation worse. Multiple polls show Democrats may have an opening. Trump's new law is massively unpopular with Americans already — so a skillful public campaign by Democrats could play on voter discontent by blaming every future adverse economic event on the new law. But the administration carefully drew up the bill to ensure that tax cuts come into force quickly while some of the most controversial cuts in spending on programs such as Medicaid do not take effect until after the midterm elections, or even until 2028. The strategy seemed designed to spare GOP candidates political heat — but it also ensures the new law will be at the centerpiece of midterm elections next year and the 2028 presidential race, when Trump is term-limited. The swift passage of the bill — despite the GOP's tiny House majority and internal suspicion between Republicans in the House and Senate — was possible only because of Trump's crushing control over his party. It was not until nearly Christmas of his first term that his first tax-cutting legislation passed. This time, budget hawks in the House Freedom Caucus talked a good game, but ended up folding to the president's power when a vastly changed bill returned from the Senate. It was the latest occasion when the president's experience during his first White House spell helped make him more effective in his second. Johnson, meanwhile, led the fractious GOP House conference with skill that has not always been obvious since he rose from the back benches to succeed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. But many of Trump's top priorities — on border funding, tax cuts and defense — were packed into one big bill for a good reason. Logic suggested that a majority in which the speaker can lose only a handful of votes could not bear multiple tests of fire. The upside of such an approach is that the bill was so vital to Trump's authority and prestige that it was harder for significant numbers of Republicans to oppose. Johnson is now testing the waters on pulling off the same trick again. 'We had always planned to do the first big reconciliation bill,' Johnson said on 'Fox News Sunday,' adding he was eyeing two more such efforts in the fall and next spring. 'Three more reconciliation bills before this Congress is over.' If the Louisiana Republican can deliver that, he'd repay the faith in millions of Republican base voters. But will divides in the GOP conference Trump papered over last week be as easily suppressed next time? Will budget hawks who swallowed their antipathy to widening the deficit fold for Trump again in the future? It's hard to believe that vulnerable swing-state Republicans will be more open to politically painful spending cuts even closer to the next election. Trump's wider economic political fortunes will therefore play a huge role in how the new law settles in the public's mind. If the economy proves resilient and his predictions of soaring growth materialize, it will be harder for Democrats to highlight the negative aspects of his leadership. But if inflation is rekindled and jobs and economic growth slow, they'll have an easier target. This is one reason why the coming days will be vital to the president. The deadline comes Wednesday for foreign nations to conclude trade deals with the US or face massive tariff hikes, which were pulled back amid global market panics in April. Across-the-board tariff increases could hammer the economy and raise prices for Americans who sent a message in the presidential election last year that they were angry about the cost of living. But Trump is betting that a three-legged strategy of huge cuts in government spending, increased revenue in tariffs and huge tax cuts will be an unorthodox growth plan. And Bessent appeared to indicate on 'State of the Union' that Trump's latest trade deadline this week is yet another bluff that might spare the economy the most adverse impacts. '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.' So I think we're going to see a lot of deals very quickly.' That sounds a lot like another extension to another deadline for trade deals that administration officials once predicted would arrive in huge numbers. Aside from a few framework agreements with nations including Britain and Vietnam, there have been no major breakthroughs. Unlike the mirages and contradictions of Trump's constantly shifting trade policy, however, the new agenda bill represents a big concrete bet. If rural hospitals are shuttered because of Medicaid cuts, if major immigration spending feeds a police state that alienates moderate Americans or if regular workers struggle in Trump's new age of oligarchy, the GOP risks paying the price in coming elections. But the president has a record of convincing millions of people of his own version of reality — and Democrats have rarely found a way to counter him. They have yet another chance with the 'One Big Beautiful Bill.'
CNN
4 hours ago
- CNN
Analysis: Democrats try to spoil Trump's victory party by slamming his greatest domestic win
Is it the start of something bigger? Or the beginning of the end of the GOP House majority? President Donald Trump's triumph in forcing his massive agenda bill into law before his July Fourth deadline was the most significant domestic triumph of his two terms in office. And his show of dominance in forcing Republican holdouts to back down has left GOP leaders wanting more at a time when his presidency is gathering momentum at home and abroad. It was a holiday weekend of celebration for the Republican Party, though shock over the unspeakable tragedy in Texas — where flash floods claimed many lives and swept away young girls at summer camp — kept some of the heat out of partisan clashes on Sunday talk shows. The GOP victory lap imposed huge pressure on Democrats to finally step up with an effective political strategy to take on an increasingly dominant president — and to turn his achievement into an anvil. Party leaders will now anchor their midterm election strategy for next year on their warning that Trump's law further enriched his billionaire friends and stuck working Americans with the bill. 'I cannot believe Congress was willing to pass this. I mean, it's awful,' Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told CNN's Dana Bash on 'State of the Union' on Sunday. Beshear, who said he was considering a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, warned the bill could end Medicaid for 200,000 people in his commonwealth alone and would buckle state budgets. Rep. Ro Khanna pressed home the new Democratic offensive against the new law. 'I just don't think that taking away the health care with the Medicaid cuts and food assistance to give the tax breaks for the very wealthy is going to be good for working- and middle-class Americans,' the California Democrat said on 'Fox News Sunday.' But House Speaker Mike Johnson doubled down Sunday on a plan to pass two more bills packed with Trump priorities using reconciliation — the budgetary trick the GOP used to ram through the president's tax cuts along with huge boosts in spending on border enforcement, carbon energy and defense. And he predicted Democrats would fail to make Trump's bill a political loser for the president. 'Everyone will have more take-home pay, they'll have more jobs and opportunity, the economy will be doing better and we'll be able to point to that as the obvious result of what we did,' Johnson said on Fox. Republicans deny the Democrats' claims about the effect of cuts to Medicaid, potentially the most emotive and politically sensitive aspect of the bill. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on 'State of the Union' that new work requirements for access to the program would preserve its viability and do nothing to hurt the most vulnerable Americans. And despite multiple independent assessments that the new law is a gift to the rich, Bessent highlighted its move to cut taxes on tips for some service workers for several years as proof that Trump had reoriented the economy toward workers. Bessent called his boss the 'most economically sophisticated president we have had in 100 years, maybe ever.' But legislation of this size and complexity, which has left many Americans unsure of what is actually included, always triggers a messaging war. Republicans, for instance, falsely presented the Affordable Care Act as a massive far-left takeover of government health care on the way to winning back the House in 2010. Democrats hope to inflict similar punishment on Trump. When Americans were suffering from rising grocery prices and inflation, Republicans were successful in blaming former President Joe Biden's billions of dollars in Covid-19 recovery legislation for making the situation worse. Multiple polls show Democrats may have an opening. Trump's new law is massively unpopular with Americans already — so a skillful public campaign by Democrats could play on voter discontent by blaming every future adverse economic event on the new law. But the administration carefully drew up the bill to ensure that tax cuts come into force quickly while some of the most controversial cuts in spending on programs such as Medicaid do not take effect until after the midterm elections, or even until 2028. The strategy seemed designed to spare GOP candidates political heat — but it also ensures the new law will be at the centerpiece of midterm elections next year and the 2028 presidential race, when Trump is term-limited. The swift passage of the bill — despite the GOP's tiny House majority and internal suspicion between Republicans in the House and Senate — was possible only because of Trump's crushing control over his party. It was not until nearly Christmas of his first term that his first tax-cutting legislation passed. This time, budget hawks in the House Freedom Caucus talked a good game, but ended up folding to the president's power when a vastly changed bill returned from the Senate. It was the latest occasion when the president's experience during his first White House spell helped make him more effective in his second. Johnson, meanwhile, led the fractious GOP House conference with skill that has not always been obvious since he rose from the back benches to succeed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. But many of Trump's top priorities — on border funding, tax cuts and defense — were packed into one big bill for a good reason. Logic suggested that a majority in which the speaker can lose only a handful of votes could not bear multiple tests of fire. The upside of such an approach is that the bill was so vital to Trump's authority and prestige that it was harder for significant numbers of Republicans to oppose. Johnson is now testing the waters on pulling off the same trick again. 'We had always planned to do the first big reconciliation bill,' Johnson said on 'Fox News Sunday,' adding he was eyeing two more such efforts in the fall and next spring. 'Three more reconciliation bills before this Congress is over.' If the Louisiana Republican can deliver that, he'd repay the faith in millions of Republican base voters. But will divides in the GOP conference Trump papered over last week be as easily suppressed next time? Will budget hawks who swallowed their antipathy to widening the deficit fold for Trump again in the future? It's hard to believe that vulnerable swing-state Republicans will be more open to politically painful spending cuts even closer to the next election. Trump's wider economic political fortunes will therefore play a huge role in how the new law settles in the public's mind. If the economy proves resilient and his predictions of soaring growth materialize, it will be harder for Democrats to highlight the negative aspects of his leadership. But if inflation is rekindled and jobs and economic growth slow, they'll have an easier target. This is one reason why the coming days will be vital to the president. The deadline comes Wednesday for foreign nations to conclude trade deals with the US or face massive tariff hikes, which were pulled back amid global market panics in April. Across-the-board tariff increases could hammer the economy and raise prices for Americans who sent a message in the presidential election last year that they were angry about the cost of living. But Trump is betting that a three-legged strategy of huge cuts in government spending, increased revenue in tariffs and huge tax cuts will be an unorthodox growth plan. And Bessent appeared to indicate on 'State of the Union' that Trump's latest trade deadline this week is yet another bluff that might spare the economy the most adverse impacts. '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.' So I think we're going to see a lot of deals very quickly.' That sounds a lot like another extension to another deadline for trade deals that administration officials once predicted would arrive in huge numbers. Aside from a few framework agreements with nations including Britain and Vietnam, there have been no major breakthroughs. Unlike the mirages and contradictions of Trump's constantly shifting trade policy, however, the new agenda bill represents a big concrete bet. If rural hospitals are shuttered because of Medicaid cuts, if major immigration spending feeds a police state that alienates moderate Americans or if regular workers struggle in Trump's new age of oligarchy, the GOP risks paying the price in coming elections. But the president has a record of convincing millions of people of his own version of reality — and Democrats have rarely found a way to counter him. They have yet another chance with the 'One Big Beautiful Bill.'
