Elon Musk escalates attack on Trump's mega bill
Billionaire Elon Musk launched a renewed attack on US President Donald Trump's budget bill on Saturday, calling it 'utterly insane' and warning that it would hurl America into 'debt slavery' and destroy millions of jobs. The dispute between the two men who were once close allies turned ugly earlier in June over Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax and spending bill.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's outburst came hours before Senate Republicans narrowly advanced the bill in a 51-49 procedural vote, with Vice President J.D. Vance on standby to break a potential tie.
Musk took to X to condemn the legislation, writing, 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!'
The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future. https://t.co/TZ9w1g7zHF
In a series of posts, he accused the bill of favoring 'industries of the past' – likely a jab at fossil fuel subsidies – while undermining future-focused sectors like renewable energy and tech.
Musk claimed that the bill's $5 trillion debt ceiling hike would put the US in the 'fast lane to debt slavery,' citing polling data that suggests GOP voters oppose the bill over fiscal concerns.
After leaving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk criticized the bill's deficit impact, calling it a 'disgusting abomination.'
Trump retaliated by accusing Musk of having sour grapes over lost electric vehicle subsidies – a reference to federal incentives that had benefited Tesla. Musk escalated by insinuating that Trump had ties to late financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, while Trump considered cutting SpaceX contracts. Later, Musk apologized, and Trump suggested that he could forgive him.
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Russia Today
7 hours ago
- Russia Today
Sacrilege and statecraft: How Christian Zionism distorts scripture to serve empire
During a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, US Senator Ted Cruz displayed not only alarming geopolitical ignorance but also a brazen willingness to distort Scripture in defense of his unwavering support for Israel. The verse he quoted – Genesis 12:3 – was shamelessly truncated, a common tactic used to lend divine legitimacy to Zionist exceptionalism in End Times prophecy. This verse has become the theological bedrock of a militant worldview known as Christian Zionism. Even Jewish critics of Israeli state policy express dismay at the historical illiteracy and theological crudeness fueling this metastasizing ideology within American evangelical circles. I recall debating this phenomenon over a decade ago on LinkedIn with Jewish and Israeli interlocutors. I had dubbed it a 'trailer-trash cult' – a fusion of biblical illiteracy, apocalyptic fervor and geopolitical delusion. Some of my Israeli counterparts, in a strange display of casual prejudice, alternately referred to Cruz and present Secretary of State Marco Rubio simply as 'the Mexican.' Christian Zionism thrives on biblical illiteracy and selective scriptural appropriation. Though often presented as ancient and immutable, it is in fact a relatively modern phenomenon, emerging alongside the rise of political Zionism in the late 19th century. Rather than treating Scripture as sacrosanct, it distorts the biblical canon into a pliable tool – one that must conform to the ideological imperatives of the moment. In a nation such as the United States, which has been at war for nearly 95% of its existence, this distortion often serves as theological cover for an 'endless war' doctrine, with cherry-picked verses used to sanctify geopolitical aggression and the confection of new enemies. After World War II, when the Soviet Union became the first nation to grant de jure recognition to the modern state of Israel, this same movement began feverishly mining scripture to cast the USSR, and Russia in particular, as the apocalyptic villains Gog and Magog. Even Ronald Reagan, the pseudo-religious saint of American conservatism, repeatedly invoked this interpretive heresy to frame the Cold War as a cosmic battle against the 'evil empire.' To this day, millions of American Evangelicals and fundamentalist Protestants worldwide continue to see Russia as the eternal enemy of God Himself. The reach and influence of this pseudo-theological subculture should not be underestimated. But before unpacking the wider ramifications of this ideological perversion, let us first examine the verse Senator Cruz so conveniently misquoted. Senator Cruz invoked Genesis 12:3 to justify unwavering US support for Israel, but his citation was conspicuously selective. The full verse reads: 'And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.' – (KJV) This is a prophetic promise given to the patriarch Abraham, pointing ultimately to his seed, Jesus Christ. It is through Christ, according to Galatians 3:16, that 'all families of the earth' are offered reconciliation with the Divine. If that blessing is universal and messianic in scope, where then is the ethnic or national exclusivity so often ascribed to modern-day Israel? (I've explored this topic in greater depth here, here, here and here) Cruz's theological framework, in practice, aligns more closely with Talmudic ethnocentrism than Christian soteriology. Consider this remarkable claim from Rabbi Chaim Richman, directed at Christians: 'You guys are worshiping one Jew. That's a mistake. You should be worshiping every single one of us because we all die for your sins every single day... The Jewish people in the land of Israel are the bulwark against the Orcs, okay? The Orcs are coming not to a theater near you but to your home.' Aside from the Tolkien reference – which, to my knowledge, appears nowhere in the Talmud – Richman's quote reveals the ideological terrain Cruz is orbiting: one where collective Jewish identity is quasi-divinized, and adversaries are dehumanized as fantasy monsters. One suspects that the 'Orcs' are a sweeping euphemism for Arabs in the region, many of whom are surreptitious allies of Israel. The only recalcitrant 'Orcs,' apparently, are the Palestinians, whose refusal to accept their divinely appointed overlords remains an intractable problem. Ironically, Persians (Iranians) have traditionally enjoyed a far more favorable depiction in Jewish scripture – from Cyrus the Great to Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther. Modern geopolitical enmity is therefore a historical aberration, not a theological necessity. But if one follows Richman's grotesque logic, does this 'unqualified worship of every single Jew' extend even to those recently implicated in satanic child abuse scandals in Israel? At what point does solidarity become sacrilege, and does support for Israel require a total theological surrender? There is a reason I describe Christian Zionism as a theologically bankrupt subculture masquerading as prophecy. It is an ideology that sanctifies any war crime, any act of brutality by Israeli forces because according to its adherents, personal 'blessing' from God is contingent on political allegiance to a modern nation-state. When not actively mangling scripture, history, and basic morality, this movement manufactures signs and wonders out of thin air. Natural phenomena, especially pareidolic patterns, are routinely interpreted as divine communications. This is not harmless enthusiasm; it reflects a credulous mindset conditioned by groupthink, emotion-driven worship, and manipulative rhetoric. Hypnotic music, staged testimony, and carefully orchestrated atmospheres often whip congregants into a frenzy of expectation, where gullibility becomes spiritual virtue. I once watched a video of Christian pilgrims in a van in Jerusalem who erupted in awe as beams of dappled sunlight flickered through roadside trees. To them, these fleeting light patterns were not a trick of motion and shadow, but 'angelic manifestations.' (They are, in fact, a common optical effect caused by light passing through foliage while in motion.) Today, a large swath of Evangelicals are willing to interpret any mundane occurrence as divine endorsement of Israel's central role in End Times prophecy. But if they are seeking signs, they might consider one that cuts in the opposite direction. Right after Israel launched an unprovoked strike on Iran, a raven appeared to pull down an Israeli flag amid the rubble in an Israeli neighborhood. "Even the birds have had enough" In Jewish Midrash, the raven is considered an omen. In the biblical narrative, it is the creature God used to sustain the prophet Elijah when he was near despair (1 Kings 17). The raven is a creature associated with both judgment and provision. What message, then, was it delivering? Now imagine if the bird had instead torn down a Palestinian or Iranian flag. The Christian Zionist ecosystem would have erupted into mass ecstasy. Social media feeds would overflow with headlines declaring it a sign from heaven. Prophecy blogs would rush to decode its 'symbolism.' Tele-evangelists would loop the footage between pleas for donations. But since it challenged their narrative, the event went studiously ignored. Such is the schizoid reflex of Christian Zionist theology: divine signs are valid only when they reinforce the script. Anything else, however biblical, however stark, is dismissed as coincidence or satanic interference. There's an oft-cited quote – attributed to Joseph Goebbels, though likely first used by Adolf Hitler – that says: 'A lie repeated a thousand times becomes truth.' Christian Zionists have chanted Genesis 12:3 so frequently and with such zeal that few within their ranks ever pause to test the verse against either scripture or empirical reality. Let's do that now. Genesis 12:3 says: 'I will bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you…' If we are to interpret this as a blanket mandate for state-level foreign policy, the evidence should be obvious. So ask yourself: Are Israel's most loyal allies today, particularly in the West, truly 'blessed'? Take the United States. It is arguably more internally divided than at any point since the Civil War. Its cities are decaying, homelessness and drug addiction are rampant, race relations are at its lowest ebb, and nearly 40% of Americans cannot afford a $400 emergency expense without borrowing, selling their family heirloom, or falling into debt. And yet, billions in unconditional aid continue to flow to Israel, year after year. Western Europe fares no better. The continent faces deepening political polarization, a crisis of institutional legitimacy, and escalating cultural clashes fueled by migration and economic inequality. What once passed for democratic consensus is now fractured by populism, apathy, and unrest. Social cohesion is unraveling across the transatlantic alliance. Now compare that to East Asia and Southeast Asia, where most countries maintain measured, neutral stances on the Israel-Palestine conflict. With a combined population nearing 2.4 billion, this region encompasses countless ethnicities and religions, yet remains strikingly more stable. Aside from Myanmar, whose military junta has been supplied with Israeli weaponry, there are no continent-wide wars, nor the sort of existential societal fractures plaguing the West. Immigration is limited, social harmony remains comparatively intact, and all major Asian nations support a two-state solution based on pre-1967 borders. No nation sucks up to Israel in this part of the world. So the question practically asks itself: If Genesis 12:3 is being used to evaluate foreign policy toward Israel, then who exactly is being blessed, and who is being cursed? The consequences of blind allegiance don't stop with economic decline. Consider the proxy wars fed by Israeli strategic calculations. In Syria, Israeli support for jihadist factions has contributed to the decimation of ethnic and religious minorities. Just this past Sunday (June 22), a suicide bomber detonated inside St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church, killing at least fifteen Christian worshippers. These are not isolated tragedies. These are the fruits of Christian Zionism: a theology conflating realpolitik with divine mandate. Why is it essential to confront and correct this narrative? Because the religious ideology peddled by Senator Cruz and his ilk bears no resemblance to authentic Christianity. It is a dangerous theological counterfeit – a den of wolves in sheep's clothing, precisely as Matthew 7:15 warned. Far from defending the faith, Christian Zionism actively endangers Christians across the globe. In its zeal to uphold Pax Americana, idolize the modern State of Israel, and force-fit current events into a contrived apocalyptic script, it sacrifices actual Christian communities on the altars of geopolitics and eschatological fantasy. As someone descended from one of the world's oldest Christian traditions – whose roots reach back even to the Old Testament – I say this plainly: Have no fellowship with these murderous idolaters (1 Corinthians 5:11). They invoke Christ but serve the ambitions of empire, the delusions of man, and the devices of Satan. If that is what it means to be 'blessed,' then your church should beware of what it is really worshiping.
Russia Today
13 hours ago
- Russia Today
Prof. Schlevogt's Compass No. 18: You are fired! Five fatal flaws forge Trump's fall
'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.' — William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar At his Resolute Desk, Trump sits like a force of nature — waging war, bending markets, and crushing dissent with a single gesture. He doesn't follow rules; he rewrites them. The world's on edge, all eyes on him. He doesn't blink. He dominates. One man. One will. Total disruption. But step past the drama, and a different picture emerges: beneath the surface, fault lines are running deep, primed to rupture. The final reckoning? Trump's presidency is headed for failure. These are the Fateful Five: the interconnected weaknesses that spell his likely downfall — a web of vulnerability captured in the Five F-Framework (see Figure 1). US President Donald John Trump has often shown the right political instincts – seeking to end conflicts, challenging entrenched ideologies, and pushing back on progressive social agendas. More than once, he has acted with defiant bravado – doing what he believes is right, even in the face of mainstream opposition. Breaking decades of deadlock, he met North Korea's leader. Undeterred by fierce criticism, he engaged Russia's president Putin – isolated in the West over Ukraine and alleged election meddling. Meanwhile, he boldly bulldozed 'progressive' diversity policies – which are spiritually, morally, and socially corrosive and truly regressive – braving the shrieking fury of woke inquisitors, their relentless pitchfork brigades, and the ever-aggrieved cancel mob. Yet Trump's boldness often slips into hubris – excessive pride that fuels overconfidence, blinds him to acute limits and warnings, and puts ego above the common good. It shows in his underestimation of global conflicts (like in Ukraine and the Middle East), attacks on allies and institutions (notably NATO), and fixation on flashy prestige projects (like the US–Mexico Border Wall). Craving adulation, Trump chases image over substance and, driven by a mercurial temperament, governs by impulse. Pride, arrogance, narcissism, and impulsiveness can make a leader dangerously vulnerable. The TACO label–Trump Always Chickens Out–may have been floated to bait him into proving his toughness, though this is speculative. Regardless, that jab may well have nudged him toward a radical and fateful choice: striking Iran unprovoked, despite unequivocal CIA and UN evidence that Tehran possessed no nuclear weapons. Trump's massive ego makes him easy prey for flattery. Before the 2025 NATO summit, the US commander in chief eagerly circulated a glowing message from the alliance' secretary general Mark Rutte. The consummate 'Trump whisperer' praised Donald's Iran strike as 'truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do', assuring his friend that he 'will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done', and cheering that 'Europe is going to pay in a BIG way' – never mind that Rutte, a European himself, would help foot the bill as a taxpayer. Even the most powerful leaders have typically deemed it necessary to cloak their ambitions in moral reasons to gain legitimacy, unify people, rally support, and ease resistance – like Julius Caesar framing his conquest of Gaul as a civilizing mission. Fast forward centuries to Napoleon who sold his wars as fights for liberty – even as he built an empire. Consider his famous call urging troops to champion the Italian people: 'You will go to fight for the liberty of the peoples of Italy, to free them from the chains of their tyrants.' Though arguably lacking the stature of a Caesar or Napoleon, President Trump often bypasses morality, propriety, and basic decency – ethically unmoored, he leans instinctively on the logic of 'might makes right.' Classic proof: In February 2025, he proposed turning Gaza – a densely populated place he, with striking disregard for human suffering, described as a 'demolition site' – into a US-run 'Riviera' without Palestinians. Trump casually shrugged off the unprovoked, US-backed Israeli attack on Iran in June 2025 as just 'two kids in a schoolyard.' He cynically reduced a deadly, high-stakes war – one which threatened world peace and risked unravelling the global economy – into a trivial, harmless spat. Remarkably, he cast himself as a neutral referee and peacemaker-in-wait, feigning detachment while watching the roughhousing – never mind that America had handed one kid the stick. In a 2020 tweet, Trump slammed the International Criminal Court – a body probing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – as a 'kangaroo court' and 'illegitimate.' After the ICC probed Israeli PM Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza, Trump hit back in 2025 – first slapping harsh sanctions on the ICC Chief Prosecutor, then, in a historic escalation, targeting four sitting judges. In 2018, Trump refused to visit a war cemetery, reportedly dismissing fallen US soldiers as 'losers' and 'suckers' – a striking example of disrespect and poor judgment. By putting power above principle, he sacrifices ethos – the trust derived from perceived moral integrity – which is a crucial tool of persuasion. His blunt style, admired by his base as authentic, fuels opponents' claims of tyranny, rekindling fears from the days of the American Revolution and eroding America's soft power. Against this backdrop, Trump's stunt of circulating an AI image of himself crowned – predictably provoking blistering backlash from democracy advocates – was hardly helpful. His raw, say-what-you-think style lacks the subtle finesse that refined leadership demands – a finesse that classical Chinese strategists famously, yet controversially, saw in dissimulation and other forms of artful deception. Paradoxically, Trump's brash candor and outspokenness – often bordering on naïveté – stands in sharp contrast to another of his trademark habits. Notably, Trump is a historic 'outliar', possessing a rare gift for alternative interpretations of truth, never letting facts stand in the way of a good story. His radical tactic of strategic truth adjustment – aptly called firehosing – bombards audiences with repeated falsehoods to drown out facts. Unlike subtle fake heading, firehosing is blunt and easily exposed. Case in point: The Washington Post tracked 30,573 false or misleading claims made by Trump in his first term – about 21 a day, and climbing. Short-term gains come at a steep cost. Sidelining logos – logical reasoning based on facts, not fiction – Trump is forced to lean hard on his last remaining persuasion tool: pathos – appealing to the audience's emotions – stoking fear of unchecked immigration, economic doom, and national decay to fire up his base. Trump's relentless wielding of pathos lies at the heart of his cunning, divisive populist playbook: he casts himself as a hero of 'the people' battling 'the elites,' but banks on hollow promises, sham fixes, and the emotional bait of feigned compassion. True leaders unify; Trump divides – as polarizer-in-chief, he unquestionably backs powerful special interests like the Israel and arms lobby, while routinely vilifying the vulnerable. Trump's zealous quest for an imperial presidency and American restoration splinters strategic focus and coherence and engenders a chaotic juggling act. The US president's scattershot approach spreads him thin across domestic crises and global flashpoints, risking failure everywhere – worsened by the fog of vague, half-baked initiatives, such as 'Build the Wall' and 'Drain the Swamp'. At times, he goes full shotgun – epitomized in the record-breaking flurry of 26 executive orders on day one of term two: scrapping climate pacts, overhauling immigration, narrowing gender rights, targeting civil servants, and pardoning 1,500 Capitol rioters. Curiously, Trump pairs this tireless multi-tasking with a cinematic jump-cut style, dropping the ball when challenges mount. Once his brash promise to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours fell flat, the 47th president slammed on the brakes and made a sharp, unexpected pivot – upending global trade and subsequently targeting Iran. His notorious audacity in flouting rules oddly contrasts with unlikely timidity: Think TACO again. For Trump, leadership is just the art of the deal. His dominant logic is flawed: he treats politics like real estate – centered on bargaining, branding, short-term wins, zero-sum games, and risky bets. Prioritizing transactions over relations, he ignores the complex human stakes at play. Through his peculiar lens, the New York mogul is spotting real estate-style opportunities, remarkably, in the political arena: dreaming not of peace in Gaza but a Riviera, and viewing a North Korean beach not as a geopolitical flashpoint but luxury property in waiting. Trump did not just see real estate deals in politics – he saw a full-blown business portfolio. To some, he played the role of a Godfather in the White House, deploying extortion tactics straight from the Mafia playbook. Consider this: Trump preyed on Ukraine's vulnerability and desperation for US military support to seize critical minerals and resources. In a brazen twist, he demanded payment for aid already delivered – like invoicing someone years after giving them a Christmas gift. Just as a sports coach chasing wins, masters of the political game require a smart, balanced roster. But Trump prizes loyalty over competence – elevating partisan firebrands, such as the political strategist Steve Bannon, while sidelining seasoned pros seen as wavering, such as FBI Director Comey – sacrificing effective governance for personal allegiance. Such favoritism echoes the infamous tale of Emperor Caligula, who allegedly planned to appoint his prized horse, Incitatus, as consul – rewarding loyalty over competence to mock the Senate and flaunt his absolute power. By surrounding himself with yes-men and shutting out dissenting voices, Trump traps himself in an echo chamber devoid of the diversity and checks essential for making creative, rational, fact-driven decisions. To make matters worse, Trump's outsized ego clashes even with loyalists, leading to public humiliations and bitter fallouts fueled by bruised pride and policy rifts. The casualty list is long: Sessions, Cohen, Bolton, Barr, Musk – all cast out, only to burst back onto the scene as staunch critics armed with insider secrets and thirst for revenge. Sharp minds steer clear, knowing that in Trump's orbit, loyalty is demanded but never securely returned. The damage from Trump's weak personal leadership is only compounded by his equally poor performance as an organizational architect. Unlike epochal leaders who built enduring institutional frameworks – think Napoleon's Code Civile – Trump's legacy so far boils down to a bold dismantling act, epitomized by Elon Musk's chainsaw ripping through the excess of labyrinthine bureaucracy. Tellingly, Trump seems to have skipped classes in Organizational Behavior – the study of workplace dynamics – to his detriment. Had he mastered it, he could have driven systemic change step-by-step – in a methodic and disciplined manner: sparking urgency, forging vision, and empowering execution. The US president would also have learned to meticulously calibrate transformation across key dimensions: purpose, substance, scope, scale, speed, style, and sequence. To illustrate: savvy change leaders are timing every single move with precision – fast for quick wins, slow for broad and lasting buy-in – and balance structural reforms with cultural shifts. In his haste and vaulting ambition, Trump mistook force for foresight – jamming every lever to the limit with no flight plan, no runway, and no brakes. He drove radical change at full throttle on all fronts, ignoring the gauges and redlining the engine – as if raw adrenaline alone could fly the plane. On his blind mission to the stars, POTUS 47 neglected the intricate immune system of a bureaucracy with its manifold ingenious ways of mounting resistance – from open defiance to slow-rolling to feigned compliance that quietly sabotages reform behind a smile. Need a masterclass in bureaucratic resistance? Just watch Yes, Prime Minister. Notably, Trump seemed oblivious to the ratchet effect – a dynamic in which actions, like a one-way mechanism, are far easier to take than to undo. It is a cautionary principle: once momentum takes hold – whether in administrative systems or government policies – reversal is rarely simple. This insight sharpens awareness of how hard legacies are to unwind – and advises prudence before locking oneself into moves that resist reversal. To illustrate the trap: Trump's tariffs on China, meant to protect US industry, proved politically perilous to undo. Or Iran: once provoked, reconciliation proved far harder than escalation. In both cases, pulling the trigger was easy; climbing down, far harder – true to the adage, 'Some paths are easier to blaze than to backtrack.' Unclouded by ideology, Trump jolts politics with an innovative and results-driven mindset, defying orthodoxy and upending entrenched trends. Wielding power more like a chainsaw than a chisel, his sheer will cuts political noise and rips into the machinery of government with blunt force. The maverick and trickster favors personal engagement over formal channels – witness his direct talks with President Putin on Ukraine. With his seat-of-the-pants style and raw energy, he shatters long-standing barriers, but creates little lasting substance. Paradoxically, despite his pragmatism, Trump often operates in a vacuum – driven by wishful thinking and blind to the hard and dynamic realities of power: scarce economic resources, military constraints, geographic limitations, and institutional checks. Committing the fallacy of the last move, he gravely underestimates backlash from adversaries, such as tariff retaliation or military counterstrikes. Remember the time-tested truth: 'Every battle plan is perfect until first contact with the enemy.' Trump's shaky grasp of realpolitik – pragmatic power politics grounded in shifting realities – leaves him ill-equipped for complex global challenges. His radical shifts in strategy, tone, and messaging betray a deafness to the nuance that serious statecraft demands. Trump's erratic style is laid bare in his wild policy swings and theatrical dealings with friends and foes alike. Undermining the very structures that long projected America's power and cemented its political, economic, and military might, Trump voluntarily surrendered key levers of dominance that his adversaries could have only dreamt of prying loose. He rattled NATO by questioning core defense commitments, stunned allies with abrupt troop pullouts from Germany, Syria, and Afghanistan, and treated US forces in Asia as bargaining chips – demanding steep payments from South Korea and Japan. Wounding a friend marks a stunning break even from the most basic pagan maxim – 'help your friends, harm your enemies' – a code long fundamentally transcended by Christian ethics. Trump's North Korea approach veered from threats of 'fire and fury' and mocking Kim Jong-un as 'Little Rocket Man,' to praising him as a 'very talented' leader and crossing into North Korea with a smile and handshake. The dime-spinning showmanship grabbed headlines – but yielded nothing: North Korea kept its nukes. Forged in the high-stakes world of real estate, Trump brings a gambler's instinct to politics – gutsy, fearless, and drawn to spectacular all-in bets that others would avoid. But he often chases outsized rewards while ignoring long-term risks. Trump's 2018 unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal alienated allies and fueled tensions – bringing Iran closer to the bomb. His sweeping trade war with China that year backfired, straining global supply chains and hurting American farmers without a clear victory. The 2025 US attack on Iran escalated diplomatic failure into open conflict. Trump's move to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem epitomizes short-term brinkmanship over long-term strategy and consensus-building. Breaking decades of precedent, it fired up his evangelical and pro-Israel base but sparked regional tensions and sidelined the US as a broker in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. At times, Trump shows caution, backpedaling after hallmark, bet-the-house gambits – canceling tariffs or recasting himself as an impartial arbiter and kind-hearted peacemaker after ruthlessly igniting conflicts and backing one side – earning the moniker 'daddy' during a respite in the 2025 Israel-Iran war. Yet a moment may come when the destructive forces and chaos he unleashed spirals beyond control, and the former host of The Apprentice finds himself outmatched – not as the boss, but as the Sorcerer's Apprentice, forced to cry: 'Master! Help! The evil spirits I have summoned will not be quiet!' – only to hear in reply: 'You're fired!' 'It's the economy, stupid' – coined in Clinton's 1992 campaign to spotlight the voters' top concern – remains timeless. Yet Trump seems deaf to this enduring truth. From the start, Trump shattered economic orthodoxy with his Make America Great mantra, favoring shock interventions from the White House over steady multilateral cooperation and gradual consensus-building at home and abroad. Yet mirroring his shaky grasp of realpolitik, he was weak in realwirtschaft – often gambling on wishful outcomes, underestimating the hard forces shaping the real economy. Over time, Trump doubled down on destructive economic nationalism and selective deregulation – pursuing radical decoupling from China and showering incentives on US manufacturing. He ramped up tariffs on European and Asian imports, reigniting global trade wars and driving up inflation at home. Undermining global climate efforts, he unleashed fossil fuel expansion by gutting environmental rules and opening federal lands to drilling. In 2025, he signed the beautifully alliterate One Big Beautiful Bill – a sweeping deficit-financed economic package bundling infrastructure spending, tax cuts, and industrial subsidies – hailed as bold stimulus by supporters, slammed by critics as reckless populism. In his most audacious economic gambit yet, Trump vowed to scrap income taxes for most Americans and replace the IRS with an 'External Revenue Service' bankrolled by sweeping import tariffs. Trump's plan grabs headlines but reeks of recklessness – overhyping tariffs, burdening consumers, fueling inflation, inviting global backlash, and eroding fiscal credibility; a crowd-pleaser doomed by economic realities and glaring policy contradictions – like aiming to tame inflation by stoking it with tariffs. This reveals the deeper flaw of the overreaching leader: by putting politics above economics and sidestepping fundamental economic principles, he triggers toxic fallout that can swiftly unravel their reign. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's defiance of economic orthodoxy – slashing interest rates amid soaring inflation – ignited a lira freefall and an inflation inferno, proving that fighting fire with gasoline burns fast and deep. Flouting economic fundamentals in a policy blitz can precipitate a swift downfall – U.K. prime minister Liz Truss's radical push for large unfunded tax cuts shattered market trust in the economic competency and policies of her government and sent her premiership crashing in just 44 days. At the end, we may ask, 'Was this the rise of a colossus – or the long prologue to a fall?' Trump embodies the quintessential American can-do spirit – the very driving force that vaulted the land of opportunity to global preeminence, drawing the best and brightest for generations. Yet unchecked strength in excess – untempered by moderation, prudence, or equity – becomes weakness that, if uncorrected and compounded by other flaws, engenders derailment. Trump's impulsiveness and unpredictability, personalized rule, disregard for diplomatic balance, and penchant for undercutting institutions evoke not Bismarck's cautious statecraft, but the apparent reckless self-sabotage of Wilhelm II – reportedly a mercurial man whose very excesses and volatility ensured he would be Germany's last emperor. Never forget: every choice carries a price – nothing comes without a cost. If you lean toward the ominous and sinister, consider this chilling conspiracy theory: Trump may have been elevated not to succeed, but to fail – spectacularly. His rise may have been engineered as a political vaccine, paving the way for a calculated liberal restoration, swiftly reversing his agenda and quietly entrenching progressive rule over countless electoral cycles. By similar conspiratorial logic, Hitler's ascent to absolute power could be seen as a dark gambit – to inoculate the German people against authoritarianism, militant nationalism, and anti-Judaism, and to catalyze the creation of Israel. Both, perhaps, were dialectical masterstrokes – premeditated catharses, with doomed, fateful figureheads cast as sacrifices to reshape history through fire. Even in his unhinged state, Trump could still, in theory, learn from past missteps and change course – but the odds are vanishingly slim. His five fatal flaws are poised to seal his fate. As Oscar Wilde observed, 'All great men are gifted with destruction.' The Apprentice star seemed to have peaked on the first day in office; his undoing may take multiple forms, each varying in drama and pace. Trump might come down 'not with a bang but a whimper,' reduced to a lame-duck after a midterm humiliation of his party. More spectacular exits include second-term impeachment or post-presidency criminal conviction. Or perhaps no rupture at all – just a legacy of failure, etched in history not for triumph, but for squandered power. To conclude, Donald Trump is such stuff as tragedies are made on. The man can be compared to the typical protagonist in classical Attic tragedy – not a pure hero or a true villain, but a flawed, elevated figure, whose all-too-human weaknesses drive his fall, echoing the narrative arc of classical Attic tragedy. Inspiring pity through his suffering and fear that his fate could be ours, the tragic hero typically begins noble and strong, but caught in a web of dark forces and blinded by pride or misled by a fateful error, engineers his own downfall – seeing clearly and recognizing the truth only when it is too late. Longfellow's apt warning echoes like a tragic chorus: 'Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.'
Russia Today
14 hours ago
- Russia Today
Elon Musk escalates attack on Trump's mega bill
Billionaire Elon Musk launched a renewed attack on US President Donald Trump's budget bill on Saturday, calling it 'utterly insane' and warning that it would hurl America into 'debt slavery' and destroy millions of jobs. The dispute between the two men who were once close allies turned ugly earlier in June over Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax and spending bill. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's outburst came hours before Senate Republicans narrowly advanced the bill in a 51-49 procedural vote, with Vice President J.D. Vance on standby to break a potential tie. Musk took to X to condemn the legislation, writing, 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!' The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future. In a series of posts, he accused the bill of favoring 'industries of the past' – likely a jab at fossil fuel subsidies – while undermining future-focused sectors like renewable energy and tech. Musk claimed that the bill's $5 trillion debt ceiling hike would put the US in the 'fast lane to debt slavery,' citing polling data that suggests GOP voters oppose the bill over fiscal concerns. After leaving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk criticized the bill's deficit impact, calling it a 'disgusting abomination.' Trump retaliated by accusing Musk of having sour grapes over lost electric vehicle subsidies – a reference to federal incentives that had benefited Tesla. Musk escalated by insinuating that Trump had ties to late financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, while Trump considered cutting SpaceX contracts. Later, Musk apologized, and Trump suggested that he could forgive him.
