Welcome to the online version From a political deskThis is an evening newsletter that brings you the latest reports and analysis from the NBC News Politics team, from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign.
In today’s version, we break down how President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s hatred openly viewed. Plus, Jonathan Allen filtered through the spin to provide a reality check on what a "big and beautiful bill" actually would have.
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- Adam Wollner
On Thursday, the boiling tension between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk boiled into a full-scale public fight.
Act 1: The president responded for the first time in an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz after a series of social media posts by Musk wasted Trump's "big and beautiful Bills" in recent days.
"I'm very disappointed because Elon knows the internal functioning of the bill," Trump said of his former adviser. "I'm very disappointed with Elon. I've helped Elon a lot."
Trump advises Musk, the world's wealthiest man, is upset about legislation cutting tax credits designed to incentivize electric vehicle purchases.
"Elon was upset because we had the task of electric cars, which is a lot of money for electric cars, and they had difficulties with electric cars, and they wanted us to pay billions of dollars in subsidies," Trump said. "Elon knew that from the beginning."
Act 2: Musk initially refuted Trump’s criticism, posted “anything” on X, and then sent dozens of posts that blew up the Republican bill and the president himself.
"Without me, Trump will lose the election, Dems will control the House, and Republicans will be 51-49 in the Senate," Musk said, adding: "This dissatisfaction."
Act 3: Trump then fired the Truth socially, claiming Musk was “crazy” after the president “requested him to leave” his White House role. Trump also suggested that the administration could disconnect from Musk, whose company has billions of dollars in federal contracts.
Act 4: In response, Musk claimed that the president was in the so-called "Epstein Archives", a series of documents and archives in many investigations and lawsuits involving the late Jeffrey Epstein. The Justice Department released hundreds of pages of documents related to the Epstein investigation earlier this year.
Although Trump and Epstein know each other, there is no new revelation in the relationship in any of these documents. Trump has never been associated with Epstein's abuse of underage girls. He denied any misconduct, saying in an article last year: “I never took Epstein’s plane and wasn’t on his stupid island.”
Act V: Trump's latest news on the matter: "I don't mind Elon's objection to me, but he should have done so a few months ago."
Read more information back and forth →
Related: Steve Kopack reported that Tesla's stock price has fallen 16% since Musk began slamming Trump's bill last week, with stocks about 33% lower than the inaugural day.
When the Senate considered President Donald Trump’s “a big and beautiful bill” (or “obbb”), there were a lot of suspicious remarks flying around, and in some cases, hitting fans.
It is difficult for voters to know what to believe. Therefore, it is worth evaluating the purpose of the House of Representatives who have passed a version of legislation and what it will actually do.
The CatchAll measure of vehicles called budget settlements, which was a century and a half ago Congress provided quick bills for bills, which would allow spending and taxes to be included in the balance closer. This means it cannot be banned, so Republicans only need a naked majority to be available through the Senate.
But for years, Republicans and Democrats have used the advantages of the fast-track to distort the intention of reconciliation, thus defeating bigger holes in the budget. The Congressional Budget Office said that this is what OBBB will do. The most obvious statement is that its enactment of laws requires an increase in the legal ceiling for national debt. If debt drops, no restrictions need to be raised.
Specifically, the House-passed bill would cut taxes by $3.7 trillion or so over a decade — largely by extending the rates that Trump and Congress put in place in 2017. At the same time, it would slash “mandatory” spending — the accounts that pay out based on eligibility for long-standing programs rather than through annual “discretionary” approaches — by $1.3 trillion over a The remaining debt loophole is about $2.4 trillion.
The White House believes that the CBO's bottom line is wrong because it expects Congressional accountants to ignore the fact that the current tax rate has expired. Instead, Trump’s team believes that the CBO should assume that current interest rates will be extended – just as an athlete assumes that his income will continue to flow in when existing contracts reach. If Congress does nothing, taxes will be restored, which will bring a large amount of income to taxpayers.
Elon Musk accused it of being full of “pork” in order to defeat the measure or at least rewrite it, accused it of being full of “pork” – a term that was retained on an annual discretionary expenditure bill without the OBBB influence before he used it.
Musk called the measure "annoying abhorrent" and regarded it as a spending bill. But while funding has increased somewhat - mainly for the Department of Defense and efforts to combat illegal immigration, the main regulations aim to cut taxes and federal programs, including Medicaid and food stamps.
Debt stems from the fact that the bill does not cut expenses that almost reduce income. This is just arithmetic.
At the moment, it's all political desks. Today's newsletter was edited by Adam Wollner and Dylan EBS.
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