‘KILL the BILL’: Elon Musk continues to blast Trump’s bill in barrage of social media posts
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(WASHINGTON) — Elon Musk’s grievances with the Trump administration extend beyond the level of spending in the president’s signature bill, sources tell ABC News.
Multiple people who have spoken to the president and Musk described a widening rift on a range of recent moves by the administration.
Musk has privately expressed frustration about a portion of the spending bill that would cut the electric vehicle tax credit, multiple people who have spoken with the billionaire said.
After the November election, Musk called for ending the tax credit, but more recently, his company, Tesla, has become a vocal opponent of removing the provision.
“Abruptly ending the energy tax credits would threaten America’s energy independence and the reliability of our grid,” the company posted on social media.
Musk had also grown increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration striking artificial intelligence deals with his competitor OpenAI, sources tell ABC News.
Behind the scenes, Musk raised objections about a deal that did not include his AI start-up company, but it ultimately moved forward, sources said.
Another source of tension: the withdrawal of Musk ally Jared Isaacman’s nomination as NASA administrator over the weekend, according to sources who stated that Musk was deeply disappointed by the move.
There have also been deep disagreements on trade policy. In April, Musk called trade advisor Peter Navarro a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” in a series of posts on X.
On Tuesday, Musk took to X to lambaste the funding bill to advance Trump’s legislative agenda, calling it a “disgusting abomination.” He continued to attack the bill in a flurry of X posts Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
“Mammoth spending bills are bankrupting America! ENOUGH,” Musk wrote in one post.
The White House declined to comment. A representative for Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Some of these details were first reported by Axios.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is touring the devastation left by flash flooding in central Texas amid growing questions about how local officials responded to the crisis as well as questions about the federal response — including the fate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency — that he has so far avoided.
Trump’s visit on Friday comes a week after heavy rainfall caused the Guadalupe River in Kerr County to rise 26 feet in less than an hour, killing at least 121, including dozens of children at the nearby Christian summer camp, Camp Mystic.
He and first lady Melania Trump will see flood-affected areas and participate in a roundtable with first responders and local officials. The two left the White House on Friday morning, with the president stopping to take some questions from reporters.
“It’s a horrible thing. A horrible thing. Nobody can even believe it,” Trump said of the catastrophic flash flooding.
“But we’re going to be there with some of the great families and others, the governor, everybody,” he added.
Accompanying him to Kerr County, one of the hardest hit areas, are Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn.
The search for more than 170 people still missing continues with more than 2,100 responders on the ground in Texas from local, state and federal agencies.
Meanwhile, local officials are under scrutiny about what steps were taken to adequately warn people and how long it took for authorities to take action based on escalating weather and other alerts.
Trump, notably, hasn’t engaged in similar criticism about how the crisis was handled — as he has done in the case of other disasters.
“I would just say this is a hundred-year catastrophe, and it’s just so horrible to watch,” Trump said on Sunday.
Instead, Trump has largely focused on his relationship with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — a Republican and strong ally of the president.
“We’ve been in touch with Gov. Abbott, I’m very close to Gov. Abbott, and everybody in Texas,” Trump said on Sunday.
It’s a marked contrast to how Trump has reacted in the past, including to the California wildfires earlier this year, where he blasted California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and other local Democratic officials.
Some of the hardest-hit areas of central Texas, including Kerr County, are areas of strong Republican support that voted for Trump in the 2024 election.
Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Texas earlier this week.
Abbott said during a news conference on Tuesday that he spoke with Trump that morning and received assurances that assistance would be provided.
“He could not stop talking about how sad he was for all the little girls who have lost their lives,” Abbott said. “He recounted his own understanding of what happened with what was really a tsunami wave, a wall of water, that swept too many of them away.”
“And he cares a lot about those young ladies. And he wants to step up and make sure that any need that we have here in Texas is going to be met very quickly,” Abbott continued.
The White House has pushed back heavily on criticism of the administration’s cuts to the National Weather Service, which led to some to question if staffing levels or forecasting abilities were impacted.
“Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said from the briefing room podium on Monday.
Trump’s also avoided answering questions on whether he is still aiming to phase out FEMA.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, discussed the federal response to the floods during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
“We as a federal government don’t manage these disasters, the state does,” Noem contended. “We come in and support them. And that’s exactly what we did here in this situation. FEMA went to an enhanced level immediately. But as soon as you signed the major disaster declaration, we were able to get them resources and dollars right away, just like you envisioned through state lot grants to help them with cleanup. And we’re still there in presence.”
Later in the week, though, Noem went after FEMA during the Biden and other previous administrations — alleging the agency has suffered from “gross mismanagement and negligence.”
“The list of famous failures is staggering,” Noem claimed in comments to the FEMA Advisory Council, a task force designed to recommend reforms to the agency, including possible dismantlement of the agency as it exists today. Trump appointed Abbott as a new member to the group back in April.
Acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson had yet to visit the affected areas in Texas as of Thursday afternoon.
ABC News’ Luke Barr and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The California Supreme Court on Wednesday night denied a petition from Republican state legislators requesting that the court mandate lawmakers wait 30 days before taking any action on legislation that could put new congressional maps in front of voters in November.
“The petition for writ of mandate and application for stay are denied. Petitioners have failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief at this time under California Constitution article IV, section 8,” the court wrote.
The plaintiffs, in a response first to ABC station KGO, said they would keep up the fight against the proposed legislation.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision is not the end of this fight,” State Sens. Tony Strickland and Suzette Martinez Valladares, Assemblyman Tri Ta and Assemblywoman Kathryn Sanchez wrote.
“Although the Court denied our petition, it did not explain the reason for its ruling. This means Governor Newsom and the Democrats’ plan to gut the voter-created Citizens Redistricting Commission, silence public input, and stick taxpayers with a $200+ million bill will proceed. … We will continue to challenge this unconstitutional power grab in the courts and at the ballot box. Californians deserve fair, transparent elections, not secret backroom deals to protect politicians.”
Meanwhile, the California legislature came one step closer on Wednesday to advancing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting legislative package, which calls for a November special election where voters will be asked to weigh in on proposed new Congressional maps.
Republicans clashed with Democrats again on Wednesday over questions around the price tag of the election, and the legislation is moving forward ahead of floor votes on Thursday without an official estimate on how much taxpayers will pay.
“No one has time to figure this out, where the money is going to come from,” Republican Assemblymember Dianne Dixon said at an appropriations committee hearing on Wednesday.
Millie Yan, an official with the California Department of Finance, told lawmakers, “This is a very developing issue that we will continue to look at as developments occur.” She said the secretary of state’s office will allocate money to counties.
Republicans continued to spar with Democrats over the pricetag in the committee meetings held on Wednesday.
Republican Assemblymember David Tangipa told the committee, “I haven’t gotten a single answer on how the money’s going to get there, how much money is actually needed, and where are the cost estimates? All I’m asking for is, can we do this, and do we have funds with a projected deficit next year?”
Democrats, however, doubled down. “If we’re talking about the cost of a special election versus the cost of our democracy, or the cost that Californians are already paying to subsidize this corrupt administration, those costs seem well worth paying in this moment,” Assemblymember Isaac Bryan said.
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who chairs the assembly appropriations committee, told KGO-TV’s Monica Madden that estimates for the election are $230 million, even as the Department of Finance says it’s still working on the numbers.
The legislation does not specifically include any estimate of total cost.
Republican legislators in California announced Wednesday that they are sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice and to the U.S. Attorneys representing California, calling for a potential federal investigation into who is behind the proposed new congressional maps in California and how they were constructed.
The letter, obtained by ABC station KGO-TV, alleges, based on local media reports, that some Democratic legislators drew maps to benefit themselves and may have conditioned their votes for the maps on getting districts drawn that could benefit them.
ABC News has not independently confirmed these reports.
In a press conference Wednesday morning in Sacramento, Assemblymember Carl Demaio framed Democratic efforts to redraw lines in California as corrupt.
“This corruption must end, and if it is not a decision of the politicians to back down, then perhaps we will need a federal investigation to force them to finally comply with their oath of office and with ethical conduct in compliance with federal laws,” Demaio said.
In response to being called corrupt, Democratic Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire said in a statement to ABC News, “The hypocrisy of California Republican leaders is astounding. They are bowing to Donald Trump’s fight to rig the 2026 elections. California Republican leadership should focus their efforts on stopping Trump and Texas who started all of this, they are the real culprits here. In California’s plan, voters have the final say. This is about fairness.”
On Thursday morning, both the Assembly and Senate will gavel in to debate and vote on all three pieces of legislation, known as the “Election Rigging Response Act.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether former President Joe Biden’s administration sought to conspire to cover up his mental state while in office, prompting a response from Biden.
“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,” Biden said in a statement. “I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
The move by the White House represents a significant escalation, as it is a directive to the Justice Department to formally investigate.
It goes beyond the review into Biden’s last-minute pardons before leaving office.
Biden responded to Trump’s memo to Bondi and the Department of Justice, calling an investigation “nothing more than a mere distraction” and defending his decision-making ability. In a statement he says any suggestion he was not in control is “ridiculous and false.”
“This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,” Biden said in a statement sent to ABC News.
The president directed the U.S.’s top law enforcement official, in coordination with his White House counsel, to investigate “the circumstances surrounding Biden’s supposed execution of numerous executive actions during his final years in office,” according to a statement from the White House.
