Trump says he’ll ‘look’ at deporting Musk as feud reignites
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday his administration will “have to take a look” at deporting Elon Musk after the billionaire reignited the feud with the president over his spending bill.
Musk, a South African national and a naturalized U.S. citizen, made several weekend X posts slamming Republicans over the “Big Beautiful Bill,” arguing that it was adding more debt.
“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!,” Musk posted Monday afternoon.
Trump pushed back with a Truth Social post early Tuesday claiming Musk was upset about the bill eliminating the electric vehicle mandate and that “Elon would have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa.”
When asked by reporters later in the morning if he would deport Musk, Trump said, “We’ll have to take a look.”
“We might have to put DOGE on Elon,” he said.
Musk posted his response to Trump’s Tuesday morning comments on X.
“So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now,” Musk wrote.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Friday released President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which calls for $163 billion in cuts to federal spending.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, in a letter to Congress alongside the proposal, said the cuts to discretionary funding would lead to “significant savings.”
“The President is proposing base non-defense discretionary budget authority $163 billion — 22.6 percent below — current-year spending, while still protecting funding for homeland security, veterans, seniors, law enforcement, and infrastructure,” Vought wrote.
While budget proposals are essentially wish-list for the administration, they serve to illustrate the president’s priorities and what the White House hopes is a jumping off point for negotiations with Congress.
The cuts proposed would come from the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, USAID and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others.
However, Trump is proposing a 13% increase to defense spending, which would bring it to $1.01 trillion for the next fiscal year.
The administration’s also proposing $175 billion to go toward the southern border.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Families Over Billionaires
(WASHINGTON) — The House Oversight Committee’s first closed-door transcribed meeting investigating former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity began Tuesday with former White House Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden appearing for questioning on Capitol Hill.
Committee Chairman James Comer is investigating Biden’s health and mental “decline,” as well as the use of an autopen for pardons and other executive actions.
“This is the first of what will be many interviews with people we believe were involved in the autopen scandal in the Biden administration,” Comer told reporters Tuesday morning. “I think the American people want to know, I think there’s a huge level of curiosity in the press corps [with] respect to who was actually calling the shots in the Biden administration.”
Following the introductory portion of the meeting, Comer said Republicans wrapped a “good hour,” while Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo., called it an “extraordinary waste of time.”
Tanden was nominated by Biden to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget but ultimately withdrew her nomination after facing a bruising confirmation battle and bipartisan criticism over her past tweets that attacked members of Congress.
In addition to Tanden, additional former Biden senior aides are expected to sit down for interviews in the coming weeks without being subpoenaed, including Anthony Bernal, Ashley Williams and Annie Tomasini.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the former White House physician for Biden, will appear under subpoena before the committee for a closed, transcribed interview on July 9, a source familiar with the committee’s plans told ABC News.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Ed Martin, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the next U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., apologized in a new interview for his past praise of a Jan. 6 rioter who had a lengthy history of antisemitic statements and infamously posted photos of himself dressed as Adolf Hitler.
“I’m sorry,” Ed Martin said in an interview with the Jewish publication Forward. “I denounce everything about what that guy said, everything about the way he talked, and all as I’ve now seen it … At the time, I didn’t know it.”
Martin’s comments come as his nomination faces headwinds in the Senate over his public praise for Jan. 6 rioter Timothy Hale-Cussanelli at a 2024 event at Trump’s Bedminster club in 2024.
At the event, one of several fundraisers held at Trump’s private clubs to benefit Jan. 6 rioters, Martin described Hale-Cussanelli as an “extraordinary man” and “extraordinary leader.”
It’s unclear how Martin, vying to be the top prosecutor in one of the nation’s most important U.S. attorney’s offices, could claim to be unaware of Hale-Cussanelli’s past anti-Semitic statements and praise for Hitler — much less as late as 2024.
A Google search of Hale-Cussanelli’s name turns up the series of now-infamous selfies that surfaced following his arrest that show him donning a Hitler mustache and holding his hand over his chest.
Hale-Cusanelli’s antisemitic views made him one of the more prominently covered Jan. 6 defendants. At his sentencing hearing, the Trump-appointed judge overseeing his case, Trevor McFadden, said, “Statements and actions like yours make [Jewish people] less safe and less confident they can participate as equal members of our society.”
Prosecutors further surfaced antisemitic statements he made to his coworkers at a naval weapons station that “Hitler should have finished the job” and “babies born with any deformities or disabilities should be shot in the forehead.”
Martin was also previously asked about Hale-Cussanelli’s antisemitic views in a recently posted interview with the Washington Informer, and didn’t denounce him directly.
“When someone says, ‘Hey, do you understand that of the January 6 defendants, there were some really rotten actors, and there were people that said terrible things in their lives, or even did terrible things?’ then, fair enough,” Martin said in that interview. “But I feel pretty good about the fact that we try to make ourselves better every day, and we try to get people give people a break, going forward, and I’ve got a pretty long career of fighting, I think for the right causes.”
