Musk, with Trump at White House, says US will go ‘bankrupt’ without cuts
Elon Musk, with Donald Trump and his son at the White House, has defended federal cost cutting measures which have put the Trump administration on a collision course with the US courts.
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Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tapped by President Donald Trump to lead federal cost-cutting efforts, said that the United States would go “bankrupt” without budget cuts.
Musk leads the efforts under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and was speaking at the White House with Mr Trump, who has in recent weeks issued a flurry of orders aimed at slashing federal spending.
In particular, Musk pointed to the country’s budget deficit, which topped $US1.8 trillion ($A2.86 trillion) in the last fiscal year, and took aim at high interest payments on the public debt.
“It’s not optional” for Washington to reduce federal expenses, he told reporters. “It’s essential.”
The remarks, however, came as the Trump administration finds itself on a collision course with the US courts, as federal judges questioned the legality of White House cost-cutting measures.
Mr Trump’s sweeping plans, which have effectively shuttered some federal agencies and sent staff home, have sparked legal battles across the country.
Multiple lawsuits seek to halt what opponents characterise as an illegal power grab.
The president pledged to stand by their rulings - but claimed that judges were preventing him from cleaning up the government.
“We want to weed out the corruption. And it seems hard to believe that a judge could say we don’t want you to do that,” Trump said.
“So maybe we have to look at the judges, because that’s very serious. I think it’s a very serious violation.”
Meanwhile, Musk’s team has moved through federal agencies, freezing aid programs and pushing workforce reductions.
Asked to respond to criticism, Musk said that Americans voted for “major government reform,” an issue that Mr Trump spoke about at rallies.
And Musk, who also heads SpaceX and Tesla, said he is seeking to be as transparent as possible when asked about potential conflicts of interest.
Musk’s role faces criticism in part because his companies have had huge US government contracts.
The DOGE reform team has triggered alarm among critics as well by gaining access through the US Treasury to sensitive data.
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REPORTER BANNED OVER ‘GULF OF AMERICA’
The Associated Press said that its White House reporter was barred from an event with Donald Trump over the top US news agency’s refusal to follow his order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
Google Maps officially switched from the Gulf of Mexico to comply with Mr Trump’s executive order renaming it.
Users now see Mr Trump’s preferred title even while searching for the “Gulf of Mexico” — but only while searching in the US.
“We were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office,” AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said.
“This afternoon AP’s reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing,” Pace said in a statement.
Pace, in her statement, said “it is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism.”
“Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment,” she said.
TERRORIST’S UNI PAID BY USAID AGENCY TRUMP WANTS SHUT DOWN
One of al-Qaeda’s most senior jihadists who went on to be killed by a US drone strike had his university education paid for by the US Agency for International Development President Donald Trump is in the processing of closing down.
Resurfaced documents show USAID gave Anwar al-Awlaki a full ride scholarship to attend college at Colorado State University in 1990.
The files have been doing the rounds on social media and were verified by Fox News as having been previously reported on by George Washington University’s reputable research and archival institution, the National Security Archive.
“This form, dated 1990, confirms that Anwar al-Awlaki was qualified for an exchange visa and that USAID was providing ‘full funding’ for his studies at Colorado State University,” the National Security Archive report authored in 2015 reads.
“The document lists Anwar’s birthplace incorrectly as Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, which he later said was a deliberate falsehood offered at the urging of American officials who knew his father so that he could qualify for a scholarship reserved for foreign citizens.”
Anwar was in fact an American citizen born in New Mexico which made him ineligible for the scholarship which was reserved for foreigners.
He was radicalised following his graduation and linked to terrorists responsible for the mass shooting at US military base Fort Hood which killed 13 soldiers and the thwarted attempt to detonate a bomb on a Northwest Airlines Flight in 2009.
Then President Barack Obama placed him on the CIA hit list in 2010 and he was killed the following year.
Mr Musk, who heads up the US Department of Government Efficiency, was tasked with taking the under-fire agency to task.
“With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with (the President) in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down,” Mr Musk said recently.
Mr Trump signed an executive order freezing all funds from the beleaguered agency for 90 days.
“For decades USAID has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight,” the White House memo reads.
FOUR FEMA STAFFERS FIRED OVER LUXURY HOTELS FOR ILLEGAL MIGRANTS
Four Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees, including a top-level executive, have been fired after sending millions of dollars to New York City to house and care for illegal migrants, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“Effective immediately, FEMA is terminating the employment of four individuals for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants,” DHS officials said in a statement obtained by The Post.
The firings, first reported by Fox News, include FEMA’s chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS will not sit idly and allow deep state activists to undermine the will and safety of the American people,” the statement added.
Elon Musk contended that FEMA sent a staggering A$94 million “last week to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants – a claim that City Hall officials rebutted Monday.
TRUMP OFTEN USES DECOY PLANE
Donald Trump used a decoy plane to ward off an assassination attempt by Iranian agents during his election campaign according to a new book.
Mr Trump instead rode in property tycoon turned US envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff’s jet known as Ghost Flight while his aides were instructed to take the risk of flying in the recognisable Trump Force One.
The revelations are contained in a new book by journalist Alex Isenstadt – Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power.
Mr Isenstadt writes the elaborate bait and switch started to be employed after the second attempt was made on the President’s life.
His security advisers believed given Mr Trump’s private jet had his name emblazoned in gold along the fuselage it was too obvious a target.
While some aides were furious they had to ride in the plane believed to be a target, others engaged in “gallows humour galore” about the situation.
PINCHING PENNIES – TRUMP TO PHASE OUT ONE CENT COINS
America could soon phase out its iconic pennies as part of President Donald Trump’s cost cutting mission, with the price of copper causing production costs to go through the roof.
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social account.
“This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.
“Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”
According to the latest US Mint annual report, the cost to make a penny, which is worth one US cent, is actually 3.69 US cents.
The report states in 2024 the Mint produced three billion pennies, which equates to a A$136 million loss.
Australia stopped making our one and two cent coins in 1990 and they were withdrawn from circulation in 1992.
The coins, which are still considered legal tender to this day, feature a feather tailed glider on the one cent and a frilled neck lizard on the two cent coin.
AUSSIE STEEL AND ALUMINIUM TO BE HIT BY US TARIFFS
Australia’s steel and aluminium exports to the US are set to be hit, after US President Donald Trump announced 25 per cent tariffs on all imports into the US.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he headed to New Orleans for the Super Bowl, the US President said the tariffs would apply to the metal imports from all countries.
However he did not say when the levy would take effect.
Mr Trump confirmed he would announce the tariffs while flying to the game.
A reporter asked: “What countries will those go on?”
“Everybody,” he said.
“Steel. Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 per cent tariff.”
When asked about aluminium, Mr Trump replied: “Aluminium too … 25 per cent.”
During the first Trump administration, Australia was one of several trade partners, including Canada, Mexico, the EU and the UK, who were exempt from US tariffs on steel and aluminium exports, at 25 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.
A tariff is a tax placed on imports and it means Australian steel and aluminium exports to the US will become more expensive for buyers and so likely reduce demand for them.
Steep tariffs can effectively cripple exports and if the duties are imposed, Australian industry will be heavily impacted.
The US imported about $638m worth of Australian steel in 2024, the UN’s COMTRADE database shows.
Major ASX-listed companies like Rio Tinto and BlueScope Steel will be exposed to the tariffs and the benchmark ASX200 lost more than 0.5 per cent at the opening bell.
In a statement release don Monday, BlueScope, said: “We are aware of media reports this morning that President Trump has said he will announce tariffs on steel and aluminium imported to the US,” a BlueScope spokesman said.
“BlueScope has been investing in the United States for 30 years. Most recently, we have spent $2 billion on acquisitions and brownfields expansion of our operations there. BlueScope is now the fifth largest steel producer in the US, employing 4,000 American workers.
“BlueScope abides by all trade rules and agreements. We will continue to work with the Trump administration and the Australian Government, as we await further details. We have no further comment to make at this stage.”
Economist Stephen Innes said Asian markets were scrambling for their “trade war helmets” on Monday morning.
“Trump’s latest move isn’t merely another trade skirmish. It’s an escalation of his ‘America First’ trade doctrine where ‘no country is off limits’,” he said.
“This high-stakes gamble could disrupt global supply chains.”
Mr Trump has repeatedly expressed his approval of tariffs, wielding them as a means to get other countries to make policy changes in line with his priorities.
In his first weeks in office, the US leader slapped tariffs on China and ordered them on Mexico and Canada.
He paused the measures against Canada and Mexico for a month after both countries vowed to step up measures to counter flows of the drug fentanyl and the crossing of undocumented migrants into the United States.
The tariffs on China drew retaliatory measures from Beijing, with 15-percent duties imposed on US coal and liquefied natural gas and 10-percent levies on crude oil, machinery, pick-up trucks and vehicles such as sports cars with large-displacement engines.
He has also pledged tariffs on the European Union and said that he would soon announce unspecified “reciprocal tariffs.”
He has also promised tariffs on semiconductors, oil and gas.
WORLD LEADERS REACT TO TRUMP TARIFFS
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed in an interview aired Sunday to go head-to-head with Trump over his financial threats to Europe, though he said that the United States should focus its efforts on China rather than the European Union.
Macron also warned on CNN that Americans would feel the effects of any tariffs on Europe, saying they “will increase the costs and create inflation in the US.”
“It means if you put tariffs on a lot of sectors, it will increase the costs and create inflation in the US. Is it what your people want? I’m not so sure,” he said.
According to NPR, Europe’s ‘far right’ leaders welcomed Trump’s stance on tariffs.
At an event organised by Spain’s Vox party in Madrid, which was attended by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Italy’s Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini and French National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen, the leaders ‘downplayed’ the US President’s tariff hike on European imports.
“We are the only ones that can talk with the new Trump administration,” Le Pen told NPR.
MUSK WILL UNCOVER BILLIONS IN GOVERNMENT ‘FRAUD’: TRUMP
Donald Trump said that Elon Musk, who is presiding over a purge of US government jobs, will help find “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud” in federal agencies.
Speaking in a Fox News interview that aired before the Super Bowl football championship, the US president said the American people “want me to find” waste and that Musk, the world’s richest man and the leader of the President’s cost-cutting efforts, has been “a great help” in rooting out unnecessary spending.
“We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse. And, you know, the people elected me on that,” Mr Trump told Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier.
“He’s not gaining anything,” Mr Trump said, adding that he is going to tell Mr Musk to check the Department of Education “soon” and then do “the same thing” to the US military.
“We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions, of dollars of fraud and abuse,” Mr Trump adds.
KREMLIN SPEAKS ON ALLEGED TRUMP-PUTIN CALL
The Kremlin declined to confirm or deny a New York Post report of a phone call between Mr Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Washington and Moscow have not officially confirmed any communication between the leaders since Trump took office on a pledge to swiftly end fighting in Ukraine.
The New York Post reported on the weekend that Mr Trump told the publication he had spoken on the phone to Mr Putin to discuss bringing an end to the conflict in Ukraine and the Russian told him he “wants to see people stop dying”.
The New York Post quoted Mr Trump as saying he had “better not say” how often the leaders have spoken.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in comments to TASS state news agency said he could not confirm or deny a conversation took place, but suggested he was unaware of any such call.
“What can I say about this news item? As the administration in Washington expands its work, many different communications arise. And these communications are held through various channels,” the spokesman said.
“And of course, given these multiple communications, I personally cannot know something, not be aware of something. Therefore in this case I can’t either confirm or deny this.”
Mr Peskov previously several times denied reports of conversations between Mr Trump and Mr Putin before the US leader’s return to the presidency.
The Kremlin has said it is awaiting “signals” on a possible meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Putin and that no-one in Mr Trump’s new administration has been in touch about setting one up.
– with Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Originally published as Musk, with Trump at White House, says US will go ‘bankrupt’ without cuts
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