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Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after criticizing president’s ‘big beautiful bill’

Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after criticizing president’s ‘big beautiful bill’
Elon Musk listens to President Donald Trump speak in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on February 11, 2025. (REUTERS/File Photo)
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Updated 29 May 2025

Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after criticizing president’s ‘big beautiful bill’

Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after criticizing president’s ‘big beautiful bill’
  • Says the “massive spending bill” increases the federal deficit and “undermines the work” of the DOGE
  • "A bill can be big or it could be beautiful,” Musk said, “but I don’t know if it could be both.”

WASHINGTON: Elon Musk is leaving his government role as a top adviser to President Donald Trump after spearheading efforts to reduce and overhaul the federal bureaucracy.
The billionaire entrepreneur posted Wednesday about his decision on X, his social media website.
“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” he wrote. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
A White House official, who requested anonymity to talk about the change, confirmed that Musk was leaving.
Musk’s departure comes one day after he criticized the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agenda, saying he was “disappointed” by what the president calls his “big beautiful bill.”
The legislation includes a mix of tax cuts and enhanced immigration enforcement. While speaking to CBS, Musk described it as a “massive spending bill” that increases the federal deficit and “undermines the work” of his Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.
“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful,” Musk said. “But I don’t know if it could be both.”

His CBS interview came out Tuesday night. Trump, speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday, defended his agenda by talking about the delicate politics involved with negotiating the legislation.
“I’m not happy about certain aspects of it, but I’m thrilled by other aspects of it,” he said.
Trump also suggested that more changes could be made.
“We’re going to see what happens,” he said. “It’s got a way to go.”
Republicans recently pushed the measure through the House and are debating it in the Senate.
Musk’s concerns are shared by some Republican lawmakers. “I sympathize with Elon being discouraged,” said Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson.
Speaking at a Milwaukee Press Club event on Wednesday, Johnson added that he was “pretty confident” there was enough opposition “to slow this process down until the president, our leadership, gets serious” about reducing spending. He said there was no amount of pressure Trump could put on him to change his position.
Speaker Mike Johnson has asked senators to make as few changes to the legislation as possible, saying that House Republicans reached a “very delicate balance” that could be upended with major changes. The narrowly divided House will have to vote again on final passage once the Senate alters the bill.
On Wednesday, Johnson thanked Musk for his work and promised to pursue more spending cuts in the future, saying “the House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings.”
The White House is sending some proposed rescissions, a mechanism used to cancel previously authorized spending, to Capitol Hill to solidify some of DOGE’s cuts. A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said the package will include $1.1 billion from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, and $8.3 billion in foreign assistance.
Musk’s criticism come as he steps back from his government work, rededicating himself to companies like the electric automaker Tesla and rocket manufacturer SpaceX. He’s also said he’ll reduce his political spending, because “I think I’ve done enough.”
At times, he’s seemed chastened by his experience working in government. Although he hoped that DOGE would generate $1 trillion in spending cuts, he’s fallen far short of that target.
“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,” he told The Washington Post. “I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.”
Musk had previously been energized by the opportunity to reshape Washington. He wore campaign hats in the White House, held his own campaign rallies, and talked about excessive spending as an existential crisis. He often tended to be effusive in his praise of Trump.
“The more I’ve gotten to know President Trump, the more I like the guy,” Musk said in February. “Frankly, I love him.”
Trump repaid the favor, describing Musk as “a truly great American.” When Tesla faced declining sales, he turned the White House driveway into a makeshift showroom to illustrate his support.
It’s unclear what, if any, impact that Musk’s comments about the bill would have on the legislative debate. During the transition period, he helped whip up opposition to a spending measure as the country stood on the brink of a federal government shutdown.
His latest criticism could embolden Republicans who want bigger spending cuts. Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee reposted a Fox News story about Musk’s interview while also adding his own take on the measure, saying there was “still time to fix it.”
“The Senate version will be more aggressive,” Lee said. “It can, it must, and it will be. Or it won’t pass.”
Only two Republicans — Reps. Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky — voted against the bill when the House took up the measure last week.
Davidson took note of Musk’s comments on social media.
“Hopefully, the Senate will succeed with the Big Beautiful Bill where the House missed the moment,” he wrote. “Don’t hope someone else will cut deficits someday, know it has been done this Congress.”
The Congressional Budget Office, in a preliminary estimate, said the tax provisions would increase federal deficits by $3.8 trillion over the decade, while the changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other services would reduce spending by slightly more than $1 trillion over the same period.
House Republican leaders say increased economic growth would allow the bill to be deficit-neutral or deficit-reducing, but outside watchdogs are skeptical. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the bill would add $3 trillion to the debt, including interest, over the next decade.


Prestigious Irish university to cut links with Israel over Gaza war

Prestigious Irish university to cut links with Israel over Gaza war
Updated 52 min 54 sec ago

Prestigious Irish university to cut links with Israel over Gaza war

Prestigious Irish university to cut links with Israel over Gaza war
  • Trinity College Dublin will sever institutional links with the Israeli state, universities and companies headquartered there
  • University said the action was a protest against 'violations of international and humanitarian law'

DUBLIN: Ireland’s prestigious Trinity College Dublin said on Wednesday that it would cut all links with Israel in protest at “ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law.”
The university’s board informed students by email that it had accepted the recommendations of a taskforce to sever “institutional links with the State of Israel, Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel.”
The recommendations would be “enacted for the duration of the ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law,” said the email sent by the board’s chairman Paul Farrell, and seen by AFP.
The taskforce was set up after part of the university’s campus in central Dublin was blockaded by students for five days last year in protest at Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Among the taskforce’s recommendations approved by the board were pledges to divest “from all companies headquartered in Israel” and to “enter into no future supply contracts with Israeli firms” and “no new commercial relationships with Israeli entities.”
The university also said that it would “enter into no further mobility agreements with Israeli universities.”
Trinity has two current Erasmus+ exchange agreements with Israeli universities: Bar Ilan University, an agreement that ends in July 2026, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which ends in July 2025, the university told AFP in an email.
The board also said that the university “should not submit for approval or agree to participate in any new institutional research agreements involving Israeli participation.”
It “should seek to align itself with like-minded universities and bodies in an effort to influence EU policy concerning Israel’s participation in such collaborations,” it added.
Ireland has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel’s response to the October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas militants that sparked the war in Gaza.
Polls since the start of the war have shown overwhelming pro-Palestinian sympathy in Ireland.
In May 2024, Dublin joined several other European countries in recognizing Palestine as a “sovereign and independent state.”
It then joined South Africa in bringing a case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza — charges angrily denied by Israeli leaders.
In December, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar ordered the closure of the country’s embassy in Dublin, blaming Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.”
The University of Geneva also announced Wednesday that it has ended its partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem following student protests, saying it no longer reflected the institution’s “strategic priorities.”


Moscow security chief discusses Ukraine with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un

Moscow security chief discusses Ukraine with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un
Updated 04 June 2025

Moscow security chief discusses Ukraine with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un

Moscow security chief discusses Ukraine with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un
  • “Sergei Shoigu was received by the Chairman of State Affairs of the DPRK, Kim Jong Un,” the embassy said
  • It said talks took place “in an atmosphere of friendly mutual understanding“

MOSCOW: Russia’s security chief Sergei Shoigu discussed the Ukraine conflict with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un on a visit to Pyongyang on Wednesday, Moscow’s embassy in the reclusive state said.

North Korea has become one of Russia’s main allies during Moscow’s more than three-year-long Ukraine offensive, sending thousands of troops to help the Kremlin oust Ukrainian forces from its Kursk border region.

Pyongyang is also largely believed to be arming Russia.

“Sergei Shoigu was received by the Chairman of State Affairs of the DPRK, Kim Jong Un,” the embassy said, adding that they “exchanged views on the situation around the Ukrainian crisis and the Korean peninsula.”

It said talks took place “in an atmosphere of friendly mutual understanding.”

Shoigu also met with North Korean military official Pak Jong-chon, the embassy said.

Russia’s TASS news agency said earlier that Shoigu had arrived on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Wednesday’s visit is Shoigu’s second to Pyongyang in less than three months.

Pyongyang has defended its military cooperation with Russia, saying on Monday that ties were aimed at “ensuring peace and stability” in Europe and Asia.

Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, according to South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun, citing the country’s intelligence service.

Russia and North Korea signed a sweeping military deal last year, including a mutual defense clause, during a rare visit by Putin to the nuclear-armed North.

Shoigu hailed the deal as “fully meeting the interests of both countries” during a visit in March.


Trump says Putin told him that Russia will respond to Ukrainian attack on airfields

Trump says Putin told him that Russia will respond to Ukrainian attack on airfields
Updated 04 June 2025

Trump says Putin told him that Russia will respond to Ukrainian attack on airfields

Trump says Putin told him that Russia will respond to Ukrainian attack on airfields
  • Trump said “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace”

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him “very strongly” in a phone call Wednesday that he will respond to Ukraine’s weekend drone attack on Russian airfields.

The US president said in a social media post that “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”

The call that lasted for an hour and 15 minutes was Trump’s first known with Putin since May 19.

Trump said he and Putin also discussed Iran’s nuclear program.


EU gives Bulgaria green light to adopt euro from start of 2026

EU gives Bulgaria green light to adopt euro from start of 2026
Updated 04 June 2025

EU gives Bulgaria green light to adopt euro from start of 2026

EU gives Bulgaria green light to adopt euro from start of 2026
  • “Today, the European Commission concluded that Bulgaria is ready to adopt the euro as of 1 January 2026,” the Commission said
  • Bulgaria has been striving to switch its lev currency to the euro ever since it joined the European Union in 2007

BRUSSELS: The European Commission and the European Central Bank gave Bulgaria the go-ahead on Wednesday to adopt the euro currency from the start of 2026, making Bulgaria the 21st country to join the single currency area.

In a “convergence report” describing how Bulgaria’s economy dovetails with the rest of the euro zone, the Commission said Bulgaria met the formal criteria needed to adopt the currency now used by 347 million Europeans in 20 countries.

“Today, the European Commission concluded that Bulgaria is ready to adopt the euro as of 1 January 2026 – a key milestone that would make it the twenty-first Member State to join the euro area,” the Commission said in a statement.

The Commission also looked at whether Bulgaria’s economy and markets are integrated with the rest of the EU, as well as the trends in the country’s balance of payments.

In a separate report, the ECB also said Bulgaria was ready.

“I wish to congratulate Bulgaria on its tremendous dedication to making the adjustments needed,” ECB Executive Board Member Philip Lane said in a statement.

Bulgaria has been striving to switch its lev currency to the euro ever since it joined the European Union in 2007. But after such a long wait, many Bulgarians have lost the initial enthusiasm with 50 percent now skeptical about the euro, according to a Eurobarometer poll in May. Some Bulgarians fear the currency switch will drive up prices.

“Ensuring price transparency and combating abusive price increases will require a special effort,” EU Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference.

“Previous practices and data from other euro area countries demonstrate that this is perfectly achievable, with price increases resulting from previous changeovers having been minimal,” he said.

Becoming a member of the euro zone, apart from using euro notes and coins, also means a seat at the European Central Bank’s rate-setting Governing Council.

The positive recommendation from the EU executive arm means that EU leaders will have to endorse it later in June. EU finance ministers will then fix the conversion exchange rate for the Bulgarian lev into the euro in July, leaving the rest of the year for the country to technically prepare for the transition.

MEETING THE CRITERIA
To get the positive recommendation, Bulgaria had to meet the inflation criterion, which says that the euro-candidate cannot have consumer inflation higher than 1.5 percentage points above the three best EU performers.

In April, the best performers were France with 0.9 percent, Cyprus with 1.4 percent and Denmark with 1.5 percent, which put Bulgaria with its 2.8 percent just within the limit.

The euro candidate country also cannot be under the EU’s disciplinary budget procedure for running a deficit in excess of 3 percent of GDP. Bulgaria meets this criterion with a budget deficit of 3.0 percent in 2024 and 2.8 percent expected in 2025.

The country’s public debt of 24.1 percent of GDP in 2024 and 25.1 percent expected in 2025 is well below the maximum level of 60 percent, and its long-term interest rate on bonds is well within the 2 percentage point margin above the rate at which the three best inflation performers borrow.

Finally, Bulgaria had to prove it had a stable exchange rate by staying within a 15 percent margin on either side of a central parity rate in the Exchange Rate Mechanism II.

This was easily done because Bulgaria has been running a currency board that fixed the lev to the euro at 1.95583 since the start of the euro currency in 1999.

Bulgaria’s euro adoption will come three years after the last euro zone expansion, when Croatia joined the single currency grouping at the start of 2023.

The accession of Bulgaria into the euro zone will leave only six of the 27 EU countries outside the single currency area: Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Denmark.

None of them have any immediate plans to adopt the euro either for political or because they do not meet the required economic criteria.


Sweden tries militant over Jordanian pilot burned to death by Daesh

Sweden tries militant over Jordanian pilot burned to death by Daesh
Updated 04 June 2025

Sweden tries militant over Jordanian pilot burned to death by Daesh

Sweden tries militant over Jordanian pilot burned to death by Daesh
  • “Osama Krayem has, together and in agreement with other perpetrators belonging to Daesh, killed Maaz Al-Kassasbeh,” prosecutor Reena Devgun told the court
  • In the 22-minute video of the killing, the victim is seen walking past several masked Daesh fighters, including Krayem, according to prosecutors

STOCKHOLM: A convicted Swedish militant went on trial in Stockholm on Wednesday accused of war crimes for his role in the 2014 killing of a Jordanian pilot who was burned alive in Syria.

The case is considered unique as the other militants involved in the brutal killing, which sparked international outrage at the time, are presumed dead, Swedish prosecutor Henrik Olin told AFP.

Osama Krayem, a 32-year-old Swede, is already serving long prison sentences for his role in the Paris and Brussels attacks in 2015 and 2016.

He now faces charges of “serious war crimes and terrorist crimes” for his alleged participation in the killing of the Jordanian pilot.

On December 24, 2014, an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed in Syria.

The pilot was captured the same day by fighters from the Daesh group near the central city of Raqqa and he was burned alive in a cage sometime before February 3, 2015, when a video of the gruesome killing was published, according to the prosecution.

The slickly-produced propaganda video was one of the first such videos released by Daesh.

The killing shocked Jordan, which was participating in the US-led coalition’s strikes against Daesh positions in Syria.

“Osama Krayem has, together and in agreement with other perpetrators belonging to Daesh, killed Maaz Al-Kassasbeh,” prosecutor Reena Devgun told the court on Wednesday.

“Osama Krayem, in uniform and armed, guarded and led the victim Maaz Al-Kassasbeh to a metal cage, where the latter was then locked up. One of the co-perpetrators then set fire to Maaz Al-Kassasbeh, who had no possibility to defend himself or call for help,” Devgun said.

Krayem, wearing a dark blue shirt and with a thick beard and long, loose dark hair, had his back to the handful of journalists and spectators who followed Wednesday’s proceedings behind a glass wall in the high security courtroom in Stockholm’s district court.

He appeared calm as the prosecution laid out the charges, which could result in a life sentence if Krayem is convicted.

In the 22-minute video of the killing, the victim is seen walking past several masked Daesh fighters, including Krayem, according to prosecutors.

The pilot is then seen being locked in the cage and praying as he is set on fire.

Prosecutors have been unable to determine the exact date of the murder but the investigation has identified the location.

The pilot’s father, Safi Al-Kassasbeh, told AFP on Wednesday the family hoped Krayem would “receive the harshest penalty according to the magnitude of the crime.”

“This is what we expect from a respected and fair law,” he said.

It was thanks to a scar on the suspect’s eyebrow, visible in the video and spotted by Belgian police, that Krayem was identified and the investigation was opened, Devgun said when the charges were announced last week.

Other evidence in the case includes conversations on social media, including one where Krayem asks a person if he has seen a new video “where a man gets fried,” according to the investigation, a copy of which has been viewed by AFP.

“I’m in the video,” Krayem said, pointing out the moment when the camera zooms in on his face.

The other person replies: “Hahaha, yes, I saw the eyebrow.”

The defendant’s lawyer, Petra Eklund, told AFP before the start of the trial that her client admitted to being present at the scene but disputed the prosecution’s version.

“He denies the acts for which he is prosecuted,” she said.

“He acknowledges having been present at that place during the event, but claims not to have acted in the manner described by the prosecutors in the account of the facts,” she added.

Krayem, who is from Malmo in southern Sweden, joined the Daesh group in Syria in 2014 before returning to Europe in September 2015.

He was arrested in Belgium in April 2016.

In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in France for helping plan the November 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed.

The following year, he was given a life sentence in Belgium for participating in the March 2016 bombings at Brussels’ main airport and on the metro system, in which 32 people were killed.

Krayem has been temporarily handed over to Sweden for the Stockholm trial, which is scheduled to last until June 26.