(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.
(WASHINGTON) — Congressional Democrats are demanding that Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon cooperate with the agency’s Office of Inspector General review of the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the agency.
In a letter first obtained by ABC News, a group of Democrats on the Education, Oversight, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Appropriations committees in the House and Senate sent the secretary a letter accusing her of stonewalling the agency’s inspectors general.
“The OIG must be allowed to do its job,” they wrote.
“We urge the Department to immediately meet its obligation under the law to fully comply with the OIG’s review,” the letter said. “Congress and the public need to understand the full extent and impact of the Administration’s actions on the Department and the students, families, and educational communities it may no longer be able to serve.”
ABC News reached out for comment from the Department of Education on the allegations but did not receive an immediate reply.
McMahon will face these questions in person when she testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Wednesday.
The letter stems from what McMahon calls her “final mission” as the 13th education secretary to shutter the department, and the administration’s first steps to diminish the agency through a reduction in force that slashed nearly half its staff in early March. The lawmakers are requesting a response no later than Friday. After several attempts to conduct its review over the last two months, an OIG letter said the prolonged had resulted in “unreasonable denials” and “repeated delays” to its work.
According to a recent OIG letter sent to the House and Senate committee members, the Education Department blocked it from “timely access to all records, reports, audits, reviews, documents, papers, recommendations, or other materials available to the department.” House Education and Workforce Committee ranking Democrat Bobby Scott told ABC News, “I think the fact that they have indicated that there is a lack of cooperation ought to be concerning to people when inspectors general can’t do their jobs.”
The OIG contends its “statutory mission” to oversee the changes at the department under the Inspector General Act have been impeded.
“Our review has been delayed by the refusal of the Department to provide the OIG with a majority of the information and documents requested or direct access to staff for interviews,” acting Inspector General René L. Rocque wrote last month in a letter fulfilling her dual reporting requirement.
The department has canceled scheduled OIG interviews with its staff and insists that an Office of the General Counsel lawyer be present for any rescheduled interviews, according to the OIG. The OIG alleges those requests from the department are unprecedented and contrary to the OIG’s longstanding practice.
The OIG office is the statutory, independent entity within the department responsible for identifying fraud, waste, abuse and criminal activity involving department funds, programs, and operations, according to its website. By denying the federal watchdog access to the department’s records, the lawmakers believe McMahon is failing to meet her obligation as an agency head. There is no basis to withhold department documents from the OIG regardless of the privileged nature of the information or if it’s subject to litigation, the OIG said.
The news comes as McMahon testifies before Congress on the agency’s priorities and policies, specifically calling for a $12 billion cut to education under President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget outline. McMahon has stressed she will continue all statutory functions of the agency and work to abolish it in a “lawful fashion.”
Ahead of his committee’s hearing with McMahon, Scott said, “We hear all these pronouncements about what’s going to happen. What is the plan? They’ve acknowledged they can’t get rid of the Department of Education without legislation. Are they supporting legislation?”
Democrats, including Scott, have decried the administration’s work force reductions, particularly the impact the layoffs could pose to the department’s critical responsibilities such as administering Federal Student Aid services and ensuring students’ civil rights. Their three-page letter to McMahon claims states have experienced delays in accessing relevant portals to receive federal funding, college financial aid advisors have experienced significant delays in getting answers from FSA personnel, parents with pending Office for Civil Rights OCR cases have been left in the dark.
“When they have all these cases of discrimination in the Office for Civil Rights enforcing Title VI, including anti semitism, how is the job going to get done if you fired most of the staff in the Office of Civil Rights?” Scott said.
“If the inspector general can’t get an answer, then oversight is lost,” he added.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has privately expressed frustration about the Supreme Court justices he appointed, mostly complaining about Justice Amy Coney Barrett, three people familiar with the conversations told ABC News.
Those sources said the president conveyed that the justices he appointed could do more to back his agenda.
Several Trump allies have also taken their complaints about Barrett directly to the president, labeling her as “weak.”
Others have expressed their viewpoints publicly, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Conservative lawyer Mike Davis recently said on Steve Bannon’s podcast, “She’s a rattled law professor with her head up her a–.” Davis, a Trump ally, is in frequent communication with the president, sources have told ABC News.
Justice Barrett has not commented on brewing right-wing criticism of her votes from the bench nor would she be expected to: members of the court almost never engage directly, much less in the moment, with political critiques.
A senior administration official and additional sources familiar with Trump’s thinking tell ABC News the president is looking to nominate judges in the mold of Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and late Antonin Scalia.
Barrett is a former Scalia law clerk, which Trump and Barrett both highlighted when he announced her as his nominee to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020.
“Particularly poignant to me was her long and deep friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia, my own mentor,” Barrett said in the White House Rose Garden at the time. Maureen Scalia was also in the audience.
In a statement to ABC News, principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields stated: “President Trump will always stand with the U.S. Supreme Court, unlike the Democrat Party, which, if given the opportunity, would pack the court, ultimately undermining its integrity. The president may disagree with the Court and some of its rulings, but he will always respect its foundational role.”
CNN was first reported Trump’s private frustration with Barret Tuesday.
While the president has privately complained about Barrett, it is notable that he has not attacked her publicly.
Trump defended her after she sided with the court’s liberal justices ruling the Trump administration must unfreeze foreign aid payment.
“She’s a very good woman. She’s very smart, and I don’t know about people attacking her, I really don’t know,” Trump told reporters.
However, Trump recently attacked Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo, who advised him on judicial nominations during his first term, calling him a ‘sleazebag.’
“I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous judicial nominations,” Trump wrote.
Terry Schmitt/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to strike the name of gay rights activist Harvey Milk from one of its ships, orchestrating the change as Pride month celebrations take place.
A defense official said the timing of the decision was intentional.
The order was first reported by Military.com and confirmed by ABC News.
The USNS Harvey Milk is one of several ships named after prominent civil rights leaders and activists. A new name has not been announced.
Milk was one of the first openly gay men elected to public office in the United States after winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated a year later.
Before his death, Milk was credited with encouraging his friend and artist Gilbert Baker, a U.S. Army veteran to create the Pride flag. Milk was played by Sean Penn in the 2008 biographical film “Milk.”
Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency Director David Richardson told staff in an all-hands meeting that he was unaware hurricane season had started, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
Hurricane season started on Sunday, June 1, and goes through Nov. 30. It is unclear if Richardson, who has led the agency since mid-May, was joking in the Monday meeting, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson argued he was.
When asked by reporters Tuesday during a White House press briefing whether President Donald Trump is “still comfortable” with Richardson following his remarks, press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed concerns and said FEMA is taking hurricane season “seriously, contrary to some of the reporting we have seen based on jokes that were made and leaks from meetings.”
Reuters first reported on Richardson’s comments.
Richardson’s comments follow an internal review indicating FEMA is “not ready” for the 2025 hurricane season in mid-May.
The DHS spokesperson denied FEMA is unprepared, saying, “Despite meanspirited attempts to falsely frame a joke as policy, there is no uncertainty about what FEMA will be doing this Hurricane Season.”
“FEMA is laser-focused on disaster response and protecting the American people,” the spokesperson added.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed Richardson, posting on X that he is “unaware of why he hasn’t been fired yet.”
“Trump’s FEMA chief is incompetent,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., added. “People will die.”
The meeting was held Monday morning after Richardson had said he would update staff on a plan to tackle hurricane season.
“It’s not a secret that under Secretary Noem and acting Administrator Richardson, FEMA is shifting from bloated, D.C.-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens,” the spokesperson added. “The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades.”
However, sources in the meeting said Richardson is sticking with the original plan, made during the Biden administration, in order to avoid getting in the way of FEMA’s Review Council, which was established by President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Dan Stoneking, a former FEMA official and owner of Stoneking Strategic Communications, argued this reveals that the Trump administration believes its best chance at success this hurricane season is relying on the last administration’s plan, rather than its own.
Still, Stoneking said the original plan was created with more funding and before thousands of employees departed FEMA since the Trump administration took over, which he said would “clearly necessitate changes in planning in order to be successful.”
“This is not laser-focused. This is not empowering,” he said. “It is nothing more than a preamble to a less efficient federal response that this administration has caused but will still erroneously and egregiously blame on their predecessors.”
“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time,” he added.
Leavitt denied that the United States is ill-prepared to handle disasters, saying, “The president will deeply and thoughtfully consider any requests for federal aid that come to his desk.”
(NEW YORK) — Days after attacking a megabill that advances President Donald Trump’s agenda, Elon Musk slammed it again on Tuesday calling it a “disgusting abomination” in a post on X.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Two Chinese nationals have been charged with allegedly smuggling into the U.S. a fungus called “Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon,” the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were allegedly receiving Chinese government funding for their research, some of which at the University of Michigan, the Justice Department said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEWARK, N.J.) — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka filed a lawsuit against interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba on Tuesday, accusing her of malicious prosecution over his arrest outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility last month.
The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and is against Habba and the Department of Homeland Security special agent who Baraka claims unlawfully took him into custody on May 9 at Delaney Hall, where he was joined by three members of Congress for what they said they intended to be an inspection of conditions at the detention facility.
Baraka accuses Habba and Assistant Homeland Security Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin of seeking to politicize his arrest by promoting a “false and defamatory narrative” about the events that led to him being taken into custody.
While Habba and McLaughlin accused Baraka of attempting to “storm” the facility, his lawsuit noted he was actually invited onto the property by an agent of the GEO Group, a private prison operator that runs Delaney Hall, and was only placed under arrest after he had exited the gates when instructed.
“The false Affidavit was made with malice, particularly seeking to assure that the evening news included videos of the Black Mayor of Newark, New Jersey being led away in handcuffs by federal officials,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also takes issue with what it describes as the unusual treatment of Baraka following his arrest. It said he was kept in custody for over five hours before making a first appearance before a judge, whereas typically people are given a summons after being charged with the petty offense of trespassing.
Habba’s office moved to dismiss its case against Baraka, though prosecutors in a May 21 hearing were admonished by the federal judge assigned to Baraka’s case who said the charges against him appeared to be rushed and based on politics.
“The hasty arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, followed swiftly by the dismissal of these trespassing charges a mere 13 days later, suggests a worrisome misstep by your office,” Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa said. “The apparent rush in this case, culminating today in the embarrassing retraction of charges, suggests a failure to adequately investigate, to carefully gather facts and to thoughtfully consider the implications of your actions before wielding your immense power.”
Habba posted on X Monday night in response to a report on Baraka’s planned lawsuit, writing, “My advice to the mayor – feel free to join me in prioritizing violent crime and public safety. Far better use of time for the great citizens of New Jersey.”
Federal prosecutors have separately charged Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., for allegedly assaulting agents outside the Delaney Hall facility. McIver has said she plans to plead not guilty and vigorously disputes the charges.
(NEWARK, N.J.) — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka filed a lawsuit against interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba on Tuesday, accusing her of malicious prosecution over his arrest outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility last month.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is ramping up his criticism of Republican senators who are threatening to complicate the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which advances his legislative agenda.
On Tuesday, he railed against Sen. Rand Paul in a social media post after the Kentucky Republican publicly criticized the House-passed megabill.
Paul opposes the bill because of a debt ceiling increase in it that he said would “explode deficits.” Paul said at an event in Iowa last week that the cuts in the bill are “wimpy and anemic” and called for slashes to other entitlements, which Trump has made clear are a red line for him.
“Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming. He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, but it’s not,” Trump said in a post on his conservative social media platform Tuesday morning.
“Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming. He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, but it’s not,” Trump said in a post on his conservative social media platform Tuesday morning.
In a separate post, Trump said Paul “never has any practical or constructive ideas.” Over the weekend, Trump said that if Paul votes against the bill, “the GREAT people of Kentucky will never forgive him!”
Trump is working the phones and having meetings with senators to try to get his sweeping agenda passed by Congress.
Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House yesterday, according to a White House official. The meeting comes as Thune faces the Herculean task of moving this House-backed bill through the Senate as expeditiously as possible.
Thune has so far not made clear what his strategy will be for moving this package through the upper chamber. But as things currently stand, Thune can only afford to lose three of his GOP members to pass the package, and right now, he has more members than that expressing serious doubts about the bill.
The president’s outreach so far has targeted at a number of senators who have publicly expressed a need to see substantive changes to the House-backed bill.
Trump met with Republican Sen. Rick Scott on Monday to discuss the bill, sources confirmed to ABC News. Scott is among a group of Senate hardliners who wants to see larger cuts to government spending in this bill.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson — who also received a call from Trump on Monday, according to the White House — has also been vocal about his concerns that the bill doesn’t go nearly far enough to slash federal spending.
But anyone wishing to change the bill will have to balance the desire for spending cuts from hardliners against the calls from others in the conference who are insisting there be no cuts to Medicaid. Changes to Medicaid are one of the key ways the House bill slashes spending levels.
Trump seems to be targeting this part of the GOP conference as well, speaking with Republican Sen. Josh Hawley by phone, a White House official confirmed. Hawley, who has said he opposes potential cuts to Medicaid benefits, said in a post on X after that call, that Trump “said again, NO MEDICAID BENEFIT CUTS.”
Trump put pressure on Republican senators to fall in line in a post on his social media site on Monday night, emphasizing that he wants the GOP tax megabill on his desk before the Fourth of July holiday.
“I call on all of my Republican friends in the Senate and House to work as fast as they can to get this Bill to MY DESK before the Fourth of JULY,” Trump wrote.
Echoing sentiments from Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday suggested that Republican senators who vote against Trump’s megabill will have a price to pay.
“Their voters will know about it. That is unacceptable to Republican voters and all voters across the country who elected this president in a Republican majority to get things done on Capitol Hill,” Leavitt said.
Despite expressing some displeasures about the large tax bill last week, Leavitt said Trump was keen on keeping the bill largely in-tact.
“Those discussions are ongoing, but the president is not going to back down from those key priorities that he promised the American public, and they are expecting Capitol Hill to help him deliver,” Leavitt said.
