Trump/Musk bromance over, ‘Don’t dare me’ former warns

Donald Trump said on Saturday his relationship with his billionaire donor Elon Musk is over and warned there would be “serious consequences” if Musk funds U.S. Democrats. President Trump specifically warned Elon Musk against funding Democrats contesting against Republicans who vote for the president’s sweeping tax and spending bill. In a telephone interview with NBC News, Trump declined to say what those consequences would be, and went on to add that he had not had discussions about whether to investigate Musk. Asked if he thought his relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was over, Trump said, “I would assume so, yeah.” “No,” Trump told NBC when asked if he had any desire to repair his relationship with Musk. “I have no intention of speaking to him,” Trump said. However, Trump said he had not thought about terminating U.S. government contracts with Musk’s StarLink satellite internet or SpaceX rocket launch companies. Musk and Trump began exchanging insults this week, as Musk denounced Trump’s bill as a “disgusting abomination”. Musk’s opposition to the measure complicated efforts to pass the legislation in Congress, where Republicans hold only slim majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate. The bill narrowly passed the House last month and is now before the Senate, where Trump’s fellow Republicans are considering making changes. Nonpartisan analysts estimate the measure would add $2.4 trillion to the $36.2 trillion U.S. debt over 10 years, which worries many lawmakers, including some Republicans who are fiscal hawks. Musk also declared it was time for a new political party in the United States “to represent the 80 per cent in the middle!” Trump said on Saturday he is confident the bill would get passed by the U.S. July 4 Independence Day holiday. “In fact, yeah, people that were, were going to vote for it are now enthusiastically going to vote for it, and we expect it to pass,” Trump told NBC. Republicans have strongly backed Trump’s initiatives since he began his second term as president on Jan. 20. While some Republican lawmakers have made comments to the news media expressing concern about some of Trump’s choices, they have yet to vote down any of his policies or nominations. The last straw Musk has deleted some social media posts critical of Trump, including one that signaled support for impeaching the president, appearing to seek a de-escalation of their public feud which exploded on Thursday. During his first term as president, the House, then controlled by Democrats, twice voted to impeach Trump but the Senate both times acquitted him. The White House and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday on the deleted posts. People who have spoken to Musk said his anger has begun to recede and they thought he would want to repair his relationship with Trump. One of the X posts that Musk appeared to have deleted was a response to another user posting: “President vs Elon. Who wins? My money’s on Elon. Trump should be impeached and (Vice President) JD Vance should replace him.” Musk had written “yes.” On Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” podcast – recorded on Thursday as the feud between Trump and Musk unfolded and released on Saturday – Vance called Musk’s criticism of Trump a “huge mistake.” “I’m always going to be loyal to the president, and I hope that eventually Elon kind of comes back into the fold. Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear. But I hope it is,” said Vance, describing Musk as an “incredible entrepreneur.” Trump is due to attend an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight card on Saturday in New Jersey. Since his second election win, he has attended two previous UFC mixed martial arts fight cards with Musk. Musk is not expected to attend on Saturday. Musk, the world’s richest man, bankrolled a large part of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, spending nearly 300 million dollars in last year’s U.S. elections. Musk was also credited for Republicans retaining a majority of seats in the House and retaking a majority in the Senate. Trump named Musk to head an effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending, lauding him at the White House only about a week ago for his work as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk cut only about half of one per cent of total spending, far short of his brash plans to axe two trillion dollars from the federal budget.

American Schizophrenic Politics and Foreign Policy

It is so confusing how to square the release posted by the Obama White House in 2014 (see link below), at the height of the kidnap of the Chibok Girls by Boko Haram, during which Michelle Obama played a crucial role to bring global attention to that crisis, with the bombshell allegation by Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry’s that the USAID under the Obama and then the Biden presidencies was actually financing the Boko Haram terrorist group. It makes absolutely no sense except within the context of Elon Musk’s DOGE team and their MAGA supporters dropping whoppers of falsehood, outright lies, and disinformation to justify their gestapo approach to “reforming” the U.S. public service. Engaging in mindless firing of government officials, disbanding government agencies and conducting loyalty test within the Justice and security agencies. It is impossible to differentiate facts from fictions. Remember the story about $59 million condoms in Gaza!! READ THIS: FACT SHEET: U.S. Efforts to Assist the Nigerian Government in its Fight against Boko Haram President Trump just a few days ago blamed President Biden for instigating the Putin invasion of Ukraine when everyone knows that Putin has had his eye on Ukraine for years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Putin invaded and took over Cremea without provocation during Obama regime. Obama made a strategic mistake by doing absolutely nothing about it other than imposing ineffectual sanctions which probably emboldened him to invade. We all need to take a deep breath and treat with more than a grain of salt anything coming from the MAGA crowd which believes in flooding the zone with disinformation and outright falsehoods. They will do or say anything to justify the destruction of what they perceive as the disloyal woke deep-state. Otherwise, why would a Republican congressman openly declare that the U.S. government sponsored ISIS, Alkeida (two sworn enemies of the U.S.) and Boko Haram. One would have expected such a statement from the likes of Bonnie Sander and the ultra liberal Ocasio not from a conservative pro-national security Republican congressman from Pennsylvania. This is turning politics over its head. It makes absolutely no sense just like what’s happening in the U.S. is mind-numbingly nonsensical. You have the U.S. government trusting Putin over its long term allies in Europe. The U.S. VP openly castigated European governments in Munich and openly supported an ultra-right, fringe Nazis political party in Germany as it prepares for an election. Totalitarian Orban of Hungary is a darling of Washington DC. Elon Musk is openly campaigning and offering financial support for political parties aligned with Nazis ideology. We are truly in schizophrenic uncharted political territory. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Scott Perry’s “Africa Lovefest and the Character Assassination of President Barack Obama Isn’t it curious that both the do-gooder US democrat liberals who are scrambling to save the USAID and the Republican conservatives who are hell bent on destroying it are both using their gullible whipping boy Africa to make their case? The democrat liberals, many of who simply play to the gallery to hide their racist condescending disdain for Africa are storming the USAID HQ claiming that without the USAID all African children would starve to death and our contagious Eboma will jump over the Atlantic and devastate their American Homeland. The conservative Scott Perry and his White Supremacist Apartheid South African Elon Musk argue that they are trying to demolish USAID to safe Africa from Obama and Biden’s USAID which is the sponsor and financial backbone of Boko Haram. Yet rather than been outraged by this constant negative narrative and weaponizing Africa poverty by the West to push their theory of the racial inferiority of Africans, we are falling one another to push this same negative narrative. What is so demoralizing as an African is that African elites and so called intellectuals are playing true to type to the Whiteman’s characterization of us as gullible people who are driven by their emotion rather than their intellect. That is what is so frustrating with how African intellectuals have fallen head of heel spreading the disinformation by Scott Perry that Obama and Biden were sponsors of Boko Haram. Politics makes for strange bedfellows. Who could have imagined in a million years that a Republican for that matter would be the one “spilling the beans” about how the U.S supposedly sponsors terrorism all over the world. Has anyone wondered why this new “activist” in defense of Nigeria. Scott Perry just selectively and conveniently decides to expose the evil that the USAID does just as Elon Musk was driving his bulldozer over the USAID and it just happens that it was during Barrack Obama and Biden presidency that the USAID was sponsoring Boko Haram. What happened during the transition from Obama to Trump before Biden took over. Apparently, Trump the lover of Africa and her shit-hole countries stopped the funding of Boko Haram and Biden continued from where his former boss, Obama stopped. Is that logically? But in the post-truth era where confirmation bias is king people no longer critically analyze facts before running to town with disinformation, propaganda and fake news. That exactly is the reason Congressman Scott Scott Perry, could get away with accusing the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, of funding terrorist organisations, including Boko Haram. Just like Trump just blamed Biden for instigating the Russian invasion of Ukraine when in fact Russia took over Cremea way back in 2014. Truth does not matter anymore if you can flood the social media airwave with falsehood, fake news, half truths, and disinformation. The Blackman capacity for self hate is mind-numbing. The Nigerian social media has been overtaken with the caricaturitization and character assassination of the Barrack Obama the historic first Black US president. Who did this to us? Adewale Alonge, PhD, is Founder & President, Africa Diaspora Partnership for Empowerment and Development. www.adped.org

Elon Musk pledges $45 million a month to electing Trump

By Doris Isreal Ijeoma Tech billionaire Elon Musk said he plans to commit roughly $45 million each month to a new fund backing Donald Trump for US president, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Musk’s donations will go to a political group dubbed America PAC, which will focus on promoting voter registration, early voting and mail-in ballots among residents in swing states ahead of the November general election, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Musk is one of several major backers of the new fund, with others reportedly including Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, former US ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft and cryptocurrency investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. The Tesla founder formally endorsed Trump’s candidacy for US president on Saturday after the former president survived a shooting at a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote on the social media platform X, which he acquired in 2022. Musk, the wealthiest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $250 billion, has grown increasingly friendly with Trump over the course of the 2024 US election. In March, the two met in person during a donor breakfast hosted at the Florida residence of billionaire Nelson Peltz. Though individual campaign donations in the United States are capped at $3,300 per person, loopholes in the campaign finance system allow political mega donors to contribute to funds known as political action committees or “PACs,” which support candidates. Trump previously decried mail and absentee voting, but has backtracked on his criticisms after it became clear Democrats had an edge among mail voters.