Elon Musk exited the admin this week after his 130-day stay as a special employee neared its end. He expressed hope that DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) would continue its efforts to weed out waste, corruption and abuse in the federal system.
He also criticized the GOP’s “big beautiful” tax and spending spending bill making its way from the House of Representatives to the Senate. He said the bill actually “increases the budget deficit.”
“A bill can be big or it can be beautiful,” Musk said. “But I don’t know if it can be both.”
Meanwhile, the federal Court of International Trade ruled that Trump lacked the authority to impose across-the-board reciprocal tariffs, as well as its special 20 percent tariff on Canada and Mexico to counter the fentanyl traffic coming into the U.S. The special 25-percent tariffs on imported automobiles, steel and aluminum escaped the ruling.
Stocks rose in early trading on the news, but quickly began taking back gains. The court ruling is being appealed, but other avenues allow Trump to continue raising tariffs, including what are known as Section 301 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. These tariffs have to be more focused, however, and not across the board.