The Latest: Musk slams Trump-backed plan to cut taxes and spending

Pete Hegseth will skip a meeting on organizing military aid to Ukraine

America’s Pentagon chief will not be in attendance when more than 50 other defense leaders meet this week to coordinate military aid to Ukraine.

It will be the first time that an American defense leader has skipped the gathering since the U.S. created the Ukraine Defense Contact Group three years ago.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who returned from a national security conference in Singapore on Sunday, won’t arrive in Brussels until Wednesday evening after the meeting is over.

It’s the latest in a series of steps the U.S. has taken to distance itself from the Ukraine war effort.

▶ Read more about Hegseth's absence from the meeting

Trump formally asks Congress to claw back approved spending targeted by DOGE

The White House has officially asked Congress to claw back $9.4 billion in already approved spending.

The process known as rescission will take funding away from programs targeted by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. It requires Trump to get approval from Congress to return money that had previously been appropriated.

Trump’s aides say the funding cuts target programs that promote liberal ideologies.

The request to Congress is unlikely to meaningfully change the troublesome increase in the U.S. national debt. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the government is on track to spend roughly $7 trillion this year, with the rescission request equaling just 0.1% of that total.

▶ Read more about the White House's request

Justice Department drops lawsuit against Trump adviser Peter Navarro

The Justice Department is dropping a lawsuit it filed against White House trade adviser Peter Navarro

Navarro was accused in the lawsuit of using an unofficial email account for government work and wrongfully retaining presidential records during the first Trump administration.

A court filing Tuesday by department attorneys and a lawyer for Navarro doesn’t explain why they are abandoning a case that was filed in 2022, during President Joe Biden’s term in office.

A Justice Department spokesperson and a lawyer for Navarro didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

▶ Read more about the dropped lawsuit

Hegseth orders the name of gay rights activist Harvey Milk scrubbed from Navy ship

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a ship dubbed for a killed gay rights activist who served as a sailor during the Korean War.

U.S. officials say Navy Secretary John Phelan put together a small team to rename the replenishment oiler and that a new name is expected this month. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The change was laid out in an internal memo that officials said defended the action as a move to align with Trump and Hegseth’s objectives to “re-establish the warrior culture.”

It marks the latest move by Hegseth to purge all diversity, equity and inclusion references and comes during Pride Month.

▶ Read more about Hegseth's order

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Associated Press reporter Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

Musk: ‘Fire all politicians who betrayed the American people’

Musk is keeping up the pressure on Republicans just hours after he blasted Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget bill as an “abomination.”

“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” the billionaire and Trump adviser wrote on X.

The message is likely to be seen as a threat to back challengers to Republicans who back the budget bill.

His post quoted a conservative influencer who criticized Republicans for federal spending, among other complaints.

Musk has previously pledged to support primary challengers to Republicans who don’t support Trump’s agenda. His break from Trump over the spending bill sets up a test of his own influence on the GOP.

Trump administration revokes guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions

The guidance was issued was by the Biden administration in 2022 on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upended national abortion rights.

The direction was an effort to preserve abortion access for extreme cases in which women are experiencing medical emergencies and need an abortion to prevent serious complications, including organ loss or severe hemorrhaging.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Tuesday that it is rescinding the guidance but will continue to enforce the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, “including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy.”

That law requires emergency rooms that receive Medicare dollars to provide an exam and stabilizing treatment for all patients. Nearly all emergency rooms in the U.S. rely on Medicare funds.

An Associated Press inquiry last year found that, even with that guidance, dozens of pregnant women were being turned away from emergency rooms, including some who needed emergency abortions.

▶ Read more on the agency's decision.

Former US ambassador in Beijing says he supports Trump’s tariffs on China but not those on allies

Nick Burns, who was ambassador to China in the Biden administration, said China has been “by far the most disruptive actor in the international trade system” with practices such as forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft and massive dumping.

Addressing the think tank Brookings on Tuesday, Burns said the Trump administration has erred by slapping tariffs on U.S. allies and partners in Europe, South Korea and Japan. He said doing so removes America’s leverage when negotiating with China.

He said he supported an order from the first Trump administration not to issue visas to Chinese students with links to the Chinese military who want to study “nuclear weapons design” in the U.S.

However, Burns raised concerns that the recent announcement by the Trump administration to revoke the visas of Chinese students linked to the Chinese Communist Party could be too broad.

White House formally submits $9.4B in spending cuts for already funded programs

The submission includes a request for Congress to approve an $8.3 billion cut to the foreign aid budget.

A spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget confirmed the figures, which would include the loss of federal funding for NPR and PBS. The official insisted on anonymity to describe the terms of the package in advance of its release.

The cuts would be insufficient to meaningfully shift the upward trajectory of the national debt and would further put at risk vulnerable populations that received assistance from the federal government.

The spokesperson listed specific programs that the Trump administration considered wasteful, including $750,000 to reduce xenophobia in Venezuela, $67,000 for feeding insect powder to children in Madagascar and $3 million for circumcision, vasectomies, and condoms in Zambia.

The Trump administration has framed its effort to rescind the funds as a crackdown on programs that supporter liberal political views.

Senate majority leader pushes back on Musk critique of GOP bill

John Thune said billionaire Elon Musk’s critiques of the Republicans’ sweeping tax and spending package amounts to “a difference of opinion” and said the Senate would not change course.

“So we have a difference of opinion. He’s entitled to that opinion. We’re going to proceed full speed ahead,” Thune told reporters.

Thune said he has seen economic modeling that predicts “significant growth” in the U.S. economy if the proposals were enacted.

He said Musk’s concerns were based on analysis from the Congressional Budget Office that he called “static scoring assessment.”

He dismissed concerns that Musk’s critiques could tank the GOP’s signature legislation.

“We have an agenda that everybody campaigned on, most notably the president,” Thune said.

House speaker calls Elon Musk’s criticism of the Republican tax and immigration bill ‘very disappointing’

"With all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong about the one big beautiful bill," Mike Johnson said Tuesday.

Johnson said he spoke with Musk on Monday for more than 20 minutes by telephone. He said he extolled the virtues of the bill and how it was achieving campaign promises while making permanent massive tax and spending cuts.

“It’s a very important first start. Elon is missing it,” Johnson said.

Johnson also noted how the bill quickly phases out tax credits for electric vehicle purchases.

"That is going away because the government should not be subsidizing these things," Johnson said. "I know that has an effect on his business and I lament that."

He also said that’s he’s surprised by Musk’s criticism given their conversation.

“I just deeply regret he’s made this mistake,” Johnson said.

▶ Read more on the tax and spending bill.

Judge rules federal prisons must continue providing hormone therapy to transgender inmates

The ruling Tuesday followed an executive order signed by Trump that led to a disruption in medical treatment.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said in the ruling that federal law prohibits prison officials from arbitrarily depriving inmates of medications and other lifestyle accommodations that its own medical staff has deemed appropriate.

Lamberth said the transgender inmates who sued to block Trump’s executive order are trying to reduce the personal anguish caused by gender dysphoria, which is the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don’t match.

He said neither the Bureau of Prisons nor the executive order “provides any serious explanation as to why the treatment modalities covered by the Executive Order or implementing memoranda should be handled differently than any other mental health intervention.”

The bureau provides hormone therapy to more than 600 inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria. It doesn’t dispute that gender dysphoria can cause severe side effects, including depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, the judge said.

Musk slams Trump-backed tax cuts and spending bill as a ‘disgusting abomination’ for increasing debt

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who just left the Trump administration, blasted the Republican tax cuts and spending plans that passed the House.

“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk posted Tuesday on X. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

Musk continued that the bill “will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”

Musk stepped down last week from his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which has been tasked with slashing federal spending.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt played down the criticism by one of Trump’s top advisers and funders of his political operations during last year’s election.

“The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” Leavitt said, adding that Musk’s post “doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”

▶ Read more on the tax bill.

WH criticizes GOP senators worried about national debt and attacks Congressional Budget Office’s reputation

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin are wrong to claim that the tax cuts in his budget plan would increase the national debt.

Leavitt said Tuesday that Trump “has vocally called them out” for “not having their facts together,” even though most economic analyses show his tax cuts would increase the size of the national debt relative to the existing policy that includes the expiration of the tax cuts.

Leavitt also criticized the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office tasked with analyzing the financial impacts of legislation, saying its staffers have contributed to Democratic candidates and “this is an institution in our country that has become partisan and political.”

Trump will attend the NATO summit

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Tuesday that Trump will travel to the Netherlands to meet with the leaders of other NATO countries during the summit later this month in The Hague.

US asks trade partners to provide their best offers to Trump’s team ahead of tariffs deadline

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office sent letters to trade partners saying they have until Wednesday to provide their best offer on a trade framework, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Leavitt called the letters a “friendly reminder that the deadline is coming up.”

In April, Trump restricted most of his country-by-country tariffs to a 10% baseline so negotiations could occur over the course of 90 days.

Leavitt said Tuesday that Trump “expects good deals” and “we are on track for that.”

▶ Read more on Trump's tariffs.

Karoline Leavitt says the White House takes hurricane season ‘seriously’

The White House press secretary on Tuesday dismissed news reports that the acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said he didn’t know that the U.S. has a hurricane season as “sloppy and irresponsible.”

“I know FEMA is taking this seriously,” she said.

▶Read more more on extreme weather

Federal judge clears the way for Trump to continue using an emergency powers law to impose import taxes, at least for now

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington agreed to pause his own order in favor of two Illinois-based toy companies who say the president overstepped his authority.

Contreras wrote that the freeze while the administration appeals would allow the president to “identify and respond to threats to the U.S. economy and national security.”

The judge’s order comes after an appeals court froze a different ruling that struck down Trump’s sweeping tariffs last week

Vance meets with right-wing activist Laura Loomer

The two met Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.

It is not clear what Vance and Loomer discussed when they met at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where the vice president’s offices are located.

Loomer has sought to publicly identify members of the Trump administration she feels are not loyal to the president’s agenda. Trump fired some National Security Council officials after an earlier meeting she had with Trump where she raised concerns about staff loyalty.

Top Chinese diplomat meets the new US ambassador in Beijing

David Perdue says he told Foreign Minister Wang Yi that Trump “very much respects” Chinese President Xi Jinping and stressed the importance of “positive, constructive exchange” between the two, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

In a social media post, Perdue confirmed the meeting Tuesday, saying he emphasized Trump’s priorities of trade, fentanyl and illegal immigration, and the vital role of communication in bilateral relations.

The two countries are locked in a trade war over tariffs and non-tariff measures such as export controls, and Trump last week accused China of violating agreements that paused the tariff war for 90 days.

Wang told Perdue that Beijing had “strictly” implemented the consensus following the trade talks in Geneva but that the U.S. had “regrettably” taken “negative measures” that harmed China’s interests.

The Trump administration placed new curbs on exports of advanced chips and technology to China, while China has yet to remove export restrictions on critical minerals.

The White House said Trump will likely have a phone call with Xi this week.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she talked to Trump about kidnapping plot again

Whitmer says she talked to the president in “the last 24 hours” about the two men convicted of plotting to kidnap her in 2020. Trump mused last week that he would look into pardoning them.

Whitmer, a Democrat and potential 2028 presidential candidate, declined to elaborate except to say she connected with Trump directly and made her “thoughts known.”

“It’s important that in any case that has resulted in a jury convicting people, the impact on the victim is really important,” she said Tuesday at a ribbon cutting event in Detroit. “As a former prosecutor, as the target of this particular plot, I wanted to make sure that the president who’s going to make a decision has all the information necessary toward making the right decision.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon defends cuts at Harvard University

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said during a budget hearing Tuesday that the Education Department's demand that Harvard University end its diversity, equity and inclusion programs while also demanding new "viewpoint diversity" in hiring and admissions is "totally contradictory."

McMahon responded that Harvard’s DEI practices are “pitting one group against another” and need to go, while viewpoint diversity “is an exchange of ideas that’s actually better.”

She cited surveys finding that few Harvard professors identify as conservative.

The Trump administration has cut more than $2.6 billion in research grants from Harvard as it presses a series of policy and governance demands. Harvard is fighting the cuts in court.

Pressed by Murphy to explain her authority to cut Harvard’s funding, McMahon cited Title VI, a civil rights law.

Murphy shot back that no civil rights law allows her to “micromanage viewpoint diversity on campus.”

It was one of the sharper exchanges in a hearing that focused on McMahon’s new budget proposal, which requests a 15% reduction in spending for her department.

Wall Street drifts as most financial markets worldwide hold relatively steady

It comes as the wait continues for more updates on Trump's tariffs and how much they're affecting the economy.

The S&P 500 was 0.4% higher in midday trading, coming off a modest gain that added to its stellar May. It's back within 3% of its all-time high set earlier this year after falling roughly 20% below two months ago.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 74 points, or 0.2%, as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

Newark mayor sues New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor after arrest at immigration detention site

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka sued Tuesday over his arrest on a trespassing charge, which was later dropped.

Barak, who leads New Jersey’s biggest city, is a candidate in a crowded primary field for the Democratic nomination for governor next Tuesday. The lawsuit against interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba coincided with the day early in-person voting began.

The lawsuit seeks damages for “false arrest and malicious prosecution,” and also accuses Habba of defamation for comments she made about his case. Citing a post on X in which Habba said Baraka “committed trespass,” the lawsuit says Habba issued a “defamatory statement” and authorized his “false arrest” despite “clear evidence that Mayor Baraka had not committed the petty offense of ‘defiant trespass.’”

The suit also names Ricky Patel, the Homeland Security Investigations agent in charge in Newark.

▶ Read more about Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's lawsuit

Thune says not extending debt limit would be ‘incredibly consequential’

As Senators negotiate Trump’s legislation to cut taxes and policy programs, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday morning that failing to extend the debt limit would be “incredibly consequential in a very adverse way. So it’s got to be done.”

His comments come after Trump posted earlier in the day about Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s opposition to the bill. Paul has said he won’t vote for it if a debt limit extension is included. Trump said Paul “has very little understanding” of the bill and “loves voting ‘NO’ on everything.”

Thune said “failure is not an option” on the bill. “We’ve got to get to 51,” he said. “So we’ll figure out the path forward to do that over the next couple of weeks.”

Democratic lawmakers put estimate of blocked federal funds at $425 billion

Trump’s administration has frozen at least $425 billion in federal funds already approved by Congress, according to tracking conducted by Democratic lawmakers on the House and Senate committees responsible for crafting spending bills.

The lawmakers say the administration is brazenly violating federal laws and choking off critical investments in programs such as Head Start, local road and bridge projects and birth control and cancer screenings for hundreds of thousands of patients.

“This administration’s unprecedented assault on our nation’s spending laws is costing the American people dearly,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democratic lawmakers on the House and Senate Appropriations committees.

The lawmakers say the estimate is the minimum amount of funding the administration has frozen. They're maintaining a list of programs affected on the minority's committee websites.

Trump is going after Sen. Rand Paul as he works to pass his big bill

The president fired off a series of angry posts on social media Tuesday morning about Paul’s opposition to Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts package.

The Kentucky Republican is among GOP senators who have concerns about the likely deficit increases the bill will cause.

Trump said Paul “has very little understanding” of the bill and “loves voting ‘NO’ on everything.”

“Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!),” the president wrote, adding, “The people of Kentucky can’t stand him.”

Republican push for proof of citizenship to vote proves a tough sell in the states

Trump and congressional Republicans have made it a priority this year to require people to prove citizenship before they can register to vote. Turning that aspiration into reality has proved difficult.

Trump's executive order directing a documentary, proof-of-citizenship requirement for federal elections has been blocked by a judge, while federal legislation to accomplish it doesn't appear to have the votes to pass in the Senate. At the same time, state-level efforts have found little success, even in places where Republicans control the legislature and governor's office.

▶ Read more about proof-of-citizenship voting

US growth likely to slow to 1.6% this year, hobbled by Trump’s trade wars, OECD says

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast Tuesday that the U.S. economy — the world’s largest — will slow further to just 1.5% in 2026. Trump’s policies have raised average U.S. tariff rates from around 2.5% when he returned to the White House to 15.4%, the highest since 1938, according to the OECD. Tariffs raise costs for consumers and American manufacturers that rely on imported raw materials and components.

World economic growth will slow to just 2.9% this year and stay there in 2026, according to the OECD’s forecast. It marks a substantial deceleration from growth of 3.3% global growth last year and 3.4% in 2023.

The world economy has proven remarkably resilient in recent years, continuing to expand steadily — though unspectacularly — in the face of global shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But global trade and the economic outlook have been clouded by Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports, the unpredictable way he’s rolled them out and the threat of retaliation from other countries.

▶ Read more about the world economic forecast

Ex-Homeland Security official Taylor fights back against Trump’s ‘unprecedented’ investigation order

A former Homeland Security official during Trump's first administration who authored an anonymous op-ed sharply critical of the president is calling on independent government watchdogs to investigate after Trump ordered the department to look into his government service.

Miles Taylor, once chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, warned in an interview with The Associated Press of the far-reaching implications of Trump's April 9 memorandum, "Addressing Risks Associated with an Egregious Leaker and Disseminator of Falsehoods," when it comes to suppressing criticism of the president. That memo accused Taylor of concocting stories to sell his book and directed the secretary of Homeland Security and other government agencies to look into Taylor and strip him of any security clearances.

Taylor sent a letter via email to the inspectors general at the Department of Justice and Homeland Security on Tuesday.

“I didn’t commit any crime, and that’s what’s extraordinary about this. I can’t think of any case where someone knows they’re being investigated but has absolutely no idea what crime they allegedly committed. And it’s because I didn’t,” Taylor said.

▶ Read more about Taylor's letter

Credit: AP

Credit: AP