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Bavaria, Germany - June 6, 2025: PHOTOMONTAGE, Red cap with VOTE FOR ELON MUSK in front of US flag.

Can Musk’s “America Party” curb Trump’s power in 2026?

It started, as most of Elon Musk’s moves do, with a post on X. On July 5, the Tesla CEO and former adviser to US President Donald Trump announced the formation of the America Party, a new political movement meant to upend what he called “a one-party system, not a democracy.”

Why start a party? The two men have been feuding over the president’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which became law July 4. Musk slammed the package – which pairs tax cuts with massive spending hikes for defense and immigration enforcement – for adding trillions to the US debt. He now plans to defeat legislators who supported it, vowing that “They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”

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U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) speaks to reporters between votes at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, U.S., January 23, 2024.

REUTERS

What We’re Watching: Senate vote on Trump’s big bill, Thai PM in hot water, Japan's name-change game

Trump’s tax-and-spending bill faces razor-thin Senate vote

The US Senate will vote today on President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”. The legislation would make many of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent and would boost spending on the military and immigration enforcement, but its proposed cuts could also leave nearly 12 million people without health insurance by 2034. That, and a projected $3.3 trillion national debt increase over the next decade, has stoked opposition even within the Republican party. GOP Senators Rand Paul and Thom Tillis – who announced he won’t seek reelection – are already opposed, meaning Trump can afford only two more defections. Expect today to be a marathon of votes and revisions to the legislation.

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Elon Musk's political donations 2020-2024

Luisa Vieira

The Graphic Truth: Elon Musk's political donations

During his public spat with Trump on social media, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed credit for the Republicans’ electoral victories last year, writing, “without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

While Musk has indicated that he will pare down his political spending, he certainly possesses the financial power to tip the scales in campaign financing – he was the GOP’s largest donor last year. Here’s a look at where Musk, who publicly converted from Democrat to Republican ahead of the 2024 election, has put his money in the last two electoral cycles.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with military honors at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on May 28, 2025.

Christian Marquardt/NurPhoto

What We’re Watching: German boost for Ukraine, Musk jabs Trump bill, & More

Merz promises long-range weapons for Ukraine

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Berlin will help Kyiv produce long-range missiles that can strike deep inside Russia. It’s another sign that Europe has lost patience with Vladimir Putin’s reluctance to talk peace and a recognition that whatever happens on the battlefield this summer will shape the outcome of eventual talks.

Musk jabs Trump’s signature bill

The House-passed “Big Beautiful Bill” has one unhappy customer: Elon Musk, who said he’s disappointed” by the tax-policy legislation. He argued that it “increases the budget deficit … and undermines the work that the [Department of Government Efficiency] team is doing.” It’s the heaviest criticism that Musk, who spent over $250 million to help US President Donald Trump win the 2024 presidential election, has directed toward the administration. We’re watching to see whether this is merely a blip in the Musk-Trump relationship, or whether the Tesla owner now splits with the Republican Party – and takes his dollars with him.

The world’s poorest owe China big money

In 2025, the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries will make record high debt repayments totaling $22 billion to China,” according to a report by the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. That’s mainly thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative. which has loaned more than 150 countries a total of more than $1 trillion since 2013 for infrastructure projects. The initiative risks becoming an albatross for both China and its debtors.

Trump in front of a downward trending graph and economic indicators.

Jess Frampton

America is souring on Trumponomics. Trump may not care.

For someone who campaigned on lowering grocery prices on day one and rode widespread economic discontent to the White House, Donald Trump sure seems bent on pursuing policies that will increase that discontent.

If you don’t believe me, take it from the president himself, who refused to rule out a recession last Sunday and acknowledged that his sweeping tariff plans would cause “a little disturbance.” But, he added, “we are okay with that.”

Are we okay with that, though?

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Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson (Republican of Louisiana) speaks on the importance he sees in the Laken Riley Act.

Republicans’ beachside budget battles

House Republicans are snowbirding from Washington, DC, to Florida’s Miami area this week for their annual policy retreat where they have to figure out how to fund a laundry list of legislative promises before the 2026 midterms.

“The goal is going to be to try to forge a consensus among the Republican factions – with the complication that [Speaker Mike] Johnson basically can't lose any Republican votes,” says Eurasia Group’s US expert Noah Daponte-Smith. Both House and Senate Republicans will need to agree on an identical funding package for it to sidestep a Democratic filibuster and be passed with a simple Republican majority.

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Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris take part in a presidential debate hosted by ABC in Philadelphia, Penn., on Sept. 10, 2024, in a combination of photographs.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Trump takes Harris’ bait in heated presidential debate

Vice President Kamala Harris had two opponents in Tuesday night’s highly anticipated presidential debate: former President Donald Trump and high expectations. She performed well against both.

Harris successfully put Trump on the defensive throughout much of the debate, ripping into him on issues ranging from abortion and his criminal record to Jan. 6 and his refusal to accept the 2020 election results.

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