Elon Musk flipped out at a journalist who dared to question the billionaire’s success as President Donald Trump’s federal spending hatchet man.
The tech billionaire told Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain, a respected former BBC broadcaster, that “it’s like talking to a computer” when she suggested his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) risked falling short of its $2 trillion savings target.
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On Tuesday, Musk was interviewed by Husain via video at an economic forum in Qatar, and was asked about DOGE not meeting the goal.
She reminded Musk of his pledge — at a high-profile rally for Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York on October — that he’d cut “at least $2 trillion” from the federal government budget.
Experts had dismissed the $2 trillion aim as extremely unrealistic since it would equate to almost all discretionary funding, including programs for transportation, education and housing, so well beyond the fraud and waste Musk has said repeatedly would make up the bulk of the cuts.
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DOGE has itself said it has only slashed $160 billion to date.
“You’ve talked about $4 billion a day being saved,” Husain said. “And I think everyone can agree that combating waste and inefficiency in government is a very good thing, but if you add that up, it’s not gonna get to $2 trillion over the lifetime of DOGE.”
Musk appeared not to understand or hear the question, so Husain repeated herself.
“I mean, I feel you’re somewhat trapped in the NPC dialogue tree of a traditional journalist,” Musk snapped. The term NPC derives from video games and refers to a “non-playable character.”
“So it’s difficult when I’m conversing with someone who’s trapped in the dialogue tree of a conventional journalist because it’s like talking to a computer.”
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In a defense of DOGE’s work, Musk went on to stress the organisation “is an advisory group” and “we’re doing the best we can.”
He conceded the three branches of government “are to some degree opposed to that level of cost savings.”
The defensive response is the latest sign that the world’s richest man’s dream of transforming Washington, DC, has turned into a nightmare.
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Almost ever-present at the president’s side in the early days of the second Trump administration, the Tesla CEO has since scaled back his day-to-day involvement with DOGE following political and consumer backlash that was threatening his business interests.
Trump signalled their relationship was changing when he effectively said farewell to the tech billionaire at a Cabinet meeting last month.
“He wants to get back home to his cars,” the president said.
In the same interview with Husain, Musk revealed he plans to significantly cut his political spending, saying he has “done enough.”
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The GOP donor spent at least $250 million to get Trump elected last year.
Nigel Farage has been dubbed a “part-time leader” after he missed a crunch Commons debate because he is on holiday.
The Reform UK leader confirmed he was taking his “first overseas break for three years” while Keir Starmer faced questions on the deal he has struck with the EU.
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The leading Brexiteer has been notable by his absence since the PM finalised the agreement with Brussels bosses at a summit on Monday.
And the mystery deepened when he failed to turn up to quiz the PM in parliament today.
In a statement issued afterwards, Farage said: “There seems to be great consternation in the press that they have not seen me for 48 hours. Well, they will have to wait some time.
“After months of touring the UK in the run up to our hugely successful local election campaign I will resume travelling the country next week as Reform moves to the next stage.
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“Meanwhile I am having my first overseas break for three years, the jungle excepted. Well I say break.. plenty of articles and fundraising calls!”
Ironically, parliament is in recess next week, meaning Farage would have been free to go on holiday then without missing any Commons debates.
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “The part-time leader of Reform UK is sunning himself in Europe while parliament is sitting. He clearly doesn’t have the stamina to stand up to Starmer.
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“Only the Conservatives are providing proper opposition to this disastrous Labour government.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage clearly cares so passionately about this issue he’s decided he can’t get up from his sunbed to represent his constituents or his party.
“He’s not a leader – he’s an opportunist who just talks Britain down whenever it suits him.”
Vice President JD Vance responded on Monday to Joe Biden’s new cancer diagnosis by criticising the former president’s performance in the White House and furthering claims that those close to the Democrat hid his poor health from the public.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force 2, the vice president first wished for Biden to make “the right recovery,” saying the 82-year-old’s diagnosis “sounds pretty serious.”
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Vance essentially ended his empathy there, accusing Biden of doing a bad job leading the country and pinning his capacity to serve as president on his poor health.
“I will say, whether the right time to have this conversation is now or at some point in the future, we really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job,” Vance said.
“You can separate the desire for him to have the right health outcome with a recognition that, whether it was doctors or whether there were staffers around the former president, I don’t think he was able to do a good job for the American people.”
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“And that’s not politics. That’s not because I disagreed with him on policy,” he continued. “That’s because I don’t think that he was in good enough health.”
.@VP JD Vance on former President Biden’s cancer diagnosis: \"We really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job…I don’t think that he was in good enough health. In some ways, I blame him less than I blame the people around him.\" pic.twitter.com/0DYOd2mu4G
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In some ways, I blame him less than I blame the people around him.\" pic.twitter.com/0DYOd2mu4G— CSPAN (@cspan) May 19, 2025\n\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","thumbnail_height":360,"thumbnail_url":"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrUSFIsXUAA72dI.jpg:large","thumbnail_width":640,"title":"CSPAN on Twitter / X","type":"rich","url":"https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1924464313164533932","version":"1.0"},"flags":[],"enhancements":{},"fullBleed":false,"options":{"theme":"news","device":"desktop","editionInfo":{"id":"uk","name":"U.K.","link":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk","locale":"en_GB"},"originalEdition":"uk","isMapi":false,"isAmp":false,"isAdsFree":false,"isVideoEntry":false,"isEntry":true,"isMt":false,"entryId":"682ba0bbe4b0f527e57aa9c8","entryPermalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jd-vance-uses-bidens-cancer-diagnosis-to-criticize-his-job-as-president_uk_682ba0bbe4b0f527e57aa9c8","entryTagsList":"cancer,joe-biden,jd-vance,@us_huffpost_now,@widget-imported","sectionSlug":"politics","deptSlug":null,"sectionRedirectUrl":null,"subcategories":"","isWide":false,"isShopping":false,"headerOverride":null,"noVideoAds":false,"disableFloat":false,"isNative":false,"commercialVideo":{"provider":"custom","site_and_category":"uk.politics","package":null},"isHighline":false,"vidibleConfigValues":{"cid":"60afc140cf94592c45d7390c","disabledWithMapiEntries":false,"overrides":{"all":"60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4"},"whitelisted":["56c5f12ee4b03a39c93c9439","56c6056ee4b01f2b7e1b5f35","59bfee7f9e451049f87f550b","5acccbaac269d609ef44c529","570278d2e4b070ff77b98217","57027b4be4b070ff77b98d5c","56fe95c4e4b0041c4242016b","570279cfe4b06d08e3629954","5ba9e8821c2e65639162ccf1","5bcd9904821576674bc55ced","5d076ca127f25f504327c72e","5b35266b158f855373e28256","5ebac2e8abddfb04f877dff2","60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4","60b64354b171b7444beaff4d","60d0d8e09340d7032ad0fb1a","60d0d90f9340d7032ad0fbeb","60d0d9949340d7032ad0fed3","60d0d9f99340d7032ad10113","60d0daa69340d7032ad104cf","60d0de02b627221e9d819408"],"playlists":{"default":"57bc306888d2ff1a7f6b5579","news":"56c6dbcee4b04edee8beb49c","politics":"56c6dbcee4b04edee8beb49c","entertainment":"56c6e7f2e4b0983aa64c60fc","tech":"56c6f70ae4b043c5bdcaebf9","parents":"56cc65c2e4b0239099455b42","lifestyle":"56cc66a9e4b01f81ef94e98c"},"playerUpdates":{"56c6056ee4b01f2b7e1b5f35":"60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4","56c5f12ee4b03a39c93c9439":"60d0d8e09340d7032ad0fb1a","59bfee7f9e451049f87f550b":"60d0d90f9340d7032ad0fbeb","5acccbaac269d609ef44c529":"60d0d9949340d7032ad0fed3","5bcd9904821576674bc55ced":"60d0d9f99340d7032ad10113","5d076ca127f25f504327c72e":"60d0daa69340d7032ad104cf","5ebac2e8abddfb04f877dff2":"60d0de02b627221e9d819408"}},"connatixConfigValues":{"defaultPlayer":"16b0ecc6-802c-4120-845f-e90629812c4d","clickToPlayPlayer":"823ac03a-0f7e-4bcb-8521-a5b091ae948d","videoPagePlayer":"05041ada-93f7-4e86-9208-e03a5b19311b","defaultPlaylist":"2e062669-71b4-41df-b17a-df6b1616bc8f"},"topConnatixThumnbailSrc":"https://img.connatix.com/1c953232-ea3a-4e7f-8b7d-a7867a6b748d/1_th.jpg?crop=629:354,smart&width=629&height=354&format=jpeg&quality=60&fit=crop","customAmpComponents":[],"ampAssetsUrl":"https://amp.assets.huffpost.com","videoTraits":null,"positionInUnitCounts":{"buzz_head":{"count":0},"buzz_body":{"count":0},"buzz_bottom":{"count":0}},"positionInSubUnitCounts":{"article_body":{"count":20},"blog_summary":{"count":0},"before_you_go_content":{"count":0}},"connatixCountsHelper":{"count":1},"buzzfeedTracking":{"context_page_id":"682ba0bbe4b0f527e57aa9c8","context_page_type":"buzz","destination":"huffpost","mode":"desktop","page_edition":"en-uk"},"tags":[{"name":"cancer","slug":"cancer","links":{"relativeLink":"news/cancer","permalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/cancer","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/cancer"},"relegenceSubjectId":978380,"url":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/cancer/"},{"name":"Joe Biden ","slug":"joe-biden","links":{"relativeLink":"news/joe-biden","permalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/joe-biden","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/joe-biden"},"relegenceId":3519431,"section":{"title":"News","slug":"news"},"topic":{"title":"2020 US Election","slug":"2020-us-election","overridesSectionLabel":false},"url":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/2020-us-election/"},{"name":"jd vance","slug":"jd-vance","links":{"relativeLink":"news/jd-vance","permalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/jd-vance","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/jd-vance"},"url":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/jd-vance/"}],"isLiveblogLive":null,"isLiveblog":false,"cetUnit":"buzz_body","bodyAds":["
.@VP JD Vance on former President Biden’s cancer diagnosis: “We really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job…I don’t think that he was in good enough health. In some ways, I blame him less than I blame the people around him.” pic.twitter.com/0DYOd2mu4G
The Democrat’s age and health came front and centre last year after his concerning presidential debate performance while seeking re-election. Biden eventually stepped down to allow Vice President Kamala Harris to run in his place with just months until the election. Harris lost to Donald Trump, leading many Democrats to blame Biden’s initial persistence for their party’s loss.
The allegations have led Republicans like Donald Trump Jr. — and apparently Vance — to baselessly accuse Biden and those close to him of hiding his cancer while he was still president. Trump Jr. faced backlash earlier on Monday for spreading, without evidence, a conspiracy that Biden was likely diagnosed while in the White House and that his wife, Jill Biden, helped keep it from the public.
“This is serious stuff. This is the guy who carries around the nuclear football for the world’s largest nuclear arsenal,” Vance continued. “This is not child’s play, and we can pray for good health, but also recognise that if you’re not in good enough health to do the job, you shouldn’t be doing the job.”
Cancers that have spread to other parts of the body are normally difficult to treat — but because Biden’s cancer appears hormone-sensitive, according to his office, he may be able to treat it by depriving the tumors of hormones. Doctors have said that, while metastasised prostate cancer is incurable, men receiving such treatment can expect to live for an average of five more years.
The prime minister has said the agreement – which ensure closer ties with the bloc – will be “good for our jobs, good for our bills and good for our borders”.
But Johnson used typically flowery language to condemn the agreement, which rips up the deal his own government negotiated with the bloc.
In a post on X, Johnson said Starmer was “the orange ball-chewing manacled gimp of Brussels”.
He added: “Starmer promised at the election that he would not go back on Brexit. He has broken that promise as he broke his promise on tax.
“This deal should not be signed, should not be ratified and should never come into force and if it is, the next Conservative government should kick it out forthwith.”
Unfortunately for Johnson, the internet has not forgotten the role he played in the disastrous implementation of the 2016 Brexit referendum result.
The Reform UK leader has already condemned a deal Keir Starmer is negotiating with Brussels to “reset” Britain’s relations with Brussels, even though it is yet to be finalised.
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The prime minister will unveil the details of the agreement following a UK-EU summit at Lancaster House in London on Monday.
It is expected to include a youth mobility deal allowing 18 to 30-year-olds to travel more easily between Britain and the bloc.
British holidaymakers will also be able to use e-gates at European airports instead of having to queue for hours to have their passports stamped.
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An agreement over veterinary and food rules will make trade between the UK and EU more easy.
The UK is also set to agree to give French fishermen greater access to British waters in return for a security and defence deal with Brussels.
Farage said: “The whole ‘reset’ is an abject surrender from Starmer and politically something he will come to regret.”
But appearing on LBC today, Labour MP Thornberry hit back at the arch-Brexiteer.
She said: “I don’t think the public thinks that’s relevant. I think they think it’s political elite talking to themselves and it’s not really about real life.
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“They do want, if their neighbours run a small business, to be able to export sausages to France and for it not to be held up.
“They do want to be able to travel to Europe and not have their passport stamped and be able to go through e-gates and be able to travel more easily, and they want more money in the economy.”
Asked specifically about Farage’s “surrender” claim, Thornberry said: “Big word for him, isn’t it?”
She added: “Their’s 13 of these youth mobility schemes already with the UK and the sky hasn’t fallen in, and I think youngsters in Britain would like to be able to travel in Europe and so it has to be reciprocal.”
The world-famous pop star said science secretary Peter Kyle was “a bit of a moron” for considering allowing tech companies to use artists’ work to create content without paying for it.
The row centres around the government’s Data (Use and Access) Bill, which is currently going through parliament.
Ministers last week rejected proposals from the House of Lords to force AI companies to disclose what material they were using to develop their programmes.
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Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Elton said the government’s current plans would allow AI firms to “commit theft, thievery on the highest scale”.
“Some people aren’t like me, they don’t earn as much as I do,” he said.
“When they’re creative, and it comes from the human soul and not from a machine – because a machine is not capable of writing anything with any soul in it – if you’re going to get rid of that and you’re going to rob young people of their legacy and their income, it’s a criminal offence, I think.
“I think the government are just being absolute losers. I’m very angry about it, as you can tell.”
Sir Elton said Keir Starmer needed to “wise up” about the threat to the creative industries and that Kyle – who has been accused of being too close to tech giants – was “a bit of a moron”.
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Responding to Sir Elton’s comments, Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “The government is trying to find a way forward that is dealing with the concerns that are being raised quite passionately by the cultural sector, but also making sure that we maintain that world-leading position in AI.
“Pursuing those two objectives is the balance we need to strike.”
The minister also said he “profoundly disagreed” with Elton John’s claim that Peter Kyle is “a moron”.
A government spokesperson said: “We want our creative industries and AI companies to flourish, which is why we’re consulting on a package of measures that we hope will work for both sectors.
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“We’re clear that changes will be considered unless we are completely satisfied they work for creators.”
Imagine checking your watch every hour to find the country a million pounds poorer.
This isn’t some distant economics lesson; it’s real families stretched by higher bills, businesses crippled by red tape, and young people denied the chance to study and work across Europe.
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With the upcoming UK-EU summit on May 19, the government has an unprecedented opportunity to halt this decline. It’s not enough to tweak the edges of our broken arrangements—we need a bold reset that rebuilds the partnership we lost. Britain needs real action, not another round of half-measures masquerading as breakthroughs.
First, the summit must set in motion negotiations for the closest possible trading relationship with the EU, with re-entry to the Customs Union as a vital first step. Frictionless trade would rescue our factories, farms, and workers from the suffocating barriers that have driven up costs, delayed deliveries, and pushed investment overseas. It would restore the supply chains that once kept our industries competitive, and give businesses the certainty they need to innovate and export goods.
“We were sold a pup with Brexit, and we can’t pretend otherwise”
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Equally vital is restoring freedom of movement, starting with youth mobility. Re-joining the Erasmus programme and establishing a youth visa system similar to that already in place for Aussies will allow students and young people to live, learn, and launch their careers across Europe. These are not luxuries; they are lifelines for ambition, cultural exchange, and shared prosperity that will shape Britain’s future and strengthen ties between neighbours.
The government must also push for realignment of our defence and security cooperation. From cyber-attacks to pandemics to regional flashpoints such as recent tensions between India and Pakistan, we know that conflicts hundreds or thousands of miles away can have immediate repercussions here at home. Our safety depends on shared intelligence, coordinated diplomacy, and joint development efforts.
Defence is not just about bombs and guns; it’s about human security, conflict prevention and the reconstruction that follows. Strengthening security cooperation with Europe means standing shoulder to shoulder to face current and future challenges; not only Putin’s war on Europe’s border, but also biosecurity threats, cyber-warfare, and climate change.
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Talking of climate change, there’s an obvious quick win we need to see from the summit. The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism began combatting carbon leakage in 2023, with full implementation planned for 2026, while our own scheme doesn’t come into effect until 2027, and with far greater exemptions than the EU’s scheme to boot. If we continue to lag behind, British businesses will face unfair competition, and our world-leading climate commitments will unravel. Aligning with Europe on these carbon tariffs is essential for protecting jobs, fostering clean-tech innovation and safeguarding the planet for future generations.
These goals are practical and achievable right now if the government chooses to make them key priorities. But even if all are agreed, we will still be worse off than we were before Brexit.
“We can choose cooperation over isolation, ambition over decline, and hope over fear”
As a former Member of the European Parliament, I’ve seen Europe’s collaborative institutions deliver stability, opportunity and shared progress. At this summit, we should have the guts to admit that leaving was a mistake, and our best future lies together with Europe.
It’s clear that others – Trump, anyone? – are no substitute for the closest possible relationship with our next-door neighbours and biggest trading partners. So let’s shout it from the rooftops: the question is not whether we should rejoin, it’s when. I call on the Prime Minister to seize this moment to kick-start discussions on what rejoining the EU would involve – recognising that the world has changed significantly since Brexit, and that there is a consistent public majority in the UK in support of EU membership. Britain’s future belongs in Europe, and our ambition should be as boundless as the opportunities we once embraced together.
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Rejoining the EU will demand political courage and a clear roadmap: forging new alliances, meeting accession criteria, and rallying member-state support. But leadership has never been about playing it safe. It’s about confronting harsh truths, delivering for ordinary people, and envisioning a future that reflects our highest ideals.
This summit can be the pivot from regret to renewal. We can choose cooperation over isolation, ambition over decline, and hope over fear. We can harness the power of collective progress to tackle climate breakdown, defend democracy, and build economies that work for all.
Britain deserves better than economic contraction, trade barriers, and broken promises. Our best days lie not in standing apart, but in standing shoulder to shoulder with our European neighbours. This is the moment to renew, rebuild, and set out a path to rejoining—the public is ready, and the time is now.
Bob Geldof sang about not liking Mondays more than 40 years ago. Come Tuesday morning, there is a decent chance that Keir Starmer will know how he felt.
The prime minister faces a date with destiny on two fronts at the beginning of next week.
First up on his agenda is a UK-EU summit in London where, he hopes, the details of his “reset” with Brussels will be unveiled.
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Later in the day, Starmer will run the gauntlet when he faces a Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) that is growing more fractious by the week.
Government sources say negotiations on the EU deal will go to the wire and that, inevitably, “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”, but there is little doubt that a deal of some kind will emerge.
It will include an agreement on the movement of agri-foods between the UK and the bloc, a key demand of British businesses left frustrated by the trade barriers which have resulted from Brexit.
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A youth mobility scheme making it much easier for 18 to 30-year-olds to travel between the UK and the EU will also form part of the deal, although Downing Street is keen to emphasise that this does not mean a return to freedom of movement.
Those entering this country will be able to stay for a limited time only, while the Home Office is pushing for a cap on numbers as they try to bring down immigration.
“We already have similar youth mobility agreements with the likes of India, Uruguay and Australia, and any scheme will be smart and controlled,” one senior government figure pointed out.
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An agreement on closer security and defence co-operation between London and Brussels will also be struck, with the UK giving the French greater access to British fishing waters in return.
Starmer is ready for hardened Brexiteers to cry betrayal, while those on the other side of the debate will accuse him of not going far enough by ruling out a return to the EU customs union and single market.
But he believes that the vast majority of voters will welcome his attempts to improve relations with the UK’s closest trading partner.
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One insider told HuffPost UK: “The Tories took us out of the EU without a plan for growth or on things like asylum.
“The British public know that the current deal isn’t working, which is why we are negotiating a better one.”
The agreement on agri-foods – Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) products in the EU jargon – will “remove barriers to trade to stop all those lorries getting backed up at Dover while also making food will be cheaper in the shops”, No.10 says.
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“We know that the opposition will say it’s a Brexit betrayal, but that’s a silly argument because that’s saying we don’t want any deal with the EU,” a government source said.
“That means they’re happy for all that red tape to continue and for British businesses to be hamstrung. The Tories have already criticised the India and US trade deals, so who do they expect British businesses to go and trade with?.
“We’re in a strong place to show the country that we’re delivering for workers.”
New polling by Ipsos shows that the British public are increasingly of the view that the UK needs closer ties with Europe, even if it comes at the expense of our relationship with America. Just over half (51%) are of that opinion, up from 42% in March.
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Naomi Smith, chief executive of the pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain, said: “Removing trade barriers with the EU will deliver significant economic growth in every region of our country – more than any other policy idea in the government’s arsenal – and Starmer must urgently secure a common sense deal with Europe to make this happen.”
Happily for the PM, the vast majority of Labour MPs appear to be backing his EU strategy.
Bolton West MP Phil Brickell told HuffPost UK: “This isn’t about going over old Brexit battles, but ensuring we can address the issues that matter so much to my constituents – tackling cross-border crime, building a stronger defence industry, preventing irregular migration and supporting British firms wanting to do business in Europe. All of these matter at a time of increasing global insecurity.”
Starmer would be advised to focus on his EU deal when he addresses the PLP in Committee Room 14 at 6pm on Monday.
The most common complaint is about the decision to means test the winter fuel payments, at a stroke removing it from 10 million pensioners.
In Hamilton, Lanarkshire, where Labour is battling to beat Reform UK to second place behind the SNP in a Holyrood by-election, voters are registering their disapproval of that policy before slamming the door on anyone who comes calling wearing a red rosette.
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“Winter fuel has the potential to do as much damage to us as increasing tuition fees did to the Lib Dems,” said one Labour MP.
“The people in No.10 need to take off their lanyards and get out and meet some voters.”
HuffPost UK understands that Rachel Reeves is now convinced of the need to at least water down the policy so that more pensioners qualify for the payment, making a U-turn far more likely.
A third place finish for Labour in Hamilton would certainly register in Downing Street. The local MP is Imogen Walker, the wife of Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.
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One Conservative MP who has been canvassing in the constituency even suggested that the prime minister is as unpopular north of the border as Margaret Thatcher. In Scottish political terms, there is no harsher criticism.
Meanwhile, more than 100 Labour MPs have signed a letter to the government chief whip warning that they cannot, without some concessions from Downing Street, vote for planned cuts to disability benefits.
Starmer’s speech last Monday’s speech unveiling the government’s plans to slash immigration – which drew comparisons with Enoch Powell – has also enraged many of his backbenchers.
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While the PM’s own position is not currently up for debate, he quickly needs his EU deal, alongside those with India and the US, to translate into an increase in support among the country at large.
A YouGov poll showed that his favourability rating is now the lowest its ever been, with even Labour voters turning against him in alarming numbers.
With the next election potentially still four years away, and with politics in a seemingly permanent state of flux, Starmer has plenty of time to turn things around.
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On Monday night, he will be left in no doubt that he needs to up his game, and soon.
I am sure the fact that some billionaires are leaving the UK matters (though some have likely quit the UK after their “non-dom” status was removed; “non-doms” never paid UK tax on their overseas earnings anyway).
Perhaps I should have something to say about how the King’s private wealth has grown by £30 million in the last year; something other than “typical.”
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I know I should be angry that, as Patriotic Millionaires UK writes, ”£772 billion, held by just 350 families, would cover the total cost of the UK’s annual healthcare spend three times over” – and I am, deeply.
But honestly? Reading the news just made me sad, then hopeless, then nauseous, then numb.
It is very, very hard to care about (or even digest) the financial lives of millionaires and billionaires when so many of us are struggling – just to benefit those exact people’s ever-growing wealth.
The list gets harder to read every year
Oxfam says that global billionaire wealth surged by $2 trillion in 2024 alone while the World Bank’s data says poverty has remained largely the same since 1990.
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60% of global billionaire wealth comes from inheritance, monopolies, or cronyism, they add. In other words, Oxfam writes, the wealth of the majority of the people with the most money is “unmerited.”
Meanwhile, one in 10 Brits has no savings at all. The Equality Trust says that the “UK’s wealth inequality is much more severe than income inequality,” with the top 10% of households holding 43% of all wealth in 2020 while the poorest half owned just 9%.
It is hard to see a way out of this mess, which is getting worse, without (as Patriotic Millionaires puts it) “properly taxing this wealth, to invest in our much-loved country.”
No wonder I can’t bring myself to care that billionaires are supposedly “fleeing”
Robert Watts, compiler of the Rich List, said: “Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling.” (We’re down nine – 156 to last year’s 165).
“We are also finding fewer of the world’s super-rich are coming to live in the UK,” he added.
But whether that’s down to Rachel Reeves’ policies or a vague sense that the increasingly underfunded UK is simply too grim to live in is besides the point – some debate whether billionaires are even good for our economy to begin with.
Instead of the exhausting, demoralising, and frankly bleak focus on the tiny few doing amazingly well, I’m with Patriotic Millionaires – we should “Prioritise the interests of Britain’s true wealth creators – our ordinary hardworking families, small businesses, entrepreneurs, teachers, health and other public sector workers…
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“These people are the backbone of the British economy, many of whom haven’t seen a pay rise in 15 years. Our Government should treat the Rich List as the smelling salt it needs, wake up, and tax the super-rich.”
WASHINGTON — If you’re interested in finding Donald Trump’s precise words as he lied about his failed coup attempt in his Jan 20 remarks at the US Capitol soon after his inaugural speech, good luck with that.
Same with his Feb 12 thoughts in the Oval Office on how magnetism, in his view “a new theory,” doesn’t work on the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford.
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Or his statements in the Feb 28 meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, berating the Ukrainian president and empathising with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin instead.
Ditto with his April 14 explanation of how well he is doing with “the cognitive” compared to previous occupants of the White House.
The self-proclaimed “most transparent” White House in history, as it turns out, has little interest in making the vast majority of Trump’s speeches and interactions with journalists readily accessible to the public whose taxes pay for their transcription, publishing just 29 transcripts of the 146 public remarks Trump made in his first 100 days in office.
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Trump’s White House posted transcripts for only 11 of the 40 speeches in which Trump did not take questions from the media, and for only one of his six formal news conferences, according to a HuffPost review. And of the 98 media “availabilities” in which Trump took questions from reporters informally — a practice that his aides point to as proof of his great accessibility — only 15 of the transcripts have been made public.
Previous White Houses, going back decades, made all of the transcripts compiled by the non-political stenography office, staffed by career civil servants, available in printed form, via email and on the White House website, as a matter of course. Trump’s first-term staff also published all his remarks, with the exception of his speeches at rallies and fundraisers. Trump’s second-term White House stopped emailing transcripts to its press list just five days after taking office, and of late has largely stopped posting them on the website, too. As of Thursday morning, the last transcript from Trump on the site is from March 13.
Trump aides would not explain their decision to withhold 80% of the transcripts that have been prepared. White House communications director Steven Cheung, however, did insult HuffPost for asking the question:
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“You must be truly fucking stupid if you think we’re not transparent. The president regularly does multiple press engagements per day and they are streamed live on multiple platforms. We’ve even granted low-level outlets like HuffPo [sic] additional access to events, because we’re so transparent. For anyone to think otherwise proves they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Stop beclowning yourself,” he wrote, demanding that his statement be published “in full.”
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said transcriptions of a president’s remarks have always been seen as historical records, not things to be politicised. “Making the words of the president readily available is part of the accountability obligation of the White House,” she said.
“The public has the right to know what the leader says … It’s a mark of a democratic system,” she added, saying that she could not speculate as to why Trump is withholding most of his transcripts’ release. “Trying to figure out why this White House does what it does requires a skill far beyond mine.”
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, meets with US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 28.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
‘Utterly Fucking Off The Rails’
While it is true that videos of nearly all of Trump’s public remarks are available on C-SPAN, YouTube or other websites, they are not easily searchable by topic or keyword. There are private firms that transcribe his words, but they are not comprehensive and not well-known to the public.
Indeed, Trump critics say that increasing the difficulty of finding his exact words on any given topic is precisely the point of keeping most of the official transcripts a secret. After 10 years of hearing him, Trump’s outlandish claims and constant lies have become mere background noise to many Americans, they argue, while actually reading his statements hits in a different way.
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“They know the transcripts will reveal, on paper, the word salad and incoherence that characterises Trump,” said Norman Ornstein, a political scientist with the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. “It is much easier to pore through written transcripts and compare them, which will show inconsistencies and reversals.”
Andrew Bates, a top press aide in the Joe Biden White House, said his counterparts in the Trump White House clearly understand that reading what Trump has said does not reflect well on him. “He keeps saying things that are a liability, like talking about dolls and pencils. Or just getting confused,” Bates said.
The Biden press office famously altered punctuation in a transcript to make it seem that Biden was criticising a smaller subset of Trump supporters than the transcript originally suggested. The Biden team, nonetheless, released that transcript and appears to have released all those prepared by the stenography office, totaling well over 2,000 over four years.
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The Trump press shop, in contrast, appears to have decided that the best way to avoid negative media coverage of his transcribed remarks is to not release them in the first place. A comparison of the posted transcripts versus the remarks for which the transcripts have been withheld suggests an effort to conceal Trump’s most outrageous, factually inaccurate or lie-filled statements.
On Inauguration Day, for example, while the transcript for the official speech given immediately after Trump took the oath of office is available on the White House website, a second one he gave to congressional Republicans soon afterward is not.
In that one, he again pushed his oft-repeated lies about January 6, 2021, the day he encouraged a mob of his followers to march on the Capitol and then tried to use their assault on police officers and other violence to remain in power despite having lost the 2020 election. Trump bemoaned that his staff talked him out of including that material in his actual inaugural address.
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“You can’t put things in there that you were going to put in, and I was going to talk about the J6 hostages, but you’ll be happy because you know it’s action, not words that count, and you’re going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages, see a lot of action,” he said in a 1,232-word section that repeatedly blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for all that happened on Jan. 6. “And I was going to talk about the things that Joe [Biden] did today with the pardons of people that were very, very guilty of very bad crimes like the unselect committee of political thugs where they literally, I mean, what they did is they destroyed and deleted all of the information, all of the hearings. Practically not a thing left.”
Three weeks later, following a swearing-in ceremony for his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, Trump offered nonsensical answers to a variety of questions, including one about waste and fraud in the federal government. Trump launched into a 1,710-word rant on military contractors, including the builders of the newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, which uses a high-tech electromagnetic catapult system to launch airplanes to reduce stress on their airframes and landing gear.
“Take a look at the Gerald Ford, the aircraft carrier, the Ford. It came ― it was supposed to cost $3 billion; it ended up costing like $18 billion, and they make, of course, all electric catapults, which don’t work. And they have all magnetic elevators to lift up 25 planes at a time, 20 planes at a time,” he said, not appearing to understand the rationale for the new designs. “And instead of using hydraulic, like on tractors, that can handle anything from hurricanes to lightning to anything, they used magnets. It’s a new theory, magnets are going to lift the planes up, and it doesn’t work.”
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At the end of that month, Trump and Vice President JD Vance attacked Ukraine’s Zelenskyy for not being sufficiently grateful to the United States before Trump turned to his familiar defense of Putin, who continues to slaughter Ukrainian civilians to this day through aerial attacks on residential areas.
“Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt, where they used him and Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia. You ever hear of that deal?” Trump said during a 206-word tangent again recounting his grievances.
“That was a phony ― that was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam, Hillary Clinton, Shifty Adam Schiff. It was a Democrat scam, and he had to go through that, and he did go through it, and we didn’t end up in a war, and he went through it. He was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bedroom, it was disgusting. And then they said, ‘Oh, oh, the laptop from hell was made by Russia,’ the 51 agents, the whole thing was a scam, and he had to put up with that. He was being accused of all that stuff.”
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Six weeks later, during a visit by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who is housing deportees whom Trump claims are criminal illegal immigrants, Trump was asked how many more people he intended to ship there. Trump responded with a 417-word answer that quickly veered into boasts about his mental acuity.
“By the way, I took my cognitive exam as part of my physical exam, and I got the highest mark. And one of the doctors said, ‘Sir, I’ve never seen anybody get that kind of ― that was the highest mark.’ I hope you’re happy with that, although they haven’t been bugging me too much to take a cognitive. But I did do my physical, and it was released. I hope you’re all happy with it. I noticed there’s no questions, so probably you are. But the cognitive, they said to me, ‘Sir, would you like to take a cognitive test?’ I said, ‘Did Biden take one?’ ‘No.’ ‘Did anybody take one?’ ‘No, not too many people took them.’ I said, ‘What about Obama, did he take one?’” Trump said.
“The totality of his statements clearly show that he is utterly fucking off the rails,” said Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican consultant who became an early Trump critic. “Most of the Washington media is still playing the polite game of pretending this is a normal White House, and so they just move on and move on and move on eternally into the future.”
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‘What About The 38 Virgins?’
Trump’s usually rambling, often incoherent, at times downright deranged statements, of course, did not stop at the 100-day mark.
On Day 102, in a Rose Garden celebration of the National Day of Prayer, Trump suggested that Muslims are primarily terrorists willing to die to earn a reward of virgins in paradise: “Imams who I got to know in Michigan. I loved them. They were great, by the way. They said, ‘We don’t want to die.’ I said, ’Do you want to die? They said, ‘We don’t want to die.’ I said, ‘What about the 38 virgins?’”
On Day 106, in an Oval Office photo opportunity, Trump went on at length about his idea of reopening Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay. “I guess I was supposed to be a moviemaker. We started with the moviemaking, and we’ll end, I mean, it represents something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order. Our country needs law and order. Alcatraz is, I would say the ultimate, right, Alcatraz, Sing-Sing and Alcatraz the movies,” he said in an answer that continued for 268 words. “But it’s right now a museum, believe it or not. A lot of people go there. It housed the most violent criminals in the world, and nobody ever escaped. One person almost got there, but they, as you know the story, they found his clothing rather badly ripped up, and it was a lot of shark bites, a lot of problems.”
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It’s unclear what motion pictures featuring the prison as a setting have to do with reopening Alcatraz or why Trump believed his Muslim supporters in Michigan would be entitled to only 38 virgins, just over half of the 72 customarily cited.
Among the posted transcripts are two media interviews he did. While Trump does numerous interviews — most of which include statements that make him seem ignorant or foolish or both — his press staff has posted only two softball interviews: One by informal Trump adviser and Fox News host Sean Hannity dated Feb. 18 as well as a two-minute one by Jamie Little, a Fox Sports NASCAR announcer at the Daytona 500 race that Trump had attended two days earlier.
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And while the stenography office transcribes every White House briefing and question-and-answer session aboard Air Force One by press secretary Karoline Leavitt, she and her staff have released only two. One was her first briefing on Jan. 29, in which she promised to always tell the truth, which she then immediately followed with an absurd falsehood about $50 million worth of condoms being sent to the Gaza Strip. The second was the Feb. 20 briefing in which she and other aides celebrated Trump’s first month in office.
Leavitt did not respond to HuffPost queries for this story.
Trump’s refusal to release transcripts created at taxpayer expense is just one piece of his effort to diminish independent news media. He has seized control of the White House press pool, which covers his events that take place in confined spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One, from the White House Correspondents Association, which had administered it since its inception decades ago.
Trump and his staff have replaced journalists from legitimate news organizations with pro-Trump cheerleaders in many of the pool seats.
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Trump also excluded the Associated Press from the pool because it refused to bend to his will and call the Gulf of Mexico by the name Trump decreed by fiat, the Gulf of America. When a federal judge ruled that Trump could not treat the AP any differently than it treats other wire services, he responded by ending assigned pool slots for all three wires: the AP, Reuters and Bloomberg.
On Trump’s current excursion to the Arabian Peninsula, his first extended foreign trip since he retook office in January, not one US wire service print reporter has been part of the pool aboard Air Force One or in meetings with various officials — thereby degrading news coverage for thousands of news outlets with billions of readers in the United States and globally.
