The Headlines - Musk Slams Trump’s Policy Bill, and Steel Tariffs Double

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

Plus, a giant plume of dust is headed to Florida.  On Today’s Episode:Elon Musk Calls Trump Policy Bill a ‘Disgusting Abomination’, by Kate Conger, Michael Gold and Jonathan SwanAfter Muscling Their Bill Through the House, Some Republicans Have Regrets, by Michael GoldHigher Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Imports Go Into Effect, by Ana Swanson and Ian AustenTrump Rescinds Biden Policy Requiring Hospitals to Provide Emergency Abortions, by Sheryl Gay StolbergU.S. May Strip Harvey Milk’s Name From Navy Vessel, by Karoun Demirjian and John IsmayAmid Rising Heat, Hajj Becomes Test of Endurance for Pilgrims and Saudi Arabia, by Ismaeel NaarA Giant Plume of Saharan Dust Is Headed to Florida, by Amy GraffTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Wednesday, June 4th. Here's what we're covering. Caroline, how mad do you think President Trump is going to be when he finds out that Elon Musk said this massive outrageous pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination? Shame on those who voted for him. This outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.

Shame on those who voted for it. Elon Musk is no longer trying to present a united front with the White House. On social media, he lashed out again at President Trump's signature domestic policy bill, just as Trump's been trying to keep the divisive bill on track. Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill. While Trump's publicly urging Republican senators to get the bill to his desk by the 4th of July,

Musk has been railing against it. He posted on social media that it will, quote, massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit, the deficit he was personally focused on reducing with the Department of Government efficiency. Musk also wrote that in November next year, quote, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people, suggesting that in the midterms, he could put his resources into trying to unseat congressional Republicans who back the bill. Are you concerned that he could help tank this bill and whip members against it?

Well, well, my hope is that as he has an opportunity to further assess what this bill and whip members against it? Did you listen to him or? Well, my hope is that as he has an opportunity to further assess what this bill actually does, that he'll come to a different conclusion. In the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune faced questions about whether Musk, the world's richest man, has enough influence with lawmakers to sink the whole thing. Late last year, Musk managed to torpedo a bipartisan spending bill using similar threats. For this bill, the GOP has such a slim majority in the Senate, they can only afford to lose three votes. And at least some Republicans have already come out

against it, including Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Can't accumulate more debt. They're planning on spending $5 trillion they don't have. And I'm just not for that. — Meanwhile, in the House, where Republicans already pushed the bill through, some now have regrets.

— Congresswoman, you say in full transparency you didn't know that this was in there. How'd you find out about it? — Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said that because lawmakers didn't get the full text until right before the vote, she missed the fact that the bill blocks states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade. I find it so problematic that I'm willing to come forward and admit that those are two pages that I didn't read because I never want to see a situation where state rights are

stripped away. Also, Representative Mike Flood of Nebraska said he didn't know that the bill limits judges' powers to hold people in contempt for violating court orders. Republicans tucked that provision in as they've moved to curb the power of the federal courts. Flood said he would not have voted for the measure if he'd realized. Both Green and Flood have urged Senate Republicans to strike out the provisions they overlooked. Now, three quick updates on the Trump administration. Decades of Washington betrayals and incompetence and stupidity and corruption caused this region over 100,000 steel jobs and they melted away just like butter melts away.

U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports doubled today from 25% to 50. As President Trump ratchets up the surcharges, he claims will revitalize American metal production. Similar tariffs Trump put in place during his first term did help American metal producers, according to an analysis from the U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent bipartisan government agency. But the analysis also found it hurt the broader economy by raising prices for many other industries. Also, the administration announced that it's rescinded a federal policy that required hospitals to provide emergency abortions to women whose health is at risk.

The Biden administration put the requirement in place after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It had applied even in states where the procedure was restricted or banned. Now the Trump administration has left it somewhat murky how hospitals should proceed. One health law expert told the Times the change, quote, basically gives a green light to hospitals in red states to turn away pregnant women who are in peril. Abortion opponents were pleased by the move. An executive at the conservative group, the Heritage Foundation, said President Trump was dismantling what he called abortion radicalism.

And at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to review a list of ships named in honor of civil rights leaders, to potentially remove those names. The list includes Harvey Milk, who was one of the country's first openly gay elected officials and a Navy veteran. According to a senior defense official, Hegcess order is intended as a rebuke of Pride Month in keeping with the Trump administration's push to end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

An official told the Times, the list also includes naval vessels named for Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Harriet Tubman, among others. The Pentagon said in a statement yesterday that Hegseth is committed to ensuring that all names are, quote, reflective of the commander-in-chief's priorities, our nation's history, and the warrior ethos. In Saudi Arabia, today marks the start of the Hajj, an annual event in which millions

of Muslims from around the world make the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. It's one of the largest human gatherings on the planet. But for the Saudi government, the Hajj has also become a source of intense scrutiny, as extreme heat and packed crowds have led to the deaths of thousands of pilgrims in recent years. 1,300 people died during last year's hajj when temperatures soared past 120 degrees. Many of them had made the trip without the proper permits, so they didn't have access to official cooling stations and tents with air conditioning.

This year, Saudi authorities are cracking down. Officials say they've already stopped more than 200,000 people who didn't have permits from entering Mecca. They've also poured billions of dollars into improvements like crowd control programs and expanded a system of cooled roads as many pilgrims walk some 10 miles a day during the event. And the extreme heat isn't going anywhere. The shifting Islamic calendar, which is based on lunar cycles, has the hajj falling during

the warmer months for at least several more years. And finally, smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed parts of the upper Midwest yesterday, triggering air quality alerts. And parts of the East Coast may be at risk today. Down along the Gulf Coast, people are also on the lookout for hazy skies, but for a very different reason. A giant cloud of dust the size of the continental U.S. has been floating over the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to spread along the coastline this week. The plume started in the Sahara, 5,000 miles away in North Africa, and has been on the move.

Over the weekend, it swept through the Caribbean. Now it could turn skies from Florida to Texas a slight reddish tint, potentially through Friday. Dust clouds like this aren't unexpected, but this one is particularly large. And it's actually good news for those watching hurricane season, which officially started this week. The dry air and strong winds that brought the dust can suppress tropical storms, which need moisture to grow. So there's an ongoing battle essentially between storms trying to form and the dust

layer overpowering them. The whole thing's one of the great wonders of the weather world. One meteorologist told the Times, it's as if Mother Nature set up a Saharan dust factory right next to the hurricane nursery. Those are the headlines today on The Daily, the inside story of Operation Spider's Web, Ukraine's audacious sneak attack on Russian warplanes. That's next in the New York Times audio app where you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford.

We'll be back tomorrow. Transcribed by https://otter.ai