Up First from NPR - Trump and Musk Break Up, Tariffs Raise $70 billion, ICE Detention Conditions

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

A rift between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk escalated on Thursday with the two trading barbs on their respective social media platforms. Reports from the Treasury Department show Trump's tariffs have raised nearly 70-billion dollars so far this year. And, migrant detainees staged a protest at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement run facility in Miami.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton, Pallavi Gogoi, Eric Westervelt, Lisa Thomson and Arezou Rezvani. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, our technical director is Carleigh Strange and our Executive Producer is Jay Shaylor. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What happens when you have a friend and then you break up? I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot. Elon Musk said the president's budget plan borrowed too much. President Trump talked of cutting Musk's contracts. Musk said, OK, I'm Steve Inskeep and this is Up First from NPR News. The Treasury Department estimates President Trump's tariffs brought in $70 billion for the government, which may be good, but who paid? That revenue comes from somewhere.

It's a tax on the backs of the people that are importing. Also migrants at an detention facility lined up in a courtyard so that they spelled S.O.S. I've heard people use the word starving. What's known about their condition? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. I'm Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air. At a time of sound bites and short attention spans, our show is all about the deep dive. We do long form interviews

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This is the moment in the relationship where you go back through the old pictures and cry or maybe edit the other person out. Elon Musk and President Trump had seemed inseparable for months. Musk brought one of his many children, X, to the White House. Well, if you don't have a feedback group, okay, X, we'd have to... If you... sorry.

He turned up casually dressed at cabinet meetings. Obviously, that can only be done with the support of everyone in this room. And I'd like to thank everyone for your support. Thank you very much. He stood up the Department of Government Efficiency, one of the world's richest men joyously firing people while waving around a chainsaw. This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy. Chainsaw!

And President Trump was all in favor as recently as last week when Musk left government service. And he's one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced. He stepped forward to put his very great talents into the service of our nation and we appreciate it. This is all history, maybe, because they broke up yesterday. NPR White House correspondent, Danielle Kurtz-Levin was watching. Hi there, Danielle. Hey, good morning.

I guess we should note this very personal seeming dispute began with an actual policy disagreement. What is it? Ostensibly, yeah I mean the big beautiful bill was at the start of all of this that bill is the massive policy package Republicans are trying to pass right now Musk had loudly criticized that bill for days Because of the cost of the bill at one point Musk called the bill a disgusting Abomination and look the bill is expensive. The nonpartisan

CBO has reported it would add $2.4 trillion to future deficits. But then all of that brings us to yesterday when Trump was asked about Musk's criticism of that bill. And Trump said that he thinks Musk as CEO of Tesla, well, he's just angry that the bill would cut tax incentives for people buying electric cars. All of a sudden, he a problem and he only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the EV mandate because that's billions and billions of dollars. And then Trump went further. He also said Musk just misses the power and attention that he had when he was in government. Okay, so this escalated in real time. Musk got onto X and he said, EV credits aren't

the issue for me and then what? You're right it escalated. Well, Trump then threatened to end the government contracts that Musk's companies have. Musk, in turn, threatened to decommission a spacecraft that NASA uses. And then Musk got really aggressive. He posted that Trump hadn't released all the records around sex offender Jeffrey Epstein because, according to Musk, those files implicate Trump. Now, I should say, Musk did not provide any evidence of that. And Musk also has in the past made accusations of sex crimes without evidence. I did talk to the White House. They had no immediate comment on any of that. But Musk had even more to say, including retweeting someone calling for Trump's impeachment. So yeah, this is about as ugly of a falling out as there is.

All of that said, it is worth pointing out Musk and Trump were never in complete lockstep. There was friction there while Musk was still a government employee. I just want to ask how much this matters because it all feels like a TV show, an unreality show. Does it matter? Well, look, to some degree, the attention this is getting is, yeah, just social media rubbernecking. And definitely if you watch Democrats and leftists online, the schadenfreude is high. But to zoom way out, whether or not this is consequential, it's remarkable because of the remarkable way that Trump elevated Musk. Now, Trump brought in this businessman,

gave him sweeping power, but it wasn't a one-way street. Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping Trump get elected. So yesterday, Musk made it clear he thought he deserved more in return. He posted, without me, Trump would have lost the election. And he added, quote, such ingratitude. Musk all but said that, yeah, my money should buy me power. And Piers, Danielle Kurtzleben, thanks so much. Thank you.

The president has been promising his tariffs will help make America more prosperous. And there is evidence the tariffs are at least helping the government's bottom line. Reports from the Treasury Department show that Trump's tariffs have raised nearly $70 billion so far this year. And a new forecast out this week says if that keeps up, it could shave trillions of dollars off the federal debt over the next decade. NPR's Scott Horsley is following all this. Hi there, Scott. Good morning, Steve. Okay, so this forecast comes from an organization the White House doesn't

like when they say things like lots of deficit spending coming, but they do like it in this case. So what is it? Yeah, it's the Congressional Budget Office, which says if all the tariffs in place at the beginning of the week stayed in effect for a full decade, it could cut the federal debt by $2.8 trillion, which is in the ballpark of that big tax cut and spending bill passed by the House, what it's expected to add to the debt over the next 10 years. In other words, the tariffs could help to fill the hole that congressional Republicans have been digging with that tax and spending bill. But keep in mind, the tariff revenue isn't just coming out of thin air

and is not being paid by foreign countries, it's mostly being paid by Americans, like Patrick Allen. He's a wine importer in Columbus, Ohio. That revenue comes from somewhere. It's a tax on the backs of the people that are importing either raw materials or, in my case, wine. We're the people that are paying this tax, and eventually it gets built into the price everybody's paying for goods. And congressional forecasters acknowledge as much. They say while the tariffs will bring in a lot of money for the government, they will

also likely lead to higher inflation and slower economic growth. How much of a drag on the overall economy are these tariffs then? Yeah, the CBO projects a fairly small drag, but it's really just a guess because we don't have any recent experience with tariffs of this size. You'd have to go all the way back to the Great Depression to find import taxes this high in the United States. So Shia Cabas, who's been keeping tabs on the tariffs at the Bipartisan Policy Center, says a lot of economists are worried the tariffs will actually do more damage than the CBO is predicting. Some are forecasting larger impacts and potentially pushing us into a recession. We won't know if that actually materializes

until we see the fallout. And the tariffs themselves have been really unpredictable as the president tries to negotiate with US trading partners. So that presents another challenge, not only for forecasters, but more importantly, for the businesses and families who are trying to make decisions in this environment. How do businesses handle that unpredictability, changing tariffs day by day? It's really challenging. Patrick Allen's wine business, for example, typically works with three-month lead times.

We're a small company, so we drive the back roads of France and find these small wineries. We buy the wine from the winery, import it into the US. And right now, Allen should be ordering wine to sell during the fall and the Christmas holidays, but a lot of his customers are sitting on their hands because they have no idea what the tariff is going to be. Say if I order $100,000 of wine from France, if there's a 20% tariff, I'll have to pay $20,000 to get the wine out of customs before I sell a bottle. I talked to a customs broker last week who used to advance her clients' money to pay

the tariffs. And she could do that when the import tax was 2 or 2.5 percent, but with today's much higher rates, she's not doing that anymore. Clients have to pay the tariffs upfront on their own. So while these import taxes are raising money for the government, they're also gumming up the gears of commerce. Alan told me at least he's got some nice French wine to soothe himself with. Hope you're able to pour yourself a glass, Scott.

Thanks so much. You're welcome. The Tim Peir, Scott Horsley. ["The Tim Peir, Scott Horsley"] Migrant detainees staged a protest at an immigration and customs enforcement run facility in Miami on Thursday. For this protest, they lined up in the courtyard of the Chrome Detention Center and spelled

out the letters SOS with their own bodies. The protest was captured by local news helicopters. NPR immigration correspondent Jasmine Garst has been following the conditions at this particular facility for months and is on the line. Jasmine, good morning. Good morning. Good morning I want people to know that you've had dozens of recorded conversations over time with detainees in Chrome and also with their families. So what are you hearing?

This facility has had problems for years and right now we're seeing severe overcrowding Detainees have reported illnesses limited access to medication One of the first tips we received about Chrome was from a woman named Maria. She asked that her last name be withheld to protect her brother, who she says has had a serious eye infection with a fever for two weeks and hasn't gotten medication. They've been sleeping on the floor. She said that they aren't always being fed. The food is sometimes spoiled.

And I heard this consistently, people going hungry. There's evidence this is a national problem. ICE detention centers are at about 125% capacity. I spoke to Sathare Ghandahari from the advocacy group Detention Watch Network. People are really just languishing without access to necessities. I've heard people use the word starving. Well, when people use words like starving about a US government facility where people are being detained, how does ICE respond?

ICE acknowledged that there is overcrowding right now. They told NPR in an email, quote, we are actively implementing measures to manage capacity while maintaining compliance with federal standards and our commitment to humane treatment. These accusations do not reflect ICE's policies or practices, end quote. ICE says the overcrowding is temporary,

but the Trump administration is promising even more arrests. Useful that they at least acknowledged the overcrowding is temporary, but the Trump administration is promising even more arrests. Useful that they at least acknowledge the overcrowding. No one is denying a problem here. But isn't there a larger problem coming as the administration tries to arrest more and more people to remove them from the country? Yes. And that's why a major goal for the administration is self-deportation. And some detainees I spoke to are asking to be deported.

I recorded this conversation between 28-year-old Venezuelan detainee John Claybert Ortega. He's been in detention in Florida for around six months. He did some time at the Chrome facility. Hello. Thank you. God bless you, my beautiful child. And he says, Mom, they told me in four months they'll review my asylum case and I have to present proof I was tortured in Venezuela. That's almost a year in detention and they are barely feeding us in here. So I've asked to be deported back and then he says to her that he asked the judge

what if my flight accidentally ends up in a third country like El Salvador and he says the judge told him if that happens you can email me. NPR's Jasmine Garce thanks very much for your reporting, really appreciate it. Thank you. And that's a first for this Friday, June 6th. I'm Steve Inskeep. This Sunday on Up First, after a big storm hits, local officials and politicians make big promises about rebuilding efforts. We're going to build a city back better and stronger than before. But an NPR investigation finds those promises often go unfulfilled. Oh, they lied to us. Tune into the Sunday story this weekend to hear about the obstacles

communities face when they try to build back. That's right here in the Up First podcast. Today's Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton, Pala V. Gagoi, Eric Westerbelt, Lisa Thompson, and Arzu Resvani. It was produced by Ziad Bach, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent and our technical director is Carly Strange. Our executive producer is Jay Shaler. Join us again. Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon Prime members can listen to Up First sponsor free through Amazon Music.

Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get up first plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org. On the Indicator from Planet Money podcast, we're here to help you make sense of the economic news from Trump's tariffs. It's called in game theory a trigger strategy or sometimes called grim trigger, which sort of has a cowboy-esque ring to it. To what exactly a sovereign wealth fund is. For insight every weekday listen to NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money.