Trump tells Musk not everybody should have an electric car

Elon Musk pitched a role for himself cutting federal spending in a second Donald Trump administration during a conversation live-streamed on the tech mogul’s X platform, an indication of how the world’s richest man is increasingly injecting himself into US politics.

Musk on Monday (Tuesday AEST) called for a government commission to ensure that taxpayer money is spent effectively and pitched himself for a role in such an effort.

“I’d be happy to help out on such a commission – I’d love if it were formed,” Musk said.

Trump praised the idea, calling Musk “the greatest cutter”.

Musk endorsed Trump for president last month, part of a shift that has seen the Tesla Inc. and SpaceX chief executive officer publicly embrace right-leaning causes and candidates to make his mark on the political scene.

An already formidable Washington presence, with companies boasting sizable government contracts, Musk is poised to be an even bigger player if Trump returns to power. He’s grown closer to the GOP nominee in recent months, advising him on electric vehicles and cryptocurrency policy – a reversal from a once-rocky relationship that saw the two trade insults.

Highlighting Musk’s growing influence with Trump, the former president, long a critic of electric vehicles praised the EV maker, saying Tesla’s cars are “incredible”.

Trump and Musk’s conversation comes at a critical point in the 2024 race, with less than three months to Election Day. Vice President Kamala Harris’ ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket has shaken up the race with polls showing she has erased the lead Trump held for much of the summer and pulled ahead in fundraising.

Musk, who tops the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $US227.3 billion ($344 billion), aims to use his vast fortune to swing the race for Trump. He created a super political action committee backing the Republican nominee. He’s also pledging to pour $US45 million ($68 million) a month into the group, according to people familiar with the matter.

As the Donald Trump and Elon Musk conversation continues, Labor has a renewed fight over proposed rules for tax accountants and bookkeepers, with the Coalition seeking to blow up the changes amid a growing backlash.

Earlier this month, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones delayed the introduction of eight new professional and ethical standards and obligations, including rules requiring tax professionals to report potential misleading statements and rules requiring clients to be informed of “any” matter that could significantly influence a decision to engage a professional services provider.

Accountants would have to disclose matters such mental health issues, prior breaches of the law, conduct investigations, any sanctions imposed on individuals, conditions applied to professional registration and any potential use of disqualified entities.

Groups such as Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, CPA Australia, the Institute of Public Accountants and the Tax Institute objected to the rules, which had been due to come into force this month.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said in a statement on Tuesday the Coalition would seek to disallow the regulations, saying they would burden tax practitioners with “unnecessary and unrealistic red tape”.

If the opposition is successful, the regulation would be overturned by a vote in parliament.

The Coalition has accused the assistant treasurer of poorly drafted rules and a failure to properly consult the industry.

“This isn’t the right approach in a cost-of-living and cost-of-doing-business crisis. Local accountants and bookkeepers have been blindsided by this new red tape, yet Labor has refused to listen to community feedback,” he said.

“Australian families and small businesses are paying the price of Labor’s failure to manage the economy and failure to listen.”

Jones had moved to introduce a transitional rule to allow small firms with fewer than 100 employees until July 1 next year to comply. The deadline for larger firms with more than 101 employees will be January 1.

The Albanese government has amended its bill to place the CFMEU into administration, just a day after unveiling it.

The changes, approved by caucus on Tuesday, include greater protection for whistleblowers, establishing a complaints procedure while the union is under administration and ensuring any union official sacked as a result of the clean-out cannot act as a bargaining agent for five years.

In response to questions from backbenchers, Industrial Relations Minister Murray Watt also assured the administrator would have to act in the best interests of the union members during the administration period; that the maximum three-year period for administration would expire automatically unless extended by the parliament, and that the costs of the administration will be borne by the union itself.

While satisfying the backbench, none of these changes address the concerns of the Greens or the Coalition, other than, possibly, the Green’s complaint about the three-year administration period being too long.

The Transport Workers Union has deployed a retired judge to investigate harassment allegations against its Victorian head, as well as the broader culture of the branch as the national union seeks to control dysfunction within its state leadership.

In a statement released on Tuesday morning, the TWU national committee of management said since harassment allegations were made against Victorian secretary and influential Labor Right player Mem Suleyman on Friday “counter allegations have also been made”.

“Without passing comment on the veracity of the allegations, it has become clear that the working relationship between the branch secretary and the committee of management has irretrievably broken down,” the statement said.

“The TWU is deeply disappointed and concerned by these events.”

It said the national committee of management had deployed its independent national ombudsman, retired Industrial Relations Commission judge Frank Marks to Melbourne to conduct an investigation “that will go to the heart of the allegations as well as reviewing the governance and culture of the branch”.

“While this is under way, the national committee of management is putting in place resources to ensure members continue to receive full and robust representation and advocacy.”

Suleyman was stood down on Friday pending an investigation into the allegations. He has not responded to requests for comment.

While Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s conversation continues, the Greens have listed three key concerns with the government’s proposal to place the CFMEU’s construction divisions into administration, as they confirmed they would not be rushing the bill through parliament in a hurry.

As the government announced a range of changes in response to internal concerns, the Greens demanded an explanation as to why the legislation will place into administration the ACT and Western Australian divisions of the union.

There have been no allegations levelled against those divisions and the Federal Court application by the general manager of the Fair Work Commission Murray Furlong to place the union into administration applied to only the East Coast construction arms.

The Greens also want answered why the bill allows placing the union into administration for three years, when the FWC cited two as being necessary.

And the Greens party room, which met Tuesday, said they were concerned at elements of the bill that allowed natural justice to be overridden.

The Greens also remain unconvinced that the federal action is necessary, given the CFMEU national secretary Zack Smith has engaged Geoffrey Watson, SC, to review the actions of the Victorian division.

Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt says it is prudent that every state and territory division be paced under administration to weed out all bad behaviour and individuals.

Donald Trump said Iran would not be preparing to attack Israel if he was US president, claiming he commands great respect among hardline leaders and authoritarian regimes.

“They knew not to mess around with us,” Trump said of Iran.

The United States has prepared for what could be significant attacks by Iran or its proxies in the Middle East as soon as this week, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday (Tuesday AEST).

Kirby said the US had increased its regional force posture and shared Israel’s concerns about a possible Iranian-backed attack after Iran and Palestinian militant group Hamas accused Israel of assassinating a Hamas leader in Tehran last month.

Trump also repeated his often-made claims that Vladimir Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if he was still in power, since he had already warned the Russian president against going ahead with the 2022 attack.

The Republican presidential nominee is using his conversation with Elon Musk on social media platform X to talk up his foreign relations credentials.

Musk has not pushed back on his geopolitical claims and told Trump he’s made “an excellent point”.

“I got along with Putin very well, and he respected me,” Trump said, adding that he used to speak to Putin often.

“We would talk about Ukraine. It was the apple of his eye. But I told him don’t do it,” he said

Musk agreed, saying leaders like North Korean leader Kim Jong-un respond to strength, not weakness.

Elon Musk has tried to support Donald Trump who went on many tangents to suggest other countries were intimidated by him and they were not intimidated by “sleepy Joe” (President Joe Biden).

When attempting to formulate his words, Musk made several stumbles, which made it difficult to understand his point.

“Do they fear the American president, or is there someone they do not respect or and do not fear? And I think they they do. They do. They would rightfully be. I mean, the footage of the assassination like, okay, you know, president Trump is, it’s like, don’t mess with me,” Musk said.

“I mean, that’s like, whereas I think people are not going to be, and they obviously have not been at all intimidated by, by Biden, and they certainly will not be intimidated by, come on. And you have to really think about in the context of local security.”

After about 40 minutes, Trump dominated the conversation with his usual style of long tangents and rants about a wide variety of issues including the Russia-Ukraine war and the tensions in the Middle East.

Trump said he would make an “iron dome” in the United States like Israel has.

Trump then turned the conversation to the economy, inflation and the “stupid administration” which he said drove up the price of groceries.

Former president Donald Trump has told Elon Musk that the crowd at the Pennsylvania rally did not know if he was alive after his attempted assassination.

Trump said he wanted to get up to let the Republican crowd know he was okay.

“The crowd didn’t know what to think ... they were confused. They didn’t know what to think. I wanted to let them know I was okay. It was very important for me to let them know that. And they went wild,” Trump told Musk during their conversation on X.

“Before the, you know, the fist in the air they didn’t know if I was alive. Nobody did. And when I put the fist up, they were just relieved and happy and thrilled and the place went crazy. It was pretty amazing.”

Trump has turned the conversation to his policy on “shutting down illegal immigration”.

He said people are coming from jails, prisons, mental institutions, “insane asylums and many are terrorists”, which seemed to be Trump’s opinion rather than fact.

Musk then said he was an “illegal immigrant” and most are just “good, hard-working people” but some were not.

Earlier in the year, Musk said he wanted the process to be better but did not say he wanted to ban immigration. “I am very much in favour of increased and expedited legal immigration for anyone who is talented, hard-working and honest.”

Former president Donald Trump says he views the tech issues, which Elon Musk attributed to more than 8 million people trying to access the conversation, as an “honour”.

The conversation began more than 40 minutes after the scheduled start time after many users received error messages and were unable to log in ahead of the advertised live interview. A message read, “details not available”.

Trump congratulated Musk on “breaking every record in the book tonight” after the surge in traffic prevented the interview from starting on time, but it was not clear what records he was talking about.

Musk turned the conversation to Trump’s attempted assassination, which Trump explained how lucky he was that the bullet hit him at an angle, on his ear.

“The bigger miracle was that I was looking in the exact direction of the shooter, and so it hit me at an angle that was far less destructive than any other angle,” Trump said.

“It was a miracle, if I hadn’t turned in my head I would not be talking to you [Musk] right now, as much as I like you … it was a very terrible experience.”