June 6 2025 - D-Day
Trump, Xi talk, tensions ease; Tax cuts fuel debt; Trump Admin argues bill actually cuts spending; Trump, Musk publicly spar; Iran boosts missile arsenal with Chinese parts
US, China Step Back From Brink as Leaders Talk; Trump to Visit China, Xi America
Trump's $2.4 Trillion Tax Cut Plan Fuels Surging National Debt, CBO Warns
As National Debt Hits WWII High, White House and CBO Clash Over Cost of Proposed Tax Cuts
"CRAZY": Trump and Musk Publicly Spar, Threatening Government Contracts and Sparking Political Fallout
Iran to Boost Ballistic Missile Arsenal With Chinese Materials
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1. US, China Step Back From Brink as Leaders Talk; Trump to Visit China, Xi America
The US and China appear to have stepped back from their latest brink. Trump and Xi finally had their call, the Geneva ”truce” may be back on track and to listen to Trump the halt in exports of rare earth magnets may be ending. Representatives from the two sides will meet again soon, and the US has added Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to the team alongside Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Commerce oversees export controls, so it is likely Lutnick is joining because US export controls that have so angered China are now on the table. As Rush Doshi pointed out on X “Worth pointing out Trump, in his first term, offered to lift export controls on Huawei and ZTE at Xi’s request to get a trade deal.” According to the PRC readout, Xi has invited Trump to visit China, and according to Trump’s Truth Social “readout” of the call “President Xi graciously invited the First Lady and me to visit China, and I reciprocated.”. No dates were mentioned
Sinocism
2. Trump's $2.4 Trillion Tax Cut Plan Fuels Surging National Debt, CBO Warns
The debate over whether the United States is risking its economic future by running up ever-larger government debt has flared and sputtered for decades. President Trump’s dogged pursuit of an expensive set of tax cuts has reignited that clash, but with new urgency. The federal government’s publicly held debt is already at its highest level since World War II, measuring at about 100 percent of the size of the economy. It is set to grow at a rate that most economists believe would be unsustainable. The question of whether the nation can afford to remain on its current path is complicating the White House’s efforts to nail down support for Mr. Trump’s domestic policy bill, which includes the tax cuts. The proposal is expected to add $2.4 trillion to the debt over the next decade, according to an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. But that price tag does not include an additional $551 billion in costs that the United States would have to incur to sustain that level of borrowing, congressional scorekeepers predicted on Thursday, as they warned that debt held by the public would total nearly 124 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product by 2034 if the bill were to become law.
NYT
3. As National Debt Hits WWII High, White House and CBO Clash Over Cost of Proposed Tax Cuts
The CBO said Wednesday that the House-passed bill has more than $1.2 trillion in net spending cuts over a decade, and administration officials are hailing changes to social-safety-net programs as a historic step toward fiscal responsibility. But the combination of new spending and tax cuts—including extensions of Trump’s first-term tax cuts before they expire Dec. 31—outstrips those spending cuts and revenue boosts. The $2.4 trillion in deficits would happen atop the $21 trillion in deficits that the country is already forecast to incur through 2034. Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on X that the bill actually would reduce budget deficits by $1.4 trillion. The CBO score, he noted, assumes that Trump’s first-term tax cuts expire as scheduled. That’s CBO’s consistent practice in accordance with budget law; Vought said it isn’t realistic. In a separate report, the CBO said that the tariffs in place as of May 13 would reduce budget deficits by $2.8 trillion over a decade if they remain, or more than the deficit increase from the bill. The CBO said the tariffs would slow economic growth. Editors note: Republicans also argue the bill is pro-growth, a deficit-reducing outcome of the bill not captured in CBO score.
WSJ
4. "CRAZY": Trump and Musk Publicly Spar, Threatening Government Contracts and Sparking Political Fallout
Editors note: this escalated quickly
Time to drop the really big bomb:@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
Have a nice day, DJT!
WASHINGTON—This is exactly what President Trump and his advisers were trying to avoid. Just six days ago, senior Trump aides swallowed their irritation with Elon Musk and planned a chummy Oval Office send-off for him. They briefed the president on allegations of Musk’s drug use so Trump would be ready to defend the billionaire if reporters raised the issue at his goodbye event, aides said. As late as Wednesday evening, Trump played down any conflicts with Musk in a meeting with Republican senators, according to people familiar with his remarks, even though the billionaire had spent the past few days disparaging the president’s legislative agenda. Over the weekend, after Trump dumped Musk’s ally as the head of NASA, the president made it clear to associates that he wasn’t planning a high-profile confrontation with his former adviser, according to a person who talked to the president. That goodwill disappeared on Thursday. Thirteen minutes into an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump laid out his frustrations with Musk, marking the start of a whirlwind day in which two of the world’s most powerful men went from friends to foes. By Thursday night, Trump had publicly toyed with cutting off government contracts to Musk’s companies, said the billionaire “went CRAZY” and suggested that he is suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.” In response, Musk, the world’s richest man, floated starting a new political party, suggested that Trump should be impeached, argued that Trump’s tariffs would trigger a recession and pledged to decommission a valuable piece of space equipment on which the government relies. He also alleged that Trump’s name appears in documents stemming from a federal investigation into convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, insinuating that Trump was in some way linked to his criminal behavior. The extraordinary fight between Trump and Musk that rippled across the country threatens the new MAGA governing coalition that the president built and Musk funded. It puts a target on Musk’s six companies, many of which are heavily regulated by the federal government. And it gives Democrats a rare moment of reprieve at a low point for the party. Shares of Tesla tumbled 14%, their worst day since 2020.
Editors note: I maintain my position, expressed on June 4, that this is manufactured. It serves too many purposes to be purely emotional. 1) Trump-Musk put pressure on Congresspeople to cut spending in the final version of the bill. 2) Must gets to win back many liberals, who he lost in the Trump alliance. 3) This is the media’s dream and a ratings bonanza….but they’re pretty good actors if so and I could be wrong.
WSJ
5. Iran to Boost Ballistic Missile Arsenal With Chinese Materials
Iran has ordered thousands of tons of ballistic-missile ingredients from China, people familiar with the transaction said, seeking to rebuild its military prowess as it discusses the future of its nuclear program with the U.S. Shipments of ammonium perchlorate are expected to reach Iran in coming months and could fuel hundreds of ballistic missiles, the people said. Some of the material would likely be sent to militias in the region aligned with Iran, including Houthis in Yemen, one of the people said. Iran wants to bolster regional allies and rebuild its arsenal while it pushes deeper into contentious talks with the Trump administration over its nuclear program. Iran has continued to expand its stockpiles of uranium enriched to just below weapons grade and ruled out negotiating limits on its missile program. President Trump said he discussed the negotiations in a call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “Time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons,” Trump wrote Wednesday in a social-media post.
WSJ
June 6, 1944: D-Day: Allies storm Normandy’s coast
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Sources
- https://open.substack.com/pub/sinocism/p/xi-and-trump-have-a-call-geneva-truce?r=d9vo5&utm_medium=ios
- https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/business/deficit-trump-tax-legislation.html
- https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/senate-trump-tax-bill-deficit-cbo-b4b0a70a?mod=Searchresults_pos2&page=1
- https://www.wsj.com/politics/elon-musk-trump-fight-gop-bill-c2e0be66?mod=WSJ_home_mediumtopper_pos_1
- https://www.wsj.com/world/iran-orders-material-from-china-for-hundreds-of-ballistic-missiles-1e874701?mod=hp_lead_pos3