Charles Feldman: US correspondent on Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful' bill getting narrowly passed

After hours of stalemate, Republicans in the US Senate narrowly passed President Donald Trump's latest bill on tax and spending.

The 'big, beautiful' bill passed with Vice-President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote after over 24 hours of debate.

US correspondent Charles Feldman says Elon Musk extensively criticised the bill, and he's recently threatened to support campaigns against Congress Republicans voting for it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Charles Feldman US correspondence with US Now Hallo, Charles Hell, Heather, Okay,
how do you write the chances of it getting through
the House.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, you know, there are a lot of Republicans, not
just Democrats in the House who are objecting to the
version that the Senate just passed and kind of squeaked
by the Senate, and so some of them are saying
that they are not going to support the bill in
its form. But you know, time and time again, you know,

(00:30):
Donald Trump has proven to be a powerful political force,
and you know, through threats and however else he manages
to corral people in his own party, he does manage
to more often than not get his way. So if
I had to bet there will be something something that

(00:51):
the House will pass, whether or not it's going to
have any significant changes, that we are going to find
out in the next probably twenty four hours.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Is I mean, it feels to me like he has
possibly met his match and Elon and both of them
are issuing threats about this. Which of them do you
think is going to win?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, of course one of them. Donald Trump is president
of the United States. So you have to sort of
put one point in his corner in terms of a
power play. Elon Musk, while the richest man reputedly anyway
in the world, certainly has power. You know, he's not president,
but he has said Musk that any you know, representative,

(01:35):
congress person, senator who votes for this bill, which he
thinks is abhorrent, he will not rest until he throws
his considerable money into political challenges to their seats. So
I don't know, it comes down to who are you
more afraid of, if you're a representative in Congress, President Trump.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Or more afraid of Elon? Wouldn't you because money absolutely talks,
whereas Trump is sort of he could change his mind.
Could you could go against him this time still win
him over? But masks, Musk's money actually is going to
make a massive impact.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, it will, and you're right, money has an enormous impact,
especially on US politics. But you have to keep in
mind that that Trump and the MAGA movement and I'm
using that word specifically movement. You know, it's very hard
for his base to go against him. And if that

(02:31):
base thinks that they should or the representatives should vote
for this bill, it's going to be hard for representatives
to go against the President. But having said that, Heather,
this bill is extremely unpopular. Poll after poll after poll
is showing that the majority of Americans, across all demographic groups,

(02:53):
across all parts of the United States don't like it.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah, very interesting. Now what's going on with P. Didy.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Well, you know, the trial is ongoing, the jury indicating
earlier today that it had reached a verdict on some
of the charges against him. Of course we don't know
what the verdict is, but they were not able to
reach a verdict on actually what is the most significant charge,
which is a racketeering charge, and it carries the most

(03:24):
sizeable prison term if convicted on it. They sent notes
out to the judge saying that there are members of
the panel that, you know, they just won't change their mind,
and judges do have a certain degree of power to,
you know, insist that jurors go back into the deliberation
room until they reach a verdict. But at the end

(03:45):
of the day, there does come a time when if
they cannot reach a verdict on that particular charge, then
they would have a hung jury on that one charge.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Can we assume that if they have reached a unanimous
agreement on some of those charges that it would be guilty.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, I'm reluctant. I've covered so many court cases over
the years. I learned a long time ago never to
try to guess what the jury is going to do
or not do, since I wasn't in the courtroom and
I wasn't TV to the presentation of evidence. So I'm
going to pass on predicting how the jury is going

(04:25):
to vote. I've seen durers come back quickly with a
guilty verdict, I've seen them come back quickly with a
not guilty verdict, and you know every variation thereof. So
it's really it's just impossible to tell.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Charles. Thanks appreciate it. Charles Feldman Us correspondence. For more
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