内容摘要：The U.S. has expressed frustration with the stalled talks and threatened to withdraw if results aren’t achieved. On Friday, Trump told reporters after boarding Air Force One to return to Washington from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, that

The U.S. has expressed frustration with the stalled talks and threatened to withdraw if results aren’t achieved. On Friday, Trump told reporters after boarding Air Force One to return to Washington from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, that

Now, a new Musk project is on the brink of victory: an election Saturday to officially turn a small patch of coastal South Texas — home to his rocket company SpaceX — into a city known as Starbase.If Musk prevails — which appears likely, since the small number of residents eligible to vote include his employees — it will be a victory for the mega-billionaire whose

and sunk more than $20 million into a failed effort to tipProfits at his Tesla car company haveAs of Tuesday, nearly 200 of 283 eligible voters had already cast an early ballot, according to county election records. The list of names so far does not include Musk, who

in the November elections.The cosmic dateline sounds like a billionaire’s vanity project in an area where the man and his galactic dreams already enjoy broad support from residents and state and local officials. But there are creeping concerns that the city vote and companion efforts at the state Legislature will give Musk and his company town too much control over access to a popular swimming and camping area known for generations as the “poor people’s beach.”

Saturday’s vote to establish Starbase is seen as a done deal.

The proposed city at the southern tip of Texas near the Mexico border is only about 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers), crisscrossed by a few roads and dappled with airstream trailers and modest midcentury homes. The polling site is in a building on Memes St., a cheeky nod to Musk’s social media company X.The White House is gambling that other countries will also suffer enough pain that they will open up their economies to more American exports, leading to negotiations that would reduce the tariffs imposed Wednesday.

Or, the White House hopes, companies will reverse their moves toward global supply chains and bring more production to the United States to avoid higher import taxes.President Donald Trump waves as he arrives on Air Force One at Miami International Airport, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

President Donald Trump waves as he arrives on Air Force One at Miami International Airport, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)The trade war President Donald Trump promised has begun, but analysts warn that it’s Americans who’ll really be hit. AP correspondent Donna Warder reports.