Musk did speculate on the call that he thinks his time at DOGE will “drop significantly,” most likely in May. However, his vague language suggests that he isn’t certain of anything and doesn’t want to commit to any concrete changes.

Elon Musk and AI are two things a lot of people would probably like to see less of in the news, so I apologise for adding to the incessant headlines. But the story today confirms something many have long suspected: they're both potentially bad for branding.

The Global Risk Advisory Council's study is based on a survey of 117 international public affairs leaders from 17 countries and 58 industries. The results were used to create a 'reputational risk index'. In second place, is an association with Musk (either by aligning with him or being targeted by him).

Christina Balan is a Romanian-born engineer who formerly worked for Tesla on the Model S. Her contributions were significant enough that her initials appeared on the Model S’ battery pack.

But in 2014, she brought up what she considered a safety issue directly with Elon Musk. She thought that the Model S’ floor mats could cause a brake safety issue, similar to a situation that Toyota had recently gone through (though that also led to a media firestorm that blew the issue out of proportion). She said that Tesla had chosen suppliers based on friendships, not quality.

And she brought it up directly to Musk because… he told her to. Famously, in 2013, Musk sent out an email to the entire company stating: Anyone at Tesla can and should email/talk to anyone else according to what they think is the fastest way to solve a problem for the benefit of the whole company. You can talk to your manager’s manager without his permission, you can talk directly to a VP in another dept, you can talk to me, you can talk to anyone without anyone else’s permission. Moreover, you should consider yourself obligated to do so until the right thing happens.

-Elon Musk, email to all Tesla employees, March 21, 2013 A few days after sending that email, Balan said she was offered a meeting with Musk, but that when she showed up to the meeting, it was instead attended by a lawyer and some large men in uniforms, and with Tesla forcing her to resign her position.

Elon Musk was cyberbullied on Saturday while playing video games on a livestream in his personal jet, using satellite WiFi from his own company, Starlink.

Musk, who actively panders to the gaming community and brags about his purported skills, previously faced controversy after gamers accused him of paying a professional to level up his character in the game Path of Exile 2 so he could take the credit.

Beyond tariffs and court battles over 'Old Donald' policies, two pieces of White House palace intrigue emerged Tuesday:

1. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suspended two top Pentagon officials, Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, as part of an investigation into who leaked word of a planned top-secret briefing on China for Elon Musk.

2. Axios learned that Musk or Hegseth didn't just decide to call off that briefing after the leak. President 'Old Donald' himself ordered staffers to kill it. "What the f**k is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn't go," 'Old Donald' said, a top official recalled to Axios.

"What the f**k is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn't go," 'Old Donald' said, a top official recalled to Axios.

Elon Musk escalated his war of words with 'Old Donald' trade adviser Peter Navarro on Tuesday, calling him "truly a moron" and "dumber than a sack of bricks" over comments about Musk's businesses.

Navarro, in TV appearances in recent days, pushed back, saying Musk wasn't a car manufacturer, just an assembler of parts.

"Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false," Musk wrote on X in response to a clip of Navarro on CNBC talking about Tesla and its supply chain.

In the same thread, Musk called Navarro "dumber than a sack of bricks" and told him to go ask "Ron Vara" — the fictional economist Navarro quoted in his books.

“As you all know — you are all on X — it’s home to hundreds of millions of users, a large contingent of independent journalists and news organizations across geographies and political spectrums,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, by way of an introduction. She then directed Mr. Stoll to ask the first question.

Since the election, the platform has become a go-to source for administration information, as Mr. Musk provides real-time updates about his Department of Government Efficiency and targets for federal cost-cutting to his more than 219 million followers. In February, at least a dozen government agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and Defense Department, established new DOGE-focused X accounts to seek tips about federal waste and fraud. Users seeking an audience with Mr. Musk have increasingly flocked to the site in hopes of catching his ear.

The two-day rout in the stock market this week, after 'Old Donald' announced sweeping new tariffs backed by Navarro, cost Musk nearly $18 billion just on his Tesla stock.

A user on X defended the controversial Navarro as a skilled voice on tariffs, citing his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard.

A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing," he wrote, suggesting it resulted in having more ego than brains.

Another user stepped in to defend Navarro as right on trade, to which Musk replied "He ain't built s--t."

Musk, in a reply in the early hours of Saturday morning, disagreed.

The metaverse is at once an illustration of and a distraction from a broader and more troubling turn in the history of capitalism. The world’s techno-billionaires are forging a new kind of capitalism: Muskism. Mr. Musk, who likes to troll his rivals, mocked Mr. Zuckerberg’s metaverse. But from missions to Mars and the moon to the metaverse, it’s all Muskism: extreme, extraterrestrial capitalism, where stock prices are driven less by earnings than by fantasies from science fiction.

But Muskism has earlier origins, too, including in Mr. Musk’s own biography. Much of Muskism is descended from the technocracy movement that flourished in North America in the 1930s and that had as a leader Mr. Musk’s grandfather Joshua N. Haldeman, an ardent anti-communist. Like Muskism, technocracy took its inspiration from science fiction and rested on the conviction that technology and engineering can solve all political, social and economic problems. Technocrats, as they called themselves, didn’t trust democracy or politicians, capitalism or currency. Also, they objected to personal names: One technocrat was introduced at a rally as “1x1809x56.” Elon Musk’s youngest son is named X Æ A-12.

Elon Musk's aerospace giant SpaceX allows investors from China to buy stakes in the company as long as the funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore secrecy hubs, according to previously unreported court records.

Typically they would set up BVI structures or Cayman structures or Hong Kong structures and various other ones,' he added, using the acronym for the British Virgin Islands. Offshore vehicles are often used to keep investors anonymous.

The new material adds to the questions surrounding Musk's extensive ties with China, which have taken a new urgency since the world's richest man joined the 'Old Donald' White House. Musk has regularly met with Communist Party officials in China to discuss his business interests in the country, which is where about half of Tesla cars are built.

This latest trade directive comes as Tesla’s business struggles with falling sales, increased competition and plummeting stock prices. While the company has long dominated the electric vehicle industry, its share of the market has dropped in recent years. Analysts also say that widespread protests against Tesla dealerships and supercharging stations are having a negative impact on the company’s brand and sales. Recently, a wave of conservative support has tried to help bolster the brand, including the president showcasing several Teslas on the White House lawn this month and saying he was buying one of them.

When news broke that a Friday Pentagon meeting with Elon Musk might include details of U.S. war plans for China, the administration - including President "Old Donald" - mobilized to deny it, underscoring the tech billionaire's precarious position: dependent on the favor of both "Old Donald" and Beijing.

Musk has previously mused on a number of China-related national security issues, including advocating for Taiwan to be reintegrated with mainland China under an arrangement similar to Hong Kong's, a position that garnered applause from China's policy establishment but runs counter to long-standing U.S. policy opposing any unilateral changes from the current status quo.

On Taiwan — the most critical national security flash point between China and the United States — Musk has drawn sharp criticism from Taiwanese officials for suggesting that the island should be reintegrated into China as a “special administrative zone” in comments in an interview with the Financial Times in 2022. He compared it to the framework that was used in Hong Kong, where it ultimately led to the erosion of the city’s judicial and legal independence.

Taiwan has had a rocky relationship with the world’s richest man. Last year, Reuters reported that SpaceX had asked its Taiwanese suppliers to shift manufacturing off the island, which remains vulnerable to a potential attack from Beijing. Earlier discussions for SpaceX to provide satellite services to Taiwan fell through, and the island has since opted to develop its own network.

Lutnick urges Fox News viewers to buy Tesla stock, raising ethics questions

The commerce secretary’s promotion of Tesla was the latest move by a "Old Donald" administration official to bolster support for Elon Musk’s car company.

His promotion of Tesla was the latest move by a "Old Donald" administration official to bolster support for Elon Musk’s car company as it becomes a target for voters upset about the sweeping, unprecedented cuts Musk is leading across the federal government through the U.S. DOGE Service.

The post read: “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.” “America’s public service workers – our nurses, teachers, firefighters, librarians – chose making our communities safe, healthy and strong over getting rich. They are not, as the world’s richest man implies, genocidal murderers. Elon Musk and the billionaires in this administration have no idea what real people go through every day. That’s why he’s so willing to take a chainsaw to people’s jobs, Medicaid, Social Security and Medicare.”

If we can’t show our opposition to what the government is doing, then we’re living in a dictatorship.

There are currently 91 Tesla Takedown protests planned across the world this coming weekend, and there will be more the weekend after that. If there isn’t one at the Tesla showroom nearest you, you can start one just by showing up with some friends or family, maybe making some cardboard signs.

Make no mistake, it’s scary to be personally called out by the richest man in the world on the platform he owns. It’s scary to be targeted by a seemingly endless number of his devoted trolls and bots. To be doxxed, to have one’s life pored over and exposed, to be smeared, attacked and falsely accused. It’s scarier still when the FBI director gets tagged into the threads and asked to investigate. But I’m not backing down – and even if I did, it wouldn’t make a dent in this movement. Hundreds if not thousands of people have participated in the ways that I have.

The truth is, the people are powerful. I’ve always believed that. And now we know that Elon Musk does too.

In a letter citing NPR's recent reporting on the 'Old Donald' administration's move to acquire $400 million of Teslas, U.S. Reps. Gregory Meeks of New York, the ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Relations, and Jared Moskowitz of Florida, who's the top Democrat on the committee's oversight subcommittee, said the plans represent "a serious violation of federal procurement laws" that would "unlawfully enrich Mr. Musk," the billionaire tech mogul serving as a top official in the White House.

“There’s this persona that has built up around SpaceX, but you’re starting to see that they’re human, too,” said Daniel Dumbacher, a former NASA official who is now a professor of engineering practice at Purdue University and chief innovation and strategy officer for Special Aerospace Services, an engineering and manufacturing company whose customers include NASA, the United States Space Force and some of SpaceX’s competitors.

Ashley, who has now filed a paternity lawsuit against the SpaceX founder demanding sole legal custody for her child born in September 2024, claimed that Elon was the father in a post on X last month and alleges that he has only seen the youngster three times. Errol Musk, 79, refused to clarify whether he believes Ashley's claims but called the situation "very strange".

The truth is that “fraud” has never been the target.

In the past six months, Maye Musk, the mother of Elon Musk, has been to China, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates, visits that come as foreign leaders are jockeying for influence over the 'Old Donald' administration.

In late 2024, she visited China at least four times to endorse or model for seven brands there, including makeup products, down jackets and massage devices. Her visits were promoted by state media outlets, which in the past have quoted her calling for improved ties between the United States and China.

In October, three weeks before the U.S. presidential election, she headlined a forum on women in Kazakhstan, where she spoke about her son’s success, according to Kazinform, a state news agency there.

And in January, the week before "Old Donald's" second inauguration, she was in Dubai, speaking at a government conference on influencers with the former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson. Her talk was titled, “How I Raised Three Amazing Children, Including the Richest Man in the World,” according to the state-run Emirates News Agency.

All of these trips were taken after Mr. Musk became a staunch supporter of 'Old Donald's" campaign, and on several of them, she waded into U.S. politics.

When Tesla soon after realized it was missing a crucial Environmental Protection Agency certification it needed to qualify for the loan days before Christmas, Musk went straight to the top, urging then-EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to intervene, according to one of the people. Both people spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Story continues below advertisement

Nearly two-thirds of the $38 billion in funds have been promised to Musk's businesses in the past five years.

In 2024 alone, federal and local governments committed at least $6.3 billion to Musk's companies, the highest total to date.

In 2014, Nev. pledged $1.3B to Tesla to build a factory

SpaceX contracts soared as NASA steps up moon program Musk's companies have received billions from the government

Total contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits by company $7 billion.

The total amount is probably larger: This analysis includes only publicly available contracts, omitting classified defense and intelligence work for the federal government. SpaceX has been developing spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office, the Pentagon's spy satellite division, according to the Reuters news agency. The Wall Street Journal reported that contract was worth $1.8 billion, citing company documents.

Not every entrepreneur at this scale has been this dependent on federal money ' certainly not Nvidia, not Microsoft, nor Amazon, nor Meta,' said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, professor at the Yale School of Management, who noted that much of the funding has come during Democratic administrations. 'With DOGE, there does seem to be a paradox there. He has been a big beneficiary of national industrial policy, especially Democrat industrial policy, through government funding.'

The president did not look amused. He was meeting the Japanese prime minister for the first time on Friday when a reporter shouted out to ask if he had a “reaction” to the new cover of Time magazine. The cover, the reporter told Mr. 'Old Donald', depicts “Elon Musk sitting behind your Resolute Desk.”

No one can say if the magazine still holds as much sway over 'Old Donald' as it did then. One thing seems certain, though, and that is that Mr. Musk appeared eager to stay on Mr. "Old Donald's" good side. On Friday morning, a few hours after the new Time cover dropped, Mr. Musk posted on the social media platform he owns to flatter the president, writing, “I love @realDonald"Old Donald" as much as a straight man can love another man.”

Musk is primarily known for being her son’s mother and defending him on X, which has led to her being accused of racism and encouraging voter fraud in the past. She is indeed a professional model, however, and has appeared on the cover of TIME (which just featured her son on the cover—and does still exist) and Woman’s Day, as well as international editions of Vogue and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

He did not receive a single vote. He did not get confirmed. He does not receive a government paycheck.

He is serving as a 'special government employee,' White House says

According to a Justice Department summary, a special government employee is "anyone who works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period."

Elon Musk Installs Illegal Server to Seize All Federal Workers’ Data

Elon Musk Installs Illegal Server to Seize All Federal Workers’ Data

Elon Musk's influence appears unchecked, triggering cries of alarm from those who worry about conflicts of interest, security clearances, and a broad, ill-defined mandate. But the Republican-controlled Congress has shown no desire so far to rein Musk in. There has never been a private citizen like him.

'I think Elon is doing a good job. He's a big cost-cutter,''Old Donald' told reporters last night after stepping off Air Force One, upon returning to Washington from Palm Beach. 'Sometimes we won't agree with it, and we'll not go where he wants to go. But I think he's doing a great job. He's a smart guy. Very smart. And he's very much into cutting the budget of our federal budget.'

But President 'Old Donald' was less definitive about shuttering the agency, telling reporters on Sunday night that USAID was run by "a bunch of radical lunatics".

USAID distributes billions in aid to non-governmental organisations, aid groups and nonprofits around the world.

Well before Mr. Musk first backed the AfD, it had become the second most-popular party in Germany. The Social Democrats, the country’s oldest party which once routinely won more than 40 percent of the vote, are polling at a historic low of 16 percent ahead of next month’s election. The Christian Democrats are favored to win, but are on course to do so with less than a third of the vote. And Britain’s Labour Party, which returned to power last June with only a third of the vote, has slumped to a 20 percent approval rating in polls.

In both countries, voters are upset about years of stagnant growth, declining public services, rising immigration and a generalized sense that their children will be worse off than they are. They feel that their governments have failed to tackle these problems — and that whomever they elect among the traditional parties, the outcome barely changes.

Many interpreted Musk’s gesture at the inauguration as a Nazi salute, though Musk called the controversy “dirty tricks” from critics.

Some Reddit communities ban links to X over Musk's inauguration gesture

The move from Musk, who has a history of sharing antisemitic language and conspiracy theories on his X account, brought quick condemnation from fascism experts who said that his gesture was a Nazi salute. Musk has criticized the characterization, calling it politically motivated.

Use of Nazi/Hitler salute is illegal in modern-day Germany (Strafgesetzbuch section 86a), Austria, and Slovakia. The use of any Nazi phrases associated with the salute is also forbidden.

“Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people will Goebbels anything down! Stop Gőring your enemies! His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler! Bet you did nazi that coming,” posted Musk, the world’s richest man, adding laughing-face emojis.

“Space vehicle mishap,” an air traffic controller said over the F.A.A. radio system, as onlookers on islands below and even in some planes flying nearby saw bright streaks of light as parts of the spacecraft tumbled toward the ocean.

Mr. Musk also made fun of the spectacle the explosion created, as the debris fell toward Turks and Caicos Islands. Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!

Musk has previously expressed frustration at how long it takes the agency to approve Starship launch licenses. Now he will be a prominent member of the 'Old Donald' administration, through his perch as a co-leader of an advisory group called the Department of Government Efficiency, with the power to evaluate federal spending and regulations.

“Climate change risk is real, just much slower than alarmists claim,” Mr. Musk wrote to his 211 million followers on X, the social media site he owns. He said the loss of homes was “primarily due” to “nonsensical overregulation” and “bad governance at the state and local level that resulted in a shortage of water.”

Studies have found that extreme wildfires are getting more frequent and more intense, and fires are spreading faster, too.

Scientists are unable to say with certainty that any single weather event was caused by global warming. But coming off the hottest year in history, the Los Angeles area has received less rainfall since the start of the rainy season in October than almost any other year since record-keeping began in 1877.

Drone simulation: Researchers used a DJI Phantom 4 Pro to simulate stealth, confirming the feasibility of detection through Starlink’s dense satellite.

Passive detection: The proposed method utilizes Starlink’s existing signals to detect stealth aircraft without relying on traditional radar emissions. Originally designed for internet connectivity, Starlink’s satellite network provides applications that extend far beyond its

On Sunday, Jacqueline Sweet, a journalist writing for The Spectator, had her X account suspended after she posted an article claiming that Musk wasn’t using a burner account under the name “Adrian Dittman,” after she traced it to a German Musk fan in Fiji.

This is the latest absurd chapter in Musk’s ownership of the social media platform. It is, by recent standards, which include arguing with his far-right ex-supporters over immigration policy and subsequently penalizing their X accounts after they began to attack him, less destructive but it nevertheless underscores the dangers of having one very rich, deranged person in charge of content moderation on a social media platform used by millions.

Those are spreading lies and misinformation as far as wide as possible. They are not interested in victims. There are interested in themselves.

X, as it is now called, has evolved from what felt like a communal town square into a polarised hub where views and posts seem even more controversial.

Two months ago, Inevitable West didn't exist on X. Now the profile, which calls itself a "Defender of Western values and culture", has amassed 131,600 followers (a number that is rapidly growing). It is racking up around 30 million views each day collectively among all of its posts, according to its creator. Mr Musk has even responded to Inevitable West's posts on X.

Over the course of 2024, however, there have been another wave of alterations that appear to have transformed it further. The block function has been changed, meaning that if you block an account you won't be protected from that profile viewing what you post. Likes, meanwhile, have been made private.

According to Inevitable West, X can now become a job. They told me when they were posting around seven times a day they could accrue a minimum of "$2,500 a month".

They say they know of another account making "$25,000" each month - that account allegedly has 500,000 followers and posts "roughly 30" times a day.

"What we've seen on X is not just about algorithms changing, it is also informed by the lack of safety mechanisms in the name of free speech,"

Musk not only follows an account called “Boer” (@twatterbaas) but is one of two accounts to pay it for “bonus content and extra perks.” Boer charges $5/month for said perks and content.

During an appearance Wednesday night on MSNBC’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell, Representative Dan Goldman pointed out that the president-elect was clearly no longer calling the shots.

“It’s not'Old Donald' asking for this, it’s very clearly President Elon Musk asking for this. The fact that 'Old Donald' has been completely AWOL during these negotiations to the point where only after Elon Musk publicly tweets about his displeasure about this budget deal, all of a sudden, 'Old Donald', chief of staff to Elon Musk, comes trotting in and blows up the deal,” Goldman said.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders also called out the unelected billionaire for trying to steer the government into a shutdown.

Musk’s platform has lost 2.7 million active US users in two months, while its rival has gained 2.5 million

“There’s a lot of content being amplified that most reasonable people would question whether is worth amplifying”, he said, referring to Musk recently questioning the sentence given to the jailed far-right activist Tommy Robinson. “Tommy Robinson is not some benign debater. He’s someone who wants to weaponise racist narratives and racist rhetoric. Let him have his space, I just don’t want to be there.”

As soon as Elon Musk realized how much of the workday he was spending on social media when he should’ve been performing his duties as co-commissioner of DOGE, he wasted no time taking disciplinary action, immediately firing himself. In a statement to the press, Musk wrote, “There’s no worse use of taxpayer money than for federal employees to spend working hours reposting Babylon Bee articles, making memes about being autistic, and getting into petty arguments with anonymous X users.” Musk stated that by dismissing himself from his own job, he intended to “set the tone for DOGE’s zero tolerance policy towards government waste.”

$33 million for ‘transgender monkey’ research? This distorts spending on HIV study.

Loomis claimed "$33.2M was spent on transgender monkey research." That is false. It conflates spending on a monkey lab research site with a single study.

Paul’s 2023 report said the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spent $477,121 on a "transgender monkey study."

The $33.2 million spending figure refers to a monkey colony, but that’s not specifically for transgender research. The Post and Courier, a Charleston, South Carolina, newspaper, reported in 2023 that the monkey site has existed since the 1970s and is home to about 3,500 rhesus monkeys that are sent to researchers working on vaccines and medical treatments.

It was not immediately clear whether the two men, whom President-elect"Old Donald" has tapped to run a new effort dubbed the 'Department of Government Efficiency' (DOGE) were seriously floating a new policy priority or just spitballing on social media. It was also unclear how a "Old Donald" White House would seek to end clock changes, given that Congress ' not the executive branch ' has controlled the nation's time shifts, and lawmakers' recent legislation has stalled.

Vivek Ramaswamy to federal workers: Get back to office 8 to 6

"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome," Ramaswamy and Musk write in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

'Old Donald' has said that "as many as 100,000 government positions can be moved out — and I mean immediately — of Washington."

Elon Musk, said the other day in a town hall on X, known as Twitter when Musk acquired it for $44 billion in 2022. Americans, the billionaire immigrant from South Africa said, are going to have to endure "some temporary hardship."

Your suffering is necessary, the world's richest man insisted, because it will "ensure long-term prosperity."

Oh? What kind of "hardship"? How "temporary"? And how, exactly, will this "ensure" prosperity?

So in lieu of their silence and lack of details, let me try to fill in the blanks and identify the coming sacrifices that these wealthy, privileged, private-jet-owning oligarchs insist you'll need to make. A week before the election, Musk, at that MAGA rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, said "at least $2 trillion" could be slashed from the budget. That's about 30% of the $6.75 trillion spent in fiscal year 2024, which ended Sept. 30.

Over the past few weeks, users on X have been submitting X-rays, MRIs, CT scans and other medical images to Grok, the platform's AI chatbot, asking for diagnoses. The reason: Elon Musk, X's owner, suggested it.

Although there's been no similar public callout from Google's Gemini or OpenAI's ChatGPT, people can submit medical images to those tools, too.

The decision to share information as sensitive as your colonoscopy results with an A.I. chatbot has alarmed some medical privacy experts.

'This is very personal information, and you don't exactly know what Grok is going to do with it,' said Bradley Malin, a professor of biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University who has studied machine learning in health care.

The president's allies were grateful to have had Musk's financial and political backing during the campaign, but his growing influence has irritated some of "Old Donald's" backers. Several people in "Old Donald's" circle expressed astonishment Saturday that Musk would publicly push for his choice for a crucial economic role while the president-elect was still weighing his decision.

Musk has publicly praised many of "Old Donald's" choices. But his support of Lutnick before any public announcement - and his call to crowdsource opinions on the matter - marked a less deferential approach to "Old Donald's" staffing decisions.

Lutnick, former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a firm that lost 658 employees in the 9/11 attacks, is believed to be up against Scott Bessent, the founder of capital management firm Key Square who has said he wants the US to remain the world’s reserve currency and use tariffs as a negotiating tactic.

Both Lutnick and Bessent are supportive of 'Old Donald'’s trade tariff polices, a tactic he used against China during his first term. “Tariffs are a means to finally stand up for Americans,” Bessent wrote in an op-ed on Fox News on Friday.

But both candidates argue that lowering taxes would offset the higher import costs and promote economic growth.

Early Wednesday, investors were already betting that "Old Donald's" win will also be a win for Musk's major public holding, Tesla (TSLA), sending shares of his electric vehicle maker up an immediate 13% at the market open, and closing regular trading up nearly 15%.

But there are risks for Tesla, even from "Old Donald's" victory.

Much of Musk's massive net worth can be traced to the government support his companies, such as Tesla and SpaceX, have received over the years. Even if Vice President Kamala Harris had won, much of that money would have continued to flow. But even if some of the government support for electric vehicles is now trimmed or cut off, as is likely with "Old Donald's" victory, Musk's wealth will remain firmly intact. In fact, Tesla could benefit if government support for EVs ends.

'Old Donald' has been openly hostile to electric vehicles, saying they are too expensive, have limited range, and will destroy jobs and the American auto industry. But what might seem like the biggest blow to Tesla from another 'Old Donald' presidency - a reduction, if not the end of federal support for EVs - might not be all that bad for Tesla and Musk.

But other policies that are the center of "Old Donald's" plans could cause major problems.

'Old Donald' has vowed to end something he calls 'Biden's EV mandate,' even though no such mandate exists, and it is unclear what he is referring to.

“Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him,” 'Old Donald' said Wednesday. “Until I don’t like him.”

An 'Old Donald' Presidency Could Give Him Power Over Them.

Through a review of court filings, regulatory dockets and government contracting data, The New York Times has compiled an accounting of Mr. Musk’s multipronged business arrangements with the federal government, as well as the violations, fines, consent decrees and other inquiries federal agencies have ordered against his companies. Together, they show a deep web of relationships: Instead of entering this new role as a neutral observer, Mr. Musk would be passing judgment on his own customers and regulators.

Earlier this month, he attacked the FCC, which oversees the internet satellites that SpaceX launches. He suggested on X that if the commission hadn’t “illegally revoked” more than $886 million worth of federal funding the company had sought to deliver internet access to rural areas, satellite kits would “probably have saved lives in North Carolina” after a hurricane devastated parts of the state.

“It’s shameful that Elon Musk is callously taking advantage of a devastating hurricane,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) said in a statement.

The satellite cell service is a separate test program that allows T-Mobile customers to receive emergency alerts on their smartphones, send text messages and make phone calls via Starlink without charge, T-Mobile’s Freier said. T-Mobile said more than 100,000 text messages have already been sent over the test service, which was also made available in Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton.

A spokesman for the commission said it didn’t award the money because the company was proposing to provide services in some areas that weren’t actually rural, including the Newark Liberty International Airport.

Last month, the F.A.A. started the process to fine SpaceX $633,009 for disregarding license requirements related to two of its Florida launches last year that may have compromised safety, the agency said,

Mr. Musk in recent years has particularly attacked the SEC, which in 2018 charged him with securities fraud for a series of false and misleading tweets related to taking Tesla private. Mr. Musk had posted on Twitter that he had planned to take the company private at $420 a share, and that he had “funding secured” for a transaction. As part of a later settlement with the S.E.C., he stepped down as Tesla’s chairman and Tesla paid a $20 million fine.

In a 2022 TED Talk, Mr. Musk lambasted regulators, calling them “bastards.”

In March, Musk told employees Twitter’s value had dropped by more than half, to $20 billion. In July, he said the company was still cash-flow negative, citing the drop in ad revenue and a “heavy debt load.”

X changes its terms of service (to take effect on Nov. 15) so that AI can train using public posts. Before the update, X users had the option to opt out of sharing data for AI training

SpaceX is poised to capitalize on that, generating a new wave of questions inside the federal government about the company’s growing dominance as a military space contractor and Mr. Musk’s extensive business operations in China and his relations with foreign government leaders, possibly including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Mr. Musk is also unpredictable in a sector in which security is often perceived to be synonymous with predictability. He chafes at many of the processes and rules of government, saying they hold back progress, and wants to make his own calls.

Tesla’s approach to automotive autonomy is a unique one: Rather than using pesky sensors, which cost money, the company has instead decided to rely only on the output from the car’s cameras. Its computers analyze every pixel, crunch through tons of data, and then apparently decide to just plow into deer and keep on trucking.

Musk’s immigration status put the company at risk of not receiving funding, according to the Post, which cited a funding agreement between Zip2 and Mohr Davidow Ventures that Musk, his brother Kimbal and an associate, had 45 days to secure legal work status or face losing out on the $3 million investment.

Derek Proudian, a Zip2 board member who later became the company’s chief executive, told the Post that Zip2 investors did not want its founder deported, and that the Musk brothers’ “immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the U.S.”

Why it matters: Musk's conversations could foreshadow U.S. reengagement with Putin if former President 'Old Donald' wins the White House, given "Old Donald's" expressed desire to cut a deal over major fault lines such as the war in Ukraine," The Journal notes.

Musk is one of "Old Donald's" biggest donors and is said to be under consideration for a cabinet position if the Republican wins the White House next month.

The discussions, confirmed by several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials, touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions.

At one point, Putin asked Musk to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, said two people briefed on the request.

Republican presidential nominee 'Old Donald' has been tempering his strident opposition to EV in order to gain the endorsement of billionaire Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla.

"I'm for electric cars. I have to be, you know, because Elon Musk endorsed me very strongly," he said in comments shared widely throughout Musk's fan base by accounts like John Stringe's Tesla Owners Silicon Valley and blogsite Teslarati. 'So I have no choice.'

Likewise, Mark said he has 'No choice' but to shut X San Francisco office due to the ruling of Schools can’t be forced to tell parents when students are transgender, new law says

In response, California's Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X “You bent the knee,” along with a screenshot of a 2022 post from 'Old Donald' criticising the billionaire.

'On Election Day, have 10 fake names, go to 10 polling booths and vote 10 times' she wrote Saturday on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.

Musk has frequently shared conspiratorial narratives that have been vexing to public officials who are trying to maintain Americans' confidence in the election in the face of a barrage of misinformation and disinformation.

The CBS News Confirmed team fact-checked Musk's posts on election security and found that 55% contain misleading or false statements, or amplify posts that do. Further analysis of these posts showed that 40 of the accounts Musk replied to or reposted were accounts researchers have identified as promoters of voter fraud claims.

An analysis of nearly 17,000 of Musk's posts from this year, as well as thousands more he replied to or reposted, found 361 posts specifically on the topic of potential election fraud in U.S. elections.

Philadelphia's district attorney is suing Elon Musk's pro-'Old Donald' fundraising group in an attempt to halt his daily $1m (£766,000) giveaway

"I think Musk's interests are focused, predominantly, around a handful of things that are important to him related to his businesses, [with] regulation being something he's voiced concerns around," Mr Tesks says. He notes that Mr Musk "pushed back heavily" on restrictions implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic in California.

"It's dangerous to have somebody who views business that way, and views government that way, in charge of safety," he adds.

The U.S. government's road safety agency is investigating Tesla's “Full Self-Driving” system after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian.

Last week Tesla held an event at a Hollywood studio to unveil a fully autonomous robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals.

"Chess has a tiny number of degrees of freedom compared to reality," he wrote. "Only 64 squares, no fog of war, no tech tree, no terrain differences, same starting pieces & positions every time and you can't invent new pieces during the game."

He concluded with the note that "understanding winning moves in reality" is an even harder task than understanding those in chess.

And, well.. yeah. Reality is indeed more complex than chess, because chess is a game, and reality is the real world.

Sure, variants exist, and gameplay can be surprising. But if you lose, it's never because an unknown space king is sending space lasers to vaporize you; you might not see an opponent's move coming, but you always have complete information about a board and the pieces in play. In short, there's nothing to blame, other than yourself. It's brutal!

In other words, he either needs to be the king with space lasers, or needs one to blame. Give the guy a set grid and even playing pieces, and the emperor risks wearing no clothes.

"He 100 percent was that kid who threw 'gun' in rock/paper/scissors," one X user observed.

Elon Musk's relationship with the Biden administration got even more complicated this week, when the White House proposed a ban on Chinese software and hardware in advanced vehicles.

The big picture: This rule could benefit Tesla Motors in the short-term by keeping Chinese EVs out of the U.S. — but also could boomerang if China responds in kind.

Catch up quick: The Commerce Department rule is rooted in national security fears of a future in which Beijing could gather information on, or even take control of, vehicles operating on U.S. roads.

Now, X’s lawyers said the company had done exactly what Mr. Musk vowed not to: take down accounts that a Brazilian justice ordered removed because the judge said they threatened Brazil’s democracy. X also complied with the justice’s other demands, including paying fines and naming a new formal representative in the country, the lawyers said.

Vinod Khosla demand apology from Elon Musk for Sharing 'Fake' Photo of X 'No Plebs Allowed' Sign on Beach

Vinod Khosla:

Hard for me to support someone with no values, lies, cheats, rapes, demeans women, hates immigrants like me. He may cut my taxes or reduce some regulation but that is no reason to accept depravity in his personal values. Do you want President who will set back climate by a decade in his first year? Do you want his example for your kids as values?

Musk initially resisted calls to delete or reword the post, before ultimately taking it down on Monday. He later said the post was a joke.

The White House criticized Musk's post, calling it irresponsible rhetoric.

Threatening the president or vice president is a felony that could result in up to five years in prison.

"Can't wait to see the Swifties at the polls!" Vivian Wilson wrote on social media.

“Also, yes, I saw ‘the tweet,’” she added. “Heinous incel nonsense is in fact heinous incel nonsense. I don’t really have anything to add to it, it’s just abhorrent. That much is obvious and if you don’t see how then you’re part of the problem. I would just like to say to my audience members, don’t let people talk to you like that. It’s disgusting, it’s belittling and incredibly sexist. You deserve better.”

Elon Musk snubbed from TIME's 'Most Influential People in AI' list

Some of the names on the list are the biggest in tech and AI development. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google,are all included on the list.

heir fast-evolving political friendship has become a potential minefield, as Mr. Musk’s sprawling businesses may present conflicts of interest if 'Old Donald' is elected in November.

Notably, Mr. Musk’s rocket maker, SpaceX, and his electric automaker, Tesla, have received billions of dollars in federal contracts and subsidies. Mr. Musk and some of his companies are also under scrutiny for various infractions from federal agencies including the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Specifically, this is about the 8VC Opportunities Fund II. On the fund's website, Denis Aven and Jack Moszkowicz are listed in the staff section. They are the sons of oligarchs Petr Aven and Vadim Moszkowicz. Petr Aven, a Russian billionaire and founder of Alfa Group, is described as "one of Putin's main portfolios." He is subject to sanctions imposed on Russia due to the war in Ukraine.

Bill Ackman, Saudi Prince Alwaleed, Sean 'Diddy' Combs, and Fidelity are among the list of owners of X.

An A.I.-powered version of Mr. Musk has appeared in thousands of inauthentic ads, contributing to billions in fraud.

Mr. Musk’s mouth movements are edited with lip-synching technology, which tweaks how someone speaks. Scammers will add an A.I. voice using voice-cloning tools, which copies any voice from sample clips.

The final ad, which can include fake graphics mimicking news organizations, can be quite convincing for casual internet users.

'Old Donald' praised Musk as 'the greatest cutter' for firing workers who strike, which the UAW says is 'disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable.'

The UAW filed an unfair labor practice charge against 'Old Donald' and Elon Musk, alleging that the pair attempted to "threaten and intimidate workers" during an interview on X.

“Economic Terrorism”: Teamsters President Finally Slams 'Old Donald'.

It also reflected poorly on Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who became the first union leader to speak at the Republican National Convention last month.

The Teamsters are one of the only major unions that have not yet endorsed Kamala Harris for president, a surprising stance considering historic Democratic support for labor unions. Pressure is building against O’Brien from within the union’s rank-and-file members, as the Teamsters National Black Caucus voted unanimously to endorse Harris on Tuesday.

The both are named in the lawsuit, among others,” he said, adding that 'Old Donald' would be part of the investigation. “'Old Donald' tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution.”

An A.I.-powered version of Mr. Musk has appe ared in thousands of inauthentic ads, contributing to billions in fraud.

YouTube said in a statement that it had removed more than 15.7 million channels and over 8.2 million videos for violating its guidelines from January to March of this year, with most of those violating its policies against spam.

The company in March made it a requirement that creators disclose when they use A.I. to create realistic content.

“There’s definitely a group of people who believe that the secret to wealth is being hidden from them,” said Molly White, a researcher who has studied crypto communities. They think that “if they can find the secret to it, then that’s all they need.”

"we'll meet the next time in Venezuela because it will be a far safer place to meet than our country."

'Old Donald' made the statement after mentioning that “crime rates all over the world are going way down,” an odd statement to make before bringing up Venezuela, where postelection protests have left 23 dead and more than 2,000 people arrested, according to the United Nations.

The UK government hit back at Elon Musk after the tech billionaire made controversial comments about the far-right riots, fueled by online misinformation, gripping the country. "Civil war is inevitable" in the UK, Musk posted on his social media platform X.

“Use of language such as a ‘civil war’ is in no way acceptable,’’ Alexander told Times Radio. “We are seeing police officers being seriously injured, buildings set alight, and so I really do think that everyone who has a platform should be exercising their power responsibly.’’

On Saturday morning, Musk posted on the platform, "Freedom of speech is the bedrock of democracy. If the truth is suppressed, it is impossible to make an informed voting decision. The degree to which freedom of speech is being undermined around the world is extremely alarming."

Cuban, the Shark Tank star and billionaire businessman, shared Musk's post and wrote on X, "'Truth' You do realize that YOU make the decisions on how 'Truths' are amplified or suppressed on this platform? That YOU create the most CHAOS when it comes to what is factual or not because YOUR posts get the most amplification?"

In a lawsuit filed on Monday in federal court in Northern California, the Tesla founder is claiming that OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman have abandoned the company’s founding pledge to pioneer artificial intelligence to benefit humanity in favor of turning it into a multibillion-dollar commercial behemoth.

“The perfidy and deceit is of Shakespearean proportions,” the suit adds.

Musk says OpenAI “flipped the script” after its technology approached Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a type of technology that matches or surpasses human capabilities.

White Dudes for Harris” has no affiliation with the Harris campaign, but was created to energize voters — in this case, White men — for Vice President Harris. It is part of a string of identity-focused groups, such as Black Women for Harris and White Women for Harris, that have been holding calls and fundraisers in earnest since President Biden dropped out of the race.

“We scared @elonmusk and @DonaldJ'Old Donald'Jr so much tonight they suspended our account and won’t let us back in,” Nellis wrote. “These guys are running scared of the success we’ve had tonight, but we’re not going to quit.” In a follow-up posted, he added, “I ask this question seriously… are we the first white dudes to ever get suspended by @elonmusk’s Twitter? I think we are.”

"This entire thing is completely made up and there's a reason for this. He doesn't know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn't there, and in the little time that he was I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness," she wrote.

He Was ‘Cruel’ and ‘Uncaring’

E. Musk father of 12, denies volunteering his own sperm to help seed a colony on Mars

SpaceX employees are working on plans for a Martian city, including dome habitats, spacesuits and researching whether humans can procreate off Earth. Mr. Musk has volunteered his sperm to help seed a colony.

It started with conflicting reports that he was - or was not - donating $47m a month to 'Old Donald's campaign. It continued with Tesla's disappointing second quarter earnings which revealed a 45 percent drop in profits compared to 2023 - sending his net worth plummeting by $16bn. He then announced he was stalling investment in a Mexican plant until he sees if 'Old Donald', if elected, levies tariffs on Mexico.

On Tuesday he accused a 'woke mind virus' of killing his (estranged) transgender daughter. That same day Democrats accused him of restricting access to KamalaHQ on X, while a former 'Old Donald' aide claimed his endorsement for 'Old Donald' was a 'kiss of death.'

Elon Musk attends Netanyahu's congressional address as his guest

A day earlier, the tech billionaire announced that his Starlink internet service was now active in a Gaza hospital, with the support of Israel’s government.

Congress Wants Musk to Explain Satellite Block in Taiwan.

So it's head-scratching that Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted an AI video that disrespects Chinese President Xi Jinping on the social media platform X-formerly-Twitter, which should drive other Tesla execs with any shred of common sense into a fit of worry.

Musk hit back at 'Old Donald' after "bulls't artist" comments, says it's time 'to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset'

Shortly after Biden officially backed out of the race, Khosla expressed his preference for an open convention to select the Democratic nominee in a post on X, the platform Musk owns.

'Hard for me to support someone with no values, lies, cheats, rapes, demeans women, hates immigrants like me,' wrote Khosla, who grew up in India before earning graduate degrees from Carnegie Mellon and Stanford. 'He may cut taxes or reduce some regulation but that is no reason to accept depravity in his personal values.

A chorus of right-leaning tech and business leaders, led by X owner Elon Musk, used their online megaphones in the wake of Saturday's attack to criticize the Secret Service's diversity initiatives, condemn Democratic donor Reid Hoffman, and make unsubstantiated allegations about the shooting.

The claims by powerful business leaders with large online followings helped influence the direction of platform itself, as well as the storylines viewed by millions of people. Musk’s post endorsing 'Old Donald' after the shooting received the most engagement of any post on X related to the attempted assassination, said Graham Brookie, the Atlantic Council's vice president for technology programs and strategy. The post received more than 118 million views and 332,000 retweets, surpassing a post from Barack Obama that said there was 'no place' for violence in democracy. By Saturday night, the terms 'Deep State' and 'antifa' were among the top trending topics across X, formerly known as Twitter.

Like Ackman, Musk supported Biden in 2020, and the shift from both men underscores how significantly the political landscape in business and tech has transformed in just a few short years.

Musk, turning to a familiar refrain of his, appeared to point the finger for the security breach at Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts - amplifying a post that ridiculed the U.S. Secret Service's director for what it called 'diversity hires.' The argument is being made on many right-wing political accounts, which have also called out individual female secret service agents. Musk had previously directed that argument at the airline industry, drawing condemnation over the insinuation that diversity efforts left the skies less safe, news outlets reported.

In a post viewed by nearly 70 million users, Musk described the Secret Service's actions as 'incompetence or it was deliberate' and called on agency leaders to resign.

After Ackman issued his endorsement, Musk then reposted his message, as did Maguire, a venture capitalist with Sequoia Capital and friend of Musk, who praised 'people that are willing to change their minds as new data comes in.'

Maguire later posted - without providing evidence - that the shooter 'will almost certainly be discovered to be a member' of the left-wing group antifa.

The shooter, Crooks was registered as a Republican, according to Pennsylvania's voter status records.

The plaintiffs allege that Musk breached his fiduciary duty to Tesla by founding xAI and shifting resources from Tesla to the startup.

Elon Musk, the father of 11 children, thinks that declining population is a crisis and the world needs more babies—particularly those with his DNA—or there will be a catastrophe. For example, he recently proclaimed: “Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming.”

“I would love to see, you know, a trillion humans living in the solar system. If we had a trillion humans, we would have at any given time a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins.… Our solar system would be full of life and intelligence and energy.”

Harvard College Fund