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Tesla Admits Musk's Politics Behind 71 Percent Revenue Crash

On automaker Tesla's first quarterly earnings call of 2025, the electric vehicle manufacturer made a stunning admission that public animus toward CEO Elon Musk has directly contributed to its abysmal profits.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Tesla's first-quarter revenue was just $409 million, which is a 71 percent decrease from the $1.4 billion the company made in the first three months of 2024. And the company told investors on the call that the significant decrease in sales is partially due to "changing political sentiment" that "could have a meaningful impact on demand for our products in the near term" — an apparent reference to Musk.

Musk's public role in President Donald Trump's administration has resulted in widespread protests at Tesla dealerships across the country as part of the "Tesla Takedown" movement. That movement — launched by actor Alex Winter of the Bill & Ted franchise — has also caught on around the world, with protesters in Europe and Australia also demonstrating outside of Tesla dealerships in response to Musk's role in the Trump White House.

The electric vehicle company is also taking a beating as a result of Chinese competitors like BYD, which saw its sales jump by roughly 60 percent in the first three months of 2025. Additionally, established automakers like General Motors, Ford and BMW, along with newer companies like Rivian and Polestar have made a dent in Tesla's sales by rolling out competing vehicles that could be seen as more appealing to liberal and centrist buyers.

Musk has signaled that he intends to leave the Trump administration soon, after his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — with Trump's blessing – has made deep cuts to multiple federal agencies and fired thousands of public workers. He indicated multiple times that he sought to cut Social Security to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, alleging without evidence that the agency was illegally giving money to undocumented immigrants and helping them register to vote (undocumented immigrants do not qualify for Social Security and voting while undocumented is already a felony crime).

But even if Musk walks away from his role in the Trump White House, Tesla investors may still be eager to oust him as the company's CEO. Last month, a longtime Tesla investor called for Musk to resign as CEO or be dismissed by the company's board.

"The company's reputation has just been destroyed by Elon Musk," investor Ross Gerber told Sky News in March. "Sales are plummeting so, yeah, it's a crisis. You literally can't sell the best product in the marketplace because the CEO is so divisive."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Hundreds Of Federal Employees Who Produce Weather Forecasts Fired -- Again

Hundreds Of Federal Employees Who Produce Weather Forecasts Fired -- Again

Several hundred federal workers who were reinstated in their roles after being fired in the early days of President Donald Trump's administration have now just been fired yet again.

The Guardian reported Thursday that approximately 800 workers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been at the whim of a "rollercoaster" of court rulings in recent months, which culminated in today's firings. Initially, after South African centibillionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) fired thousands of "probationary" workers (who have been in their roles for a year or less), a court order handed down in March ordered that they be hired back. But earlier this week, the Supreme Court reversed that order, and those workers were once again out of a job.

“Well after about 3 weeks of reinstatement, I, along with other probationary employees at NOAA, officially got 're-fired' today,” tweeted Dr. Andy Hazelton, who was a hurricane modeling scientist at the agency. “What a wild and silly process this has been.”

The firing of the NOAA workers comes just months before the official start of hurricane season, which usually begins on June 1 each year. The agency's forecasting experts are a critical tool for the administrations of hurricane-prone states as they make preparations to evacuate residents in the event of a major storm.

And aside from hurricane season, NOAA also assists with weather mapping that helps track thunderstorm patterns and alert Americans to potential tornadoes during the spring months. In an interview with the Guardian, Hazelton said that while remaining staff will do their best despite the cuts, the significant reduction in staffing will make their jobs more difficult.

“It’s going to create problems across the board,” Hazelton told the outlet. “It may be a slow process but the forecasts are going to suffer and as a result people will suffer.”

The loss of staffing at NOAA could also be felt beyond the United States' borders. According to the Guardian, other countries rely on findings from NOAA's scientists, satellites and intelligence. The agency has information-sharing agreements with countries in the Caribbean region, which can help local governments better prepare for disasters in the event of a major hurricane in the area.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Leonard Leo

Right-Wing Group Linked To Koch And Leo Sues Trump Over Tariffs

President Donald Trump's tariff announcement last week has not only rattled financial markets, but even a group of far-right billionaires who have a history of supporting Republican causes.

The Guardian reported that a far-right group funded by multibillionaire Charles Koch and the Federalist Society's Leonard Leo is now suing to stop Trump's new trade duties on China from taking effect. The New Civil Liberties Alliance argued that Trump's invocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify his unilateral imposition of new tariffs is illegal, and that the courts should intervene based on precedent that requires Congress weigh in on certain policy-related matters.

“This statute authorizes specific emergency actions like imposing sanctions or freezing assets to protect the United States from foreign threats,” the organization stated. “It does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. In its nearly 50-year history, no other president – including President Trump in his first term – has ever tried to use the IEEPA to impose tariffs.”

"His attempt to use the IEEPA this way not only violates the law as written, but it also invites application of the supreme court’s major questions doctrine, which tells courts not to discern policies of ‘vast economic and political significance’ in a law without explicit congressional authorization," the statement continued.

Mark Chenoweth, who is president of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, said that by filing the lawsuit in a Pensacola, Florida court, the judge would have to abide by the aforementioned precedent, or else it would ultimately "transfer core legislative power." And Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) — who recently voted with Democrats to limit Trump's tariff powers on Canada — opined that his colleagues in the Senate Republican Conference are also likely very uneasy about the president's latest new import taxes,

“They all see the stock market, and they’re all worried about it,” Paul said. “But they are putting on a stiff upper lip to try to act as if nothing’s happening and hoping it goes away.”

The lawsuit also signals an escalation from the various arms of the Koch political machine. His Americans for Prosperity organization threw its weight behind former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, only for her to bow out and eventually endorse Trump after Trump won the Super Tuesday primaries.

After this article appeared, a spokesperson for Stand Together contacted The National Memo with the following statement: "Stand Together, a nonprofit funded in part by Charles Koch that has supported NCLA is not involved in this case."


Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

In Idaho, MAGA Party Official Snitches On GOP Legislator For Hiring 'Illegals'

In Idaho, MAGA Party Official Snitches On GOP Legislator For Hiring 'Illegals'

One Republican state representative in Idaho was recently caught off-guard when a far-right political activist had Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents sent to her potato farm.

According to Newsweek, Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen — who is serving her second term in Idaho House District 32A — is now publicly railing against Ada County, Idaho Republican Party vice chairman Ryan Spoon in an op-ed. Mickelsen recalled in a recent essay for the Idaho Statesman that Spoon had ICE agents deployed to her farm, which resulted in them arresting one farm worker roughly a week after Spoon tweeted at President Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan. She didn't mention Spoon by name but referred to him as "someone working remotely for an insurance company who thinks he knows Idaho values and the [agriculture] business better than you do."

"Could you please send some illegal immigration raids to the businesses owned by Idaho state Rep. Stephanie Mickelson," Spoon wrote on January 21, misspelling Mickelsen's name. "She has been bragging about how many illegals her businesses employ."

Mickelsen wrote in her op-ed that her farm "complies with all applicable laws regarding employment and immigration," though she would also "welcome improvements to the laws and enforcement." But she didn't spare her critics among the GOP base who criticized her for acknowledging that large and influential sectors of the economy like agriculture are heavily reliant on immigrant labor.

"As a state representative, I’ve experienced this firsthand," Mickelsen wrote in her op-ed. "For honestly discussing real issues relating to immigration policy — recognizing both the need for border security and the reality that critical aspects of our economy depend on foreign workers — I’ve become the target of intimidation tactics designed to silence me."

On his social media channels, Spoon has repeatedly targeted Mickelsen over her comments about the outsized role undocumented labor plays in the American economy. He's also amplified content from an account called "Stop Idaho RINOs" [Republicans In Name Only] including a floor speech in which she cautioned her fellow Republicans against immigration measures that could harm the Gem State's economy. Newsweek also reported that a University of Idaho study found that roughly 35,000 undocumented immigrants work in Idaho's agriculture, hospitality and construction industries.

"If you guys think that you haven't been touched by an illegal immigrants' hands in some way, either your traveling or your food, you are kidding yourselves,' she said earlier this month.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

White Supremacist terrorist group

Historian: Trump's Third Term Yearning May Provoke 'January 6 Scenario'

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump once again flirted with the idea of running for a third term, not ruling it out entirely in an NBC News interview.

But on Monday, presidential historian Tim Naftali told CNN that after the ratification of the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, term-limited presidents have no legal way to stay in power. He pointed out that short of the arduous process of amending the Constitution (which involves getting two-thirds support among state legislatures and two-thirds support from both chambers of Congress), Trump will have no choice but to leave the White House in January of 2029.

"President Trump does not have the Constitutional cards in this case," Naftali said. "There are only two scenarios by which you could constitutionally alter the the Constitution and allow him to run for a third term, and they both involve finding 38 states. Donald Trump knows that there aren't 38 red states."

CNN host Brianna Keilar then asked Naftali about the scenario in which Trump could mimic Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister under Dmitry Medvedev and ran the government behind the scenes before once again ascending to the presidency for yet another term. Keilar posited that Trump could run as Vice President JD Vance's running mate in 2028, only for Vance to then resign if elected and allow Trump to once again occupy the White House for four more years. However, Naftali threw cold water on that idea.

"The 12th amendment of our Constitution stipulates that no one can be a vice presidential candidate if they're not Constitutionally eligible to be president," he said. "That kind of Putin-Medvedev scenario is not possible in our country."

But the historian and New York University associate professor then pivoted to what he viewed as the most pressing question, which is: "Why is he talking this way?" Naftali explained that Trump "knows he doesn't have 38 states" and said that his talk of a third term has just three possible explanations. He added that the third option had particularly dark implications.

"One: Political theater. Donald Trump likes attention. He likes the fact we're talking about him right now. Maybe he's also hoping some people are going to say some things that are a little bit outrageous, which he can use to fundraise," he explained. "Number two, we're living in a in an increasingly evident culture of impunity. The president is using fear to get his way with universities, to get his way with law firms, to get his way with Congress, to get his way with Canada and Greenland and Panama and Ukraine. He's on a roll. And so why not talk about what he really wants, which is to stay in office as long as he can? The third is the January 6th scenario that the president, when he was in his first term, was capable of pushing for an unconstitutional and/or illegal way of staying in office. And maybe he is signaling to his supporters: 'Start thinking about ways we can stay through 2028 and 2029.'"

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Marco Rubio

Rubio Admits Immigrants Were Jailed For Political Speech

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now plainly saying that President Donald Trump's administration is targeting immigrants for detention and deportation if they support the wrong causes.

In the wake of this week's arrest of Tufts University graduate student Rumesya Ozturk (who was in the United States legally on an F-1 visa until it was revoked), mass protests have been taking place in the Boston, Massachusetts suburb of Somerville, attracting thousands of supporters. Ozturk co-authored an op-ed last year in the Tufts Daily calling on her school to divest its endowment from Israel due to its killing of Palestinian civilians.

Ozturk was on her way to meet friends to break her Ramadan fast when multiple masked agents with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) apprehended her on the sidewalk and put her in an unmarked vehicle. She's now in federal custody in Louisiana awaiting deportation proceedings despite a judge ordering the administration to keep her in Massachusetts.

ABC News reported Thursday that Rubio defended the administration's detention of Ozturk and other noncitizens by arguing he had the absolute right to revoke any visa for any immigrant — even if only for their political speech.

"It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa," Rubio said during a Thursday press conference. "If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us the reason you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus -- we're not going to give you a visa."

"If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States, and with that visa, participate in that sort of activity, we're going to take away your visa," he added. "And once you've lost your visa, you're no longer legally in the United States. And we have a right, like every country in the world has a right, to remove you from our country. So it's just that simple."

Ozturk is just the latest noncitizen to be singled out by the Trump administration for deportation due to her pro-Palestinian activism. Her arrest comes on the heels of the DHS arresting Dr. Badar Khan Suri — a postgraduate student at Georgetown University who was in the U.S. legally on a student visa — at his Virginia home last week. Suri's attorney argued his arrest was due to his activism for pro-Palestinian causes. Trump's DHS also recently arrested 21 year-old green card holder and Columbia University student Yunseo Chung, who has been in the U.S. since she was seven years old. Assistant U.S. attorney Perry Carbone said the administration aimed to revoke her legal permanent residency "due to the situation with the protesting."

The Trump administration is also attempting to deport Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who was a central figure in last year's pro-Palestine protests on the Ivy League school's campus. Khalil, who is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested and placed in deportation proceedings without being formally charged with a crime. The administration has argued that it has the right to do so under a statute that deems any noncitizen whose presence could present a threat to a president's foreign policy can be deported. Khalil's attorney counters that his client's potential deportation is in retaliation for his activism.

Former American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen told Reason magazine earlier this month that while noncitizens — including undocumented immigrants — have the same First Amendment rights as citizens with regard to civil and criminal issues, those rights are less clear when it pertains to the deportation process. According to the New York Times' German Lopez: "The federal government has nearly absolute power over immigration, including its ability to deport noncitizens; it gets to decide who comes and then stays in this country, potentially at the expense of constitutional rights."

Senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller said last year that he aimed to ramp up deportation of immigrants based on their political views. During a speech to National Rifle Association activists in February of 2024, he said the second Trump administration would target "people who were let in on visas but whose views, attitudes, and beliefs make them ineligible to stay in the country." Trump also told campaign donors during a May 2024 meeting that he would prioritize the deportation of immigrants who protested for pro-Palestinian causes. And the Washington Post reported this week that the Trump administration is now ordering colleges to give them the names and nationalities of noncitizen student protesters.

"One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country," Trump said. "You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Pardoned January 6 Defendant Wants His Child Porn Indictment Dismissed Too

Pardoned January 6 Defendant Wants His Child Porn Indictment Dismissed Too

One man granted clemency by President Donald Trump for laying siege to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 is now hoping that his pardon will be extended to a separate charge for possession of child pornography.

Politico legal correspondent Kyle Cheney tweeted Wednesday that the legal counsel for 37 year-old David Paul Daniel of North Carolina is now arguing in federal court that his client's child pornography charge should be thrown out based on what he admitted was an "unprecedented legal question."

In the 14-page filing submitted to U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, attorney William Terpening asserted that Trump's January 20 executive order pardoning the approximately 1,500 people charged in connection with January 6 also covers Daniel's alleged possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) due to how it was obtained by law enforcement.

According to Terpening, when police executed a search warrant on Daniel's property and subsequently found an iPhone and a laptop that contained images of a "nude minor female," they were doing so as part of the January 6 charge. He then posited that because Trump pardoned his client for the January 6 charge, the other "derivative" charges that were brought about as a result of the initial charge should be automatically dismissed.

"A pardon completely exonerates a person — it is as if the conviction that is pardoned was never prosecuted in the first instance," Terpening wrote. "The expansive effect of Trump’s Executive Order in erasing not only Mr. Daniel’s January 6 crime, but also any basis for prosecuting it in the first instance, is apparent from the Executive Order’s plain text, which describes the DC Case as 'a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years' ... The Order’s intent is undisputedly to convey that the DC Case had no legal basis."

Terpening further argued that the Trump administration's Department of Justice has intervened on behalf of other January 6 defendants facing separate charges that were brought about as a result of January 6-related search warrants. The filing noted that in the case of Capitol rioter Elias Costianes — who had illegal weapons seized at his home following the execution of the initial search warrant — the Trump DOJ clarified in federal court that Trump's pardon extended to the gun charge.

Additionally, January 6 defendant Jeremy Brown, who was convicted on both possession of illegal weapons and classified information from his time in the U.S. military, also had his other charges thrown out. Terpening also attempted to bolster his case by looping in the case of Daniel Ball, who was arrested on federal gun charges just one day after Trump handed down his pardon, but later had those charges dismissed by the DOJ.

"Although the crimes with which Costianes, Ball, and Brown were charged in Maryland and Florida were unrelated to their January 6 charges, the government concluded that the Executive Order required their dismissal because they were based on information discovered by the government during January 6 related searches," Terpening wrote. "Mr. Daniel’s pardon in the DC Case requires dismissal of the unrelated charges in this case because the evidence allegedly supporting the instant charges was discovered during a January 6 related search."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Trump Issues New Executive Order On Election Procedures To 'Rig Midterms'

Trump Issues New Executive Order On Election Procedures To 'Rig Midterms'

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump issued a new executive order targeting voter eligibility and voting by mail. Various experts, journalists and commentators are now concerned that Trump may be attempting to put his thumb on the scale ahead of next year's midterm elections.

According to the Washington Post, the order "could prevent millions of Americans from voting" if it passes legal muster. Notably, the order mandates that states require voters provide a "government-issued documentary proof of citizenship" upon registering to vote, and that only Real ID drivers' licenses and passports are accepted, whereas birth certificates alone are not sufficient. The order would also ban states from counting mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day, which would be a significant curtailing of voting by mail (states allowing vote-by-mail typically count ballots after Election Day provided that they were postmarked on or before Election Day).

SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah accused Trump of "trying to rig [the] 2026 election" with the order, and argued that "banning birth certificates is RIGGING!" Alexei Koseff, who covers the California state capitol for CalMatters, said the order has "huge implications" for residents of the largest state in the union, given how much of the Golden State votes by mail. Ottawa,

Canada-based radio journalist Andy Pinsent observed: "When this is inevitably shut down by the courts, the [White House] will posture that 'radical judges want illegal immigrants to vote.'" And author Mitchell Plitnick flatly asserted: "The order is illegal. This is Trump testing to see if he can get away with it. Win or lose, you can bet this is only the first volley in a campaign to undermine free and fair elections."

"When they said 'voter fraud' it meant they wanted to do it," University of Iowa associate sociology professor Victor Ray wrote on Bluesky.

When combing through the full text of the executive order itself, Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic instructor Alejandra Caraballo noticed one line that stood out to her. The order stipulates that the Department of Homeland Security will coordinate with the administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — which is unofficially led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — to "review each state's publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities."

"Elon Musk would now be in charge of the databases determining voter eligibility," Caraballo wrote.

"I don't say that the law won't stop this and elections won't matter because I'm a doomer. I'm saying this so people understand the moment we're in. We're no longer a democracy," she continued. "People need to accurately diagnose the problem before they can fix it and waiting for the courts or elections isn't it."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Marco Rubio

What Trump Officials Caught Leaking War Plans Said About 'Her Emails'

Several high-profile officials in President Donald Trump's administration were recently caught in a scandal after text messages discussing classified war plans made their way to a journalist. Now, their past remarks over a different scandal involving classified information are coming to light.

The texts were sent on the messaging app Signal, which, while encrypted, is still relatively vulnerable compared to secured government phones. Goldberg noted in his report that Signal "is not approved by the government for sharing classified information." Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reacted to the news with an open-eye emoji, tweeting: "You have got to be kidding me."

In a thread on X, Sarah Longwell — who is publisher of the anti-Trump conservative news outlet The Bulwark — compiled a series of video clips of some of the Trump Cabinet officials in the text thread offering their take on Clinton's use of a private email server ahead of the 2016 election.

"Mishandling classified information is a still a violation of the Espionage Act," Ratcliffe said in a Fox News clip from 2016. "It started with Hillary Clinton, it has continued without accountability, people haven't paid a price for that."

"Neither she nor any of these other people are going to be above the law," Rubio said in a Fox News segment posted to his official Twitter account. "Whether it's her, or Eric Holder for what he did on Fast and Furious, we're going to hold people accountable."

"Apparently, the standard operating procedure inside the Clinton secretary of state office was to send emails that couldn't otherwise be printed to the maid to print them out of a secure area, or from a secure area, and then hand them off," Hegseth said just one day before the 2016 election. "Any security professional — military, government or otherwise — would be fired on the spot for this type of conduct, and criminally prosecuted, for being so reckless with this kind of information."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

House Republican Furious Over New York Social Security Office Closing

House Republican Furious Over New York Social Security Office Closing

One House Republican in a swing district is now publicly rebuking President Donald Trump's administration after one of his budget cuts directly impacted his constituents.

Acting Social Security Administration (SSA) head Leland Dudek recently announced that he would be not be renewing the lease on the agency's office in White Plains, New York when it comes up on May 31, and that he was rejecting a bipartisan effort by Reps. George Latimer (D-NY) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) to keep it open. Dudek attributed the closure to persistent mold issues in the building that the General Services Administration (GSA) had been unable to address.

In a letter to Dudek, both Latimer and Lawler emphasized that the White Plains office was the only one serving residents in the Lower Hudson Valley, and that closing it would make it that much harder for their constituents to be able to attend hearings that will determine their benefits. He tweeted: "Concerns about mold don’t justify abandoning folks in the Lower Hudson Valley."

"The decision to close the only Social Security Hearing Office in the Hudson Valley is a slap in the face to thousands of my constituents who rely on these services," Lawler stated. "This office handles over 2,000 backlogged cases and conducts hundreds of in-person hearings every year. Telling my constituents that they now have to travel hours to Lower Manhattan, New Haven, the Bronx or Goshen is completely unacceptable."

According to South African centibillionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the lease on the White Plains office is approximately $511,000 per year. And that lease is one of nearly two dozen cancelled for the SSA across multiple states. Like Reps. Latimer and Lawler, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has cautioned against closing the White Plains office, stressing that the building is vital for thousands of New Yorkers who rely on SSA benefits.

"As the only hearing office in the lower Hudson Valley region, it’s closure will negatively impact thousands of constituents who reside in these seven counties," Gillibrand wrote in a February letter. "If SSA does not open an alternative site, beneficiaries will be required to travel between 24 and 135 miles to be serviced by the closest office in New York City, Albany, New Jersey and Connecticut."

Lawler's public stance against one of Trump's budget cuts is particularly noteworthy, given that he recently lauded the administration's efforts to cut out "waste, fraud and abuse" in government agencies during a tele-town hall. The New York Republican didn't specifically talk about DOGE's cuts to the SSA, but he did tell constituents: "There are things they're doing that I think are beneficial. There are other things where I think they're going very fast, and they need to dot their i's and cross their t's before pulling the trigger."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

'Insanity': At Pentagon, Musk Will Gain Access To Top-Secret US War Plans

'Insanity': At Pentagon, Musk Will Gain Access To Top-Secret US War Plans

South African centibillionaire Elon Musk — one of President Donald Trump's closest advisors — is now reportedly scheduled to receive a top-secret briefing involving the United States' top-secret plans in the event the nation goes to war with China.

The New York Times reported Thursday evening that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO will be visiting the Pentagon on Friday to get "access to some of the nation’s most closely guarded military secrets." Those war plans are detailed in "20 to 30 slides" that reveal exactly how the U.S. would plan to fight a war against the world's most populous nation and second-largest economy. The Times Julian E. Barnes, Maggie Haberman, Eric Lipton, Ryan Mac and Eric Schmitt noted that the briefing comes despite Musk having "extensive financial interests in China."

"If a foreign country was to learn how the United States planned to fight a war against them, it could reinforce its defenses and address its weaknesses, making the plans far less likely to succeed," the reporters wrote.

Some Musk critics expressed worry that China has significant leverage over the centibillionaire. Progressive activist Murshed Zaheed opined that the Times' reporting included "bats--- crazy" details about Musk's potential conflicts of interest toward the end of the report. In the final five paragraphs of the article, the Times reported that the Tesla factory in Shanghai — which was "built with special permission from the Chinese government" — is responsible for "more than half of Tesla's global deliveries." Tesla also has a $2.8 billion loan agreement with Chinese lenders "for production expenditures."

Consultant Matt Ortega pointed out that Chinese President Xi Jinping could simply tell Musk to "provide us with the U.S. war plan or we will close your Shanghai factory." Journalist Radley Balko exclaimed that Musk getting access to Chinese war plans was "insanity." Former FBI counterterrorism official Frank Figliuzzi called Musk getting the war plans a "clear and present danger." And author and journalist Tim Weiner reminded his followers that Vivek Ramaswamy — who co-founded the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Musk — once said in 2023 that the tech billionaire would "jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need."

"If you give the war plans to Musk, you might as well give them to China," Weiner wrote on Bluesky.

Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell implied to the Times that Musk's visit was merely casual, saying: "The Defense Department is excited to welcome Elon Musk to the Pentagon on Friday. He was invited by Secretary Hegseth and is just visiting."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Social Security Official Warns Musk Plan Will Delay Payments To Needy Elderly

Social Security Official Warns Musk Plan Will Delay Payments To Needy Elderly

One top official in the Social Security Administration (SSA) just acknowledged in a memo that President Donald Trump's plans for one of its offices could make it harder for some people to receive their benefits.

According to Judd Legum's Popular information newsletter, the memo by acting SSA deputy commissioner Doris Diaz details how additional efforts to curb fraudulent payments could impact elderly people who are lacking in digital literacy. Diaz explained that the agency's new "internet identity proofing" for claims made "over the phone" are likely to create significant roadblocks for beneficiaries.

Under the new internet identity proofing process, beneficiaries making claims over the phone (which Popular Information estimates make up 40 percent of all Social Security claims) would be asked to verify their identity online. But because many beneficiaries are elderly and don't have internet access, this would require beneficiaries to visit a Social Security office in-person in order to verify their identity.

In one section of the memo, Diaz predicted this influx of in-person visits would cause "service disruption," "operational strain" and "budget shortfalls." She estimated that the number of in-person visitors to Social Security offices would number between 75,000 to 80,000 per week. This is on top of the administration already slashing jobs at the agency, making it more difficult for the employees who are left to process claims in a timely manner.

"SSA offices do not currently have the resources to handle an influx of in-person appointments of this size. In 2023, the most recent data available, there were about 119,128 daily visits, on average, to SSA offices," Legum wrote. "Eight-five thousand more week visits would be a 14% increase. SSA offices no longer accept walk-ins and the wait time for an appointment, even before these changes, averaged over a month."

South African centibillionaire Elon Musk has been unofficially leading the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has been making sweeping cuts to multiple federal agencies with Trump's blessing. Musk has repeatedly called for cutting Social Security to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, falsely asserting that he's only cutting fraudulent payments. In reality, fraudulent payments only account for approximately $9 billion, which is less than 1% of money paid out, and is almost always in the form of overpayments to legal beneficiaries.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Experts Warn: Autocrat Trump 'Now Thinks He's The Law'

Experts Warn: Autocrat Trump 'Now Thinks He's The Law'

Several top legal experts are now sounding the alarm over the implications of President Donald Trump testing the extent of the federal judiciary's enforcement power.

NBC News reported Monday that Trump's ongoing standoff with the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia over two recent deportation flights has some in the legal community worried about the health of the United States' system of checks and balances. Kimberly Wehle, who is a law professor at the University of Baltimore, told the network that Americans are now "watching the accumulation of power in one person, which is antithetical to our constitutional democracy."

"He now is the law,” Wehle said. “He decides what’s legal and not legal. He decides winners and losers, and it’s arbitrary.”

Over the weekend, Judge James Boasberg — who was appointed by former President Barack Obama — ruled that Trump did not have the authority under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelan immigrants who the administration alleges are members of a violent gang. Boasberg pointed out that the law the administration invoked had only been used three times in U.S. history, and only against foreign governments. His ruling ordered that the deportation flights be turned back around as alleged gang members were not on the same legal footing as a foreign government.

Boasberg's ruling enraged both Trump and his supporters, with some MAGA-aligned voices — including Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) — calling on Boasberg to be impeached. One unnamed Trump advisor told NBC that they viewed Boasberg as an "activist" judge who was blocking "the mandate we were given."

According to Ilya Somin, who is a law professor at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School, the administration's position in the two deportation flights "seems like more explicit defiance" than previous actions, like refusing to disburse funds already appropriated by Congress.

“If the executive can defy court orders whenever they feel like it, they are essentially not constrained by the Constitution and the laws anymore,” he added. “If they defy court orders and get away with it, they can basically do things that are illegal and there would be no easy way of stopping them."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

'Universal Revulsion': Top American CEOs 'Privately' Disgusted With Trump

'Universal Revulsion': Top American CEOs 'Privately' Disgusted With Trump

Several top corporate CEOs recently confided that despite their public shows of fealty to President Donald Trump, they are less than flattering of him behind closed doors.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump was the main topic of conversation a gathering of corporate executives at the Yale CEO Caucus earlier this week. The economy has been on a roller coaster ride since Trump announced — and then almost immediately withdrew — punishing new tariffs on all goods imported from Canada and Mexico. Twenty-five percent tariffs on Canadian imported steel and aluminum products went into effect Wednesday, however.

When Trump suggested doubling his steel and aluminum tariffs, the roomful of CEOs — which included JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Pfizer CEO Albert Boula and Dell CEO Michael Dell — the room "responded with a mix of groans and shocked laughter, according to the Journal.

"There was universal revulsion against the Trump economic policies," Yale School of Management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who organized the event, told the paper. "They’re also especially horrified about Canada."

Bill George, who is the former CEO of Medtronic, remarked that the corporate world has since learned to keep its criticisms of the 47th president of the United States under wraps out of fear of retribution. He said he was "struck by how fearful people are and how unwilling they are to speak out," adding that executives "don’t want to get on the wrong side of the president and his constituents."

He went on to lament the new uncertain economic climate that has taken hold in Trump's second term, which has lately seen financial markets dip precipitously this week as investors fear a trade war. He said companies are worried that outbursts from Trump could end up hurting their bottom line, leading some to consider moves to curry favor with the regime in order to be spared from his wrath.

“The mood has totally changed,” George said. “What you’re hearing publicly is not what you’re going to hear privately.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Busted! Trump Official Posted Fashion Videos While Defending Federal Layoffs

Busted! Trump Official Posted Fashion Videos While Defending Federal Layoffs

The communications director for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was recently caught doubling as a fashion influencer on social media — while using her government office as a backdrop in an apparent violation of federal rules.

That's according to a Tuesday article in CNN, which reported that McLaurine Pinover posted videos of herself modeling clothing to her Instagram account from her OPM office. Some of those videos included affiliate links to sites where the clothing she was wearing was being sold. Pinover was eligible to be paid commission based on site visitors who bought those clothing items after clicking the links from Pinover's videos.

CNN further reported that Pinover was working as an influencer while simultaneously "defending mass layoffs of federal workers" as an employee of OPM's communications office. The network's Audrey Ash, Curt Devine and Casey Tolan observed that Pinover "posted a video blowing a kiss to the camera with the caption 'work look' and the hashtag #dcinfluencer" on the same day her employer "sent a government-wide memo pressing federal officials to identify barriers they faced in their work to 'swiftly terminate poor performing employees.'"

On February 13 — the same day OPM held a call with multiple federal agencies instructing them to fire thousands of probationary employees — Pinover posted another fashion-related video to her Instagram account. Several former OPM staffers said that was also the same day that roughly 20 of Pinover's coworkers in the agency's communications office were laid off.

"While her team is getting axed, she’s twirling around in her office," a former OPM employee told CNN.

The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (ECFR) has explicit rules for federal employees mandating that only official work be performed during official work hours, especially while using agency office space. ECFR § 2635.705 instructs employees to "use official time in an honest effort to perform official duties."

"Employees not under a leave system, including Presidential appointees exempted under 5 U.S.C. 6301(2), have an obligation to expend an honest effort and a reasonable proportion of their time in the performance of official duties," ECFR guidelines read.

CNN reported that many of Pinover's videos were posted during the daytime, and during work hours. However, Pinover's Instagram handle, @getdressedwithmc, was apparently deleted several minutes after the network contacted her.

Pinover added content to her Instagram account regularly, where she had approximately 800 followers, and her most recent video was posted Tuesday. One former OPM communications staffer recognized the background as the office of the agency's communications director, who said: “I saw it, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, that’s my office.'"

“She’s the spokesperson for the agency that is advocating for the firing based on performance and efficiency of the rest of the government workforce, and she’s using government property as a backdrop for her videos," the staffer said.

South African centibillionaire Elon Musk, who unofficially leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has asserted on multiple occasions that federal agencies are rife with unproductive employees. In January, he posted to his X social media platform: "Pretending to work while taking money from taxpayers is no longer acceptable."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet