Elon Musk “rented” a booth at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and didn’t leave until Christmas, according to a recent New York Times article. Musk is expected to return next week.
Since election night, Musk has been staying at Banyan Tree, one of the closest cottages to the main house at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump and his circle of relatives are staying. While other members of Trump’s inner circle have also grown older in ownership, none have been as consistent as the billionaire CEO, sources familiar with the matter told the Times.
Trump is said to have boasted about the fact that the world’s richest man is “renting” one of his properties. But no one knows if Trump will end up charging Musk for the stay. The Banyan usually rents around $2,000 a night. Trump reportedly increased the club’s annual pay to Mar-a-Lago to $1 million.
This underscores how close Trump and Musk have grown this year, and especially since the election. The Times noted that Trump posted on Truth Social a message meant privately for Musk, which read: “Where are you? When are you coming to the ‘Center of the Universe,’ Mar-a-Lago. Bill Gates asked to come, tonight. We miss you and x! New Year’s Eve is going to be AMAZING!!! DJT.”
Other members of Trump’s inner circle have griped about this bromance, complaining that Musk is overstepping boundaries. Musk has attempted to smooth things over with posts on X, but the “President Musk” meme persists.
Laura Loomer is still done with Elon Musk.
Appearing on Steve Bannon’s War Room, the anti-immigration activist on Monday torched the billionaire as a “welfare queen” and technocrat with outsize influence on U.S. politics thanks to his ongoing relationship with Donald Trump.
“If you have a bunch of tech bros with billions of dollars and direct unfettered access to the vice president and the president of the United States, and then they are also very cordial with our adversaries as in China and Iran—we see that Elon Musk is having these meetings off the books with Iranian officials, with Chinese officials—what does that mean for us?” Loomer posited.
The self-proclaimed “white defender” in a social media fight with the Tesla CEO last week over Musk’s fiery defense of the H-1B paint visa program, which he says offers a solution to a “permanent shortage of engineers “appropriate. ” Far-right parties in conflict with the immigration program (and Musk’s position) say the H-1B visa deters corporations from hiring American labor.
In several posts, Loomer accused Musk of “buying his way into MAGA,” claimed he was a pawn of China and said a “divorce” between the “class five” and President-elect Donald Trump was on the horizon.
That was enough to strip Loomer of her verified prestige on the site, a loss that she said justified a public call for Musk to reinstate her blue check. Loomer has been banned from virtually every social media platform due to his inflammatory and violent rhetoric.
The H-1B visa program has an annual cap set by Congress, admitting 65,000 foreign workers per year. In 2023, it was estimated that there were more than 700,000 H-1B visa holders in the U.S., according to data from the American Immigration Council.
The worst person you know just made some great points pic.twitter.com/26uPBN0xzD
The German government has accused Elon Musk of using his platform X to influence their election.
“It is true that Elon Musk is going to influence the federal elections,” German government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann told reporters on Monday. He added that Musk is flexible when it comes to expressing his opinion on German politics: “At the end of the day, freedom of opinion also encompasses the greatest nonsense. “
“Chancellor Oaf Schitz, or his so-called, will lose,” Musk said in reaction to X, referring to current German chancellor and center-left social democrat Olaf Scholz.
Musk has been a spokesman for Germany’s right-wing, anti-immigration party, Alternative for Germany, or AfD, for weeks. Earlier this month, the billionaire wrote: “Only the AfD can save Germany. Last week, he wrote an op-ed. In the newspaper Welt am Sonntag he wrote about the party, calling it “the last spark of hope. “
“The AfD, while presenting itself as far-right, represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel their considerations are being ignored by the establishment,” Musk wrote. “Painting the AfD as far-right is obviously wrong, given that Alice Weidel, the leader of the party, has a same-sex spouse from Sri Lanka!Does this remind you of Hitler?
The newspaper’s opinion editor resigned after this article was published.
Musk was also extremely influential as an advocate for President-elect Donald Trump this election cycle, and will likely continue to be as he co-leads DOGE with Vivek Ramaswamy.
As for Germany, the results of his meddling are still unknown. Their election will be held on February 23, 2025.
Following his death, numerous obituaries paid tribute to President Jimmy Carter as a committed and disciplined public servant. President Joe Biden, the first senator to endorse Carter’s run for the White House in 1976, described the century-old Democrat as a guy and politician who “embodied Huguy’s ultimate core values. “
But few eulogies for the one-term Georgian have underscored his firm moral positions on U.S. foreign policy, which effusively torched both parties for transforming the United States into what he once described as “the most warlike country on earth.”
Here are some of his most powerful quotes:
1. “A superpower is not only the first country in terms of military power, which we will continue to be, but I think the purpose of the American superpower is to be the champion of peace and to be the champion of peace. humans, the champion of the environment and the most generous country on the planet,” Jimmy Carter said in 2015, later noting that the United States had only been at peace for 16 of the 242 years it had existed. like a country.
“We had no explanation for why we were worried recently in Iraq,” Carter told The Independent in 2004, long before the top politician dared to criticize the US invasion. “It is a war founded on lies and misinterpretations from London and Washington. “
3. “We cannot be peacemakers if American government leaders are seen as unthinking supporters of any and all actions or policies of the Israeli government currently in place. This is an essential fact that will have to be faced. Carter wrote those words in Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid, criticizing Israel for its failure to end its profession of Palestine, its apartheid formula, and its continued punishment of Palestinians.
Facing intense backlash from right-wing Israel pressure groups, Carter doubled down, arguing that balanced debate on the two nations was “practically non-existent” in Congress and the executive branch, and accused American leaders of being in Israel’s pocket.
Despite direct orders from President-elect Donald Trump, some House Republicans appear to be in a position to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Trump voiced his support for Johnson on Monday, just two weeks after the president clashed with several House Republicans outraged over his proposing a lengthy bipartisan bill to fund the government. And despite Trump’s series, not all Republicans are following his lead.
Rep. Andy Biggs is the latest to sign his reluctance to adhere to the president-elect’s marching orders. During an interview on Fox News on Monday, the Arizona Republican said he’s not in Johnson’s bag yet.
“I haven’t committed myself publicly or privately yet,” Biggs said. “I want to talk to the president just to see what his plans are, because there are some issues that I think need to be addressed, specifically those similar to the budget. “
Rep. Thomas Massie doubled down on his opposition to Johnson in an article published Monday, drawing on the unpopular House speaker who was once defended through Trump.
“I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan,” Massie wrote. “We’ve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget.”
Faced with his amazement at Trump’s trial, billionaire technocrat Elon Musk responded: “You may be right, but let’s see how it goes. “»
Massie wasn’t the only one Ryan mentioned. Rep. Victoria Spartaz asked Johnson on Monday how he will stick to Trump’s schedule to the letter before he can deign to help him as president.
“I understand why President Trump is supporting President Johnson in the same way he did with President Ryan, which is important. However, we still want to be sure that @SpeakerJohnson won’t sell us to the swamp,” he wrote in an article on X Monday. .
Spartz sent Johnson a list of demands, adding a request that “impartial professionals, not swamps” do his work. The two men are expected to discuss the list at a town hall meeting on Monday.
Steve Bannon thinks that Americans deserve reparations for having to coexist with immigrants on H-1B visas.
“We haven’t fought these battles over years and years and years to allow American citizens of every race, ethnicity, religion, be gutted by the sociopathic overlords in Silicon Valley,” Bannon opined on his War Room show Monday morning. “David Sacks, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Elon Musk … there’s no reform. We want it gone.… We want reparations for the tech workers that you stole their lives.”
This is another episode of the schism between MAGA “America First” loyalists and MAGA tech plutocrats who need more highly professional immigrants. Former presidential candidate and current DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy lit the fire last week when he declared: “A culture that celebrates the prom queen more than the math Olympiad champion, or the top athlete. student, will not produce the most productive engineers,” he argues. that it was American culture that led CEOs to look elsewhere for labor. This talking point was picked up by Elon Musk and other right-wing techies, sparking a MAGA backlash that even included Nikki Haley. torchbearer of the old Republican status quo that was defeated by Trump last year.
“There is nothing related to American personnel or American culture,” Haley wrote. “Just look at the border and see how many other people need what we have. We deserve to invest and prioritize Americans, not foreign personnel.
This anti-H-1B energy has culminated in Bannon’s calls for reparations, something usually invoked for African Americans historically disenfranchised by slavery and racism.
“We’re going to get the H-1B visas out, root and root, and all the staff that you brought. Just as we’re deporting another 15 million people here, we need them to be deported,” Bannon later said. his program. ” And giving those jobs to American citizens today. . . We ask that they obtain reparations. You stole from them.
Donald Trump tried to stem the growing tide against House Speaker Mike Johnson Monday with a post endorsing his reelection, but whether all House Republicans are actually interested in getting back on the bandwagon is another issue entirely.
In a rambling article on Truth Social Monday, Trump suggested the “Party of COMMON SENSE” to Johnson’s attempt to retain the gavel in the new year.
“LETS NOT BLOW THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY WHICH WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN. The American people need IMMEDIATE relief from all of the destructive policies of the last Administration. Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!” he wrote. Most of the post’s word count was dedicated to his own “flawless” reelection campaign.
By expressing support for Johnson, Trump has established a new loyalty check for House Republicans.
Earlier this month, Johnson came under fire after introducing a 1,547-page continuing resolution to keep the government open until March, among a slew of other bipartisan provisions, inviting the outrage of small-government types like technocrat billionaire Elon Musk, and a slate of sycophantic Republicans.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie was so disappointed that he said he would not vote for Johnson in the House speaker election in January.
Johnson then worked with Trump on crafting another spending bill that suspended the debt ceiling, one of the president-elect’s core demands. But this time, 38 House Republicans broke with Trump and voted against the bill. In the end, Trump’s demand that Republicans find a way to raise or abolish the debt ceiling got left on the cutting room floor.
Last week, Rep. Andy Harris, who chairs the far-right House Freedom Caucus, said Republicans want to ask themselves whether their current leadership “is what we want” and that he was “undecided” about what the House leadership will look like. Camera in the future. . .
Many other Republicans have also expressed their displeasure with Johnson, as it appears that the GOP’s anti-establishment bent has backfired on him.
Elon Musk is asking you to make X a more upbeat place.
The tech billionaire made the plea to his 209 million X fans on Sunday, blaming the site’s users for replacing his dwindling social media investment over himself.
“Please post content that is a little more positive or informative on this platform,” Musk said.
The X accounts were quick to put the ball back in Musk’s court, urging him to create a set of rules where positive content can simply proliferate.
“You first,” snapped back lawyer and bluegrass banjo player Steve Martin.
“Have you had enough of the poisonous wasteland you’ve created?Karen Piper replied.
Musk likely began to notice his site’s more toxic elements after he became enmeshed in a far-right feud over H-1B work visas last week. Last week, Musk vowed to “go to war on this issue,” insisting that foreign tech workers need to be allowed to work in the U.S. due to a “permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent.” That resulted in a backlash that has framed Musk and other H-1B proponents, like unofficial DOGE co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy, as MAGA targets amid Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda. (The H-1B visa program has an annual cap set by Congress, admitting 65,000 foreign workers per year. In 2023, it was estimated that there were more than 700,000 H-1B visa holders in the U.S., according to data from the American Immigration Council.)
But surely, if anyone is to blame for the site’s increasingly volatile and disturbing content, it’s none other than Musk himself.
In the early days of Musk’s takeover, Twitter witnessed a mass exodus of employees, with Musk claiming he was simply trimming fat by firing upwards of 80 percent of site staff. His “free speech agenda” has further capped and undermined the site’s content moderation abilities, allowing dangerous rhetoric to flow freely on his platform. His dismantling of the site’s infrastructure has also translated to monumental changes on the website that have proved overwhelmingly unpopular. His tweaked algorithm has aggressively promoted advertisements and reshare accounts, restructured threads to the point that they no longer elevate relevant replies, and has even swapped code to ensure his own posts universally appear at the top of users’ timelines.
But despite his plea, even the nastiest posts didn’t seem to bother Musk, who spread Nazi conspiracies through his private account and allowed 105 percent more anti-Semitic hate speech to spread on Twitter. platform, according to a 2023 study.
Last year, the tech billionaire admitted that the site had lost 90 percent of its value since he acquired it for $44 billion in 2022.
A three-star US Army general believes Elon Musk’s business relationships could make him a significant national security risk.
Retired Lt. Gen. Russell Honoré argued in a Sunday column in the New York Times that the SpaceX CEO’s willingness to capitulate to Chinese demands over the years mars his recent influence within Trump’s circle. all the more debatable.
Honoré referenced quotes from 2023 from Musk’s DOGE friend Vivek Ramaswamy to make his point. “I have no explanation for thinking that Elon won’t jump around like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls him in his time of need,” Ramaswamy said in an interview. “It is deeply concerning that @elonmusk met with China’s foreign minister yesterday to oppose decoupling and referred to the United States and communist China as ‘Siamese twins,'” he wrote elsewhere that year. “The United States wants leaders who are not in China’s pocket. »
Ramaswamy has since made peace with Musk, but his considerations persist. Musk and SpaceX have already been singled out three times through the Air Force, the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General and the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security for failing to disclose their relationships with foreign leaders, something their current security clearance requires. And their business in China won’t lead anywhere either.
Musk borrowed at least $1. 4 billion from Chinese government-controlled banks to finance his massive Tesla “gigafactory” in Shanghai. He borrowed the money knowing full well that Chinese law allows the Chinese Communist Party to request data from any company doing business in China in exchange. to do business there: a huge wake-up call for Honoré.
“Mr. Musk’s business dealings in China could require him to hand over sensitive classified information, learned either through his business interests or his proximity to President-elect Donald Trump. No federal agency has accused him of disclosing such material, but as Mr. Ramaswamy put it, China has recognized that U.S. companies are fickle,” Honoré wrote. “Mr. Musk’s relationship with China’s leaders could prove a problem for America’s national security given that SpaceX has a near monopoly on the United States’ rocket launches … the last thing the United States needs is for China to potentially have an easier way of obtaining classified intelligence and national security information.”
This angered both Democrats and Republicans. In 2022, Senator Marco Rubio accused Tesla of obstructing justice for the CCP, and in 2023 he introduced a bill to block NASA and other federal agencies from awarding contracts to Chinese Communist Party-related corporations. Two Democratic senators recently called for an investigation into Musk’s “trustworthiness as a government contractor and permit holder” because of his phone call with Vladimir Putin.
The line between civilians and elected officials has become more blurred as Musk strengthens his Trump inner circle. As Honoré wrote, the world’s richest man investing in Trump’s return to the presidency “does not give the new White House the right to close its eyes. ” beware of the dangers it could represent for national security. “
President Joe Biden is funneling funds to Ukraine before Donald Trump takes the reins on America’s response to the international conflict.
The outgoing leader announced another $6 billion in military and budget aid to Ukraine on Monday. About $1. 25 billion in military aid comes from U. S. reserves, and some other $1. 22 billion comes from Ukraine’s latest security aid package under Biden, Reuters reported. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also said the United States had provided $3. 4 billion in additional budget aid to Ukraine amid the ongoing standoff with Russia.
“The Department of Defense is delivering thousands of artillery shells, thousands of rockets, and armored car loads that will strengthen Ukraine’s position as winter approaches,” Biden said in a statement. “Under my leadership, the United States will continue to work tirelessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war for the remainder of my term. »
According to Biden, the budget will be used for critical resources and long-term air defense systems, artillery and other weapons systems.
More than 43,000 Ukrainian infantrymen have been killed since Russia invaded the Eastern European country in February 2022. Cities have been razed and 370,000 injured have been reported, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier this month. But Biden’s departure from the White House could mark the end of the United States’ commitment to helping the war-torn nation.
One of Trump’s biggest and boldest campaign promises was that he would immediately end the Russian invasion of Ukraine—though his philosophy on how to achieve that was suspiciously scant of details and, at times, veered toward solutions that would invariably aid Russia.
In June, keynotes provided through some of Trump’s advisers warned that Trump would be open to expanding U. S. arms aid to Ukraine on the condition that it show up for peace talks with Russia. Advisers anticipated that peace talks would also arrive quietly with the handover of Ukraine. component of the country recently occupied by Russian forces.
And some of Trump’s domestic decisions are reportedly “thrilling” Russian mouthpieces. Margarita Simonyan, the editor in chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, claimed earlier this month that some of Trump’s most unqualified choices for his Cabinet—such as DOGE co-chair nominee Vivek Ramaswamy and director of national intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard—are friendly faces that bring the Kremlin “lots of joy.”
Meanwhile, NATO (from which Trump has long threatened to withdraw the United States) favors an escalation on the Russian front. In early December, NATO leader Mark Rutte warned his members that the foreign alliance needed to adopt a “war mentality,” predicting years of clashes with Russia as the superpower crushes Ukrainian forces.
“Russia is preparing for long-term confrontation, with Ukraine and with us,” Rutte said during a speech in Brussels in which he highlighted the short distance to where “Russian bombs are falling … Iranian drones are flying,” and “North Korean soldiers are fighting.”
“We are not in a position to face what awaits us in 4 or five years’ time,” the Secretary-General continued. “It’s time to shift to a war mindset and breathe life into our defense production and spending. »