Elon Musk

An update on how the extremely public political breakup is going today, as protestors face off with federal immigration agents in Los Angeles.

Yesterday I wrote about Elon Musk’s fall from power. Today he is beefing with the president on X, instead of picking up his phone to make a call. Hm!

Were you feeling left out by the terrible economics of Musk’s Twitter buyout? Great news! xAI, which now owns Twit — I mean, X — is selling shares. Also, Neuralink, newly freed from those pesky FDA staffers overseeing its applications, raised more money. has raised $650 million. Plus, there will be a public demo in two weeks! You know, if I were a cynical person, I might think Musk was trying to publicly distance himself from his time at DOGE.

Despite Musk’s stated departure from DOGE (and attempts to talk up his focus on his businesses), sources tell Wired that DOGE-related efforts across federal agencies are “escalating.” President Trump confirmed on Friday that Musk’s “really not leaving,” either, as the tech billionaire says he expects “to continue to provide advice.”

When Musk bought Twitter, the banks that backed him were left with almost $13 billion of debt that was quickly branded toxic. Three years on, they’ve mostly made their money back, boosted by Trump’s election and a little help from Elon himself. As one banker put it: “It was a bet on the world’s richest man, and it paid off.”

Sahil Lavingia, the creator of Gumroad and one of the employees turned loose inside of the federal government, published a diary of his 55 days at DOGE. Some interesting details in here on how DOGE actually works, and what Lavingia found he could help improve. Oh, and the interview that might have gotten Lavingia canned? It’s mostly about how impressed he was with how well the federal government works.

The Information reports that three years ago, Musk offered Apple an 18-month exclusive connection via SpaceX in return for $5 billion up front, and $1 billion per year after that to support satellite-connected iPhone features. If Apple didn’t take it within 72 hours, he threatened to announce a competing feature.

In the two days leading up to being let go, former Tesla employee Matthew LaBrot published a website calling for Tesla to “move forward without Elon as CEO,” then attended a Tesla Takedown protest, reports Business Insider.

Even if Musk plans to take a step back from DOGE, his influence grows with each Starlink launch. Space is getting crowded with satellite internet companies vying to control the future of our information flows. Musk is crowding out the competition.

In a report published as part of X’s compliance with EU laws, the platform revealed that monthly active users in Europe decreased from around 105 million in October 2024 to 95 million as of April 2025. France lost the most users (2.7 million), followed by Poland (1.8 million) and Germany (1.3 million), as pointed out by Politico.

The restrictions on rare earth minerals and related magnets came in response to Trump’s escalating tariffs and we’re now seeing some direct impact. Tesla’s occasional CEO says his plan to build thousands of Optimus humanoid robots this year is contingent upon the availability of those magnets needed for the robot’s motors.

After finding the Elon Musk-owned Starlink’s terminals on the roof of the General Services Administration — which a law professor quoted by The Associated Press called a “choke point for all agencies” — federal staffers had concerns.