
'I am NOT taking drugs!' Musk denies damning report
Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the 2024 campaign trail.
The New York Times reported Friday that the billionaire adviser to President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems.
The newspaper said the world's richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January.
In a post Saturday on X, Musk said: "To be clear, I am NOT taking drugs! The New York Times was lying their ass off."
He added: "I tried 'prescription' ketamine a few years ago and said so on X, so this not even news. It helps for getting out of dark mental holes, but haven't taken it since then."
Musk first dodged a question about his drug use at a bizarre farewell appearance Friday with Trump in the Oval Office in which the Tesla and SpaceX boss sported a noticeable black eye as he formally ended his role as Trump's main cost-cutter at DOGE, which fired tens of thousands of civil servants.
News of the injury drew substantial attention as it came right after the Times report on his alleged drug use. The daily recalled erratic behavior such as Musk giving an enthusiastic Nazi-style salute in January of this year at a rally celebrating Trump's inauguration.
Musk said he got the injury while horsing around with his young son, named X, when he told the child to hit him in the face.
"And he did. Turns out even a five-year-old punching you in the face actually is..." he added, before tailing off.
Later Friday, when a reporter asked Trump if he was aware of Musk's "regular drug use," Trump responded: "I wasn't."
"I think Elon is a fantastic guy," he added.

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Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Gulf Today
‘Big beautiful bill' is a budget-busting boondoggle
Patricia Murphy, Tribune News Service Days before the House passed President Donald Trump's 'big beautiful bill,' Moody's Ratings agency had an ominous warning about the US economy. Because of America's recent history of running up huge debts and deficits, and no change in sight, 'the United States' fiscal performance is likely to deteriorate' relative to similar countries. As a part of that warning, Moody's downgraded the country's credit rating from its AAA score to AA1. Despite that red flag, House leaders forged ahead, passing their 10-year tax-and-spend plan, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, by a single vote. Unfortunately, the bill not only ignores Moody's debt warning, it looks more like one big, beautiful boondoggle. Included in the gargantuan bill are $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, more than $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, and other social programs, and significant boosts in spending for defense and immigration enforcement. Costs of some social programs, including food stamps, are also shifted to states by the House. My colleague Tia Mitchell reported this week that Georgia officials could now be on the hook for more than $800 million in food spending if the GOP bill goes through. Other states that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare will absorb more of those costs, too. All of the cuts to social safety net programs came, in part, to help pay for the tax cuts in the bill, which are heavily weighted toward high-income earners. For example, the working-class tax breaks that Trump promised on the campaign trail, namely eliminating taxes on tips, overtime pay, and car loan interest, will only last through the end of Trump's term in 2028. But the income tax cuts, including for the richest Americans, as well as tax breaks for estates and investment income all become permanent. The House also stuffed loads of perks for special interests into the 1,100-page bill. One measure bans states from passing new regulations on artificial intelligence for 10 years. So if Georgia lawmakers decide they want to limit the use of AI in Georgia classrooms, like they did with cellphones this year, the Big Beautiful Bill Act would stop that until 2036. It would also mean Georgia lawmakers could not pass SB 9, a bill to ban deepfakes in political ads, which passed the state House and Senate earlier this year, but did not get to final passage. A different measure, this one for gun dealers, was put into the bill by Georgia's U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde. The Republican from Athens owns two large gun stores, which both sell gun silencers. Clyde flipped from a 'no' to a 'yes' after the $200 tax on silencers was eliminated, at a cost of $1.4 billion. 'My Democrat colleagues have asked, 'How did it get in the bill, what was in the deal and who asked for it?'' Clyde said during the House debate. 'No deal. I believe (Speaker Mike Johnson) with the purest of motives wanted to restore a constitutional right. Who asked? Me, I asked.' Of all of the special interests in the bill, the most special of all seems to be Trump himself. The bill mentions Trump's name 52 times. It also creates new $1,000 savings accounts for babies born during Trump's second term called 'Trump Accounts.' It even has language to make it harder for federal courts to enforce injunctions against executive branch officials, a lot like the injunctions Trump has run into as he tries to expand his own powers in the White House. Every spending bill is a political document, of course, and a Republican Congress cutting taxes and rolling back Biden-era climate measures is no surprise. But what is a surprise is the bill's price tag, $3.94 trillion, which will all get piled onto the nation's $36 trillion debt that Moody's just warned about. For every tax cut and spending measure that may be a good idea on its merits, it's all getting paid for with more borrowed money. It's a long way from the Tea Party movement, which exploded onto the scene in 2009 after Congress passed big bailouts for banks following the 2008 financial crisis. The national debt then was $13 trillion, one third of what it is today. Republicans then promised they would finally tackle the debt and the deficit. This bill does the opposite. Even Elon Musk, the mastermind of the Department of Government Efficiency, said so on his last day as a government employee this week, adding that the bill 'undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.' 'It can be big or beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both,' he said. If I was a House Republican at the beginning of this year, I had one job — to reduce the debt and deficit. With Trump in the White House, Republicans in control of Congress, and Musk promising to modernize and remake the federal government, the House bill was supposed to be the vehicle for all of that to happen. Instead, they just passed one big, beautiful boondoggle.


Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Here is how Ukraine can still beat Russia
When you read this, I will just have arrived at the Pearl of the Black Sea, as this historic, much beloved, multiethnic city was known in the peaceful days before Vladimir Putin tried to break it with missiles and drones. Since no Ukrainian airports are open, the route took me by air from New York via Bucharest, Romania, to Chișinău, the capital of Moldova, and then four hours by car across the Ukrainian border to Odesa. Over the past week, Russia has unleashed a barrage of killer drones and ballistic missiles on Odesa's civilian port, which delivers grain to the world. The attack was part of an unprecedented torrent of drones, cruise, and ballistic missiles that Moscow has rained down on Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv. Putin knows that aside from toothless protestations of 'Vladimir, STOP!' President Donald Trump won't interfere. It is painful and embarrassing to be an American in Ukraine now. Friends, colleagues, and contacts here, with whom I have talked in the lead-up to my visit, are simply astonished that a US leader would let Putin humiliate him the way Trump has. 'Russia is so emboldened by Trump. He has given Putin complete carte blanche,' is the common belief. Trump repeatedly promises to sanction Putin if he refuses a ceasefire or serious peace talks, and then backs down when Moscow pours on the missiles. Even as I arrived in Ukraine, Trump, yet again, insisted he had to give Putin more time to see if he was 'serious' about ending the war. Trump is clearly unwilling to stand up to the Kremlin boss, and his glaring weakness is evident to the entire world. But beyond the president's mad obsession about forming an alliance with Putin, Trump has spread dangerous myths to the US public about Ukraine that obscure the importance of that country to our security and global standing. The main reason I am traveling to Ukraine this time is to debunk those myths by describing facts on the ground. Let's start with Trump's constant refrain that Putin wants peace. A tour of playgrounds, college dorms, and apartment buildings deliberately targeted by Russian missiles should have put that foolishness to rest, if the president wanted to see. As the noted Russia expert, Angela Stent, who authored Putin's World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest, told me: 'Putin has no interest in ending the war now. He has made the war his mission. The Russian economy is on a war footing. Putin has militarised the whole society. 'Three-year-olds in Russian preschools are dressed in military uniforms and singing military songs. At this point, Putin has a messianic view of rebuilding the Russian empire.' I also want to talk with escapees from Russian-occupied territory about the brutality they've experienced to show the kind of 'peace' Putin has in mind. Trump insists Ukraine is losing the war, and Russians always win. If the president took U.S. intelligence briefings and relied less on former KGB colonel Putin's phone propaganda, he'd know Russians often lose — think 1905 to Japan, the '80s in Afghanistan, and now in Syria, for a few examples. Even more important, despite Trump's betrayal, Ukraine has not lost this war. Indeed, given Russia's weak economic situation and desperate reliance on North Korea, Iran, and China for assistance, this is the moment when increased sanctions on Moscow's energy sector could have real impact. This is the perfect time when continued U.S. help with intel and air defense could help Ukraine's capable defense efforts push the Russians back. What most Americans may not know is that Ukrainians have done a remarkable job of holding a nuclear power with three times their population to a virtual territorial stalemate. They have done it by developing a new form of technological warfare that relies on land, sea, and air drones to compensate for artillery shortages and Russia's massive advantage in troop numbers. They have been able to do this not only because Ukraine has a wealth of talent, but because most Ukrainians believe they have no option but to continue fighting or else be subjected to Russian overlordship that will destroy their lives. Thus, Ukraine now has the strongest, most technologically advanced army in Europe, and is ahead of the US in manufacturing unmanned drones of all sizes and capabilities, cheaply and quickly. In fact, the US military, whose innovators were already studying Ukraine's technological successes, could learn critical lessons if Trump's Pentagon was not bent on kneecapping Kyiv. That is why I'm planning to visit private drone factories, large and small, in rear cities and near the front lines, and look at what Ukraine does right and what Kyiv needs — and lacks — to scale up military production against Russia, which relies on Iranian drone technology and copying Ukraine's successes. Trump and his team also claim Ukraine's fate is a problem for Europe, not the U.S., because we need to focus on China. And he appears to believe he can wean Putin from his alliance with China and act as the powerful balancer between Moscow and Beijing. 'It is a total illusion that Trump can separate Russia from China,' Stent said. 'They need each other to end the US dominance of the global system and to make the world safe for authoritarian systems.' Putin relishes Trump's break with Europe, she told me, because this undermines NATO and breaks the alliance of democratic countries. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have aided that process by praising pro-Russia far-right parties and, as in Germany, openly supporting the neo-Nazi opposition. As one European parliamentarian told me, the only way to counter China is for the United States 'to glue your economy to the European Union' and join with Europe in countering unfair Chinese economic practices and overt Chinese military threats. Instead, Trump is doing the opposite, pursuing a trade and tariff war with Europe while refusing to sanction Russia and lowering tariffs on China. Trump seems bent on leaving the Europeans alone to face an aggressive Russian leader who openly detests the West. 'America, am I your enemy or your friend?' this European official asked plaintively. 'Americans have to show on which side they are on.' Ukraine is the test case. The country is defending the fault line between democratic countries of the West and Asia, and an aggressive Russia tightly aligned with an axis of dictators who all wish the United States ill. If Putin succeeds in Ukraine — aided by Trump's blindness — this will embolden Beijing to move against Taiwan and other US allies like Japan in the Indo-Pacific region. Shocked by US abandonment, Europe has now awakened to the need to rearm to face Russia. Europe (or most of it) will do its best to help Ukraine survive — including scaling up its defense industries. But Europe can't fully fill the intelligence gap or the Ukrainian lack of air defenses if Trump abandons Kyiv and fully aligns with Moscow. No doubt, Putin is delighted at how easily he can manipulate a weak Trump to see dollar signs in such an unholy alliance. The outcome of the global contest between democracy and autocracy is being determined right now in Ukraine, as Putin sneers at Trump and mobilises a new offensive. That is exactly why I came to Odesa, and will continue on to Kyiv and frontline areas in eastern Ukraine to talk to military and political officials, civilians, and soldiers about how long they can hold out if Trump crosses over to the enemy side. I believe Trump is wrong on every count. Ukraine is not losing, although US abandonment will make its survival much more difficult. History will regard Ukraine's fate as a turning point in deciding whether democracies, including our own, find their power eclipsed by a rising alliance of autocracies led by China. And right now, given Trump's tendencies, we do not know which side of this battle the U.S. government will choose.


Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Dimon warns that US's biggest problem is ‘the enemy within'
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has warned that China isn't the biggest threat to the US, it's 'the enemy within.' Dimon appeared at the Reagan National Economic Forum in Simi Valley, California, on Friday, arguing that 'tectonic plates are shifting.' 'Those tectonic plates are the geopolitics with these terrible wars, terrible proxy terrorist activity around the world, North Korea, the potential proliferation of nuclear weapons over time, which is the greatest threat to mankind,' said Dimon, one of America's top bankers. He said the other tectonic shift is the global economy, before going on to seemingly criticise the aggressive trade policies and the apparent breaking up of traditional Western alliances by President Donald Trump. 'The other tectonic shift is ... the global economy. So the global military umbrella of America, and then the global economy, of which trade is a part,' he said. 'The other parts are, do people want to partner with you? Do you have your alliances? You have investment agreements and all those various things. And they're changing.' 'Then our debt ... We added $10 trillion in five years,' he noted about the national debt, which stands at more than $36 trillion. 'You had (former President Ronald) Reagan up there talking about deficits. The debt-to-GDP was 35 percent, and the deficit was three and a half percent. Today, it's 100 percent debt to GDP ... and a deficit of almost seven percent.' 'We go into recession, that seven percent will be 10 percent, and so we have problems, and we've got to deal with them. And then the biggest one underlying both, that is the enemy within,' he said. 'China is a potential adversary — they're doing a lot of things well, they have a lot of problems,' Dimon added. 'But what I really worry about is us. Can we get our own act together — our own values, our own capability, our own management?' The CEO made the comments amid a sharp decline in trade between China and the US following the implementation of Trump's widespread tariffs. The president's trade policy has been in flux amid new agreements and court rulings. The tariffs have prompted further uncertainty in a trade relationship that significantly impacts the rest of the world. The dispute with China escalated on Friday as Trump claimed the Chinese 'totally violated' the most recent trade agreement. 'They're not scared, folks. This notion they're gonna come bow to America, I wouldn't count on that,' said Dimon. He added that he concurs with Warren Buffett, the outgoing Berkshire Hathaway CEO, that while the US is usually 'resilient,' this time could be different. 'We have to get our act together,' said Dimon. 'We have to do it very quickly.' The CEO argued that the US has a 'mismanagement' problem and that a litany of things needed to be done, including fixing regulations, permitting, immigration, taxation, inner city schools, as well as the health care system. Dimon said the US could grow three percent a year if those things are taken care of. Referencing previous speakers at the conference, Dimon said: 'What you heard today on stage was the amount of mismanagement is extraordinary. By state, by city, for pensions ... and that stuff is going to kill us.' Last year, Dimon warned about inflation, political polarisation and wars that are creating risks not seen since WWII. The nation's most influential banker, Jamie Dimon, told investors that he continues to expect the US economy to be resilient and grow this year. But he worries geopolitical events including the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war, as well as US political polarisation, might be creating an environment that 'may very well be creating risks that could eclipse anything since World War II.' The comments came in an annual shareholder letter from Dimon, who often uses the letter to weigh in broad topics like politics, regulation and global events and what it might mean to JPMorgan Chase, as well as the broader economy. Dimon also used his letter to forcefully defend the firm's diversity and equality efforts, pushing back on the arguments from Republicans who have said such efforts at Fortune 500 companies, colleges and universities are discriminatory and promote left-wing ideology. Agencies