Latest news with #DarkMAGA
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Elon Musk returns to his tech empire, facing questions of inattention
As Elon Musk steps away from Washington, he faces concerns over his prolonged absence from his businesses including Tesla, SpaceX, xAI and X. Elon Musk recently swapped his Dark MAGA hat and government 'Tech Support' garb for his old 'Occupy Mars' T-shirt, a reference to his rocket company SpaceX's mission
The Star
3 days ago
- Automotive
- The Star
Elon Musk returns to his tech empire, facing questions of inattention
Elon Musk recently swapped his Dark MAGA hat and government 'Tech Support' garb for his old 'Occupy Mars' T-shirt, a reference to his rocket company SpaceX's mission to colonize the red planet. He embarked on a media blitz, granting interviews to news outlets he had previously avoided and saying he was focused on SpaceX and discussing his electric automaker Tesla. And on social media, he posted that he was again spending '24/7 at work' and sleeping in his companies' factories and server rooms. As Musk steps away from Washington and his Department of Government Efficiency, President Donald Trump's 'first buddy' is shifting back to his role as a business titan. But that move is not likely to come easy after Musk spent months backing Trump's presidential campaign and dismantling parts of the federal government, raising concerns that he had become an absentee leader at his various enterprises, including SpaceX, Tesla, artificial intelligence company xAI and the social media platform X. Musk's time in government has been a decidedly mixed bag for his business empire. Tesla is particularly vulnerable after Musk's popularity nose-dived when he slashed government jobs. Tesla dealerships became the target of protests as sales and profit fell. What's more, the Republican budget bill now before the Senate would gut subsidies and policies that promote electric vehicles. Tesla's stock has dropped about 14% this year, wiping around US$180bil off its market value. Some of Musk's companies have benefited from his proximity to the White House, with Trump at one point promoting Tesla cars on the White House lawn and SpaceX harvesting more government tie-ups with Starlink, its satellite internet service. X remains a powerful megaphone for Musk's and Trump's supporters. And Trump is a valuable ally with policy power who oversees agencies that regulate Musk's businesses. But Musk is the face of his companies, and his protracted time in Washington has raised alarms over how committed he is to his businesses. Some former workers at SpaceX and elsewhere have questioned his absence from the companies. Overall, it's unclear if the tech billionaire's Washington maneuvers will lead to long-term advantages for them. 'It became a mission critical thing to get the CEO back in the office,' said Eric Talley, a professor at Columbia Law School. 'It's not a moment too soon, quite frankly.' How much time Musk will spend with his companies and outside Washington remains unclear. At a news conference in the Oval Office with Trump on Friday, Musk called his departure from the government 'not the end of DOGE but really the beginning' and said he would continue to visit 'and be a friend and an adviser to the president.' 'Elon's really not leaving,' Trump said. 'He's going to be back and forth.' Musk did not address how he would spend his time or how the change would affect his companies. He did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Tesla and SpaceX also did not respond to requests for comment. X and xAI declined to comment. At SpaceX, Musk's absence had been felt in recent months. In May, Dylan Small, a former mechanic at the rocket company, posted on X that 'morale is low' and 'people are burned out.' 'Your presence used to drive a fire in the team,' Small wrote to Musk. 'Please come back and walk the floor.' In a message to The New York Times, Small said SpaceX's work was largely the result of employees feeling 'inspired,' with Musk playing 'a huge role in that.' Since the start of Trump's term, Musk has posted almost 1,000 times on X about SpaceX, which was half of the nearly 2,000 times he posted about DOGE, according to a tally by the Times. In that time, SpaceX has held two test launches of Starship, the rocket that Musk hopes will get humans to Mars, including one Tuesday. Last week, Musk gave an interview to The Washington Post – a news outlet he has typically shunned – and emphasized that he was 'physically here' for SpaceX before the Starship test launch from the company's Starbase rocket facility in South Texas. The launch ended in an explosion, but Musk still made a point to declare his presence. He reshared videos of himself in the SpaceX control center, as well as interviews with reporters and influencers talking about space travel. At Tesla, Musk's level of disengagement from the business became clear in April. He had seldom visited Tesla's offices or factories since Trump's inauguration but showed up at one of the company's offices in Palo Alto, California, a few days ahead of an earnings call that month, according to two people familiar with his travel. During the visit, Musk asked about the impact of Trump's tariffs on Tesla and was briefed on the effects and the company's supply chain vulnerabilities, two people familiar with the meeting said. The timing of his question raised concerns from some attendees, since Trump had begun announcing tariffs two months earlier in February. Days after Musk's visit, Tesla reported that its vehicle sales fell 13% in the first quarter from a year earlier, as profit plunged to its lowest level in four years. New tariffs on imported auto parts have added to the financial pressures facing the company. Musk's political activities alienated buyers, said Matthew LaBrot, who worked in sales at Tesla in California. It became 'a grind every day to sell a car when that did not used to be the case,' said LaBrot, who was fired after he set up a website critical of Musk. 'A lot of it was Elon.' Tesla executives have told people in recent months that Musk was not as involved in day-to-day details of the operations and was dialing in remotely for meetings more frequently than before his stint at DOGE, two people with knowledge of the conversations said. A Tesla board member has sometimes stepped in to help fill in the gaps for Musk, one of them said. Tesla, which faces stiff competition from Chinese electric carmakers such as BYD, has tried to diversify more into AI and robotics. Musk has said the company would launch a ride-hailing service this month in Austin, Texas, with fully autonomous vehicles. The company has also aimed to start making a less expensive car, though it is unclear how different it will be from Tesla's existing vehicles. During his time in government, Musk appeared to keep an eye on the fast-evolving field of AI. He talked up xAI, his startup, and posted hundreds of times on X about Grok, the chatbot made by the startup. He also continued waging a legal battle against Sam Altman, who leads OpenAI and is a key rival in the AI industry. In March, Musk sold X to xAI, merging the two companies. Last month, the combined company announced a tender offer, which allows employees to cash out some of their equity by selling the shares back to the company at a prearranged price, according to internal documents seen by the Times. The tender offer is tentatively scheduled for this month and valued the combined company at about US$113bil, according to the documents. On Wednesday, Linda Yaccarino, X's CEO, held an employee meeting to rally workers around the idea that merging with xAI had led to the best teams and technology, two people familiar with the discussion said. That day, she posted on X to celebrate a partnership to integrate Grok into the messaging service Telegram. Pavel Durov, Telegram's founder, also posted about the deal. 'Elon Musk and I have agreed to a 1-year partnership to bring xAI's chatbot Grok to our billion+ users and integrate it across all Telegram apps,' he wrote. A few hours later, Musk made clear he was still the boss. 'No deal has been signed,' he posted on X. – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Elon Musk Returns to His Tech Empire, Plagued by Questions of Inattention
Elon Musk recently swapped his Dark MAGA hat and government 'Tech Support' garb for his old 'Occupy Mars' T-shirt, a reference to his rocket company SpaceX's mission to colonize the red planet. He embarked on a media blitz, granting interviews to news outlets that he had previously avoided and saying that he was focused on SpaceX and discussing his electric automaker Tesla. And on social media, he posted that he was once again spending '24/7 at work' and sleeping in his companies' factories and server rooms. As Musk steps away from Washington and his Department of Government Efficiency, President Donald Trump's 'first buddy' is shifting back to his role as a business titan. But that move is not likely to come easy after Musk spent months backing Trump's presidential campaign and dismantling parts of the federal government, raising concerns that he had become an absentee leader at his various enterprises, including SpaceX, Tesla, artificial intelligence company xAI and the social media platform X. Musk's time in government has been a decidedly mixed bag for his business empire. Tesla is particularly vulnerable after Musk's popularity nose-dived when he slashed government jobs. Tesla dealerships became the target of protests as sales and profit fell. What's more, the Republican budget bill now before the Senate would gut subsidies and policies that promote electric vehicles. Tesla's stock has dropped about 14% this year, wiping around $180 billion off its market value. Some of Musk's companies have benefited from his proximity to the White House, with Trump at one point promoting Tesla cars on the White House lawn and SpaceX harvesting more government tie-ups with Starlink, its satellite internet service. X remains a powerful megaphone for Musk's and Trump's supporters. And Trump is a valuable ally with policy power who oversees agencies that regulate Musk's businesses. But Musk is the face of his companies, and his protracted time in Washington has raised alarms over how committed he is to his businesses. Some former workers at SpaceX and elsewhere have questioned his absence from the companies. Overall, it's unclear if the tech billionaire's Washington maneuvers will lead to long-term advantages for them. 'It became a mission critical thing to get the CEO back in the office,' said Eric Talley, a professor at Columbia Law School. 'It's not a moment too soon, quite frankly.' How much time Musk will spend with his companies and outside of Washington now remains unclear. At a news conference in the Oval Office with Trump on Friday, Musk called his departure from the government 'not the end of DOGE but really the beginning' and said he would continue to visit 'and be a friend and an adviser to the president.' 'Elon's really not leaving,' Trump said. 'He's going to be back and forth.' Musk did not address how he would spend his time or how the change would affect his companies. He did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Tesla and SpaceX also did not respond to requests for comment. X and xAI declined to comment. At SpaceX, Musk's absence had been felt in recent months. In May, Dylan Small, a former mechanic at the rocket company, posted on X that 'morale is low' and 'people are burned out.' 'Your presence used to drive a fire in the team,' Small wrote to Musk. 'Please come back and walk the floor.' In a message to The New York Times, Small said SpaceX's work was largely the result of employees feeling 'inspired,' with Musk playing 'a huge role in that.' Since the start of Trump's term, Musk has posted almost 1,000 times on X about SpaceX, which was half of the nearly 2,000 times he posted about DOGE, according to a tally by the Times. In that time, SpaceX has held two test launches of Starship, the rocket that Musk hopes will get humans to Mars, including one Tuesday. Last week, Musk gave an interview to The Washington Post -- a news outlet he has typically shunned -- and emphasized that he was 'physically here' for SpaceX before the Starship test launch from the company's Starbase rocket facility in South Texas. The launch ended in an explosion, but Musk still made a point to declare his presence. He reshared videos of himself in the SpaceX control center, as well as interviews with reporters and influencers talking about space travel. At Tesla, Musk's level of disengagement from the business became clear in April. He had seldom visited Tesla's offices or factories since Trump's inauguration but showed up at one of the company's offices in Palo Alto, California, a few days ahead of an earnings call that month, according to two people familiar with his travel. During the visit, Musk asked about the impact of Trump's tariffs on Tesla and was briefed on the effects and the company's supply chain vulnerabilities, two people familiar with the meeting said. The timing of his question raised concerns from some attendees, since Trump had begun implementing tariffs two months earlier in February. Days after Musk's visit, Tesla reported that its vehicle sales fell 13% in the first quarter from a year earlier, as profit plunged to its lowest level in four years. New tariffs on imported auto parts have added to the financial pressures facing the company. Musk's political activities alienated buyers, said Matthew LaBrot, who worked in sales at Tesla in California. It became 'a grind every day to sell a car when that did not used to be the case,' said LaBrot, who was fired after he set up a website critical of Musk. 'A lot of it was Elon.' Tesla executives have told people in recent months that Musk was not as involved in day-to-day details of the operations and was dialing in remotely for meetings more frequently than before his stint at DOGE, two people with knowledge of the conversations said. A Tesla board member has sometimes stepped in to help fill in the gaps for Musk, one of them said. Tesla, which faces stiff competition from Chinese electric carmakers such as BYD, has tried to diversify more into AI and robotics. Musk has said the company would launch a ride-hailing service this month in Austin, Texas, with fully autonomous vehicles. The company has also aimed to start making a less expensive car, though it is unclear how different it will be from Tesla's existing vehicles. During his time in government, Musk appears to have kept an eye on the fast-evolving field of AI. He talked up xAI, his startup, and posted hundreds of times on X about Grok, the chatbot made by the startup. He also continued waging a legal battle against Sam Altman, who leads OpenAI and is a key rival in the AI industry. In March, Musk sold X to xAI, merging the two companies. Last month, the combined company announced a tender offer, which allows employees to cash out some of their equity by selling the shares back to the company at a prearranged price, according to internal documents seen by the Times. The tender offer is tentatively scheduled for this month and valued the combined company at about $113 billion, according to the documents. On Wednesday, Linda Yaccarino, X's CEO, held an employee meeting to rally workers around the idea that merging with xAI had led to the best teams and technology, two people familiar with the discussion said. That day, she posted on X to celebrate a partnership to integrate Grok into the messaging service Telegram. Pavel Durov, Telegram's founder, also posted about the deal. 'Elon Musk and I have agreed to a 1-year partnership to bring xAI's chatbot Grok to our billion+ users and integrate it across all Telegram apps,' he wrote. A few hours later, Musk made clear he was still the boss. 'No deal has been signed,' he posted on X. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
News18
29-05-2025
- Business
- News18
From Jumping On Stage To Taking X To Oval Office: Moments That Marked Musk-Trump Camaraderie
Last Updated: Elon Musk announced on X (previously Twitter) that his time leading the Department of Government Efficiency, known as 'DOGE," is drawing to a close. Billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday announced his exit from the Donald Trump administration after a short stint with the United States President. Musk announced on X (previously Twitter) that his time leading the Department of Government Efficiency, known as 'DOGE," is drawing to a close. Musk was appointed as a 'special government employee," a designation that permits individuals to work in a government capacity for 130 days annually. However, his exit from the Trump administration has fuelled speculation of differences between him an Trump, coming a day after he publicly voiced 'disappointment" with the centerpiece of Trump administration's legislative agenda. The legislation, dubbed as 'big beautiful bill" by the US President, comprises a blend of tax cuts and intensified immigration enforcement measures. Musk's Leap Of Joy At a rally in Pennsylvania, days after an assassination attempt was made on Trump at the same place, Elon Musk was seen jumping on stage while the US President (then the Republican candidate) spoke. Musk's leap of joy not just made news but also became a meme for the rest of Trump's campaign. Elon Musk jumps incredibly high, wearing a Dark MAGA hat. 🫡🇺🇸 — SMX 🇺🇸 (@iam_smx) October 6, 2024 Musk spent the election night with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, cheering for the US President as he came closer to victory. A photo of Musk and Trump went viral on social media. The image depicted Trump conversing with Musk and UFC President Dana White, indicating Musk's involvement in the political sphere during the election. Elon Musk with Donald J. Trump on Election Night — America (@america) November 6, 2024 The New Year's Eve Dance On New Year's Eve 2024, Musk celebrated alongside Trump at Mar-a-Lago. A viral video showed Musk dancing with his son X on his shoulders, while Trump engaged with guests. The video marked a highlight for the Musk-Trump camaraderie. The most wonderful New Year's Eve celebration ever 🎉🎉🎉Sharing the joy and happiness from last night with @elonmusk @realDonaldTrump @MELANIATRUMP Great fashion @XFashion Happy New Year to all 🎉🎉❤️❤️ — Maye Musk (@mayemusk) January 1, 2025 X At Oval Office When Elon Musk took his son, X Æ A-Xii (known as 'X"), to the Oval Office in February 2025, it became one of the most talked-about and unusual moments in American circles. Musk brought his son X into the Oval Office during a press conference on DOGE. Unfazed by the highly official nature of the press conference, the 4-year-old fiddled with objects on the desk, dug his nose and became a viral sensation on social media. 🚀 MUSK & TRUMP IN THE OVAL OFFICE—BUT LITTLE X STEALS THE SHOW! 🇺🇸Elon Musk is standing next to President Trump, talking about cutting the deficit in half—and his 4-year-old son, X, is just casually hanging off his dad's shoulders, whispering to Trump, and picking his nose. 😂… — Francois Leclerc (@f_leclerc20037) February 11, 2025 Why Musk Criticised Trump In an interview with CBS, Elon Musk characterised the bill as a 'massive spending bill" that he believes will escalate the federal deficit and 'undermine the work" his DOGE team has been undertaking. 'I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful," Elon Musk said, adding, 'But I don't know if it could be both." Responding to Elon Musk's criticism, Donald Trump defended the bill, saying, 'I'm not happy about certain aspects of it, but I'm thrilled by other aspects of it." First Published:
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jon Stewart accepts Elon Musk's demands for ‘Daily Show' interview, fires back at his criticism
(The Hill) – Jon Stewart is rejecting Elon Musk's criticism that he's a 'propagandist,' and added that he's 'game' for an interview with the tech billionaire if he agrees to appear as a guest on 'The Daily Show.' The 62-year-old comedian made headlines last week after injuring his hand during a segment on the Comedy Central show while criticizing Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 'We are DOGEing in the wrong place if we really want to change the system,' Stewart said as he railed against sweeping cuts to the federal workforce made by the agency. House Republicans advised to avoid in-person town halls amid protests Following Stewart's remarks, Musk expressed a willingness to appear on 'The Daily Show,' writing on X, 'I will do it if the show airs unedited.' But the Tesla CEO then wrote days later, 'Jon Stewart is much more a propagandist than it would seem.' Stewart responded on Monday's edition of 'The Daily Show.' 'Musk tweeted, or X'd, I guess, that he would like to come on here and talk to me as long as the show airs unedited,' Stewart told the audience. 'After thinking about his offer, I thought, you know, hey, that's actually how the in-studio interviews normally air, is unedited. So, sure, we'd be delighted,' he added. Stewart then extended an offer to 'sweeten or unsweeten' the deal, saying the interview could likely last as long as Musk wanted. 'I'll be honest, I don't think this network makes any other programming,' Stewart joked. 'So I am game. I think it would be a very interesting conversation,' he added. Stewart then turned to Musk's 'propagandist' comment, as well as Musk's allegation that Stewart is not as 'bipartisan' as he used to be. 'The guy who custom-made his own 'Dark MAGA' hat that he wears to opine in the Oval Office with the president, who he spent $270 million to elect, thinks I'm just too partisan,' Stewart told the audience. 'I'm really not sure what he thinks bipartisan means, but it's generally not 'I support Donald Trump and also Germany's AFD Party.' That's not bipartisan. That's just the same s—,' Stewart said. The 'Daily Show' host then addressed Musk directly, again implying that Musk is a hypocrite for calling him partisan. 'Look Elon, I do have some criticisms about DOGE. I support, in general, the idea of efficiency and delivering better services to the American public in cheaper and more efficient ways. And if you want to come on and talk about it on the show, great. If you don't want to, sure,' Stewart said. 'But can we just drop the pretense that you won't do it because I don't measure up to the standards of neutral discourse that you demand and display at all times? Because, quite frankly, that's bulls—. You know it, I know it. Bulls—.' Canadian premier says he will cut off electricity exports to US 'with a smile on my face' Stewart's remarks come amid DOGE's efforts to drastically cut spending, with Democrats concerned that the agency is slashing funding and federal jobs without fully understanding where the money is indented to go, or what those jobs entail. Many pointed to a recent incident in which the government tried to bring back fired employees who worked on nuclear weapon programs. Critics are also concerned over DOGE seeking to allow its staffers to access America's most sensitive information, such as Social Security data and Veterans Affairs data. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
