Latest news with #Dogefather
Time of India
11-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Elon Musk's $400+ billion empire: From coding a game at 12 to leading Tesla, SpaceX, and shaping the White House at 54
Image: Reuters Elon Musk is making headlines not for launching a rocket or unveiling a new car, but for launching a political party called the America Party . It was a direct shot at what he described as the 'uniparty' control of Democrats and Republicans. On his platform X (formerly Twitter), Musk posted a July 4 poll asking if the country needed a new party. Over 65 percent of respondents said yes. His response: 'Let the caravan begin its journey.' Just days later, halfway across the globe, his satellite internet company Starlink secured regulatory clearance from India's space agency, IN-SPACe. This license, valid until 2030, enables Starlink to bring high-speed internet to some of India's most isolated rural areas—villages, schools, and health clinics that have never had reliable connectivity. 'Thank you, Mr. President, for this incredible opportunity. I accept this responsibility with humility and determination. The federal government is an enormous machine, but it is often slowed down by outdated processes and unnecessary bureaucracy. My mission as DOGE chief is to bring Silicon Valley innovation and efficiency to Washington, to cut wasteful spending, and to make government work better for every American... I'm proud to be called 'The Dogefather,' but this is serious work. Together, we will make the government leaner, smarter, and more accountable.' These were the words spoken by Elon Musk in early 2025 as he took his oath as DOGE Chief—Director of Government Efficiency—in the Trump administration. At that moment, the world watched with curiosity as the richest man on Earth entered the highest halls of political power. Musk vowed to bring Silicon Valley's speed to Washington's stagnation, to slash waste, and to "make government leaner, smarter, and more accountable." The so-called Dogefather had gone from rockets and robots to red tape and reform. But as time changes, so do people, and so do alliances. Not even being the President of the United States or the richest man alive guarantees lasting loyalty. By July 2025, that powerful union had crumbled. What once seemed like a tech-and-politics dream team—Trump and Musk—descended into a bitter and very public feud. Musk, never one to bite his tongue, launched a scathing attack against Trump on his platform X (formerly Twitter). In a bombshell post, he directly named Donald Trump in connection to the Jeffrey Epstein files, breaking what had been a powerful alliance. The internet exploded. The fallout was swift and sharp On Independence Day, Musk launched not a rocket, but something even more provocative: his own political party. The America Party. In a fiery post, he accused Democrats and Republicans alike of being controlled by the same 'uniparty' machinery, offering voters a new 'third way' grounded in innovation, free speech, and what he called 'post-partisan patriotism.' Elon Musk returns to his $400 billion empire as the head of SpaceX, Tesla and X At 50, Elon Musk has redefined the boundaries between technology and politics. He is not just the head of companies like Tesla, SpaceX , and Neuralink but now also the founder of a political party attempting to disrupt American governance. His estimated fortune, once over $400 billion, reflects his extraordinary reach across industries, from clean energy and space to social media and artificial intelligence. Musk's growing influence in policy circles represents a new chapter in his life, one where he seeks to influence not just markets but national direction. And yet, to understand how he got here, you have to go back to where it all started. The first breakthrough: A space-themed video game coded at age 12 Before he was revolutionizing electric cars or launching rockets, Elon Musk was a computer-obsessed boy in Pretoria, South Africa. By age 10, he had learned BASIC programming on a Commodore VIC-20. At 12, he created a simple space shooter game called Blastar, which involved destroying alien freighters carrying "inconsistent" software. He sold the game's source code to a South African tech magazine for about $500. The crude arcade-style game resurfaced in 2015 when a Google engineer recreated it in HTML5. Though primitive, Blastar marked Musk's first sale—and his first taste of building something futuristic. It was a modest beginning, but one that captured Musk's lifelong interests in space, coding, and problem-solving, setting the stage for what would become one of the most extraordinary innovation careers of the century. From Zip2 to PayPal: Elon Musk's first millions in the dot-com boom After finishing high school, Musk moved to Canada at 17 and attended Queen's University, later transferring to the University of Pennsylvania where he earned degrees in physics and economics. During college, he interned at a bank and a tech company, but the world of startups quickly stole his attention. In 1995, Musk enrolled in a PhD program at Stanford but dropped out within 48 hours to pursue the internet gold rush. He co-founded Zip2, a city directory software company for newspapers, which was sold to Compaq for $307 million in 1999. Musk earned $22 million from the deal. That same year, he founded an online banking startup. A merger with Confinity gave birth to PayPal, which eBay purchased in 2002 for $1.5 billion. Musk took home roughly $180 million—which he promptly reinvested into the three ventures that would define his legacy: SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. Building SpaceX and Tesla: Risking it all for innovation In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX with the goal of making space travel more affordable and eventually enabling colonization of Mars. The company suffered several early launch failures, nearly going bankrupt by 2008. But that year, it successfully sent a rocket into orbit—making it the first private firm to do so. NASA took notice and signed multibillion-dollar contracts. Meanwhile, Musk became chairman and then CEO of Tesla Motors, guiding it through one of the most difficult periods in automotive history. By 2012, the Tesla Model S proved electric vehicles could be powerful and luxurious. The company grew rapidly and is now the world's top EV maker, with major advances in self-driving tech and battery storage. Despite public meltdowns and investor panic, Musk has steered both SpaceX and Tesla to industry dominance, becoming the poster child for high-risk, high-reward entrepreneurship. Starlink's India launch: Internet for everyone everywhere Musk's Starlink may be his most globally impactful project yet. Using a network of more than 7,800 low-Earth orbit satellites, Starlink delivers fast satellite internet to areas that fiber or mobile networks cannot reach. India, with its vast digital divide, represents a massive opportunity. The newly approved license allows Starlink to begin commercial rollout in late 2025 or early 2026, once infrastructure and spectrum approvals are complete. For rural schools, emergency services, and remote businesses, this means life-changing internet access. With Starlink, Musk is turning the internet into a global utility—just as he did with cars and rockets. A disruptor in politics: The America Party and a bid to rewrite the system Musk's latest ambition is to reshape American politics through the America Party. Critics call it a vanity project or an act of revenge against Trump, but Musk insists it is about giving Americans 'real choices' and breaking the cycle of waste, gridlock, and elite back-scratching. Whether he runs for office himself is unclear. But what is certain is that Musk intends to fund, endorse, and influence candidates who align with his vision of technocratic efficiency, fiscal discipline, and limited bureaucracy. His ceremonial DOGE Chief speech at the White House may have been playful, but the message was pointed: government can and should work better—and Musk thinks he has the blueprint. With Starlink reaching India, Tesla dominating EVs, and SpaceX preparing for human missions to Mars, Elon Musk is pushing on all fronts. But with the launch of the America Party, he's also betting that his brand of engineering logic can be applied to politics. Elon Musk may have started by coding a space game at age 12, but today, he's trying to recode the systems that govern everything else. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Globe and Mail
01-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Why Dogecoin Is Sinking Today
The price of Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) is sinking on Tuesday. The meme coin saw its value decline 4.6% from Monday at 4 p.m. ET to 12:43 p.m. ET Tuesday. The drop comes as the S&P 500 lost 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.8%. Dogecoin's most prominent backer, Elon Musk, is once again involved in a public spat with President Donald Trump. The Musk-Trump feud reignites Musk's unofficial role as the "Dogefather" has left the cryptocurrency tied to Musk's public actions. His backing of Trump's presidential run and subsequent place in his administration as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) -- a not-so-subtle wink to Dogecoin -- propelled Dogecoin to heights not seen since 2021. The price more than doubled in the days following the election. Musk left DOGE after a public spat with Trump, which has been mostly dormant for the last month. However, yesterday the feud reignited with a fresh round of attacks from Musk of Trump's One, Big, Beautiful Bill. This garnered a response from Trump that included the president calling for DOGE to review the subsidies Musk's companies receive, saying there is "BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!" Dogecoin isn't a serious investment Dogecoin is a meme coin. Its value is derived not from utility, but from vibes. That makes it incredibly volatile and subject to wild swings in price. Its recent price appreciation was built entirely on the hype that surrounded Musk's place at Trump's side, so when that goes away, so does the hype. I would not put my money in Dogecoin. Should you invest $1,000 in Dogecoin right now? Before you buy stock in Dogecoin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Dogecoin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $722,181!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $968,402!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is1,069% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to177%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 30, 2025 Johnny Rice has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Musk's Daring Gambit Has Managed to Do Something Remarkable: Alienate Democrats AND Republicans
It appears that Elon Musk has seriously overestimated his sustained popularity among his right-wing fans. In another masterful display of cunning, the world's richest man turned coat and viciously lashed out at his former best-friend-in-chief Donald Trump this month. It was a very public affair, as both parties traded blows over social media — and Trump at his many press conferences — but it was Musk who came out looking worse for wear, unable to equal the president's threats, squirming at the cold indifference he was being shown. In retrospect, his mysterious black eye was a prefigurement of things to come. And so in decidedly un-Don-Corleone fashion, the "Dogefather" all but groveled at the feet of the president this week, offering a simpering apology. But the damage had been done. According to a new poll from the Associated Press, fewer Republicans view Musk "very favorably" compared to April, plunging from 38 percent down to 26 percent. "Some things have happened lately that have changed how I feel about him a little," Alabama Republican Katye Long, who downgraded her view of Musk to "somewhat favorable," told the AP. "I also don't feel like he matters that much," she added. "He's not actually part of the government. He's just a rich guy who pushes his opinions." As far as high-profile fallouts go, this one was veritably cataclysmic. After Musk stepped down as a "special government employee," he blasted Trump's spending bill and trash-talked the president on his website, X. Trump, in turn, threatened to kill Elon's billions of dollars worth of government contracts. Musk made his own threat that he'd cut off NASA's access to SpaceX, before declaring that Trump is implicated in the unreleased Epstein files and agreeing that the president should be impeached. "Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate," Musk fumed on his website X, after Trump said he was "disappointed with Elon." "Such ingratitude," Musk huffed. All the while, reports circled that the tech billionaire was heavily abusing drugs like ketamine — and to boot, incurring the unfortunate bladder issues that commonly stem from overusing the powerful anesthetic. It's not the end of the world for Musk, though. The polls suggest that most Republicans — 64 percent — still favor him to some degree, which is three points lower than April. He remains extremely unpopular among Democrats, however, though the repulsion he inspires among this base has slightly ebbed. In April, 74 percent of Democrats harbored a very negative view of Musk, but that share has now fallen to 65 percent. That may be a consequence of his diminished role in government since April; last month he finally left his role as a top advisor to Trump. In sum, in the AP's analysis, the intensity of the public's attitude towards Musk has shifted somewhat, but the overall opinions haven't. Musk has become an incredibly polarizing figure over the past several years, over the course of which he has expressed increasingly far-right views. He ensured the alienation of his traditionally liberal fans by endorsing Trump last summer and funding his campaign to the tune of some $300 million. Post-inauguration, Musk led his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, where he oversaw the firing of tens of thousands of federal employees, the slashing over 100 billion dollars of federal spending — including cuts to foreign aid and research grants at the National Institutes of Health — and tampering with Social Security. Most damning for Musk's bottom line: the backlash has blown back on his businesses, too. Tesla's popularity has plummeted in lockstep with its drying-up sales, and according to the recent poll, only 32 percent of US adults view his automaker very or somewhat favorably. That's far worse than any other brand; General Motors, which isn't exactly a PR darling, boasts a 60 percent favorable view. The irony is that Musk's courting of the right has seemingly done little to win over new devotees to the Tesla brand, with nearly a third of Republicans — 30 percent — having an unfavorable opinion of the EV company, while Democrats stand at 66 percent. If his master plan was eventually getting both sides to hate him equally, then we'd say he's finally starting to do a bang-up job. More on Elon Musk: Elon's Explosion at Trump Appears to Have Cost Him a HUGE Deal
Sydney Morning Herald
01-06-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Elon Musk moved fast in Washington, but broke only his reputation
I take it personally because my dad spent 20 years as a police inspector in Washington in charge of Senate security. He would run to the House whenever there was trouble. So if on January 6 Mike Dowd had been preventing insurrectionists from assaulting lawmakers, he would now be, in Trump's eyes, not a hero deserving of a plaque, but a blackguard who was thwarting 'patriots,' as Trump calls the rioters he pardoned. Loading It is a disturbing bizarro world. Trump was rewriting reality again as one of the most flamboyant, destructive bromances in government history petered out in the Oval Office. It had peaked last winter when Musk posted on social platform X, 'I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man,' and again when Trump tried to reciprocate by hawking Teslas in the White House driveway. But Friday, even these grand master salesmen couldn't sell the spin that Elon had 'delivered a colossal change.' Musk has acknowledged recently that his dream of cutting $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) had been a fantasy. He said changing Washington was 'an uphill battle' and complained that Trump's 'big, beautiful' budget bill, which could add over $US3 trillion ($4.6 trillion) in debt, could undercut his DOGE attempts to save money. As Trump said, Musk got a lot of 'the slings and the arrows.' His approval rating cratered and violence has been directed toward Tesla, a brand once loved by liberals and in China, which is now tarnished. Musk cut off a reporter who tried to ask about a Times article asserting that he was a habitual user of ketamine and a dabbler in ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms even after Trump had given him enormous control over the government. That could explain the chain saw-wielding, the jumping up and down onstage, the manic baby-making and crusading for more spreading of sperm by smart people, and the ominous Nazi-style salutes. Loading When a reporter asked Musk why he had a black eye, he joked about the viral video of Brigitte Macron shoving her husband's face. Then he explained that while 'horsing around' with his 5-year-old, X, he suggested the child punch him in the face, 'and he did.' The president and the Tony Stark prototype tried to convey the idea that they would remain tight, even though Musk would no longer be getting into angry altercations with Scott Bessent outside the Oval, sleeping on the floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and hanging around Mar-a-Lago. Musk, wearing a black 'DOGE' cap and black 'Dogefather' T-shirt, looked around the Oval, which Trump has tarted up to look like a Vegas gift shop, and gushed that it 'finally has the majesty that it deserves, thanks to the president.' Trump gave Musk a golden ceremonial White House key, the kind of thing small-town mayors give out, and proclaimed: 'Elon's really not leaving. He's going to be back and forth, I think.' Trump said that the father of (at least) 14 would never desert DOGE completely because 'It's his baby.'
The Age
01-06-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Elon Musk moved fast in Washington, but broke only his reputation
I take it personally because my dad spent 20 years as a police inspector in Washington in charge of Senate security. He would run to the House whenever there was trouble. So if on January 6 Mike Dowd had been preventing insurrectionists from assaulting lawmakers, he would now be, in Trump's eyes, not a hero deserving of a plaque, but a blackguard who was thwarting 'patriots,' as Trump calls the rioters he pardoned. Loading It is a disturbing bizarro world. Trump was rewriting reality again as one of the most flamboyant, destructive bromances in government history petered out in the Oval Office. It had peaked last winter when Musk posted on social platform X, 'I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man,' and again when Trump tried to reciprocate by hawking Teslas in the White House driveway. But Friday, even these grand master salesmen couldn't sell the spin that Elon had 'delivered a colossal change.' Musk has acknowledged recently that his dream of cutting $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) had been a fantasy. He said changing Washington was 'an uphill battle' and complained that Trump's 'big, beautiful' budget bill, which could add over $US3 trillion ($4.6 trillion) in debt, could undercut his DOGE attempts to save money. As Trump said, Musk got a lot of 'the slings and the arrows.' His approval rating cratered and violence has been directed toward Tesla, a brand once loved by liberals and in China, which is now tarnished. Musk cut off a reporter who tried to ask about a Times article asserting that he was a habitual user of ketamine and a dabbler in ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms even after Trump had given him enormous control over the government. That could explain the chain saw-wielding, the jumping up and down onstage, the manic baby-making and crusading for more spreading of sperm by smart people, and the ominous Nazi-style salutes. Loading When a reporter asked Musk why he had a black eye, he joked about the viral video of Brigitte Macron shoving her husband's face. Then he explained that while 'horsing around' with his 5-year-old, X, he suggested the child punch him in the face, 'and he did.' The president and the Tony Stark prototype tried to convey the idea that they would remain tight, even though Musk would no longer be getting into angry altercations with Scott Bessent outside the Oval, sleeping on the floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and hanging around Mar-a-Lago. Musk, wearing a black 'DOGE' cap and black 'Dogefather' T-shirt, looked around the Oval, which Trump has tarted up to look like a Vegas gift shop, and gushed that it 'finally has the majesty that it deserves, thanks to the president.' Trump gave Musk a golden ceremonial White House key, the kind of thing small-town mayors give out, and proclaimed: 'Elon's really not leaving. He's going to be back and forth, I think.' Trump said that the father of (at least) 14 would never desert DOGE completely because 'It's his baby.'
