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Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
FLASHBACK: Trump launched his first presidential campaign ten years ago
Ten years ago Monday, businessman Donald J. Trump launched his first presidential campaign, marking the beginning of the "Make America Great Again" movement. Trump, beside his wife, Melania, famously came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City June 16, 2015, to announce his intention to run for president of the United States. Fox News Projects Donald Trump Defeats Kamala Harris To Become 47Th President Of The United States "I am officially running for President of the United States," Trump posted to his then-Twitter account June 16, 2015, along with a photo of his family after his announcement. "#MakeAmericaGreatAgain." "Ten Years Ago Today, President Donald J. Trump came down the Golden Escalator and officially declared his candidacy for President of the United States," Team Trump posted to Instagram Monday to commemorate the ten-year anniversary. 10 Years Later: How The Media Covered Trump's Entry Into The 2016 Race Forever Changing American Politics Read On The Fox News App Since, Trump has changed American politics — creating the MAGA movement and serving as the 45th and 47th president of the United States, after beating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 and former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020. Trump is the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms other than Grover Cleveland who was elected in 1884 and again in 1892. "This will truly be the golden age of America," Trump said, upon winning the 2024 election in a article source: FLASHBACK: Trump launched his first presidential campaign ten years ago
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
X finally valued at $44 billion, the exact sum Elon Musk paid for the social media site in 2022
Months after the valuation of X (formerly Twitter) was estimated to have fallen by 80 percent, investors are now pegging the social media platform's value at $44 billion, the same amount Elon Musk purchased the site for in 2022. According to The Financial Times, investors are now exchanging stakes in the company at increased value in a secondary deal as the world's richest man looks to raise additional capital to pay off some of the debt he financed to buy X. The Times reported that in a primary round, Musk aims to bring in $2 billion through selling equity in the company, which will be used to offset a billion dollars in junior debt. 'The new $44bn valuation represents a rebound for Musk and the group's investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, 8VC, Goanna Capital and Fidelity Investments. The deal would help set a price for the upcoming primary round,' the Financial Times noted. Bloomberg reported last month that Musk was pursuing a new round of fundraising that would value X at the same price he acquired it for — which he admitted at the time he was 'obviously overpaying' to buy the social media platform. This also represents the first time that Musk has raised money for the site since he took it private following his acquisition of the then-Twitter. Musk, who is now President Donald Trump's 'first buddy' and is in charge of the administration's dismantling of the federal government, saw the social media giant plummet in value immediately after taking it over. After firing roughly three-quarters of the company's workforce and all but eliminating the platform's moderation policies, along with utilizing X as his own personal megaphone to sound off on his increasingly extremist political views, Musk has seen a large chunk of users flee the site and a number of businesses pull their advertising. With revenues initially sinking under Musk's leadership, investment giant Fidelity Investments estimated last fall that its shares in the company were worth almost 80 percent less than they were at the time of Musk's acquisition. This suggested at the time that the value of X was down to only $9.4 billion. The turnaround in X's price tag is likely due to several factors. One is that the company's flatlining advertising revenue has possibly rebounded to pre-Musk levels. According to sources who spoke with the Financial Times, the social media platform recently posted about $1.2 billion in adjusted earnings for 2024, which is roughly equal to the company's performance before the 2022 purchase. At the same time, though, one person who spoke to the outlet said the earnings figure was 'wildly adjusted.' Amid concerns among sponsors that their advertisements were appearing next to antisemitic and racist content, prompting a large-scale pullback of ad buys, Musk sued a global advertising alliance and blue-chip companies over the 'massive advertiser boycott,' calling it illegal. 'We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war,' he tweeted last August. Meanwhile, companies like Amazon — whose founder, Jeff Bezos, has cozied up to Trump in recent months — have increased their advertisement spending on X. Besides the supposed increase in revenue, investors' increased confidence in X could also be due to large Wall Street banks having sold the vast majority of the $12.5 billion in loans Musk took out to purchase the site. Interest in buying up the loans had greatly improved following Trump's electoral victory and Musk's emergence as one of the president's top advisers and allies. Growth in the valuation was also likely due to Musk sweetening the pot by giving a 25 percent stake in his artificial intelligence startup xAI to investors in X last year. Since then, the AI company has improved in value to $45 billion, adding additional security to investors in the social media site. Still, as Musk is convincing investors that X — which he hopes to turn into a 'do everything' app eventually — is worth $44 billion, his fortunes elsewhere haven't been as rosy. While he initially saw his net worth explode shortly after Trump's election, much of that increase has dissipated in recent weeks due to the sharp market sell-off of Tesla, in which Musk has a massive stake. With the electric car maker experiencing plummeting sales across the globe and protests at dealerships in the United States, largely due to Musk's far-right political pivot and alliance with Trump, the tech mogul's shares in Tesla are no longer his most valuable asset. The growing unpopularity of Musk and dwindling Tesla sales figures even prompted Trump to hold an infomercial for the EVs on the White House lawn earlier this month — despite the president's longstanding disdain for electric cars. With several Teslas spread across the driveway and the president reading off pre-written facts about the cars, Trump stood next to Musk and promoted the 'beautiful' vehicles — and even vowed to buy one personally. 'Everything's computer,' Trump gushed after climbing into one car alongside Musk. Meanwhile, the president declared that anyone who vandalizes or sets fire to a Tesla would be treated as a 'domestic terrorist.' Since then, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force has begun investigating arson attacks at Tesla facilities.
The Independent
19-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
X now valued at $44 billion, the exact sum Elon Musk paid for the social media site in 2022
Months after the valuation of X (formerly Twitter) was estimated to have fallen by 80 percent, investors are now pegging the social media platform's value at $44 billion, the same amount Elon Musk purchased the site for in 2022. According to The Financial Times, investors are now exchanging stakes in the company at increased value in a secondary deal as the world's richest man looks to raise additional capital to pay off some of the debt he financed to buy X. The Times reported that in a primary round, Musk aims to bring in $2 billion through selling equity in the company, which will be used to offset a billion dollars in junior debt. 'The new $44bn valuation represents a rebound for Musk and the group's investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, 8VC, Goanna Capital and Fidelity Investments. The deal would help set a price for the upcoming primary round,' the Financial Times noted. Bloomberg reported last month that Musk was pursuing a new round of fundraising that would value X at the same price he acquired it for — which he admitted at the time he was 'obviously overpaying' to buy the social media platform. This also represents the first time that Musk has raised money for the site since he took it private following his acquisition of the then-Twitter. Musk, who is now President Donald Trump's 'first buddy' and is in charge of the administration's dismantling of the federal government, saw the social media giant plummet in value immediately after taking it over. After firing roughly three-quarters of the company's workforce and all but eliminating the platform's moderation policies, along with utilizing X as his own personal megaphone to sound off on his increasingly extremist political views, Musk has seen a large chunk of users flee the site and a number of businesses pull their advertising. With revenues initially sinking under Musk's leadership, investment giant Fidelity Investments estimated last fall that its shares in the company were worth almost 80 percent less than they were at the time of Musk's acquisition. This suggested at the time that the value of X was down to only $9.4 billion. The turnaround in X's price tag is likely due to several factors. One is that the company's flatlining advertising revenue has possibly rebounded to pre-Musk levels. According to sources who spoke with the Financial Times, the social media platform recently posted about $1.2 billion in adjusted earnings for 2024, which is roughly equal to the company's performance before the 2022 purchase. At the same time, though, one person who spoke to the outlet said the earnings figure was 'wildly adjusted.' Amid concerns among sponsors that their advertisements were appearing next to antisemitic and racist content, prompting a large-scale pullback of ad buys, Musk sued a global advertising alliance and blue-chip companies over the 'massive advertiser boycott,' calling it illegal. 'We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war,' he tweeted last August. Meanwhile, companies like Amazon — whose founder, Jeff Bezos, has cozied up to Trump in recent months — have increased their advertisement spending on X. Besides the supposed increase in revenue, investors' increased confidence in X could also be due to large Wall Street banks having sold the vast majority of the $12.5 billion in loans Musk took out to purchase the site. Interest in buying up the loans had greatly improved following Trump's electoral victory and Musk's emergence as one of the president's top advisers and allies. Growth in the valuation was also likely due to Musk sweetening the pot by giving a 25 percent stake in his artificial intelligence startup xAI to investors in X last year. Since then, the AI company has improved in value to $45 billion, adding additional security to investors in the social media site. Still, as Musk is convincing investors that X — which he hopes to turn into a 'do everything' app eventually — is worth $44 billion, his fortunes elsewhere haven't been as rosy. While he initially saw his net worth explode shortly after Trump's election, much of that increase has dissipated in recent weeks due to the sharp market sell-off of Tesla, in which Musk has a massive stake. With the electric car maker experiencing plummeting sales across the globe and protests at dealerships in the United States, largely due to Musk's far-right political pivot and alliance with Trump, the tech mogul's shares in Tesla are no longer his most valuable asset. The growing unpopularity of Musk and dwindling Tesla sales figures even prompted Trump to hold an infomercial for the EVs on the White House lawn earlier this month — despite the president's longstanding disdain for electric cars. With several Teslas spread across the driveway and the president reading off pre-written facts about the cars, Trump stood next to Musk and promoted the 'beautiful' vehicles — and even vowed to buy one personally. 'Everything's computer,' Trump gushed after climbing into one car alongside Musk. Meanwhile, the president declared that anyone who vandalizes or sets fire to a Tesla would be treated as a 'domestic terrorist.' Since then, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force has begun investigating arson attacks at Tesla facilities.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Flashback: Musk used his 'what did you get done this week' directive before gutting Twitter
As part of his acquisition of Twitter in 2022, Elon Musk called on the social media giant's CEO to detail what he accomplished during the work week – years before he employed the same tactic on federal employees while serving in his capacity as chair of the Department of Government Efficiency under the Trump administration. Musk roiled the federal workforce on Saturday when he posted to X that employees would need to list their accomplishments for the previous week or risk losing their jobs. But this isn't the first time Musk has used the tactic: He did the same amid his purchase of Twitter in 2022, before he overhauled the social media behemoth, including axing top brass. "What did you get done this week," Musk had texted former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal in April 2022, months before he purchased Twitter and ultimately renamed it X. Musk helped resurrect the text exchange over the weekend on X, when he responded to an account that shared a "how it started, how it's going" post that showed a screenshot of Musk's text to Agrawal, accompanied by a screen shot of a Musk X post on Saturday directed at federal employees. "Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk wrote on X on Saturday. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation." Read On The Fox News App "To be clear, the bar is very low here," Musk wrote. "An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable! Should take less than 5 mins to write." Dod Tells Civilian Workforce To Ignore Elon Musk's Request To Report Productivity Musk, who positioned himself as "free speech absolutist" amid the Twitter purchase, bought the social media platform in 2022 after it came under fire from conservatives and free speech advocates for censoring conservative viewpoints. The tech giant had "permanently" banned former President Donald Trump from the platform in 2021, drawing ire from conservatives and free speech advocates. It also blocked the New York Post's 2020 story on Hunter Biden's notorious laptop – and suspended some conservative accounts from the site, such as satire website Babylon Bee in 2022 after it awarded transgender Biden administration official Rachel Levine a fictitious "Man of the Year" award. Musk's Demand That Fed Employees List Their Accomplishments Roils Workforce: 'Mass Civil Disobedience' Musk's text to the then-Twitter CEO asking what he accomplished for the week came as the two sparred over Musk's critical messages aimed at the social media platform, including asking publicly that year, "Is Twitter dying?" The text messages were revealed in court documents released in 2022. Months later, in October 2022, Musk officially acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal, making waves when he entered its headquarters that month carrying a bathroom sink in a video he posted to X with the caption, "Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!" Musk went on to fire the social media company's top executives, including Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and general counsel Vijaya Gadde. Musk explained on X recently that Agrawal was fired due to reported productivity issues. "Parag got nothing done. Parag was fired," he posted to X on Saturday. All in, roughly 70% to 80% of Twitter's approximate 8,000 employees were fired or exited the company following Musk's purchase. Musk took a hatchet to the company's work from home policy, and remarked that the company was overstaffed and needed to be trimmed of staffers who did not contribute much to its operations. Trump Rattles Off 'Flagrant Scams' Uncovered By Doge, Takes Aim At Fort Knox In Cpac Speech "We just had a situation at Twitter where it was absurdly overstaffed," Musk said on Fox News in 2023. "Turns out you don't need all that many people to run Twitter." "If you're not trying to run some sort of glorified activist organization and you don't care that much about censorship, then you can really let go of a lot of people, turns out," he said at the time. Cpac Straw Poll Reveals Who Conservatives Believe Will Be 2028 Presidential Nominee Musk's comments reflect those he's made in the second Trump administration as the chair of DOGE, which is in the midst of auditing various federal agencies in the search for overspending, corruption and mismanagement. DOGE's work comes as President Donald Trump ordered the federal workforce to return to the office after five years of remote work stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, and has vowed to clean house of bad actors within the government and ax overspending. Musk said on Saturday that federal employees would receive an email directing them to list their accomplishments from the week prior, with the DOGE leader adding later that day that the assignment should take less than five minutes to accomplish. Employees have until 11:59 pm on Monday to send the list or lose their employment, according to emails regarding Musk's directive that were sent by the Office of Personnel Management. Musk's message followed Trump remarking that he has been pleased with Musk and DOGE's work investigating various federal agencies for government overspending, fraud and mismanagement, but that he would like to see Musk "get more aggressive." Musk responded on X: "Will do, Mr. President!" Elon Musk Says Federal Employees Must Fill Out Productivity Reports Or Resign Some Democratic lawmakers, unions and activists have called for federal employees to buck the order, while a handful of government departments and agencies, such as the FBI and Department of Defense, told staff to hold off on responding to the email, as respective officials will handle auditing their own staffers. "This is a good opportunity for mass civil disobedience. Musk has no authority to do this," Illinois Democratic Rep. Sean Casten, for example, posted to X on Saturday evening. "Encourage all federal employees to report to work, prepare GFY letters and continue to demonstrate the public service and patriotism he lacks." The acronym GFY is internet slang typically meaning "go f--- yourself." "It takes a remarkable combination of arrogance and stupidity to think that this is the best use of time for our intelligence officers, VA workers, air traffic controllers, and everyone else we depend on to do their job well," he article source: Flashback: Musk used his 'what did you get done this week' directive before gutting Twitter
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Looks to Stick a Fork in Federal Government Workers
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. On Tuesday night Elon Musk pinned an old post to his X account cheekily recalling his 2022 'Fork in the Road' email to then-Twitter employees, offering the workers of the company he'd just purchased a chance to 'be part of the new Twitter' by simply clicking 'yes' by the end of the following day. Those who didn't respond were informed that they'd receive three months' severance. Around the same time as Musk's post, hundreds of thousands of federal workers received an email also titled 'Fork in the Road,' with a similar offer: Simply send an email to the Office of Personnel Management with the word 'Resign' in the subject line, and you'll receive eight months' pay, so long as you reply before Feb. 6. The email described the offer as 'Deferred Resignation,' and stated as its purpose reforming the federal workforce 'significant[ly],' but is light on the sort of details that would typically accompany severance offers. What the email does concede is that the 'majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions. ' Anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist's dream of shrinking government to a point where it could be drowned in a bathtub may finally be on the verge of realization. By its terms, workers must accept the terms before Feb. 6, and include the form 'Deferred Resignation Letter' in the email, drafted in the language of the worker, and it contains legal concessions such as voluntariness, not to mention acceptance of terms that simply aren't spelled out in a manner one would expect when departing a job that comes with so many inherent rights and obligations. Besides the eight-month severance, which Musk described on X as 'the most that is legally allowed without Congress passing another appropriations bill,' those opting in would enjoy the additional carrot of not having to return to the office in person five days a week, as recently mandated by a Trump executive order. Perhaps unsurprising to anyone who has followed his adventures before Delaware's Court of Chancery, Musk's assessment as to what is legal may be wrong, given the existence of the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment Authority, which appears to cap severance buyouts of federal workers at $25,000. But is this even a severance offer if you're still required to work? Well, no, and probably also yes. The email carefully dances around the term 'severance' (again, it's a 'deferred resignation'), even if Musk himself—the likely author of last night's email, or at least its inspiration—referred to it as exactly that. But the email and memorandum (not emailed but available on the OPM's website) both suggest that workers opting in could be placed on administrative leave until the resignation actually kicks in on Sept. 30, 2025. Setting aside the legal question, there's an obvious economic concern as well: Where is this buyout money coming from, which would be well in excess of $25,000 per worker, if the money isn't already appropriated by Congress? Perhaps, one might argue, the question is moot because the salaries coming off the books would pay the additional severance. But that's speculative math. Sen. Tim Kaine took to the Senate floor last night to underscore the money question: 'The president has no authority to make that offer. There's no budget line item to pay people who are not showing up for work. … If you accept that offer and resign, he'll stiff you.' As difficult as it is to imagine the president of the United States stiffing anyone, anything seems possible in this precarious moment, where we find ourselves again waking to a new, fresh horror unleashed by a president who repeatedly and intentionally breaks things in reliance, only sometimes misplaced, that his judges will jump in and fix them. If the courts decline to bail him out, the always victimized Trump can always declare the loss a witch hunt and target a new enemy. However this plays out in court—if it even gets there—the email serves a secondary (or perhaps even primary) purpose beyond downsizing. It signals to civil service workers who stay that unless you drink the Kool-Aid, you are not welcome, and your work life will be made miserable. The email cites as one of its four 'pillars' the idea of a 'more streamlined and flexible' workforce that is likely to be restructured, realigned, and reduced through furloughs and reclassifications. In other words, Take the deal on the table because I'm telling you here and now that behind Door 2 lies your nightmare. The email's fine print describes the offer to workers as a 'dignified, fair departure from the federal government,' but the tone is unmistakable: The incoming administration doesn't value their work, and for many, doesn't believe their work should exist. This email comes only days after workers received the DEIA memorandum gut punch, intending to root out 'DEIA sympathizers' by pitting worker against worker, splitting them along purely ideological lines. The Deferred Resignation email similarly takes this opportunity to threaten workers who engage in 'unlawful behavior or other misconduct' with 'appropriate investigation and discipline'—menacing language that feels preposterously out of place in an offer to resign. It's difficult to imagine federal workers—a selfless and proud group by nature, who often intentionally took less money because they believe in their work and this country—responding favorably to the implied threat. And that, I suppose, is the point. The U.S. federal government bears no resemblance to any company or private entity, but Elon Musk just treated all its workers like twentysomething coders at a startup that the hedge fund guys don't think is going to work out, and based on my conversations with friends who are federal workers, it's a travesty, because we're on the verge of finding out how good we had it, and how crucial their work was, the hard way—by losing it entirely.
