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| Elon Musk |
Though he bankrupted many of his companies, Donald Trump has been consistent on one thing over the years: He doesn’t like “losers.”
And that is why in the aftermath of Elon Musk’s embarrassing defeat in Wisconsin’s special election on April 1, news reports circulated that the world’s richest man will soon wrap up his work on demolishing the federal government.
Musk poured $25M into the campaign of conservative judge Brad Schimel, who was shellacked by liberal Susan Crawford for a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court.
The world’s richest man even donned a cheesehead during a campaign rally for Schimel. It’s hard to imagine Trump wearing a cheesehead.
Crawford beat Schimel by ten points.
Musk’s retreat from DC comes as Tesla suffered its worst quarter since 2022 with sales dropping 13 percent to 336,681 cars. That fell far short of Wall Street’s projection of 390,000 cars sold.
His car-wreck leadership of the so-called Dept. of Government Efficiency, and flirtation with far-right political parties in Europe, damaged Tesla’s sales performance.
Musk can’t afford to be messing around in DC while Tesla drives off a cliff.
He also needs to steel himself for the April 22 release of Q1 financials and a company update. It won’t be pretty.
How is Team Trump spinning Elon’s departure? It is taking a page out of George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” playbook.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X that news of Musk’s immediate departure from DC is “fake news.” She wrote on April 2:
“Elon Musk and President Trump have both *publicly* stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.”
Stick a fork in Elon, he’s done.
Cory’s busy press team… Congrats to the media staff of Jersey Senator Cory Booker for its coverage of his record-shattering 25 hour and five minutes speech outlining Trump’s relentless attack on the federal government and US Constitution.
Team Cory released nine news releases and video clips during the Democrat’s epic talk that surpassed the 24 hour and 18 minute filibuster waged by South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond’s against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Booker’s speech chalked up some good PR numbers. It resulted in more 350M likes on his TikTok stream, 28K voicemails of encouragement sent to his office, and a ton of media hits throughout the US.
He wrapped up the talk by borrowing the line of late Congressman John Lewis about causing “good trouble.”
Booker said it’s time for “good trouble, necessary trouble to redeem the soul of the nation.”
Well-done, Cory: Now get to work in rallying the sleepwalking-into-oblivion Democrats.
Saving the VoA journalists. A coalition of 37 human rights groups have sent a letter to Congress urging members to secure the release of 11 imprisoned journalists who worked for the US Agency for Global Media-funded outlets.
They are currently held in harsh places such as Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Myanmar and Vietnam.
The coalition also is advocating on behalf on the 84 journalists based in the US on work visas who faced deportation to countries where they could face prosecution and severe harassment.
USAGM entities include the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Coalition members include Reporters without Borders, Committee to Protect Journalists, PEN America, and Radio Television Digital News Association.
RwB's Thibaut Bruttin says it’s outrageous that journalists who risk their lives to expose the extent of repression in their home countries might be completely abandoned.
Congress, which funds the USAGM, "has a moral responsibility to the reporters who represent the principles of democracy and press freedom,” added Bruttin.
Does America still stand for those once-sacred principles?
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As Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to meet with Donald Trump, the influential Israeli media outlet, Haaretz, has called on the country to end of the country’s influence ops campaign targeted at the US.
