President Elon Musk Has Already Trashed Trump’s Newest Initiative

The Trump administration has only been in power for two days, but some of its core players already appear to be at odds.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced Stargate—a public-private joint AI venture between the federal government, OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, which the forty-seventh president claimed could invest as much as $500 billion into the bubbling tech sector over the next four years.

“This monumental undertaking is a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential,” Trump told reporters in the White House. “We’re going to make it as easy as it can be.”

But hours later, one of Trump’s closest tech advisers—the richest man in the world, Elon Musk—was already publicly questioning the initiative, telling users on his platform that the effort was a dud.

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk wrote on X in response to a post from OpenAI announcing the digital infrastructure deal. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”

OpenAI and SoftBank are set to lead the project, with SoftBank taking on Stargate’s financial responsibility, according to Fortune. OpenAI’s chief Sam Altman called the venture the “most important project of this era.” Stargate involves an initial private investment of $100 billion into America’s AI infrastructure, a move that would begin a digital “re-industrialization of the United States,” ushering in “hundreds of thousands of American jobs,” OpenAI said in a statement Tuesday.

But Musk’s decision to reveal the rocky ground beneath Trump’s trophy deal, all while elevating his own know-how, could cause cracks in the powerful duo’s dynamic. In December, tech journalist Kara Swisher argued that the relationship between the two self-imagined strongmen is destined to flame out, just as it did with Trump’s former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.

“They’re both narcissists, and there can be only one narcissist as head of the country, and that’s Donald Trump who just won the election,” Swisher said. “You know he owes things to Elon, but at some point, you know if he takes too much of the attention—think about Steve Bannon. You remember he was on the cover of that magazine, and how quickly he got out, even though he was critical to Trump’s first campaign and he was right in the middle of the White House, and then he wasn’t.”

“Trump goes through people like tissues, essentially,” Swisher noted at the time. “And even if it’s Musk, they’re going to clash at some point.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson is planning to use the wildfires in California as an opportunity to impose Donald Trump’s agenda.

During a one-on-one interview Tuesday night, Fox News’s Sean Hannity asked whether Johnson thought that disaster aid could be used for leverage against sanctuary cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“Are you saying that California, if they continue to aid and abet lawbreaking and harboring illegal immigrants, money from D.C. gets cut off?” Hannity asked.

“Yeah, we’re talking about conditions to this disaster aid. Look, they are natural disasters, but there are man-made disasters as well,” Johnson said. “And they made terrible decisions, you know? They knew exactly what they were doing.”

“That reservoir outside the Pacific Palisades, 117 million gallons—it was empty for a year. Why? They were trying to save a smelt fish or something,” Johnson said.

Hannity, who often acts as MAGA’s shadow policymaker, asked a question that was ripped straight from the pages of Project 2025. A chapter written by Ken Cuccinelli, Trump’s former deputy secretary of homeland security, suggested that funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency could be withheld from places that fail to comply with immigration laws, such as sanctuary cities.

But even the authoritarian handbook added one caveat, noting that “post-disaster or nonhumanitarian funding” could be exempt from the immigration policy requirements.

It seems that Johnson is way past concessions for the sake of humanity now. While it’s unclear from his answer whether he plans to use the wildfires to impose immigration policy, it’s clear he views it as an opportunity to reform liberal policies he doesn’t like: namely environmental regulations.

Johnson’s line about smelt is one that Trump has been using to complain about California’s water conservation efforts since he was on the campaign trail. In reality, the reservoir was offline for repairs.

By shifting the lion’s share of the blame onto the California government, Republicans seem to think they can buy themselves more time to play politics with money for struggling families who have lost their homes, businesses, and belongings.

Donald Trump’s Justice Department is already beginning its anti-immigration crusade, starting with policing state and local governments.

The Associated Press obtained a department memo Wednesday directing federal prosecutors to investigate state and local government officials who interfere with new federal immigration laws. The memo states that prosecutors should “take all steps necessary to protect the public and secure the American border by removing illegal aliens from the country and prosecuting illegal aliens for crimes.”

If state or local officials obstruct or add hurdles to federal immigration enforcement, prosecutors are ordered to look at potential criminal charges.

“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests,” the memo states. “The U.S. Attorney’s Offices and litigating components of the Department of Justice shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution.”

This is all part of Trump’s campaign promise to carry out mass deportations, given that such a large-scale effort will require cooperation from local and state authorities. Republican officials have already pledged their support, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is already taking steps to pass laws to assist the deportation effort.

But Trump is headed for a clash with Democratic state and local officials, many of whom, like California Governor Gavin Newsom, are already preparing to take on the new administration with lawsuits and special legislation of their own. The next weeks and months are going to involve plenty of chaos and legal fights between Trump and immigration advocates.

Trump’s pardons don’t stop with violent January 6 insurrectionists. On Tuesday, he also freed a massive dark web drug dealer.

Ross Ulbricht ran Silk Road, an online black market that moved $200 million worth of illegal drugs, distributed fake passports, helped hackers collaborate, and laundered money. He was also prosecuted for allegedly soliciting six murders for hire, one against a former employee.

Ulbricht was sentenced to double life imprisonment, plus 40 years, in 2015.

“Make no mistake: Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara after Ulbricht’s sentencing. “Ulbricht went from hiding his cybercrime identity to becoming the face of cybercrime and as today’s sentence proves, no one is above the law.”

Trump initially promised to pardon Ulbricht during a speech at the 2024 Libertarian Convention, making a direct appeal to the right-of-center crowd for their votes.

“And if you vote for me, on day one I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced.… He’s already served 11 years. We’re gonna get him home. I’m proud that I have put forward a detailed plan to smash the censorship and industrial complex and restore free speech.” The room erupted in cheers of “FREE ROSS.”

“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,” the president wrote on Truth Social Tuesday evening. “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”

“Immense gratitude to everyone who voted for President Trump on my behalf. I trust him to honor his pledge and give me a second chance,” Ulbricht wrote on X. “After 11+ years in darkness, I can finally see the light of freedom at the end of the tunnel.”

All federal employees in diversity, equity, and inclusion roles will be placed on paid leave by the end of Wednesday, thanks to a new mandate by President Donald Trump.

The forty-seventh president has set a deadline that all DEI-related offices, programs, and their related websites and social media accounts shall be shuttered by 5 p.m., according to a memo from the Office of Personnel Management.

The memo also states that federal agencies need to submit a written plan by the end of the month for dismissing the DEI employees.

“President Trump campaigned on ending the scourge of DEI from our federal government and returning America to a merit based society where people are hired based on their skills, not for the color of their skin,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News in a statement Tuesday night, adding that the move to oust diversity roles—which Trump had mentioned in his inaugural speech—should come as “no surprise.”

“This is another win for Americans of all races, religions, and creeds. Promises made, promises kept,” Leavitt said.

Trump signed an executive order ending the programs Monday night. The order, titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” accused the Biden-era diversity policies of being “illegal and immoral discrimination programs.”

But outside of the federal government and in corporate America, the administration’s message on diversity initiatives is loud and clear: They are, simply, not necessary. Mentions of DEI in company earnings calls have dropped by approximately 82 percent since Q2 of 2021, reported Axios.

The shift away from DEI began when the Supreme Court ruled on the diversity program in 2023, but the “trickle became a flood” after Trump’s election victory, with companies such as Harley Davidson, Ford, Molson Coors, Walmart, and McDonald’s peeling back their corporate diversity commitments, according to the Financial Times.

Major social media companies, including Elon Musk’s X and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, have simultaneously stripped their respective platforms of their content-moderation divisions. Earlier this month, an updated version of Meta’s hateful conduct policy suddenly allowed users on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads to refer to women as property, Black people as “farm equipment,” transgender individuals as “it,” and LGBTQ+-identifying persons as mentally ill.

“What we’re seeing is companies looking at the holistic picture—like social media campaigns that have been run against companies and the political environment in which you have not only Trump, but his closest advisors, such as Elon Musk, going after particular companies around DEI,” Ann O’Leary, partner and co-chair of government controversies and public policy litigation practice at Jenner & Block, told Axios on Thursday. “But we’re also seeing companies really taking a close look at why they’re doing what they’re doing.”