Press Secretary Reveals Startling Truth of Elon Musk’s Full Power

Donald Trump has found the perfect person to say if Elon Musk has conflicts of interest: Elon Musk. 

During a White House press briefing Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked what steps the Trump administration was taking to address the conflicts of interest that arise from the billionaire technocrat serving as a “special government employee” heading the Department of Government Efficiency. 

It seems that it’s up to Musk to decide. 

“The president was already asked, and answered the question this week. He said that if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts,” Leavitt said. 

Leavitt insisted that Musk had “abided by all applicable laws,” which has become the company line about the unelected bureaucrat currently rifling through the private information of federal employees. 

Based on Leavitt’s non-answer, it seems that Musk’s approach to conflicts of interest will be based solely on the honor system, and he will receive no ethics oversight for his dealings with DOGE. 

Earlier this week, Trump said that Musk was given access “only to letting people go that he thinks that are no good,”  and to get rid of certain “groups” and “numbers,” weaving into his outlandish lie about uncovering government spending on condoms for Gaza. “Elon can’t do, and won’t do anything without our approval,” Trump eventually said. Well, that’s comforting. 

Ethics experts have raised concerns over Musk’s dual status as a federal employee and CEO of SpaceX. As a federal employee, he is legally required to recuse himself from any decision that can benefit his financial interests. Meanwhile, he has raked in billions in unclassified prime revenue from the U.S. government in the last year alone. 

The CIA may have just doxxed itself.

The New York Times is reporting that the Central Intelligence Agency, complying with Trump’s attempts to purge the federal government, sent his administration an unclassified email containing a list of every single person the CIA had hired over the past two years. Security experts everywhere are alarmed at the news, as many of those named closely monitor U.S. adversaries like Russia and China—and could soon become targets because of it.

The list, which was sent to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, contained names of operatives whose identities are typically guarded. It’s not clear how many names were in the email.

“Exposing the identities of officials who do extremely sensitive work would put a direct target on their backs for China,” Democratic Senator Mark Warner wrote on X. “A disastrous national security development.”

A former CIA officer described the email as a “counterintelligence disaster.” This comes as Trump offered CIA employees an unauthorized “buyout” in return for their resignations.

Thousands of Americans are protesting in cities across the United States Wednesday against Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s early attempts to overhaul the federal government.

The protests took place at state capitols across the country, organized online by a movement called 50501, referring to 50 protests in 50 states in one day. Demonstrators gathered in Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Delaware, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, according to the r/50501 subreddit and the Associated Press.

In Philadelphia, protesters gathered outside of a federal courthouse holding signs that said “TRUMP + MUSK ARE NOT KINGS” and “RESIST.” In Madison, Wisconsin, demonstrators at the state Capitol held signs objecting to fascism, Elon Musk, and the conservative manifesto Project 2025. In Lansing, Michigan, about 500 people demonstrated outside the state Capitol denouncing Trump’s plans for Gaza, the rollback of transgender rights, and the federal government’s mass deportation efforts under Trump.

One of the organizers at Michigan’s protest only learned about the movement on Sunday night, and helped with coordinating speakers and safety protocols.

“I want to look back at this time and say that I did something and I didn’t just sit back,” Kelsey Brianne told the AP Monday night.

On social media, protesters used the hashtag #50501 to organize and document the protests. Videos were also posted by journalists and media outlets across the country showing local protests.

Another federal judge has blocked Trump’s brutal attack on birthright citizenship.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman filed a preliminary injunction against Trump’s executive order, which was a promise he signed into action his first day in office.

Boardman ruled that Trump’s repeal of birthright citizenship “conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment, contradicts 125-year old binding Supreme Court precedent and runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth.”

“No court in the country has ever endorsed the president’s interpretation,” she continued. “This court will not be the first.”

Boardman’s injunction will almost surely be challenged by the Trump administration and head to a federal appeals court, after which it could then head toward the Supreme Court. Boardman is the second federal judge to rule against Trump’s executive order.

The Trump administration argued that the Founding Fathers didn’t mean to “create a loophole to be exploited” by immigrants. Boardman was unconvinced.

Trump has made eliminating birthright citizenship—a basic constitutional tenet—a key part in his war against undocumented immigrants.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s shockingly not-private Venmo account shines a light into the shadowy corners of the supposedly antiestablishment warrior’s completely establishment inner circle—and also illuminates the path forward for Donald Trump’s Defense Department, according to a new report from The American Prospect.

The cast of characters listed under Hegseth’s friends on the mobile payment app, which includes Washington elites, defense contractors, and private health care executives, suggests that he plans to steer the Defense Department toward widespread privatization.

Heavily featured in Hegseth’s list of friends are executives at defense firms Palantir and Anduril, which already get millions off of the Defense Department.

Palantir recently extended an artificial intelligence contract with the U.S. Army that is projected to cost $401 million over four years, with a ceiling of $619 million. In October, Anduril scored a $250 million contract with the Pentagon to develop a drone defense system, in addition to already supplying counter-drone hardware and software to the U.S. Special Operations Command on a 10-year contract, which is worth up to $1 billion.

Hegseth’s list of Venmo buddies also includes Mike Gallagher, a former representative from Wisconsin who, after drumming up a lot of anti-China rhetoric as chair of the Select Committee on the CCP, vacated his seat last year to serve as head of defense at Palantir. His new employer stands to make a killing in AI contracts as a result of a breakdown in U.S. relations with China. Hegseth also had the contact for Christian Brose, chief strategy officer for Anduril.

Hegseth has more ties to Big Tech in the form of former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who leads the anti-antitrust Competitiveness Coalition, as well as Evan Bahr, who served as an adviser to Peter Thiel’s hedge fund, according to TAP’s report.* Hegseth’s ties to these sectors indicate that he will likely be open to outsourcing more massive government contracts to Silicon Valley.

Hegseth’s Venmo also revealed ties to several executives of the UnitedHealth Group, including a vice president, a product director, and a public affairs consultant. UnitedHealth is the largest administrator of Medicare Advantage, which is the largest administrator of the private Medicare option.

Hegseth has previously advocated for the privatization of Veterans Affairs, an agency he does not oversee but that manages the health care of the country’s veterans. He lobbied to restrict access to VA health care to only veterans with service-connected disabilities. In his capacity as head of DOD, Hegseth could push to privatize TRICARE, a health care program servicing uniformed military members, and continue to advocate to strip veterans of their government-offered health care option.

Hegseth’s lapse in personal security—a list of all his buddies available for public viewing—is a disturbing feature for the guy in charge of the Pentagon. Last month, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth warned that Hegseth was potentially “vulnerable to blackmail,” given his shady dealings with a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017.

“What is he going to be willing to do to pay off the next accuser who might show up after he becomes secretary of defense and has access to the nuclear codes, and the location of U.S. troops around the world?” Duckworth said.

* This piece originally misidentified one of Pete Hegseth’s Venmo contacts.