Musk, Ramaswamy to lead ‘Department of Government Efficiency’
Trump announces that Musk and Ramaswamy will lead a new ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ in his second administration.
I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”). Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the “Save America” Movement. This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk said.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2024
Musk joins Trump’s call to Zelensky
Trump and Zelensky talk on the phone for around 25 minutes, with Musk listening in and participating. After Zelensky congratulates Trump, the president-elect says he will support Ukraine, but does not go into details. Sources say Zelensky felt the call went well and that it did not increase his anxiety about Trump’s victory:
[It] didn’t leave Zelensky with a feeling of despair.
Musk says he will continue supporting Ukraine with Starlink.
Wins 2024 Presidential Election
Trump wins the 2024 Presidential election, defeating Harris to become the 47th President. The campaign became increasingly confident at 1:20am when Pennsylvani was called for Trump. At 2am Trump appeared to speak:
This is a movement like nobody’s ever seen before,” Trump said. “This is I believe the greatest political movement of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country and now it’s going to reach a new level of importance, because we’re going to help our country heal. We’re going to fix our borders. We’re going to fix everything about our country … I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve, this will truly be the golden age of America.
By 5.37am the Associated Press called Wisconsin for Trump, with the state’s 10 electoral college votes tipping Trump’s total to 277 – more than the 270 votes needed to win the presidency. Trump also won the popular vote. Trump will be the first president to serve non-consecutive terms since Grover Cleveland, who was in office from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897.
Musk: Ramaswamy is a ‘promising candidate’
In response to a video of Tucker Carlson interviewing Ramaswamy, Musk says he is a “promising candidate.”
He is a very promising candidate https://t.co/bEQU8L21nd
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 17, 2023
DeSantis declares White House run on glitchy Twitter space
DeSantis officially launches his 2024 presidential campaign with an hour-long discussion, hosted by Musk and Sacks on a Twitter Space. Initially, the event was hit with technical glitches and audio-drops, which meant that many people could not listen. Sacks:
I think we’re breaking the internet here.
Around 700,000 people logged in to hear the conversation, including Donald Trump’s former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, attorney Rudy Giuliani and legal adviser Jenna Ellis.
DeSantis says American democracy under attack by rising crime, out-of-touch liberal “woke” ideologies, out-of-control immigration at the southern border, and points to his track record as Florida governor as a blueprint for his plan in the White House. He says his achievements included the speed with which Florida opened up during the Covid pandemic, legislation restricting sex education in classrooms, and curbs on undocumented immigrants.
We know our country is going in the wrong direction. We see it with our eyes, and we feel it in our bones…Our president, well, he lacks vigour, flounders in the face of our nation’s challenges and he takes his cues from the woke mob. I don’t think it has to be this way. American decline isn’t inevitable. It is a choice.
We need the courage to lead and we must have the strength to win. If you nominate me, you can set your clock to January 20th, 2025, at high noon because on the west side of the US Capitol, I will be taking the oath of office as the 47th president.
Musk used the event to herald free speech and received praise from DeSantis and others for challenging mainstream platforms. Musk:
Twitter was expensive but free speech is priceless.
DeSantis’s team claims over $1m in campaign donations was raised in under an hour.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2023
Tesla brand rating falls 50 spots to 62
Tesla falls 50 spots in the Axios Harris Poll 100, a survey that gauges the reputations of the most notable brands in America. The company is now No. 62 out of 100 companies on the list, putting it in the “good” category. The No. 1 brand in the survey is Patagonia, while the leading car brand is Toyota, in sixth place.
The poll surveyed 16,310 “nationally representative” Americans, asking them which two companies they think have the best reputation and which two have the worst reputation. The answers were then compiled to determine which companies have the most “visibility,” with the top 100 being rated on nine dimensions, including character, trajectory, and trust.
Although Tesla received “excellent” scores in the trajectory, vision, and products and services categories, along with a “very good” score in growth, it earned “fair” scores for character, trust, and citizenship.
U.S. lawmakers seek probe into Neuralink
U.S. House Representatives Blumenauer (D) and Schiff (D) seek signatures from peers for a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requesting a probe into Neuralink. The request centers around whether employees on the company’s animal testing oversight board hastily approved experiments that resulted in the unnecessary deaths and suffering of animals. The lawmakers say they are responding to a news story which revealed that Neuralink filled the panel with employees who stand to benefit financially from the start-up securing regulatory approval for its novel brain chip. The letter states, in part:
Congress has a significant interest in ensuring that all facilities using animals in research and testing – whether they are government-run, universities, or private companies – comply with the minimal standards of the Animal Welfare Act.
Neuralink is already the subject of a probe by the U.S. Department of Transportation over the company’s movement of hazardous pathogens.
Twitter votes for Musk to keep talking about politics
Musk runs a Twitter poll, asking users if he should either ‘Stay out of politics’ or ‘Keep shooting his feet’, with the result that 57.2% voted for the latter option. 595,182 votes were cast.
Elon Musk should
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2023
Musk responds to the poll, saying:
Ouch my feet!
Ouch my feet!! https://t.co/4pqBY6rZDu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2023
Musk says Trump will be reinstated after 52% poll win
Musk’s poll, asking if former President Trump’s account should be reinstated, ends at 51.8% Yes to 48.2% No. Musk claims 134 million people saw the poll, with over 15 million votes were cast. When the poll first started, Musk claimed it was receiving one million votes per hour.
Reinstate former President Trump
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2022
Musk comments:
The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.
The people have spoken.
Trump will be reinstated.
Vox Populi, Vox Dei. https://t.co/jmkhFuyfkv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2022
Sturgeon hired Godley despite Yousaf ‘divisive’ warning
A freedom of information response shows Sturgeon approved Godley’s £10,000 Covid commercial fee, despite Yousaf raising concerns. On August 30, Mr Yousaf’s private secretary emailed the First Minister’s Office to say that My Yousaf felt using Ms Godley could “be divisive” and “there may be many people who purposely switch off if she is fronting it”. Yousaf wanted an unnamed male celebrity to front the public health campaign instead as he would “be a better candidate, given his broader appeal”. Sturgeon’s office replied:
FM (First Minister) is content to clear but agrees with Cab Sec comments. FM is very supportive of Janey Godley and she has been hugely helpful to our Covid messaging but she is perceived to be on one side of the political debate in Scotland and so may not speak to the maximum number of people.
Ross: Johnson should resign over lockdown party
Ross says Johnson should resign for attending a garden party at No 10 Downing Street at the height of the pandemic in 2020. He says he is concerned that the continuing debate around ‘Partygate’ will be a distraction from the good governance of the country.
Regretfully, I have to say that his position is not tenable…I don’t want to be in this position, but I am in this position now, where I don’t think he can continue as leader of the Conservatives…I also have to look at the information I’ve got in front of me and stick with the position that I made quite clear yesterday that, if he did attend that party, he couldn’t continue as Prime Minister.
Ross also added that when he discussed these issues with the PM he made a defence of his own position, claiming that he hadn’t done anything wrong.
Poll: Majority want Sturgeon to stay as First Minister
A Panelbase poll, commisioned by The Sunday Times, indicates that 52% of respondents would prefer if Sturgeon remained as First Minister for the rest of this parliament, while 34 per cent of the 2,038 voters surveyed between November 9 and 15 said they would like her to leave the position. The poll also indicates that a majority of Scots don’t know who they would back to be the next First Minister if Sturgeon steps down, with 64 per cent of voters have no view on who the next leader of the SNP should be. Pottential successors include Kate Forbes on 7% and John Swinney on 6%. Curtice:
While her ubiquity might reflect her effectiveness as a communicator, a strong leader is also one who enables their colleagues to shine, and gain the experience and authority needed to become a potential successor.
Chuck Close ‘Asterisk’ protest
To protest allegations of sexual harassment by Close, Sulkowicz stands in front of artworks by Close, housed inside The Met and the 86th Street subway station, wearing underwear, high heels and asterisks covering her nipples. The black asterisks drawn across her face and body allude to a New York Times article titled “Chuck Close Is Accused of Harassment. Should His Artwork Carry an Asterisk?”
An asterisk is such a small request. It’s the matter of a few points of ink. It’s so ridiculous that these people would prioritize the exclusion of a teeny little punctuation mark over a story of a woman’s abuse. These asterisks represent embodied experiences and are not these abstract punctuation marks. They have real consequences.
She also stands before Picasso’s “Demoiselles d’Avignon” in the Museum of Modern Art.
I grew up in New York. Every time we went on a field trip, I was expected to look at this violent depiction of chopped-up women’s bodies while being told it’s a fantastic painting. It felt important for me to stand in front of that as well.
Sulkowicz says she was catcalled and verbally harassed by passersby and museum guards during her performance at the Museum.
Trump picks Gorsuch for Supreme Court
At an event at the White House, Trump selects Gorush as his candidate to replace Judge Antonin Scalia on tIf confirmed by the Senate, the 49-year-old would restore the court’s conservative majority, lost with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. If successful, his nomination will restore the five-four conservative majority on the nine-seat high court.Trump:
[Gorsuch has] a superb intellect, an unparalleled legal education, and a commitment to interpreting the Constitution according to text. Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline, and has earned bipartisan support…It is an extraordinary resume. As good as it gets. The qualifications of Judge Gorsuch are beyond dispute. I only hope that Democrats and Republicans can come together for one, for the good of the country.
Gorush:
The towering judges that have served in this particular seat of the Supreme Court, including Antonin Scalia and Robert Jackson, are much in my mind at this moment. Justice Scalia was a lion of the law. Agree or disagree with him, all of his colleagues on the bench shared his wisdom and his humor. And like them, I miss him.
Signs executive order authorising border wall
President Trump signs an executive order authorising the start of the construction of a border wall with Mexico and boosts border patrol forces and increases the number of immigration enforcement officers from 20,000 to 30,000. The orders also call for stripping sanctuary cities of federal grant funding and announces new criteria that could make many more illegal immigrants priorities for deportation. The executive orders do not cover the cost of the wall.
Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders.
Visits Dakota Access Pipeline protest
TMZ reports that Rousey and Macias had visited the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. The celebrities brought fresh fruit, veggies, bread, tents and wood-burning stoves to the protest site in North Dakota.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPrU4L8gkJi/
Trump picks Perry to head Energy Dept
Multiple news outlets report that Perry is Trump’s pick to head the Department of Energy.
Trump names Cohn top economic advisor
Trump nominates Goldman Sachs president & COO Cohn as the Director of his National Economic Council. Trump:
As my top economic advisor, Gary Cohn is going to put his talents as a highly successful businessman to work for the American people. He fully understands the economy and will use all of his vast knowledge and experience to make sure the American people start winning again.
Cohn:
I share President-elect Trump’s vision of making sure every American worker has a secure place in a thriving economy, and we will be completely committed to building a nation of strength, growth and prosperity.
Trump selects Tillerson as Secretary of State
Trump’s transition team announces that Tillerson will be the secretary of state. Tillerson had reportedly jumped to the front of the pack of candidates in recent days, despite not being mentioned on shortlists as recently as last week.
This story will be updated as news develops…
Trump nominates Kelly to lead DHS
Trump nominates Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security. If confirmed by the Senate, Kelly would be the fifth person to lead the department. An official announcement is pending.