Kamala Harris Takes Subtle Swipe At Elon Musk In Rare Appearance

Posted on 26/05/2025 by Boris Clair

Former US Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday took an apparent swipe at billionaire Elon Musk over his stance on empathy, while conceding that she is deeply concerned about the current state of the world, in one of the few public appearances she’s made since leaving office.

Speaking at the Australian Real Estate Conference, Harris alluded to recent remarks by Musk, who has now significantly scaled back his role in the Trump administration — a stark contrast to his constant presence by President Donald Trump’s side in the early days of his second term.

“There was someone that is very popular these days, at least in the press, who suggested that it is a sign of the weakness of Western civilisations to have empathy,” Harris said, according to The Guardian, without naming Musk.

“Imagine. No, it’s a sign of strength to have some level of curiosity and concern and care about the well-being of others,” she continued.

During an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience in March, Musk suggested that while caring for others is important, it’s a double-edged sword.

“The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy, the empathy exploit,” Musk said. “There it’s they’re exploiting a bug in Western civilisation, which is the empathy response.”

Musk has limited his role in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting initiative he repeatedly touted, amid polls showing that the public was souring on him and signs of trouble for his electric car company Tesla, seeming to stem in part from his involvement in the Trump administration. But what appears to have been a “turning point” for Musk was the defeat of the conservative candidate he backed in the race for a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, according to The New York Times. Musk privately acknowledges his involvement was counterproductive, the Times added.

The tech billionaire, a major donor in Trump’s 2024 campaign, has also said he will scale back his political donations going forward.

“In terms of political spending, I’m gonna do a lot less in the future,” he told an economic forum in Qatar last week.

“I think I’ve done enough,” he added.

Harris, who is reportedly mulling a run for California governor following her defeat in the 2024 presidential race, also expressed profound concern about the current state of the world amid Trump’s pursuit of his America First agenda.

“I do worry that it is important that we remember history,” Harris told the audience, according to The Guardian, without referencing Trump. “It’s important that we remember the 1930s. It’s important that we remember that history has taught us that isolation does not equal insulation.”

Elon Musk Loses It With Mishal Husain Over DOGE Question: ‘Like Talking To A Computer’

Posted on 21/05/2025 by Boris Clair

Elon Musk flipped out at a journalist who dared to question the billionaire’s success as President Donald Trump’s federal spending hatchet man.

The tech billionaire told Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain, a respected former BBC broadcaster, that “it’s like talking to a computer” when she suggested his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) risked falling short of its $2 trillion savings target.

On Tuesday, Musk was interviewed by Husain via video at an economic forum in Qatar, and was asked about DOGE not meeting the goal.

She reminded Musk of his pledge — at a high-profile rally for Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York on October — that he’d cut “at least $2 trillion” from the federal government budget.

Experts had dismissed the $2 trillion aim as extremely unrealistic since it would equate to almost all discretionary funding, including programs for transportation, education and housing, so well beyond the fraud and waste Musk has said repeatedly would make up the bulk of the cuts.

DOGE has itself said it has only slashed $160 billion to date.

“You’ve talked about $4 billion a day being saved,” Husain said. “And I think everyone can agree that combating waste and inefficiency in government is a very good thing, but if you add that up, it’s not gonna get to $2 trillion over the lifetime of DOGE.”

Musk appeared not to understand or hear the question, so Husain repeated herself.

“I mean, I feel you’re somewhat trapped in the NPC dialogue tree of a traditional journalist,” Musk snapped. The term NPC derives from video games and refers to a “non-playable character.”

“So it’s difficult when I’m conversing with someone who’s trapped in the dialogue tree of a conventional journalist because it’s like talking to a computer.”

In a defense of DOGE’s work, Musk went on to stress the organisation “is an advisory group” and “we’re doing the best we can.”

He conceded the three branches of government “are to some degree opposed to that level of cost savings.”

The defensive response is the latest sign that the world’s richest man’s dream of transforming Washington, DC, has turned into a nightmare.

Almost ever-present at the president’s side in the early days of the second Trump administration, the Tesla CEO has since scaled back his day-to-day involvement with DOGE following political and consumer backlash that was threatening his business interests.

Trump signalled their relationship was changing when he effectively said farewell to the tech billionaire at a Cabinet meeting last month.

“He wants to get back home to his cars,” the president said.

In the same interview with Husain, Musk revealed he plans to significantly cut his political spending, saying he has “done enough.”

The GOP donor spent at least $250 million to get Trump elected last year.

Trump Was Asked To Call Off Tariffs By Perhaps His Most-Trusted Adviser: Report

Posted on 08/04/2025 by Boris Clair

They ransacked federal agencies and axed jobs together, but US President Donald Trump’s expanding tariffs are apparently too much for even right-hand man Elon Musk.

So much so that Musk privately appealed to Trump to reverse the market-tanking measures in an “attempted intervention,” The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

But Musk’s alleged entreaty apparently didn’t work because Trump continued to saber-rattle on the trade war front, threatening to tack on 50% tariffs for Chinese goods.

Musk has expressed misgivings about the sweeping tariffs on his X platform but aimed his criticism at the likes of Trump adviser Peter Navarro, who is behind the strategy.

The Post dubbed Musk’s disagreement with the president as their “highest-profile disagreement” since Trump named him the leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

On Monday, Musk struck a somewhat conciliatory tone on the social platform he owns. He shared a post from a US trade rep that supported the “historic” tariffs and listed “unfair” trade practices of exporters. “Good points,” Musk wrote.

Ed Davey Has Repeated His Calls For A ‘Tesla Tariff’ In Response To Donald Trump’s Trade War

Posted on 03/04/2025 by Boris Clair

Ed Davey has repeated his calls for tariffs on Elon Musk’s Tesla cars after Donald Trump slapped a 10% tax on all British imports to the US.

The Lib Dem leader, who has a long-running feud with the world’s richest man, also hit out at the government reportedly preparing to water down its tax on tech firms in order to agree a trade deal with America.

Davey has been at odds with the X owner since Musk called him a “snivelling cretin”.

That came after Davey said Musk “clearly knows nothing about Britain” at the height of the row over child grooming gangs.

In an interview with Channel 4 News, Davey was asked what he would do to threaten Trump amid fears of a global trade war.

He said: “Let’s put tariffs on Teslas. You know, let’s look at the tech bros. I mean, I’m told that No. 10 in the talks, they’ve discussed cutting the digital services tax, which is a tax paid by very large, 20 multinationals in the tech industry, mostly American.

“It’s a very modest tax. They’ve had a monopoly for ages and the idea that we would give up that tax on these hugely wealthy people, including of course Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, at the same time we’re cutting aid to the poorest in our world and welfare benefits in the UK, that would be, I think, unthinkable.”

Keir Starmer has refused to join the likes of Canada and the EU in threatening retaliatory tariffs against the US.

He said said the government will instead continue to negotiate the terms of a trade deal with Washington which ministers hope will see the tariffs of British imports either reduced or removed completely.

However, the government has put the White House on notice by giving British firms until May 1 to set out how retaliatory tariffs will effect them.

A 417-page list of US products that could have tariffs imposed them has already been drawn up by the government.

Trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “It remains our belief that the best route to economic stability for working people is a negotiated deal with the US that builds on our shared strengths.

“However, we do reserve the right to take any action we deem necessary if a deal is not secured.”

‘Recipe For Disaster’: Labour’s Plan To Cut Civil Service Slammed

Posted on 09/03/2025 by Boris Clair

Labour’s new plan to cut civil service jobs was torn apart this morning as union chiefs said it was a “recipe for disaster”.

Whitehall departments have increased by over 15,000 since the end of 2023, but, according to the government, working people have not seen tangible improvements.

In a plan set to be announced in the coming days, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden is going to introduce “mutually agreed exits” so people who are underperforming are able to leave their jobs easily.

The highest paid civil servants will be dismissed if there’s no improvement within six months, and there will be a new pay-results system, while also increasing the use of digital systems.

But, the plan has been slated by unions and compared to “Trumpian” efforts to slim down the state in the US.

The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress Paul Nowak told Times Radio he is “disappointed” in this plan, and said cuts to the civil service are not what’s needed right now.

He said: “I think these are a set of proposals that look more about grabbing headlines rather than about a serious plan for reforming our public services.”

Nowak said to enact public sector reform, “you have to be serious about engaging the staff who are involved in delivering those services” otherwise it is a “recipe for disaster”.

He also took issue with the suggestion the civil service is not working effectively, saying: “It was a decade and a half of underinvestment in our public services. Now the number of civil services, civil servants has gone up.

“We have had Brexit in the last few years and we now do things in the UK, trade agreements for example that we didn’t do before.

“A whole range of things around veterinary standards for example that we didn’t have to do before.”

Prime minister Keir Starmer sparked backlash last year when he claimed “too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in tepid bath of managed decline,” and warned change was coming to the civil service.

Touching on the prime minister’s comment, Nowak said he did not agree “on the Trumpian language”.

He said: “I don’t think the language is always helpful when you try and paint those who are delivering public services often at the sharp end in difficult circumstances as somehow part of the problem.

“Now the civil service public service workforce is like any workforce there are some people who don’t pull their weight.

“To characterise the vast majority of people who are working hard day in day out as somehow the part of the problem and that’s what they do I think is unfair.”

Similarly, the general secretary of the FDA – the civil service union – Dave Penman told the same radio that the issue comes down to the constant changing of hands in government.

He said: “We’ve had six prime ministers, eight chancellors, 40 ministers in the Treasury departments, hundreds of different ministers because of the chaotic political leadership over the last 10 years.

“If you want to look at how you solve the problem with public services, look at the political chaos that we’ve had to deal with as well, not just simply headlines around sacking civil servants.

“We wouldn’t be in business if people weren’t sacked for poor performance in the civil service. ”

Penman said this new plan was all about “cheap headlines”.

“The idea that you can simply get more for less is rhetoric. It’s a headline that’s not reality. You have to demonstrate how you do that. Technology can play a role, AI can play a role, but how is it actually going to do that? That’s what ministers should be setting out rather than these cheap headlines,” he said.

New Time Magazine Cover Shows Elon Musk Behind Trump’s Oval Office Desk

Posted on 08/02/2025 by Boris Clair

Time magazine has revealed the cover of its latest edition, showing billionaire Elon Musk sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the White House’s Oval Office.

Musk, the wealthiest person on earth, is seen holding a beverage in one hand as he peers out from behind the iconic desk, used by U.S. presidents since the late 1880s.

An accompanying article titled “Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington” covers Musk’s reshaping of America’s government since his appointment as the head of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Elon Musk, the world's richest person, is seen sitting behind the White House's Resolute Desk in Time magazine's latest cover. — Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is seen sitting behind the White House’s Resolute Desk in Time magazine’s latest cover.

“No single private citizen, certainly not one whose wealth and web of businesses are directly subject to the oversight of federal authorities, has wielded such power over the machinery of the U.S. government,” the article states.

The multibillionaire tech and media mogul “has been deputised to dismantle vast swaths of the federal bureaucracy — slashing budgets, gutting the civil service, and stripping independent agencies of the ability to impede the President’s objectives,” it goes on.

This extreme appointment of power follows Musk being a loyal supporter and campaign donor to Trump, spending at least $288 million to help secure his reelection, according to a recent analysis by The Washington Post.

Since his election success, Trump has granted Musk widespread access to his inner orbit and the federal government’s spending, raising numerous ethics questions, including about the multibillion-dollar contracts that Musk’s businesses have with the federal government.

In the weeks since his arrival, Musk has assisted with the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which he has publicly called “a criminal organisation,” and he has been given access to the Treasury Department’s federal payment system and the Small Business Administration.

Musk has been labeled by the White House as a “special government employee.” He is not paid and is not full time, according to the ethics rules of such a title, but he does have top secret security clearance, a source told CNN.

Elon Musk Has A ‘Special’ New Job Title

Posted on 04/02/2025 by Boris Clair

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the tech billionaire’s official title to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday.

“A special government employee is anyone who works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period.”

“Special government employees are subject to most rules, although sometimes in a less restrictive way.”

Musk is “not a volunteer but also not a full-time federal employee,” CNN explained his position on Monday.

The richest person in the world spent more than $290 million backing President Donald Trump and Republicans in the 2024 elections. He is now running the non-official Department of Government Efficiency, which is looking to significantly slash public spending.

Trump Has Some Surprising Words Of Praise For Starmer Despite Musk Row

Posted on 26/01/2025 by Boris Clair

Donald Trump has offered some surprising praise up to Keir Starmer despite not calling the UK PM during his first five days back in office.

The US president, who was inaugurated on Monday, is yet to follow tradition and speak to the UK prime minister since his second term.

But Trump seemed to defy concerns that he might be holding a grudge against the Labour leader when speaking to the BBC on board Air Force One on Saturday.

“I get along with him well. I like him a lot,” the president said.

“He’s liberal, which is a bit different from me, but I think he’s a very good person and I think he’s done a very good job thus far.

“He’s represented his country in terms of philosophy.

“I may not agree with his philosophy, but I have a very good relationship with him.”

And when asked where he might go for his first international trip since returning to the White House, Trump said: “It could be Saudi Arabia, it could be UK. Traditionally it could be UK.

“Last time I went to Saudi Arabia because they agreed to buy $450 billion of American United States merchandise.”

Trump also promised he would be talking to Starmer “over the next 24 hours”.

He has met the UK leader on multiple occasions, including when the Labour leader flew to Trump Tower in New York before the presidential election.

However, the delicate friendship they struck up at the time was quickly overshadowed by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Now Trump’s informal adviser, Musk has initiated a war of words against Starmer ever since the PM was elected, calling the Labour leader “evil” and questioning his record as the director of public prosecutions over grooming gangs.

Even so, foreign secretary David Lammy said Starmer would be going to visit Trump in the US “within the next few weeks” last Sunday.

There are fears they could clash, as Trump wants to impose tariffs – which could weigh down an already embattled UK economy – and reduce the amount of military aid the US sends to the UK.

Labour’s plan to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is expected to cause further friction, because there is a UK-US military base on the archipelago, and Starmer’s pick for Washington ambassador – Peter Mandelson – has raised some eyebrows among Trump’s inner circle.

There’s also the Labour cabinet’s own very public criticisms of Trump over the years when they were in opposition which ministers have been trying to overlook.

Elon Musk Should Be Treated As ‘A National Enemy’ Of The UK, Says Former Labour Leader

Posted on 13/01/2025 by Boris Clair

Elon Musk should be “regarded as a national enemy” of the UK over his attacks on Keir Starmer, a former Labour leader has declared.

Neil Kinnock said supporters of all parties should oppose the tech billionaire, who is set to be a major figure in the incoming Donald Trump administration.

Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of the X social media platform, has spent months lambasting the prime minister over his response to last summer’s riots, the state of the UK economy and, most recently, the child grooming gangs scandal.

He accused Starmer of being “complicit” and of failing to prosecute those involved when he was head of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Starmer hit out at Musk last week, saying he had “crossed a line” by personally attacking safeguarding minister Jess Phillips and saying that she should be jailed.

On Radio 4′s Broadcasting House programme on Sunday, Kinnock – who led Labour from 1983 until 1992 – said politicians should unite against Musk.

He said: “Trump has given Musk official status. He is going to be in charge, together with another guy, of a federal government department, and that’s on top of being the most powerful private individual in human history, as well as being the world’s richest man.

“He’s gunning for Keir and he’s got to be resisted, and I don’t think that should be limited to Labour supporters.

“I think that when somebody has very clearly declared antagonism on this level to the prime minister of the United Kingdom, he should be regarded as a national enemy.”

Kinnock’s comments came as Dan Carden became the first Labour MP to echo Tory and Reform UK calls for a national inquiry into the grooming scandal.

He said: “The public call for justice must be heeded. It is shocking that people in positions of power could have covered up and refused to act to avoid confronting racial for cultural issues or because victims were poor or working-class.

“We must question and challenge the orthodoxy of progressive liberal multiculturalism that led to authorities failing to act. We need a new doctrine to take our multi-ethnic society into the future.”

David Lammy Accuses Elon Musk Of ‘Peddling Mistruth’ Over Grooming Gangs Row

Posted on 09/01/2025 by Boris Clair

David Lammy has accused Elon Musk of “peddling mistruths” following his attacks on Labour’s approach to the grooming gangs scandal.

The foreign secretary urged the world’s richest man to “focus on the facts” when using X, the social media platform he owns, to intervene on the row.

Musk accused safeguarding minister Jess Phillips of being a “rape genocide apologist” who should be in jail, and also attacked Keir Starmer’s record as head of the Crown Prosecution Service.

His outspoken comments shot the issue up the political agenda, culminating in MPs last night rejecting a Tory call for a national inquiry into grooming gangs targeting vulnerable young girls in dozens of towns across England.

The government has said a new probe is not needed while they implement the recommendations of Professor Alexis Jay’s inquiry into child sexual abuse, which reported in 2022.

On BBC Breakfast this morning, Lammy said: “There has been a debate prompted by Elon Musk, of course, this week, and I think the prime minister was right earlier in the week to call to mind the facts, the truth and to call out those who are putting forward mistruths in this area.”

Asked by presenter Naga Munchetty what he would personally say to Musk, Lammy said: “I insist that we focus on the truth, we focus on the facts.

“I recognise that there is a heated debate about free speech, and Elon Musk is at one end of that debate. But to have free speech, it must be based on facts and on truth.

“And some of what we’ve seen online is peddling mistruth, is creating bad faith, is very unfair to those victims, and I pray in aid the words of Alexis Jay in the last few days, which concentrates the minds on her recommendations, on the victims that sit behind this, and getting on with implementing her inquiry.”

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