As we bid farewell to Elon Musk as a semi-on the books government employee, Trump managed to offend cancer sufferers and double steel tariffs all while failing to rule out a pardon for Diddy. Just another quiet day in Trump world
So, farewell Elon Musk. Kind of.
His 130 days are up, and he can no longer stay on as a “special government employee” without making transparency declarations.
So he’s heading back try and dig Tesla out of the hole he’s dug for it.
Prior to getting involved with Trump he was mostly known as a rich weirdo who kept having babies with different women.
Now he’s trashed even that deeply mid reputation with a ruthless and broadly speaking useless campaign of terrorising well-meaning government employees, claiming to be in search of “fraud” and “abuse” of government funds.
While he has found next to none of the above, he did manage to shut down a bunch of programmes that the American people like and rely upon, but Republican politicians hate. So time well spent, eh?
Meanwhile, Donald Trump said he doesn’t feel sorry for an old man with cancer.
He doubled tariffs on steel and aluminium.
And he wouldn’t rule out giving Diddy a pardon.
Just a quiet Friday night for the Trump administration. Here’s what you need to know.
READ MORE: MIKEY SMITH: How Americans can remove Donald Trump from office if he keeps getting more unhinged
1. Trump says he doesn’t feel sorry for cancer-stricken Biden
In case anyone was wondering whether Donald Trump was capable of being a decent human being, let alone serving as President, he said the following during a press conference in the Oval Office last night.
“He’s been sort of a moderate person over his lifetime, not a smart person, but a somewhat vicious person, I would say.”
He went on: “If you feel sorry for him, don’t feel so sorry, because he’s vicious.
“What he did with his political opponent [Trump, whom Biden had the temerity to beat soundly in an election], and all of the people that he hurt. He hurt a lot of people, Biden.
“I really don’t feel sorry for him.”
You stay classy, Donald.
2. He wouldn’t rule out pardoning Diddy
Trump wouldn’t rule out handing a pardon to Diddy.
The former rapper is on trial in New York, facing charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
But Trump left the door open to a pardon, because “He used to really like me a lot.”
3. Elon Musk says his 5 year old son punched him in the face
Elon Musk made a surprise appearance in the Oval Office to mark the last day he’s allowed to be a “special government employee” without having to make transparency declarations.
Even more unexpected was the mint shiner he was sporting on his right eye.
It comes after days of reports that he and Trump’s very own Renfield, Stephen Miller, had been locked in furious rows over the departure of Miller’s wife from the government to go work for Musk.
But Musk assured those present that the black eye was the work of his own son, X.
He said he had been “horsing around” with the 5-year old, and told him to “punch me in the face.”
“And he did. I didn’t really feel much at the time and then, I guess, it bruises up,” he said.
READ MORE: How Donald Trump turned the White House into a tacky gold palace full of trinkets in 100 days
4. Musk is also very mad at the New York Times for some reason
Musk cut off a question from Fox News’ Steve Doocey in the Oval Office, with a massive rant about the source of the question – the New York Times.
He moaned about the Times having won a Pulitzer Prize for its stories about Trump’s links with Russia, which despite the President’s repeated claims to the contrary, were not a hoax.
Why would Musk be so suddenly angered by the NYT? Perhaps because earlier the same day the paper published a story featuring claims about the erratic tech billionaire’s alleged drug use during the campaign.
5. He randomly doubled steel tariffs
Trump, apparently arbitrarily, doubled tariffs on steel imports to 50%.
Though Trump initially vowed to block the Japanese steelmaker’s bid to buy Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, he reversed course and announced an agreement last week for “partial ownership” by Nippon.
It’s unclear, though, if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalised or how ownership would be structured. Nippon Steel has never said it is backing off its bid to outright buy and control US Steel as a wholly owned subsidiary, even as it increased the amount of money it promised to invest in U.S. Steel plants and gave guarantees that it wouldn’t lay off workers or close plants as it sought federal approval of the acquisition.
“We’re here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company,” Trump said as he opened an event at one of U.S. Steel’s warehouses. “You’re going to stay an American company, you know that, right?”
In the typically rambling speech to steelworkers in Pennsylvania, the Donald said: “I said to the group, ‘Would you rather have a 40% increase?’ Because I was thinking about 40 when I came. I said, ‘Would you rather have a 40% or a 50%?’ They said, ‘Well take 50!’ … so congratulations.”
6. He falsely claimed (again) that the Biden Administration spent $8m making mice “transgender”
Back in the Oval, Trump claimed his predecessor’s administration had spent $8m “making mice transgender”.
Which is, of course, nonsense.
The funding supported studies into how hormone treatments can be used to fight diseases like cancer and HIV.
No mice were “made transgender” during the studies.
What seems to have happened is Trump has confused “transgenic mice” – which are genetically modified – with “transgender mice”.
Easy done.
7. Someone hacked his chief of staff’s phone and Trump seems oddly OK with this
The government is investigating after elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures in recent weeks received messages from someone impersonating Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff.
Trump said Wiles is “an amazing woman” and “she can handle it.”
“They breached the phone; they tried to impersonate her,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “Nobody can impersonate her. There’s only one Susie.”
The FBI warned in a public service announcement this month of a “malicious text and voice messaging campaign” in which unidentified “malicious actors” have been impersonating senior U.S. government officials.
The scheme, according to the FBI, has relied on text messages and AI-generated voice messages that purport to come from a senior U.S. official and that aim to dupe other government officials as well as the victim’s associates and contacts.
“Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement Friday.
It is unclear how someone gained access to Wiles’ phone, but the intrusion is the latest security breach for Trump staffers. Last year, Iran hacked into Trump’s campaign and sensitive internal documents were stolen and distributed, including a dossier on Vice President JD Vance, created before he was selected as Trump’s running mate.
Wiles, who served as a co-manager of Trump’s campaign before taking on the linchpin role in his new administration, has amassed a powerful network of contacts.