How the Democrats drove Silicon Valley into Trump’s arms: Marc Andreessen explains the newest faction of conservatism.
Kinda crazy.
It was weird seeing Musk, Bezos and Zuck all sitting there at the inauguration. I thought Trump was getting rid of elitists? Aren’t 3 of the richest dudes in the world just that? Make it make sense.
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Whatever Trump told the American people: They should Believe only half of what they see and nothing that they hear.
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That’s funny! But probably also true.
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Maybe this can make it make sense
A clue to new TikTok ownership?
During the briefing, Trump also floated the idea of his billionaire friend Elon Musk buying the social media app TikTok. On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order halting the enforcement of a ban of the app for 75 days.
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Accommodating his major contributors, Trump’s reversal on medicine cap cut could impact Americans.
President Donald Trump has rescinded former President Joe Biden’s executive order 14087, which was put in place to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Americans.
Why It Matters
Trump signed a flurry of executive orders and took a number of other presidential actions on Inauguration Day Monday as he fulfilled a campaign pledge to enact a sweeping conservative agenda upon his return to the White House.
What To Know
The key components of executive order 14087 implemented by Biden are as follows:
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Medicare $2 drug list model: This initiative sought to cap certain generic drug prices at $2 for Medicare beneficiaries, enhancing affordability.
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Cell and gene therapy access model: Designed to improve access to high-cost therapies for Medicaid recipients, this model aimed to negotiate pricing and facilitate coverage.
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Accelerating clinical evidence model: Focused on expediting the availability of effective treatments by streamlining the evidence-gathering process for new drugs.
In the executive order, signed in 2022 by Biden, the then-president said: "Too many Americans face challenges paying for prescription drugs.
On average, Americans pay two to three times as much as people in other countries for prescription drugs, and one in four Americans who take prescription drugs struggle to afford their medications. Nearly three in 10 American adults who take prescription drugs say that they have skipped doses, cut pills in half or not filled prescriptions due to cost."
The potential impact of rescinding executive order 14087 is as follows:
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Halted development of cost-reduction models: The directive for the Department of Health and Human Services to develop and test new models aimed at lowering drug costs through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has been withdrawn. This move could slow or halt progress on initiatives that were designed to make prescription medications more affordable.
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Potential increase in out-of-pocket expenses: Without the implementation of new models focused on reducing costs, Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries might continue to face high out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs, possibly affecting access to certain medications.
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Uncertainty in future drug pricing policies: The rescission creates uncertainty regarding the federal government’s approach to addressing prescription drug costs, which could leave beneficiaries unsure about future measures to control or reduce expenses.
While Trump’s reversal of Biden’s order did not immediately change any existing laws and regulations on prescription drug pricing for Medicare and Medicaid, it did create uncertainty about the prescription drug costs.
So we find ourselves back at the beginning where Big Pharma has the opportunity to price gouge the American public; perhaps Trump has a superior plan.
Big Pharma got what they lobbied for, Lower prices for consumers mean lower profits. They couldn’t have that.
Trump is bought and paid for by the elites, and now they are toying with him.
Anyone who buys you for $270 million feels entitled to trample you; Elon Musk undercuts Trump’s big new announcement and says they don’t actually have the money
Musk throws cold water on Trump’s big infrastructure announcement: ‘They don’t actually have the money’
Boasts of a 12-figure investment in the United States were met with a douse of cold water from the world’s richest man “on good authority.”
Meant to be another first-week win chalked up by President Donald Trump, a press conference and announcement about The Stargate Project and intended artificial intelligence investments came with a personalized community note from Elon Musk.
After touting the shared target of $500 billion in investments alongside CEOs Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle, the SpaceX CEO contended that the Japan-based multinational investment holding in particular only had a fraction of the funds they were committing.
“They don’t actually have the money,” wrote Musk on X in response to the announcement. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
According to OpenAI, their funding along with SoftBank, Oracle and MGX would facilitate technology partners including Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle and OpenAI in advancing the AI infrastructure in the United States under Trump.
“This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,” read the announcement in part. “This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.”
During the press conference, the president had bragged, “In total, before the end of my first full business day in Washington and the White House, we’ve already secured nearly $3 trillion of new investments in the United States. And probably, that’s going to be six or seven by the end of the week.”
Perhaps Elon Musk should have kept this to himself but he doesn’t respect Trump.
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Elon Musk’s hostile takeover - Inside the mind of the billionaire at the heart of American power.
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One sad thing is that some right-wing Americans believe their President Elon Musk will transform America into a fairytale paradise for them, That’s funny but actually sad, the final blow to the American empire may come from Elon Musk, The world has moved on from that way of thinking 100 years ago.
I can’t help but compare it to holding on to a pager when everyone is using a smartphone.
In the eyes of Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy didn’t stand a chance. 
Vivek ditched DOGE over ‘deep philosophical rift’ about how it should operate, report says.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur turned failed presidential candidate, reportedly backed away from co-chairing the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency due to “deep philosophical differences” over how the advisory board should function.
Ramaswamy was tapped to co-chair DOGE with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. They aimed to slash federal spending by trillions of dollars through budget cuts and mass firings.
In November, Ramaswamy wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal explaining how DOGE would dismantle the administrative state using current laws and Supreme Court precedents. This includes reducing the federal workforce, stripping agency regulations via executive orders and re-examining the budgeting process within each agency to reduce costs.
That, stood in contrast to Musk’s approach which reportedly focused on technology and data mining to achieve DOGE’s aim to cut federal spending, those familiar with the plan told the Washington Post.
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