“Free Speech Defender” Elon Musk Strikes Again

In a bizarre move, Elon Musk has locked out a journalist from his X platform—after she published a story that seemed to exonerate him.

On Sunday, Jacqueline Sweet, a journalist writing for The Spectator, had her X account suspended after she posted an article claiming that Musk wasn’t using a burner account under the name “Adrian Dittman,” after she traced it to a German Musk fan in Fiji.

Responding to her post, Musk replied “I am Adrian Dittmann. It’s time the world knew,” before suspending her account for 30 days. The Dittman account has frequently responded to Musk’s posts and supported his political positions, and in videos and audio recordings, seemed to sound remarkably similar to Musk, complete with the tech mogul’s accent and unorthodox speaking cadence.

Sweet’s article has also been flagged on X, with users seeing a warning that the link “may be unsafe” if they click on it. Musk supporters have defended the move by claiming Sweet’s article included Dittman’s personal information—even though it contained no private identifying information whatsoever like his address or phone number—while critics have pointed out the irony of the self-proclaimed “free speech champion” Musk censoring an article that he doesn’t like, pointing out how the tech CEO complained about Twitter censoring stories on Hunter Biden’s laptop. The episode is only more bizarre because it’s not clear why Musk wants to bury this largely anodyne news story.

This is the latest absurd chapter in Musk’s ownership of the social media platform. It is, by recent standards, which include arguing with his far-right ex-supporters over immigration policy and subsequently penalizing their X accounts after they began to attack him, less destructive but it nevertheless underscores the dangers of having one very rich, deranged person in charge of content moderation on a social media platform used by millions.

Donald Trump may be planning to break one of his key—and most disastrous—campaign promises to implement “universal” tariffs on goods imported into the U.S., The Washington Post reported Monday.

Trump’s aides have been quietly prepping a plan to target only critical imports, rather than all imports from a country, three people familiar with discussions anonymously told the Post.

The tariffs would be levied on imports considered to be critical to national or economic security, the people said. While it was not immediately clear which imports those would be, the tariffs are intended to strengthen certain U.S. industries, including materials for the military supply industrial chain, medical supplies, and energy production, two of the three people said.

Trump had previously stated his intention to place a 25 percent tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico, in addition to a 10 percent tariff on all imports from China—a plan that experts say would be disastrous for the U.S. economy, raising costs for consumers, ravaging the stock market, and severely damaging the America’s global economic standing.

Sector-based tariffs might be a “little bit easier for everybody to stomach out of the gate,” one of the people told the Post. “The thought is if you’re going to do universal tariffs, why not at least start with these targeted measures? And it would still give CEOs a massive incentive to start making their products here.”

It seems that some people inside the forthcoming Trump administration are hoping to avert some of the fallout of his outlandish, dangerous economic plan. In sharing this information, it seems insiders are hoping to float a more moderate approach to tariffs, despite what the president-elect may think. But Trump doesn’t seem to be ready to back down.

Trump immediately contradicted the reporting in a post on Truth Social. “The story in the Washington Post, quoting so-called anonymous sources, which don’t exist, incorrectly states that my tariff policy will be pared back. That is wrong,” Trump wrote. “The Washington Post knows it’s wrong. It’s just another example of Fake News.”

Donald Trump will avoid jail time in his New York hush-money criminal conviction—but that doesn’t mean he’s happy with the result.

In a Friday order, Judge Juan Merchan dealt the final blow to any suggestions of serious consequences for the president-elect’s guilty verdict. Merchan wrote that “unconditional discharge” had become the “the most viable solution” for Trump, indicating that the incoming president would not be hampered down with fines, court-appointed supervision, or incarceration.

But that outcome was, apparently, not satisfactory for the convicted felon, who took to Truth Social to rant about how the lingering effects of the trial still prevented him from bad-mouthing the judge.

“D.A. Alvin Bragg never wanted to bring this lawless case against me,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “He was furious at the way it was handled, and especially angry at MARK POMERANTZ  for his behavior, and what he did. Ultimately, the Biden/Harris DOJ forced Bragg to concoct anything to embarrass TRUMP.” 

“But it was even more so what the CORRUPT and TOTALLY CONFLICTED POLITICAL HACK Judge did, and is doing, on this sham trial,” Trump continued. “I even have, STILL, an Unconstitutional Gag Order where I am not allowed to speak about the Judge’s highly disqualifying Conflicts of Interest. Virtually ever legal scholar and pundit says THERE IS NO (ZERO!) CASE AGAINST ME.” 

Trump also claimed that New York’s legal system was fundamentally corrupt and was contributing to the fleeing of businesses from the country’s banking capital. 

“The Judge fabricated the facts, and the law, no different than the other New York Judicial and Prosecutorial Witch Hunts,” Trump wrote. “That’s why businesses are fleeing New York, taking with them millions of jobs, and BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TAXES. The legal system is broken, and businesses can’t take a chance in getting caught up in this quicksand. IT’S ALL RIGGED, in this case against a political opponent, ME!!!”

Although Trump will face consequences more or less in name only, former U.S. District Attorney Joyce Vance argued in her legal column Civil Discourse that there could still be a light at the end of the tunnel in Merchan’s order. Rather than forcing sentencing before Trump’s inauguration, Merchan’s decision to release Trump with “unconditional discharge” effectively takes the wind out of Trump’s sails should he try to do away with the criminal conviction altogether, according to Vance. It could also help delay Trump’s sentencing until he’s out of office again, in which case, all bets are off.

Elon Musk is putting his nose in foreign politics yet again, but this time he’s setting a target on MP Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K.’s far-right Reform Party.

“The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes,” Musk wrote in a post on X Sunday.

Farage, a key figure in Brexit, shared the post, commenting, “Well, this is a surprise!”

“Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree,” Farage continued. “My view remains that Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles.”

Raheem Kassam, an editor who previously worked at Steve Bannon’s Breitbart and served as a former aide to Farage, replied to Musk slightly more bluntly. “You’re a fucking moron,” he wrote in a post on X.

Last week, Musk voiced his support for Robinson, a far-right, Islamaphobic activist who founded the British National Party and has been imprisoned for contempt of court, related to his repeated racially charged libel of a 15-year-old Syrian boy through social media posts.

Beneath Farage’s post, Grok, Musk’s heinously annoying generative artificial intelligence that’s been tacked into X’s user interface, offered a few leading questions for users to ask so that it might generate answers. “What leadership qualities does Farage lack?” Grok suggested. “Why does Elon Musk support Tommy Robinson?”

“How does this affect Reform UK’s image?” asked another prompt, implying that Musk’s opinion of the foreign government would have any bearing at all on the major party.

Early Monday morning, Musk posted on X again, this time creating a poll: “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government,” with two options, yes or no.

Mike Johnson is trying to convince everyone that he rewon the speakership on his good word alone. Johnson was awarded speaker of the House on Friday after the second vote, flipping Republican votes from Keith Self and Ralph Norman that he initially didn’t have. They flipped their votes very quickly, leading to suspicions that Johnson may have capitulated in some way to these congressmen’s demands regarding policy priorities.

But Johnson denies this. “My simple message to my colleagues is, make suggestions about process improvements, we’re open to that at all times. But I don’t make deals with anyone. There’s no quid pro quo here. I don’t do anything in exchange for a vote,” said Johnson, according to CNN’s Manu Raju.

The platform Johnson announced after winning the speakership harps on fiscal responsibility and tackling the “swamp’s” corruption, something that Republican holdouts like Representative Victoria Spartz had demanded.

“I understand why President Trump is endorsing Speaker Johnson as he did Speaker Ryan, which is definitely important,” Spartz posted on Thursday. “However, we still need to get assurances that Speaker Johnson won’t sell us out to the swamp.”

Johnson spoke of a “promise of fiscal responsibility” and holding people “accountable” in an X post after winning the speakership.