President Elon Musk Suddenly Realizes He Might Not Know How to Govern

A weekend interaction between Vanity Fair’s Molly Jong-Fast and Elon Musk unexpectedly showcased just how little the world’s richest man understands about the effects of his slashing spree at the top of the federal government.

“I don’t think the richest guy in the world should be cutting funding for cancer research,” Jong-Fast posted to X on Sunday.

“I’m not,” Musk responded. “Wtf are you talking about?”

But despite Musk’s empty protestation, that is what’s happening. On Friday, the Trump administration—under the Department of Government Efficiency’s direction—announced it would cut billions of dollars in biomedical research funding, scheduled to take effect by Monday. The slashed spending was intended to affect $4 billion in “indirect funding” for research, a category that encompasses administrative overhead, facilities, and operations. But researchers that spoke with The Washington Post decried the move as a “surefire” way to “cripple lifesaving research and innovation,” and one that will contribute to “higher degrees of disease and death in the country.”

“America’s competitors will relish this self-inflicted wound,” Matt Owens, president of the Council on Government Relations, told the Post.

In an op-ed Tuesday, Jong-Fast argued that “it’s clear that the Tesla CEO doesn’t seem to realize that by having the government step back from commitments it’s made to world-leading researchers, his department is effectively slowing medical advances for millions of patients who desperately need critical care and is imperiling the economic position of America, a leader in biomedical innovation.”

Research funding into critical diseases was spared by a federal judge on Monday, who temporarily blocked the spending cuts. The suit was brought by a coalition of attorneys general from 22 states across the nation, who argued that initiative violated a 79-year-old law intended to dictate how agencies administer regulations.

“Without relief from N.I.H.’s action, these institutions’ cutting-edge work to cure and treat human disease will grind to a halt,” the lawsuit reads.

But at the end of the day, Musk’s un-spending campaign is just one facet of the Trump administration’s assault on American public health systems. Last month, Trump withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization, breaching the one-year notice required to leave the WHO. Meanwhile, employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health were notified they wouldn’t have the money to buy even basic supplies for their work.

Trump has also nominated a virulent vaccine conspiracy theorist—Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—to run the Department of Health and Human Services and, by extension, America’s health policy. Kennedy’s stances include unscientific beliefs that AIDS is not caused by HIV and that a large number of vaccines should be stripped from the market. Trump has promised that if confirmed, Kennedy would spend his time—and, presumably, significant funds—at the top of HHS researching the already thoroughly debunked conspiracy that ties vaccine usage to increased autism rates.

Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday liberating Americans from the “forced use” of paper straws, because why govern when you can just screw around?

The executive order stated that it would end the “irrational campaign” against plastic straws, and determined that paper straws were “nonfunctional,” more expensive to produce, and use harmful chemicals.

“These things don’t work, I’ve had them many times, and on occasion, they break, they explode,” Trump said, as he signed the order. “If something’s hot, they don’t last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds. It’s a ridiculous situation.”

The real ridiculous situation is Trump thinking that anyone cares that much about paper straws while he rips away funding from essential government agencies, undermines the government’s checks and balances, and empowers a billionaire technocrat to sift through Americans’ private information.

But Trump has other things on his mind, such as destroying the symbols of the liberal regime he’s come to replace rather than actually doing anything to help struggling Americans—or sharks, as it turns out.

“I don’t think that plastic is going to affect a shark as they’re eating, as they’re munching their way through the ocean,” Trump assured reporters Monday.

The order stated that all federal agencies would stop the purchase of paper straws, and instructed the assistant to the president for domestic policy to create a strategy within 45 days to impose the policy nationwide.

Of course, the “irrational” campaign Trump is raging against was really one against all single-use plastics. But thanks to Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax” and recently withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accords for a second time, plastic straws are back to fill the oceans, and the planet is free to burn!

Donald Trump is threatening to blow up the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas if the Palestinian group doesn’t release all of its Israeli hostages by midday Saturday.

“If they’re not returned—all of them, not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two—by Saturday at 12 o’clock,” Trump said. “And after that, I would say, all hell is going to break out.”

On Monday, Hamas threatened to delay the further release of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, accusing Israel of violating the terms of the ceasefire deal, which required Israel to send Gaza hundreds of thousands of tents, as well as other humanitarian supplies. Those supplies and tents have not arrived, Hamas said. Speaking anonymously, three Israeli officials and two mediators told The New York Times that Hamas’s claims are accurate.

Israel has also continued to launch targeted attacks on Gaza, killing more than 110 Palestinians in the three weeks since the ceasefire was supposed to take effect. Hamas said that Israel is playing “dirty games” in its ceasefire violations.

“This could threaten the deal to collapse,” Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told Drop Site News. “Netanyahu came back from the United States with all intentions to sabotage the deal.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments seem to confirm that. He told reporters on Monday that he made a strategic agreement with Trump and the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, about what positions Israel would take in negotiations. Netanyahu said he has new plans for Gaza and that he and Trump see “eye to eye.”

“You wanted a day-after [plan]? You got one.… It just doesn’t match the Oslo narrative.… We won’t repeat that mistake.… I’ve come back with a vision without Hamas and without the Palestinian Authority,” Netanyahu said. In a meeting at the Knesset, Netanyahu shook his fist and said, “We know what complete victory is, and we will not give up on it.”

On Sunday, Trump doubled down on his idea of the U.S. taking over the Gaza Strip, telling reporters he was “committed to buying and owning Gaza” and that “we’ll make it into a very good site for future development by somebody.”

All of this points to Trump and Netanyahu blowing up the already violated ceasefire deal, with Trump’s half-baked takeover plan becoming the new course of action. Palestinians in Gaza would be ethnically cleansed from the territory, with Trump seeking to force neighboring countries like Egypt and Jordan to take them or face tariffs. The convicted felon president and the wanted war criminal prime minister are primed to inflict more suffering on the Palestinians.

MAGA muse Steve Bannon pleaded guilty to fraud in New York Tuesday morning.

Bannon is taking a plea deal for defrauding New Yorkers who gave money to his “We Build the Wall” online fundraiser, which was allegedly pooling money from normal civilians for Trump’s border wall during his first term.

“Nobody lost money, find one,” Bannon told New York Daily News’s Molly Crane-Newman when asked how the Trump supporters he scammed felt, even though he had just confessed to the fraud.

Bannon will avoid jail time completely for this second criminal conviction, instead receiving a three-year conditional discharge after pleading guilty to one count of defrauding donors. He was originally facing five felony counts and up to 15 years in prison. The War Room host is likely to blame this all on corruption and cast himself as a political prisoner rather than admit that his “We Build the Wall” program was as flimsy as Trump’s original promise to construct it.  

This story has been updated.

Trump’s Justice Department is dropping its corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams—not because the charges aren’t credible, but because Adams could help MAGA’s extreme immigration agenda.

Acting Attorney General Emil Bove told New York prosecutors to dismiss the charges against Adams on Monday, while openly admitting that the Justice Department “reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based.”

Instead, the memo notes that a criminal trial against Adams might restrict his ability to “devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration.”

“The Eric Adams memo doesn’t even pretend to be dropping the prosecution for a legitimate reason,” researcher Will Stancil wrote on X. “It says he shouldn’t be prosecuted because he’s running for reelection (?) and so he can carry out the president’s agenda (??). OPEN corruption: ‘MAGA politicians are above the law.’”

This isn’t just obvious and blatant corruption. It’s also a sign that the Justice Department has fully transformed into nothing more than a political tool for the president.

Adams has been begging for a pardon for months, and he bet on Trump giving it to him if he started acting like he was auditioning for a role in the administration. In December, the New York City mayor cast his indictments as political targeting akin to that of Trump and Hunter Biden. “Those who are here committing crimes, robbery, shooting at police officers, raping innocent people … I would love to sit down with the border czar and hear his thoughts on how we are going to address those who are harming our citizens,” Adams bizarrely said at the time. “This is not a new position. In the era of cancel culture, no one is afraid to be honest about the truth. Well, cancel me.”

That same month, he requested a meeting with Trump’s draconian border czar Tom Homan to help him crack down on immigrants who “snuck in” to New York City. In January, he met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and days later he was sitting down with Tucker Carlson talking about how the Democratic Party “left him.” The quid pro quo agreement has been cooking for some time now, and Adams got the best outcome possible. He gets off scot-free, and Trump and Homan get to run rampant through New York City.