Congressional Republicans are openly attacking Elon Musk like never before after the billionaire Tesla founder claimed President Trump is "in the Epstein files" and even called for him to be impeached.
Why it matters: It's a stunning fall from grace for a man who flexed so much influence over Republican lawmakers just weeks — even days — earlier.
The slow-motion train wreck end of President Trump's relationship with Elon Musk on Thursday cost both men significant sums of money.
Why it matters: Both have vast business empires, but they each have one public company, and investors dumped both as their social media war spiraled into personal attacks.
Tesla shares plunged today as the relationship between Elon Musk and President Trump publicly imploded through a volley of posts on their respective social networks.
Shares of Musk's EV companysank 14%, suggesting investors are worried that a Musk-Trump breakup could hurt the empire of the world's richest person.
The slide wiped $152 billion off the company's market cap.
Converse is back at center court in the NBA Finals and hoping the attention reignites interest in the old-school brand.
State of play: NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — known to many fans as SGA — will lace up Converse shoes for the Oklahoma City Thunder when the NBA Finals begin tonight.
He signed an endorsement deal with the brand in 2020.
👟 Zoom in: Converse's "Chuck Taylor sneakers were a force in hoops into the 1970s, but then morphed into a casual shoe as Nike Inc. gobbled up market share in basketball," Bloomberg reports. "But in SGA, Converse now has a superstar that could help it relive the glory days."
Tesla shares plunged Thursday as the relationship between Elon Musk and President Trump imploded and Trump suggested canceling Musk's government contracts.
Why it matters: The threat escalates their real-time breakup and threatens to deliver a serious blow to the wealth of the world's richest person.
The big picture: The Tesla CEO initially seemed to leave the Trump administration on a good note and was expected to remain one of the president'smost influential outside advisers. That no longer appears to be the case.
Buried in the "big, beautiful bill" is a provision that would require low-income Americans to pre-certify to get the Earned Income Tax Credit, a half-century old benefit that keeps millions of families out of poverty.
Why it matters: Those hurdles would make the credit harder to get, or potentially even dissuade people from filing, say tax experts and Democrats who oppose the bill.
Lux Capital's Josh Wolfe at the Axios AI+ Summit. Photo: Axios
Many venture capitalists are alarmed by the Trump administration's cuts to academic research, at Harvard and beyond, given that such funding has helped forge such foundational technologies as the internet and gene editing.
U.S. goods imports plummeted in April, per data out Thursday, as President Trump's tariff policies rocked the global trade system.
Why it matters: The decline is a sharp reversal of the front-loading effect the previous month, when firms raced to import stuff before the tariffs took hold.
Anduril, the defense tech startup led by Palmer Luckey, announced Thursday that it's raised $2.5 billion in new venture capital funding at a $30.5 billion valuation.
Why it matters: This gives Anduril a repriced stock to make acquisitions.
As United Airlines' executive vice president of communications and advertising, Josh Earnest is responsible for sharing how the airline differs from its competitors.
Why it matters: Much of the job is spent protecting the brand amid ongoing crises — from COIVD-19 groundings, to the Boeing quality control issues, to the recent air traffic challenges at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of United's hubs.
The big picture: The case concerned a heterosexual woman who was passed over for a promotion, then demoted. She alleged that she was discriminated against in favor of LGBT employees.
If international trade is a game of chess, China has the U.S. in check — with few good options for the next move.
Why it matters: The trade war has exposed just how deeply the U.S. economy is at the mercy of an accident of geology — China's supply of the rare earth minerals that power our modern high-tech society.
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke about trade issues for more than an hour Thursday, and Trump said teams from both sides would meet again soon.
Why it matters: Washington and Beijing have accused each other of violating the 90-day trade truce reached three weeks ago, under which both dramatically lowered tariffs and promised further dialogue.
The big picture: Under Trump 2.0, the Oval Office has become a danger zone for world leaders, who at the very least are subject to a series of on-camera spectacles — and at the worst, a full-blown attack.
The European Central Bank cut interest rates by a quarter-percentage point for the eighth time this cycle on Thursday, the latest attempt to help a euro area economy hit by the President Trump's trade war.
Why it matters: Trade negotiations between the U.S. and the European Union have been rocky, with just weeks to go before each side unleashes higher tariffs.
It's hard to overstate how rapidly President Trump has changed the very underpinnings of U.S. trade policy since the start of February. But this chart sums it up.
Why it matters: Trump is seeking to reset America's economic relationship with the rest of the world. But he has also introduced a trade policy landscape that changes by the day.
