Elon Musk has fathered at least 14 children with at least four women, intent on fighting civilizational collapse with a "legion" of genetically gifted offspring, according to an explosive new feature in The Wall Street Journal.

• Why it matters: The investigation reveals new details on how the world's richest man has used his vast wealth and influence to recruit, manage — and at times silence — the mothers of his many children.

The big picture: Musk has been outspoken in his support for natalism, but his motivations — and certainly his methods — diverge from the family-first conservatism driving the broader movement, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.

• Policies aimed at reversing America's declining birth rate have gained support within the Republican Party in recent years.
• Musk and many Silicon Valley elites see promoting procreation as a civilization-saving project — one rooted in elite reproduction, human capital, and long-term survival through space colonization or AI.
• Social conservatives like Vice President Vance champion natalism as a means of strengthening the nuclear family and Western culture, while some white nationalists frame it as a tool of demographic preservation.

🔭 Zoom in: Musk's obsession with producing babies in order to reverse population decline — a cause he has frequently promoted in public — has been on full display in his romantic relationships.

• "To reach legion-level before the apocalypse, we will need to use surrogates," Musk texted conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair while she was pregnant with his child, suggesting they recruit other women to accelerate his plans for more children, according to the Journal.
• Musk later asked her to have the baby delivered via caesarean section — having previously claimed on X that C-sections allow for "a larger brain."

The Journal reports that Musk's longtime fixer Jared Birchall privately manages the billionaire's financial and PR arrangements — including non-disclosure clauses — with the women who raise his children.

• Musk urged St. Clair to spend time at a compound in Austin — acquired with the help of Birchall — where he envisioned all of the mothers and their children would ultimately live.
• Shivon Zilis — an executive at Musk-owned Neuralink who has four children and "special status" with the billionaire — lives in the gated community.
• Pop star Grimes, who has three children with Musk, refused to live at the compound and says she was bankrupted by a bitter custody battle.
• Musk has six children with his first ex-wife Justine Musk, including a trans daughter whom he refuses to recognize because of her gender identity.

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Global fund managers have turned startlingly pessimistic when it comes to the chances that the world will be able to withstand the effect of U.S. tariffs — and they're particularly bearish when it comes to the U.S. itself, Axios' Felix Salmon writes.

• Why it matters: A Bank of America survey of fund managers underscores the thesis that global investors are selling America.

🧮 By the numbers: 49% of them said that a hard landing is now the most likely outcome for the global economy, up from 11% in March.

• The percentage of investors intending to cut their allocation to U.S. equities rose to the highest level since the survey began in 2001.

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U.S. courts have the potential to be the biggest threat yet to the central tenet of President Trump's economic agenda, Axios' Courtenay Brown writes.

• Why it matters: More entities — from legal groups representing Main Street businesses to the state of California — are trying to block some tariffs as their lawsuits against the levies make their way through the judicial system.

California filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking an immediate injunction to stop Trump's tariffs, following other lawsuits on behalf of small businesses seeking to do the same.

• The suits all allege the same thing: Trump can't impose across-the-board worldwide tariffs without congressional approval.

👓 Between the lines: The White House relied on untested emergency powers to impose tariffs, a move that multiple lawsuits now argue is executive overreach.

• Trump invoked authorities under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which gives the president wide-ranging powers in an emergency but has never been used to implement tariffs since its creation in 1977.
• Trump signed executive orders saying that illegal drugs, undocumented immigration and "large and persistent" trade deficits constituted national emergencies.

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The White House is sprinkling the traditional press corps with an array of MAGA-friendly journalists who dilute scrutiny, denigrate Democrats and ultimately flatter President Trump, reports Axios' Tal Axelrod, our expert on MAGA media.

• Why it matters: As traditional media loses influence, the White House is giving increasing access to a growing cast of Trump-friendly reporters, podcasters and influencers who boost his narratives from inside the house.

🖼️ The big picture: The shift comes amid the administration's war on traditional media — including lawsuits, access restrictions for AP, and access reductions for Reuters and Bloomberg.

🔬 Zoom in: MAGA podcaster Jack Posobiec has traveled with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Ukraine and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to the northern border.

• ZeroHedge, a finance blog that U.S. intelligence accused of spreading Russian propaganda in 2022, was tapped by the White House for the New Media slot in the press pool last Thursday.
• Matthew Foldi of the Trump-friendly Washington Reporter tweeted Tuesday when he sat in the White House's "new media" seat: "@POTUS is truly well served by his all star comms team."
• Breitbart's Matthew Boyle has scored exclusive interviews with Trump, Vice President Vance and several Cabinet members.
• Mary Margaret Olohan, The Daily Wire's new White House correspondent, accompanied Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Panama. Raheem Kassam, The National Pulse's editor-in-chief, was also on the trip.
• Natalie Winters, White House correspondent for Steve Bannon's "War Room," is all over the White House complex.

White House officials note that Trump and his staffers still take hard-hitting questions. Assistant press secretary Taylor Rogers told Axios: "There has never been a White House that communicates as often and as openly with the American press [as] President Trump."

• "The president and the press secretary take questions from all outlets and have given more journalists a chance to cover this White House than any other administration."

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Democrats are at odds over whether to make opposition to the Trump administration's deportation policies — and trips to the El Salvadorian prison where deportees are being held — a centerpiece of their anti-Trump message, Axios' Andrew Solender writes.

• Why it matters: Some Democratic lawmakers and aides told Axios that Trump's deportation policies have even started to eclipse top issues like DOGE and tariffs in some constituent phone calls and emails.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) yesterday became the first Democrat to travel to El Salvador to try to meet with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an erroneously deported Maryland resident whose return the Supreme Court has ordered.

• "We got 247 calls on it this week, more than any other topic," Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) told Axios.
• A chief of staff to another House Democrat told Axios that, of the 16 calls they personally handled in the last two days, all have been about deportations.

The other side: A House Democrat who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Axios: "With all due respect to some of those folks, I know it's an important issue, but should it be the big issue for Democrats? Probably not."

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The IRS is taking steps to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status after the Ivy League school pushed back on President Trump's list of demands, CNN's Evan Perez and Alayna Treene first reported.

• A final decision on rescinding the university's tax exemption — an extremely rare, and possibly unprecedented move — is expected soon.

Why it matters: The tax-exempt status "lets donors get tax deductions for contributions and keeps the university from paying taxes on any net earnings," The Wall Street Journal notes.

• The school is also exempt from paying income taxes.

The Trump administration also threatened last night to revoke Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students.

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Highlights from the annual TIME100 most influential people, out yesterday:

• The five cover subjects (pictured above) are Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind and a top AI pioneer ... Demi Moore ... Snoop Dogg ... Serena Williams ... Ed Sheeran.

🏛️ Politicians and government figures include President Trump, Elon Musk, Vice President JD Vance, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Argentina's Javier Milei and OMB director Russ Vought.

💰 Business titans: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Walmart's Doug McMillon, Palantir's Alex Karp and Lisa Su, CEO of AMD — Nvidia's biggest competitor.

🎤 More than a dozen entertainers, including Scarlett Johansson and "Severance's" Adam Scott.

By the numbers: Trump is on the list for the seventh time, more than any other person on this year's list.

• Elon Musk has been on the list six times. Mark Zuckerberg has five appearances.

Youngest and oldest: 22-year-old Léon Marchand, a French swimmer who dominated the Paris Olympics, and Muhammad Yunus, an 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who leads Bangladesh's interim government.

• Full list ... Demis Hassabis profile.

In a potential landmark discovery, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have obtained what they call the strongest signs yet of possible life beyond our solar system.

• Why it matters: They detected in an alien planet's atmosphere the chemical fingerprints of gases that on Earth are produced only by biological processes, Reuters reports.

The two gases involved in Webb's observations of the planet — named K2-18b — are generated on Earth by living organisms, primarily marine algae.

• This suggests the planet may be teeming with microbial life, the researchers said.

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