Elon Musk is on the verge of financial immortality: The world's richest man — and potentially its first trillionaire — has built a sovereign corporate kingdom too systemic to fail, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.

• And yet, on the eve of SpaceX's monster IPO, its CEO was hunkered down in his digital fiefdom stoking far-right culture wars with an impunity unmatched in modern corporate history.

Why it matters: Musk's years in the public eye, marked by serial controversy and an accelerating embrace of white identitarian politics, have inured investors to conduct that would be disqualifying for almost any other CEO.

• Nothing Musk says or does can dent Wall Street's appetite for a stake in his future-forging empire.
• Look no further than SpaceX's $1.75 trillion IPO, where demand for shares has already vastly outstripped the available supply ahead of tomorrow's historic market debut.

🔎 Zoom in: Anti-immigration riots erupted in Belfast on Tuesday night after graphic footage of a brutal street stabbing, allegedly by a Sudanese migrant, ricocheted across X.

• Masked mobs set fire to vehicles, a city bus, and several homes. Marauding through neighborhoods, they chanted "foreigners out" and forced minority families to flee under police protection.
• Musk, who posts near-daily about migrant violence, shared British far-right activist Tommy Robinson's list of locations to protest "another invader attack on our people."
• "Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!" Musk declared to his 240 million followers, drawing allegations of incitement from British leaders.

Zoom out: Musk's anti-migrant activism extends across Western countries, where he suggests elites are intentionally engineering the demographic erasure of white populations — also known as the "Great Replacement" theory.

• In the U.S., Musk has fixated on noncitizen voter fraud, claiming Democrats are harvesting illegal immigrant votes to create a permanent, one-party state.
• That includes California, where he joined MAGA allies this week in alleging, without evidence, that Democrats committed massive fraud in the Los Angeles mayoral primary.

🌐 Musk's worldview relies on a singular, apocalyptic thesis: that Western civilization — which he frequently equates with white culture — is being systematically dismantled by mass migration, demographic change and "woke" institutions.

• He has clashed with world leaders like British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has accused the tech billionaire of using his platform to "whip up division" and interfere in foreign democracies.
• Musk rejects characterizations of his rhetoric as racist or xenophobic, arguing those accusations have been weaponized to shut down debate on migration and crime.

🖼️ The big picture: As Musk's net worth rockets toward the 13-figure mark, he has achieved escape velocity from the traditional rules of corporate governance.

• A decade ago, a CEO amplifying such panic at home and overseas would have triggered a board crisis, investor revolt and days of corporate cleanup.
• Musk does it daily, in public, in real time, on the platform he owns. His companies have become critical infrastructure, and Trump-era politics have shifted the Overton window on the rhetoric of racial grievance.

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Tulsi Gabbard, the outgoing director of national intelligence, got an unexpected call Tuesday from her controversial successor, Bill Pulte. "Today is your last day," he said.

• Gabbard was surprised. She had announced she was leaving at month's end, not Tuesday.
• "I need to hear it from the president or the White House," Gabbard told Pulte, two officials briefed on the discussion told Axios.

Why it matters: The call, unreported until now, was the latest flashpoint in the intelligence wars that erupted last week in D.C. after President Trump picked Pulte as Gabbard's temporary replacement.

📱 After the conversation with Pulte, Gabbard reached Trump, who didn't request her immediate resignation. "What day works best for you?" the president asked, according to one of the sources.

• Gabbard said June 19, and Trump then posted on Truth Social her new exit date.

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President Trump has been on a roll of rhetorical missteps that could come back to bite Republicans in the midterms, Axios' Mike Zapler writes.

• Why it matters: Trump has served a platter of ready-made campaign ads to Democrats.

Trump delivered three eye-popping quotes in the past month:

1. "I don't think about Americans' financial situation," he said on May 12.
2. Two weeks later, on May 27, Trump said, "I don't care about the midterms."
3. And when Trump was asked yesterday about the latest inflation numbers showing a 4.2% rise in prices, he responded, "I love the inflation."

More on the quotes.

A year's worth of inflation-adjusted wage gains vanished in just four months, leaving workers little better off than when President Trump returned to office, Axios Macro authors Courtenay Brown and Neil Irwin write.

• After rising for much of last year, real wage growth has effectively stalled.

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President Trump touted the 2026 FIFA World Cup as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to showcase American exceptionalism and global unity on U.S. soil, Axios' Avery Lotz writes.

• But the feel-good vibes surrounding the world's biggest sporting event — which starts today in Mexico — have been dampened by stories of immigration crackdowns and visa restrictions.

🔬 Zoom in: Omar Artan, a referee from Somalia, was denied entry at Miami International Airport due to "vetting concerns," according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

• Iraqi striker Aymen Hussein was held and questioned for hours at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. (Reuters)
• Restrictions on Iranian nationals created a diplomatic quagmire for FIFA. While Iran's players were granted visas, staff members were reportedly turned away.
• Sports reporters have faced visa restrictions, according to a letter from the International Sports Press Association.

Keep reading ... Full World Cup schedule.

One of America's most powerful spy authorities is nearing an unprecedented lapse, threatening to plunge intelligence agencies and telecommunications companies into legal uncertainty if allowed to go dark tomorrow, Axios' Kate Santaliz writes.

• Why it matters: Members in both parties are warning that an expiration of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act could jeopardize U.S. national security.

Section 702 feeds more than half of the president's daily briefing and has been credited with helping thwart terror plots.

• It allows the attorney general and director of national intelligence to compel electronic service providers to provide communications involving foreign intelligence targets overseas.

🔎 Zoom in: Democrats are refusing to back an extension of Section 702 unless Trump reverses his decision to name Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.

• Before Trump picked Pulte, GOP lawmakers appeared close to assembling a bipartisan coalition for a longer-term 702 extension.

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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued in a new essay yesterday that the government should have the legal power to block or deter dangerous AI deployments following the company's release of the powerful Mythos model, Axios' Ashley Gold writes.

We now, globally and collectively, need to activate a slow and rickety policy apparatus to deal with risks and opportunities that are going to compound surprisingly quickly from here.

Why it matters: Anthropic's ideas go far beyond anything now under serious consideration in Washington.

• Read the essay ... Share this story.

Republicans (right) won the Congressional Baseball Game last night for the sixth straight year, clobbering Dems (left), 11-2. The 117-year-old charity game is played under the lights at Nationals Park. Keep reading.

One win away: The Knicks erased a 29-point deficit and moved to the brink of their first championship since 1973 by beating the San Antonio Spurs 107-106 in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on OG Anunoby's tip-in with 1.2 seconds remaining.

• It's the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history. The Knicks lead the series, 3-1.

"Right hand from God": One play, 4½ seconds and a place in Knicks lore.

• 42-second video.