Elon Musk condemned a segment of the MAGA movement as "contemptible fools" who should be purged from the Republican Party in a social media post Friday.
Why it matters: A virtual right-wing civil war has broken out over race, class, immigration and the future of President-elect Trump's movement, and Musk is increasingly at odds with Trump's historic base.
Retiring Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.) believes more of her colleagues should follow her lead and make way for a younger generation of political leaders.
Why it matters: Age was one of the lightning rods of the 2024 presidential election, as voters repeatedly expressed concerns about President Biden's fitness for office before a disastrous debate performance helped force him out of the race.
Sriram Krishnan has become a MAGA lightning rod since President-elect Trump named him as a senior adviser on artificial intelligence, due to both anti-Indian racism and Krishnan's pro-immigration views.
The big picture: Krishnan is an unlikely candidate for controversy, known throughout Silicon Valley for his affability and to the broader world as co-host of a podcast with his wife, tech entrepreneur Aarthi Ramamurthy.
An erupting civil war in MAGA world over foreign workers has shone a fresh spotlight on a visa scheme that has become the backbone of the country's highly skilled tech industry.
Why it matters: The brewing conflict has underscored the schism between one of President-elect Trump's cornerstone pledges — cracking down on immigration — and his Silicon Valley supporters, many of whose businesses depend on attracting foreign workers.
A handful of conservative critics of Elon Musk are alleging censorship and claiming they were stripped of their verification badges on X after challenging his views on H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers.
Why it matters: The H-1B issue and an X post by Musk ally Vivek Ramaswamy about America's culture of "mediocrity" have sparked an online MAGA civil war over immigration and race. Some supporters of President-elect Trump are now turning on Musk and the tech bros Trump has tapped for key administration roles.
Why it matters: The withdrawn initiatives would have provided debt relief for more than 30 million borrowers. Theymarked President Biden's last chance to deliver on his campaign promise of student loan forgiveness before leaving office.
Americans want to hear lessabout politics from public figures — and Republicans really don't want to hear it, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
Why it matters: After an election season where endorsements from celebrities frequently made news, the survey found Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of celebrities, big companies and athletes sounding off on politics.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on Thursday vehemently denied President-elect Trump's claims of Chinese interference in the Panama Canal.
Why it matters: Trump has accused Panamanian authorities of charging "exorbitant" shipping rates and cited the increasing dominance of China's government in trade throughout the Americas as a reason to take control of the Panama Canal, one of the world's most crucial pieces of infrastructure that the U.S. ceded in 1999.
A MAGA-world civil war erupted over Christmas when a social media post on American culture turned into a pitched battle over race, immigration and billionaires versus the working class.
Why it matters: The fight exposes one of the MAGA movement's deepest contradictions: It came to prominence chiefly via the white, less-educated, working class but is now under the full control of billionaire technologists and industrialists, many of them immigrants.
President-elect Trump's incoming "border czar" Tom Homan said in a new interview out Thursday he wants to use nonprofits and private contractors to help the government locate undocumented minors it's lost track of.
Why it matters: Trump made cracking down on illegal immigration via mass deportations one of the cornerstone pledges of his 2024 presidential campaign.
Elon Musk showed off a trimmer figure in a holiday social media post on Wednesday while revealing that he has been taking an anti-obesity drug to shed pounds.
Why it matters: Musk's post highlighted just how mainstream weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have become in recent years as public figures openly admit to using them, helping transform perceptions and conversations around weight loss.
About two-thirds of Americans have recently felt the need to limit their political news consumption, according to a recent poll.
Why it matters: The reluctance to consume political news is reflected in TV ratings. Americans of all parties, and Democrats in particular, are tuning out politics.
Just 19% of Americans believe the country is heading in the right direction as 2024 comes to a close, per Gallup's latest monthly survey.
Why it matters: Gallup's monthly data reveals a deep-seated pessimism among Americans about their country. You'd have to go back two decades to find a time when half of Americans felt the U.S. was on the right track.
Nearly a year after stepping down as executive editor of the Los Angeles Times, veteran journalist Kevin Merida is navigating a new chapter in his storied career.
School voucher programs championed by President-elect Trump have faced stiff headwinds from voters but remain a priority for the incoming Republican-led Congress and the White House.
Why it matters: Republican supporters often cite "universal school choice" when backing these measures. Opponents of vouchers say they deepen inequality and siphon public schools' already scant resources.
Medicare's $2,000 prescription drug cap will take effect at the start of the new year.
Why it matters: The yearly limit on out-of-pocket payments, under the Inflation Reduction Act, is expected to lower millions of seniors' medical costs. It will have a particularly significant impact for patients taking expensive drugs to treat cancer and other serious conditions.
President-elect Trump is setting the stage for an explosive first day in office: pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, a vacuum sealing of the southern border and a massive regulatory rollback affecting vast swathes of the American economy.
Why it matters: The tone of the next four years will be set on Day One. Trump and his transition — armed with a cannon of executive orders — are preparing an early shock-and-awe campaign to lay the foundation for his ambitious second term.
President Biden on Wednesday denounced Russia's large-scale Christmas Day attacks on Ukraine that damaged critical energy infrastructure and vowed to continue a U.S. surge in weapons deliveries to Kyiv.
The big picture: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X called the attacks "inhumane," while Russia's Defense Ministry said the "long-range precision weapons and strike drones on critical energy infrastructure facilities" in Ukraine had achieved the goal of Russian leader Vladimir Putin's forces.
