Good morning. Andrew here. The Trump-Musk drama is back, and it could put a certain Silicon Valley star in a bind. We tell you who below and what’s at stake. We also dive into the Senate tax and policy bill that has gone back to the House, where it faces big challenges. And we have some thoughts ahead of this week’s jobs numbers that could indicate what the Fed will do on interest rates. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.)
A Musk ally to watchThe short-lived truce between President Trump and Elon Musk appears over, broken by Musk’s persistent criticism of the Republican domestic policy bill — more on that below — and then the president’s heated response. “Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far,” Trump wrote on Truth Social yesterday. The president added, “Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this?” But any move to sic the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the government cost-cutting initiative that Musk championed, on him could put one man in an increasingly complicated position: Joe Gebbia, the Airbnb co-founder. Gebbia has many roles. He sits on Tesla’s board and is a close friend and confidant of Musk, the Tesla chief. That means Gebbia has a fiduciary duty to the carmaker and its shareholders. But Gebbia remains deeply involved with DOGE. He was recruited by Musk himself and stayed after his friend’s departure from government. He is poised to take on a key leadership role on the team, The Times has reported, along with the former Morgan Stanley investment banker Anthony Armstrong, another Musk ally. Any move to deploy DOGE against Tesla could create a conflict for Gebbia. Most of his work at the cost-cutting initiative has focused on digitizing paper-based federal retirement processes. But that could change if he assumes a bigger leadership role at the team. Could he fulfill his duties to Tesla while living up to his government commitment? Gebbia couldn’t be reached for comment. A representative for Robyn Denholm, Tesla’s chair, declined to comment. The context: Musk has repeatedly hit out at the Republican legislation as fiscally irresponsible, writing on X yesterday, “All I’m asking is that we don’t bankrupt America |
