“Elon Musk is pushing lawmakers to help clear a path for driverless vehicles, part of a broader effort behind the scenes to lobby for a key priority of Tesla Inc,” Bloomberg reports.
“In recent weeks, Musk and people who work for him have been calling members of Congress directly to gather support… He has also been weighing in on revisions of a bill introduced on May 15 that would begin setting up a basic framework for autonomous vehicles.”
The nonprofit Public Broadcasting Service and one of its local affiliates on Friday said they sued the Trump administration over the executive order seeking to cease all federal funding to National Public Radio and PBS, Axios reports.
“The Trump administration’s clean up of the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Commission’s hallmark and error-riddled report is opening new questions about how the report’s authors drew some of its sweeping conclusions about the state of Americans’ health,” NOTUS reports.
“At least 18 of the original report’s citations have been edited or completely swapped out for new references… While some of the original report’s inconsistencies have been changed, a few of the new updated citations continue to misinterpret scientific studies.”
“DOGE has installed geniuses with an engineering mindset and unbelievably talented people on computers. I actually asked Elon one time, what’s their primary thing? And they have a lot of primary things all having to do with being smart.”
— President Trump, in an Oval Office press conference.
“A trade truce between the U.S. and China is at risk of falling apart, as China’s slow-walking on rare-earth exports fuels U.S. recriminations that China is reneging on the deal,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Getting the pact together in Geneva earlier this month hinged on Beijing’s concession on the critical minerals.”
“The people say the U.S. trade negotiators presented their Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, with a demand that Beijing resume rare-earth exports. In return, the U.S. would agree to a 90-day tariff truce. He agreed to the demand in the final hours of marathon discussions with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.”
Elon Musk, when asked by reporters in the Oval Office about a bruise near his eye, said his son punched him in the face, the New York Times reports.
Said Musk: “I was horsing around with little X and I said, ‘go ahead, punch me in the face,’ and he did.”
“President Trump is bidding farewell to Elon Musk, who slashed his way through the federal government via his Department of Government Efficiency, in an Oval Office news conference that appeared intended to quell any suggestions of a rift between them,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “Elon is really not leaving. He’s going to be back and forth.”
“Coronavirus vaccines are still recommended for healthy children if their doctors approve, according to updated immunization schedules published late Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contradicting Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement earlier this week,” the Washington Post reports.
“The Trump administration is escalating its campaign against Harvard University — and looking for new ways to bring the storied institution to heel,” Politico reports.
“The White House convened officials from nearly a dozen agencies on Wednesday to brainstorm additional punitive measures… The administration official said that forthcoming actions are expected from the State, Treasury, Health and Human Services and Justice departments, among others, and could happen as early as next month.”
Former President Biden took questions from reporters on Friday at a public event in Delaware:
REPORTER: There’s also been a lot of discussion recently about your mental and physical capabilities while you were in office.
BIDEN: You can see that I’m mentally incompetent and I can’t walk, and I can beat the hell out of both of them.
REPORTER: Do you want to reply to any of those reports, and also to the fact that there are some Democrats who are now questioning whether you should have run for reelection in the first place?
BIDEN: Why didn’t they run against me then? Because I’d have beaten them.
REPORTER: Do you have any regrets?
BIDEN: No, I don’t have any regrets.
The State Department Friday instructed all U.S. embassies and consulates to “immediately” start more extensive vetting for those looking to travel to Harvard University “for any purpose,” Axios reports.
“For weeks, White House officials and Republican operatives weren’t quite sure when, or if, Elon Musk would actually be leaving the government,” Wired reports.
“Now, many Republicans are already looking to distance themselves from Musk’s team entirely.”
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) pushed back against constituents who shouted out at her recent town hall meeting that cuts to Medicaid would cause people to die, responding: “People are not ― well, we all are going to die. So, for heaven’s sakes, folks.”
Stat: “A new study tried to predict the consequences if the rest of the nation were to follow suit. In five years, the researchers estimated, 7.5% more U.S. children ages 0-19 would get cavities, affecting 25.4 million additional teeth and costing the country around $9.8 billion.”
“While these findings are worrisome, several experts said, they were unsure if the new data would move the needle on a debate that has become so heated and politicized.”
The Independent: “Co-opting a famous phrase from the 1980 John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd classic The Blues Brothers, Donald Trump posted a cryptic meme on Wednesday night declaring that he is ‘on a mission from God’ which also features an alt-right symbol in the background.”
“Showing the president walking down a dark city street, the image includes the caption ‘nothing can stop what is coming.’ While the meme itself could be interpreted as the president’s response to the U.S. Court of International Trade striking down the majority of his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, it was the image’s inclusion of Pepe the Frog – and the fact that it originated from a ‘groyper’ account – that has drawn the most attention.”
Ilya Somin: “A court’s decision affirmed a fundamental American principle: The president is no king, and he does not have the power to impose taxes in the form of tariffs whenever he feels like it.”
“A divided Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way, for now, for the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 530,000 migrants from four countries who have been allowed to live and work in the United States while their immigration cases play out,” the Washington Post reports.
“The ruling is the second time in recent weeks the high court has given Trump officials permission to terminate programs that protect immigrants fleeing countries wracked by war or economic turmoil.”
New York Times: “The court’s order was unsigned and provided no reasoning, which is typical when the justices rule on emergency applications.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.