Phone calls from the Tesla Board, Peter Thiel and especially Larry Ellison, tend to change things.
Remember, Bill Ackman is the billionaire who constructed the SPARC (special purpose acquisition rights company) to save Elon Musk and Twitter financially, before Larry Ellison (Oracle) stepped in.
Elon Musk also walked back from his threat to decommission the Dragon spacecraft {link}.
Sea Island hit the MAGA anvil, but it didn’t split.
They’ll be back.
It was always going to be thus. However, some who do not carry the mental fortitude to withstand the TRUTH, will proclaim they are witnessing some pre-scripted game of chess or something, where the Trump -v- Musk battle is coordinated. It is not.
President Trump delivers some further consideration about Elon Musk from his perspective.
Musk responds by accusing President Trump of being in the “Epstein files” and later calls for his impeachment and replacement with JD Vance.
If you are a long(ish) time reader of CTH, what we are witnessing is exactly what we said we would see unfold. And it is really good to see it happening now. I was not looking forward to this battle as the 2026 midterms came around, and I am thankful to our loving God for delivering it now.
To understand the dynamic, it is necessary to remain elevated and unemotional as the confrontation takes place.
The U.S. Senate currently has two issues of great importance to President Trump within their upper chamber. The first is the Big Beautiful Bill (a reconciliation spending and budget plan). The second is Senate positioning on sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine. Both are of great importance when you consider the domestic and geopolitical ramifications.
President Trump wants the BBB structurally passed and doesn’t care about the nibbling on the edges or customary Christmas Tree decorations (special interest add-ons). Trump wants the Term-1 tax cuts extended and the border security money, these are must haves.
On the Ukraine/Russia stuff, Trump basically wants the Senate to back away from doing anything that influences his leverage positions for a resolution he will construct. However, President Trump knows the Senate fully supports the proxy war aspect to the conflict (he doesn’t).
Trump has remained relatively quiet on Ukraine-Russia because he doesn’t want to antagonize the Senate who will use their affirmative votes for BBB as leverage to maintain the proxy war and support Ukraine. That’s the background on the BBB, Russia, Ukraine and Trump’s position.
Into this foray comes the always self-interested and short-sighted Elon Musk who -despite being an influence asset at times- has the most annoying habit of never considering the downstream consequences for his selfishness.
As Musk rails against the BBB, which took 14 months of work from the House to get across the line he runs the risk of collapsing the BBB in the senate.
The longer the BBB sits in the Senate and/or gets changed so much it will take forever to get through the House again; the longer Trump has to bite his tongue on solving the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Musk in his infinite selfishness, cannot see how he is doing real damage to Trump’s objective around Russia by stirring up opposition to the BBB. Things were getting ugly yesterday and became more so today.
Don’t ask me to encapsulate this interview, I have not watched it yet (I will). Feel free to provide cliff notes in the comment section if you have.
The appearance venue itself is enough to tell me the agenda.
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If you have walked the deep political weeds with us, you will likely remember the warnings. Thomas Massie, Chip Roy, Rand Paul and other fellow republican travelers will join with Elon Musk and the alligator emoji network to oppose President Trump as soon as they can get back into the minority.
There is an intention behind this alignment of interests, which includes the Tech Bros (and Sea Island), that ends with a Vance-DeSantis promoted effort in 2028. The only thing standing in their way is MAGA. As a result, MAGA must be fractured.
The money center behind the strategy is working on a learning curve. Having failed with prior launches of similar approaches (ref. DeSantis ’23/’24), they are now doing much more proactive seeding.
Yeah, I know, I know; some will say I’m crazy. I’m not. I’ve watched this exact group’s constructs for over 14 years now. All the data indicates this approach; the only unknown variables are the names of the political representatives who will participate. Today, Thomas Massie is asking Elon Musk to fund primary challengers against the House republicans who support Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON DC – Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said Elon Musk should fund primary challenges against almost every Republican who voted for President Donald Trump‘s “big, beautiful bill” last week. “I don’t primary my colleagues, but I feel pretty good about him doing it,” Massie told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
“There’s a few others that should be spared,” when asked to clarify if he meant all 215 House Republicans who supported the legislation. “But people want term limits, right? Elon can bring term limits.”
Senators Richard Blumenthal (U-DC) and Lindsey Graham (U-DC) have scheduled a delegation of Ukraine officials to come to the Senate tomorrow and help organize the pro-Ukraine narrative. The Senate is debating the anti-Russia sanctions package and key players are coordinating retention of the Ukraine payment system.
According to Politico all 100 senators have been invited to the lobbying/narrative engineering meeting, and almost all of them are likely to attend. From obvious indications, including Blumenthal and Graham supporting the recent Ukraine attacks against strategic Russian airbases, it would appear the Senate is prepared to dispatch President Trump’s efforts to organize a ceasefire.
As with all things Washington DC, to find the motive follow the money.
WASHINGTON DC – A Ukrainian delegation is set to brief U.S. senators Wednesday as lawmakers weigh a sweeping sanctions bill targeting Russia and its biggest energy customers, China and India.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in an interview that he organized the meeting with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and noted all 100 senators were invited to attend the closed-door session.
“It’s a pivotal moment in Ukraine — and crunch time for the Senate on this bill,” said Blumenthal, noting that the legislation now has 82 co-sponsors, evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.
Last week Ukraine presented President Donald Trump with their “term sheets,” what they require in order to accept a ceasefire. Today in Istanbul, Turkey, the Russian Federation presented the Ukraine delegation, and likely a transmission to the White House, with the Russian “term sheets.”
This further clarifies the content of the significant meetings this afternoon in the White House, where President Trump assembled his “military leadership” and likely foreign policy team.
Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation at the talks in Istanbul, said Russia is offering Kyiv a temporary ceasefire. Medinsky said that Russia has prepared a two-part “memorandum” proposing a ceasefire and ending the war it started. The second part of the “memorandum” provides for “variability” and “several paths”, he said.
It should also be noted, the lack of a severe response by Russian President Vladimir Putin to yesterday’s attack on Russian air force bases likely indicates President Putin has what he wants. These terms and condition sheets were created prior to the Ukraine attack on Sunday. These are Putin’s conditions to stop further military conflict.
In Section II containing the “Ceasefire Conditions” (below) Russian President Putin demands Ukraine conduct democratic elections (#7, #8). Putin seemingly knows western installed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will lose and as a consequence weaken the western influence operations. Both President Trump and Secretary Marco Rubio have previously advocated for the same.
If we cut through all the polite pretending, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appears on Fox News to tell the bobble head the nation specific tariffs are going to hit regardless of what approaches need to be taken. President Trump is going to remain focused on structural changes to the global economic system of trade, manufacturing and USA commerce despite all of the grandiose efforts of the multinationals and their Lawfare foot soldiers.
As Lutnick again repeats, there are a variety of legal mechanisms that can be used to enforce the tariff program triggered by President Trump. Adhering to them is not optional for trade partners who wish to have access to the USA market. If the exporting nation wants to play games, try and delay or delay tactics, the end result will be even more against their interests. There is no alternative other than to acquiesce. WATCH:
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is going to find this out on Thursday when he shows up in full Blackrock mode and only creates a worse scenario for himself and the EU Commission he represents. If Merz wants ‘ugly’, no problem – President Trump has an endless supply of big ugly tools.
FA-FO!
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on CBS News to counter the false information being spread by Margaret Brennan on behalf of Wall Street corporations. The topics of interest surround China and tariffs.
Let me clarify for the audience that does not follow closely. Tariffs are paid by the importer based on the wholesale price of the product as delivered by the exporting country depending on the exporters’ tariff rate. Tariffs are NOT LEVIED/PAID based on the retail price of the product as sold to the consumer.
Example: A pair of Denim Jeans made in China for Guess Brand. The Chinese manufacturer sells the jeans to Guess Brand for $10 a pair manufactured. Guess sells the jeans at retail in the USA for $100 (a $90 gross profit).
A 50% tariff on China means the jeans cost Guess Brand $15 instead of $10 (an $85 gross profit). A 50% tariff on Guess brand jeans, that retail for $100, changes the cost to the retail brand by $5.
Multinational corporations who have off shored their production and manufacturing to China are the ones screaming about tariffs. Ultimately in the final analysis, President Trump is exposing corporatism, multinational corporate vultures; he is not necessarily just exposing China.
In the example above the company makes $85 gross profit as opposed to $90 gross profit on the pair of jeans if they do not raise the retail price. They don’t raise the price because their profit margins are already ridiculous, and that’s why consumer prices do not go up. A 50% direct tariff on Chinese goods only marginally hits the multinational corporation. American consumers need to understand this dynamic better. WATCH:
[TRANSCRIPT] – MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning and welcome to ‘Face the Nation.’ We begin today with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Good morning and thank you for being here.
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s so much to get to. I want to start with China, because the Defense Secretary just said there’s an imminent military threat from China to Taiwan. Days earlier, Secretary Rubio said he’d aggressively revoked Chinese student visas. On top of that, you have curbing exports to China. Trade talks you said with Beijing are stalled, and President Trump just accused China of violating an agreement, and now says no more, ‘Mr. Nice Guy.’ Are you intentionally escalating this standoff with Beijing?
As previously noted, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley released some of the FBI investigative files related to a congressional referral of Nellie Ohr for false testimony to congress. Within the Grassley release the declassified FBI investigative notes show that Trump-Russia files were compartmentalized, allowing control over access to them by the FBI Director and FBI Deputy Director.
The 7th floor level classification within the FBI’s Sentinel record-keeping system was previously unknown, and now people are starting to ask questions about what other information may be filed yet invisible due to the classification designation of “Prohibited Access.”
The Sentinel record-keeping system allows FBI officials and investigators to review and research the status of investigations both past and current. The Sentinel system is also the information system that is searched for responsive documents to legal cases and FOIA inquires. The Sentinel system contains all the information used by the FBI.
Within the Sentinel system there are “Restricted Access” files that are used to control who can view the file information. The FBI official can see the file but cannot access the information within it without a higher clearance level. However, now people are discovering there is a “Prohibited Access” designation that makes the file invisible to searches or queries and is controlled by the FBI Director and FBI Deputy Director.
Margot Cleveland is asking some good questions about how the use of the “Prohibited Access” designation may circumvent the FBI’s legal requirements (brady material) and FOIA searches. [SEE HERE] However, I would also note this approach hides information not only from congress and from the public, but also from the Executive branch itself. The DNI wouldn’t even know what information exists.