🚨 Trump Week 1, DOGE Divorce, Christmas Day Drop

📅 What is this, November 2023? - I haven’t heard Sam Altman’s name in the news this much since he was kicked out of Open AI. Earlier in the week, Trump announced a $500 billion joint venture with Altman’s Open AI, SoftBank, and Oracle. The project, Stargate, will invest $100 billion into AI infrastructure in the US in the near term and up to 5 times that amount over time. Only one problem, Open AI isn’t profitable, and Musk threw a number of accusations that the money was not there. Then, on Thursday, Altman announced a massive development at OpenAI, Operator. Operator is an AI agent that will perform tasks for you like booking travel, filling out forms, making reservations, and ordering groceries. Hope he got some good rest this weekend because damn that man has been busy.

⏪ Reverse, reverse - TikTok pulled a last-minute reversal, much like a Cha Cha Slide move at a wedding. Hours before an impending US ban on the social media company was set to take place, the app went dark in the US, throwing creators into a frenzy. Then, after conferring with Trump, TikTok hit the reverse again and came back to life. Trump signed an executive order extending the ban start date by 75 days. The executive order opens Trump up to legal action as the ban had been signed into law by Congress. This is a pretty sharp turn for the man who had threatened to ban TikTok in his first term, but when a social media app helps you win the younger vote, you let that app stay.

🐦 Social media clout & leverage don't mix - Banks are looking to sell roughly $3 billion of the debt taken by Musk to purchase Twitter, now X. The banks are selling the debt at 90 to 95 cents on the dollar in the latest fallout from the acquisition. With X barely breaking even and the acquisition by Musk increasing Twitter’s interest expense from $50 million to $1 billion, the banks have been looking for ways out of holding onto the $13 billion issued for the acquisition.

When Trump was inaugurated, I knew it would be a busy week based on his last Presidency where it seemed he dropped major news every day, but this was a whole different ball game. This section will go over mostly everything that happened this week. When a man rescinds 78 executive orders by his predecessor and signs more than 20 executive orders, there is just too much to report on, so here is mostly everything:

🛑 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives

2 executive orders shaped DEI in the US:

1. The first order declares that the federal government only recognizes two immutable sexes: male and female
2. The second order aims to end what President Trump deems “discriminatory” DEI initiatives implemented by the Biden administration. In this Order, federal agencies are mandated to terminate these initiatives, including terminating DEI-related positions, training, and programs, under whatever name they appear (including those related to “environmental justice”)

The second order has led many public and private companies, like Target, Walmart, and McDonald’s, to roll back their DEI initiatives, while others, like Apple and JPMorgan, are doubling down on their initiatives.

🧑‍⚖️ Pardons

Trump issued pardons to all 1,500 individuals involved in the January 6th riots. The pardons end one of the largest full scale investigations by the FBI.

Trump also pardoned the founder of the Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht. The Silk Road was an online marketplace for everything from drugs to hitmen. It was also one of the first real world applications of bitcoin.

🚀 Stargate

We mentioned it briefly above, but this is a $500 billion joint venture to invest in AI infrastructure in the US.

💸 Interest Rates

Trump gave remarks at Davos that caused quite a stir. In the remarks, he called for lower interest rates, demanded lower oil prices, and criticized Canada and the EU.

Additionally, Trump is seeking talks with Putin on Ukraine and nuclear arms reductions.

🫰Tariffs

Trump has long threatened tariffs on countless countries, and while his first week has seen the tone around this subject softened, the market is holding its breath.

🧑‍💼Federal Workers RTO

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order mandating all federal agencies make all their employees return to the office full time “as soon as practicable” alongside a directive to end remote-work arrangements except as deemed necessary.

Late Wednesday, administration officials released a more detailed directive demanding the termination of all remote-work arrangements, in conjunction with a statement that it’s a “glaring roadblock” to increasing government performance that most federal offices are “virtually abandoned."

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• The US may have been leading the AI arms race for the last decade, but according to the CEO of Scale AI, the company providing all major AI companies with training data, on Christmas Day everything changed. The Chinese company DeepSeek dropped an “earth-shattering” model that surpasses all others on the market. There is a Christmas joke in there somewhere, but this is too serious a topic to joke about, no matter how good of a joke it could’ve been.
• In lighter news, the Oscar nominations dropped earlier this week. “Emilia Perez” leads the way with 13 noms, and “Wicked” & “Brutalist” follow with 10.
• In case you missed it in all of the hullabaloo, the DOGE power couple has officially divorced. Vivek Ramaswamy is leaving the Department of Government Efficiency, with Elon Musk to helm the cause solo. You mean to tell me 2 outspoken rich guys couldn’t play nice when deciding what to cut? It is reported there is no bad blood here, but the DOGE focus is now centered around trimming costs (what Musk's focus was) versus trimming regulations (what Vivek's focus was).  
• There’s always money in the banana coffee stand. Since the former burrito kingpin turned coffee aficionado took control in September, the new Starbucks CEO has already been awarded $96 million.

How do you boil down the entirety of Elon Musk to several hundred pages? You do it when he is still in his prime because there is still so much more he is contributing to the world. There may have to be a part 2 to this book, but Walter Isaacson continues his streak of absolute bangers with this novel.

Love him or hate him, and he is a polarizing figure for sure, to see someone who is the best to ever do it, and learn about how he built several transformative companies is an absolute masterclass in grit, perseverance, and vision. In his unbiased manner, Isaacson portrays all sides of Musk for the reader. You learn of Musk’s Demon Mode, and you get an insider’s look into his world.

⭐ 4.88 / 5.0 in my book (no pun intended) - the same as the Jobs book

1. "There's always money in the banana stand."
2. "Oh hell, Son, I was high that day. That doesn't make any sense at all, you can be second, third, fourth... hell you can even be fifth."
3. "Kowalski, status report."

Coca-Cola once launched a "self-freezing" soda bottle. In 2007, they tested a product called the Coca-Cola Blāk Icy in Spain and Japan. You’d twist the cap, and the liquid inside would instantly turn into slushy soda.

1. Arrested Development (George Bluth Sr.)
2. Talladega Nights (Reese Bobby)
3. Madagascar (Skipper)