Page 30 - Elon Musk

21 DOGE staffers resign over refusal to use their 'technical expertise'

More than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to dismantle critical public services. We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations, the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. However, it has become clear that we can no longer honour those commitments. The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump's administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them. The mass resignation of engineers, data scientists and product managers is a temporary setback for Musk and the Republican president's tech-driven purge of the federal workforce. It comes amid a flur

Tesla's market capitalisation slips below $1 trillion as Europe sales sink

Tesla shares are now by far the biggest decliner among the mega-cap technology stocks, weighing heavily on the group's overall performance

Tesla sales crash in Europe, dropping 45% in Jan as EV competition heats up

Billionaire Elon Musk's increasing involvement in US politics and controversial stance on European leaders may have also attributed to the fall in Tesla sales

Trump kissing Musk's feet? AI video plays on screens at US govt office

An AI video of Donald Trump kissing Elon Musk's feet played at a US government office, sparking outrage and debate over Musk's growing influence in the new administration

Nearly 40% of contracts cancelled by DOGE expected to produce no savings

Nearly 40 per cent of the federal contracts that the Trump administration claims to have cancelled as part of its signature cost-cutting programme aren't expected to save the government any money, the administration's own data shows. The Department of Government Efficiency run by Elon Musk last week published an initial list of 1,125 contracts that it terminated in recent weeks across the federal government. Data published on DOGE's Wall of Receipts shows that more than one-third of the contract cancellations, 417 in all, are expected to yield no savings. That's usually because the total value of the contracts has already been fully obligated, which means the government has a legal requirement to spend the funds for the goods or services it purchased and in many cases has already done so. It's like confiscating used ammunition after it's been shot when there's nothing left in it. It doesn't accomplish any policy objective, said Charles Tiefer, a retired University of Baltimore law

Elon Musk renews firing threat after being obstructed by federal officials

The US agency that oversees federal employees said on Monday they could ignore a weekend email from Musk that required them to summarize their work or face losing their jobs

Elon Musk sees to install Starlink terminals in US airspace network

The people said it was unclear how the use of Starlink terminals might impact the existing Verizon contract

Never heard of Musk offer for early astronaut return: Ex-Nasa leader Melroy

The comments cast doubt on Musk's claims that his attempts to stage an early rescue mission were blocked by former US President Joe Biden's White House because of the billionaire's support of Trump

Trump backs Musk as he roils federal workforce with demands, threats

President Donald Trump voiced support for Elon Musk's demand that federal employees explain their recent accomplishments by the end of Monday or risk getting fired, an edict that has spawned new litigation and added to turmoil within the government workforce. What he's doing is saying, Are you actually working?' Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. "And then, if you don't answer, like, you're sort of semi-fired or you're fired, because a lot of people aren't answering because they don't even exist. The Republican president said that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has found hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud" as he suggested that federal paychecks are going to nonexistent employees. He did not present evidence for his claims. If people don't respond, it's very possible that there is no such person, or they aren't working," Trump said. Attorneys representing unions, businesses, veterans and conservation organisations

FDA to rehire probationary medical device staffers fired only days earlier

Barely a week after mass firings at the Food and Drug Administration, some probationary staffers received unexpected news over the weekend: The government wants them back. Beginning Friday night, FDA employees overseeing medical devices and other key areas received calls and emails notifying them that their recent terminations had been rescinded effective immediately, according to messages viewed by The Associated Press. Three FDA staffers impacted by the decisions spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity because they planned to continue working for the agency and weren't authorised to discuss its internal procedures. The reversal is the latest example of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's chaotic approach to cost-cutting, which has resulted in several agencies firing, and then scrambling to rehire, employees responsible for nuclear weapons, national parks and other government services. The FDA reinstatements followed pushback by lobbyists for the medical device

Federal employees across US return to offices amid threat from Elon Musk

Federal employees across the country, many of whom have worked from home since the COVID-19 pandemic, were back at agency offices Monday under President Donald Trump's return-to-office mandate. Billionaire Elon Musk, who is leading Trump's Department of Government Efficiency scouring government agencies for suspected waste, delivered a warning Monday to workers on his platform X. Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave, Musk wrote. Lee Zeldin, Trump's new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said Monday on X, formerly Twitter, Full-time, COVID-era remote work is DONE under @POTUS leadership. In a video he posted, Zeldin said average attendance at EPA headquarters on Mondays and Fridays last year was less than 9% of employees. Our spacious, beautiful EPA headquarters spans two city blocks in D.C. across five buildings, Zeldin said. But our hallways have been too vacant, desks empty and cubicles filled with

Fired federal workers hunt for new jobs but struggle to replace old ones

HIRING: Park ranger. SEEKING: Nuclear submarine engineer. WANTED: Sled dog musher. If they seem unlikely postings, they probably are. But a laid-off federal worker can dream. Axed from jobs not easily found outside government, thousands of federal workers caught in President Donald Trump's cost-cutting efforts now face a difficult search for work. If you're doing, say, vegetation sampling and prescribed fire as your main work, there aren't many jobs, says Eric Anderson, 48, of Chicago, who was fired Feb. 14 from his job as a biological science technician at Indiana Dunes National Park. All the years of work Anderson put in - the master's degree, the urban forestry classes, the wildfire deployments - seemed to disappear in a single email dismissing him. He's hoping there's a chance he's called back, but if he isn't, he's not sure what he'll do next. He was so consumed with his firing that he broke a molar from grinding his teeth. But he knows he's caught in something larger than ..

The Tesla factor: Its India entry as a disruptor may have limited impact

The possible game changer could lie in the fact that Tesla reportedly sources components from India worth $1 billion a year

US federal employees file lawsuit against Musk's 'resign or reply' order

Attorneys for federal workers said Monday in a lawsuit that billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk had violated the law with his weekend demand that employees explain their accomplishments or risk being fired. The updated lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in California and was provided to The Associated Press, is trying to block mass layoffs pursued by Musk and President Donald Trump, including any connected to the email distributed by the Office of Personnel Management on Saturday. The office, which functions as a human resources agency for the federal government, said employees needed to detail five things that they did last week by end of day on Monday. No OPM rule, regulation, policy, or program has ever, in United States history, purported to require all federal workers to submit reports to OPM, said the amended complaint, which was filed on behalf of unions, businesses veterans, and conservation organisations represented by the group State Democracy Defenders Fund. It ...

Musk's 'resign or reply' order for federal workers gets Trump's meme nod

Trump uses SpongeBob meme to back Musk's 'resign or reply' order, sparking backlash from unions, lawmakers, and federal agencies refusing to comply

US workers confront confusion as Musk's deadline to describe work looms

Confusion and chaos loom as hundreds of thousands of federal employees begin their workweek on Monday facing a deadline from President Donald Trump's cost-cutting chief, Elon Musk, to explain their recent accomplishments or risk losing their jobs. Musk's unusual demand has faced resistance from several key US agencies led by the president's loyalists including the FBI, State Department, Homeland Security and the Pentagon which instructed their employees over the weekend not to comply. Lawmakers in both parties said that Musk's mandate may be illegal, while unions are threatening to sue. Trump over the weekend called for Musk to be more aggressive in his cost-cutting crusade through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and posted a meme on social media mocking federal employees who cried about Trump and Elon. Musk's team sent an email to hundreds of thousands of federal employees on Saturday giving them roughly 48 hours to report five specific things they had

Vivek Ramaswamy set to run for Ohio governor, announcement likely tomorrow

This comes a month after Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) a day after President Donald Trump's inauguration

Trump admin slashes 1,600 USAID jobs, places direct hires on leave

A federal judge ruled in favour of placing thousands of USAID workers on leave, dealing a blow to unions alleging the cuts would dismantle the agency

Elon Musk's Starlink faces Chinese rivals to dominate satellite internet

Starlink has since 2020 launched more satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO) - an altitude of less than 2,000 km - than all its competitors combined

'Dark MAGA' spreads as conservatives embrace Musk's influence on Trump

At an annual gathering of conservative activists, the signature red Make America Great Again hats popularized by President Donald Trump were interspersed with a noticeable number of the black Dark MAGA hats made popular by Elon Musk. It was just one sign of Musk's emerging influence and how the world's wealthiest man who once backed Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden has become a conservative power center in his own right due to his connections to Trump. He is an authentic and unique individual. I am glad he is on the team, said Whitney Mason, a 62-year-old real estate agent who was traveling from Seattle. Musk was an unexpected guest of honour at the Conservative Political Action Conference, with his appearance announced hours before he took the stage wielding a chainsaw. The prop, and his comments, left little subtlety about his role or his influence, days after the Trump administration claimed in court that Musk was not in charge of his signature Department of Government .