Today’s Big Story

Musk Exits Washington

Elon Musk steps away from the White House but says DOGE will continue

Is Elon Musk over it? Has he had enough or did he just run out of time? The billionaire who was also a key adviser to President Donald Trump overseeing the U.S. DOGE Service, announced Wednesday that he is leaving the administration after leading a contentious effort to reshape the federal bureaucracy and slash government spending.

Musk, who once called himself the president’s “first buddy,” says he’s ending his government work to spend more time on his companies. But you might’ve heard that he took a swipe at Trump’s signature domestic policy legislation, saying it would add to the national deficit. He then complained to administration officials about a lucrative deal that went to a rival company to build an artificial-intelligence data center in the Middle East. And according to the New York Times, he has yet to make good on a $100 million pledge to Trump’s political operation.

His departure marks the end of a turbulent chapter that included thousands of layoffs, the evisceration of government agencies and reams of litigation. Despite the upheaval, the controversial entrepreneur struggled in the unfamiliar environment of Washington, and he accomplished far less than he hoped.

The Associated Press reports that he dramatically reduced his target for cutting spending—from $2 trillion to $1 trillion to $150 billion—and increasingly expressed frustration about resistance to his goals. Sometimes he clashed with other top members of Trump’s administration, who chafed at the newcomer’s efforts to reshape their departments, and he faced fierce political blowback for his efforts.

His role was temporary and his exit is not unexpected, but the BBC points out that it comes just a day after Musk publicly criticized Trump’s agenda. And, of course, Musk’s time in government overlapped with a significant decline in sales at Tesla. Sales dropped by 13% in the first three months of this year—the largest drop in deliveries in its history. The company's stock price also tumbled by as much as 45%, but has mostly rebounded and is only down around 10% now.

Trump Tariffs Ruled Illegal by Federal Judicial Panel

The U.S. Court of International Trade said the president had overstepped his authority

Well this could get interesting: A panel of federal judges on Wednesday ruled that most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs—including those on Chinese goods—are illegal, upending negotiations with more than a dozen nations and creating fresh uncertainty for countless American businesses that depend upon foreign suppliers.

Axios reports that the U.S. Court of International Trade’s ruling could bring the administration’s sweeping trade war to a screeching halt because the summary judgment essentially throws out all the tariffs Trump imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. (Trump used the 1977 law, which had never before been invoked in a tariff situation, to unilaterally impose sweeping trade levies worldwide.)

It was not clear precisely when and how the tariff collections would grind to a halt. The ruling gave the executive branch up to 10 days to complete the bureaucratic process of ending them. The Trump administration immediately filed its plans to appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Everyone’s Watching YouTube

The platform continues its streak to three consecutive months with the biggest share of viewing time

I don’t know when you watch YouTube—maybe while you eat or at the end of the day as you wind down—but I know that you watch it. Because everyone’s doing it (more and more). Last month, Nielsen found that YouTube once again earned the top spot by capturing 12.4% of viewers’ total time watching TV across the networks and streaming platforms each month.

Nielsen’s media distributor Gauge report tracks how viewers spend their time on TV and found that YouTube is followed by more traditional streamers like Disney (10.7%), Paramount (8.9%) and NBCUniversal (8.2%). Of course, this makes sense to me since YouTube has the most variety—from countless user-uploaded content to more professional options in a range of subjects.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, that means that nearly one of every eight minutes viewers spent on their televisions was watching their favorite YouTubers. And something tells me that those numbers are only going to go up.

Treat Your Father to Some Jewelry

Get him a piece that you’d wear yourself

Don’t overthink it.