Oligarchs

The New Republic reports: Buried in the new House GOP reconciliation bill — the blueprint for Trump’s agenda — is a new and expanded giveaway largely benefiting wealthy investors, according to tax experts I spoke to. And the nitty-gritty of this neatly demonstrates how the “corporatist” side of the alleged GOP identity crisis is winning out. To see why, recall …

Politico reports: Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, a prominent supporter of Republican President Donald Trump, has donated $250,000 to a super PAC boosting Andrew Cuomo’s run for New York City mayor, new campaign finance filings show. It’s the latest example of GOP-affiliated players getting behind New York’s Democratic former governor as he vies to replace Mayor Eric Adams. Ackman’s …

Reuters reports: As the Trump administration intensifies efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark — or take it by force — some Silicon Valley tech investors are promoting the frozen island as a site for a so-called freedom city, a libertarian utopia with minimal corporate regulation, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The discussions are in early stages, but …

The Hill reports: Billionaire hedge fund investor Bill Ackman, who endorsed President Trump last year, is offering a stark warning about the risks of the White House’s tariff plans, arguing they could cause the economy to collapse while hurting Trump supporters the most. “Business is a confidence game. The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe. …

He wants to be closer to his Glorious Leader: Mark Zuckerberg is the latest billionaire to shell out tens of millions of dollars for a pricey outpost in Donald Trump’s gilded capital. For a month, neighbors in Washington’s upscale Woodland Normanstone neighborhood have speculated about the unidentified buyer who paid $23 million in cash for a 15,000-square-foot mansion. The sale …

Las Vegas’s NBC affiliate reports: The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Steve Wynn’s petition for an appeal in his lawsuit against the Associated Press, which sought to overturn a landmark ruling in libel law. The court included Wynn’s petition for a writ of certiorari in its list of denials issued Monday. No reasoning or dissents were listed. Wynn sued the …

The Daily Beast reports: The Washington Post is hiring—but apparently only if you’re the kind of journalist that will steer the paper further toward the right. Publisher Will Lewis recently met with Eliana Johnson, the editor-in-chief of the right-wing outlet The Washington Free Beacon, to discuss how she could help recruit more right-leaning reporters, according to Status. The move is …

“If you make x-amount of money and you’re worth $60 million, we’re gonna look at why that is. That’s where the panic is coming from. Let’s think about this. In our administration, we have a tremendous amount of billionaires who are successful businessmen. “And I could name them all, but we know who they are who have taken a leave, …

The New York Times reports: One of Elon Musk’s closest friends, a billionaire co-founder of Airbnb, is taking a role in President Trump’s administration to help Mr. Musk carry out his drive to slash the federal bureaucracy, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Joe Gebbia, the Airbnb co-founder, is a board member at Tesla who lives in …

The New Republic reports: One of Donald Trump’s biggest donors is looking to the Supreme Court to limit tough press coverage of the MAGA leader’s administration. Republican megadonor Steve Wynn filed a petition with the nation’s highest judiciary on Friday to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, a landmark 1964 decision that raised the standards required for a plaintiff to …

Business Insider reports: Bill Gates doesn’t like how Elon Musk has involved himself in the politics of foreign countries such as the UK and Germany. “It’s really insane that he can destabilize the political situations in countries,” Gates said in an interview with the UK newspaper The Times published Saturday. Musk has become increasingly vocal about his views on UK …

NPR reports: The Trump administration is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app’s global operations, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks. Under the deal now being negotiated by the White House, TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance would retain …

Bloomberg News reports: Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department, detailed his wealth and influence across hundreds of firms and left open the possibility of his adult children buying his holdings if he wins confirmation. Lutnick, chief executive officer of Wall Street investment bank and brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald LP, confirmed he’ll divest his interests in the three core …

“You know, when the so-called robber barons came in, for the hundred years before that, wages were like this [makes downward motion]. After this, they went like that for 100 years. Oh, when the robbers came in — robber barons came in, life expectancy in America was like this; all of a sudden, it went like this [makes upward motion.] …

Deadline reports: President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump kicked off Inauguration Day with a longtime tradition: Attending services at St. John’s Episcopal Church across Lafayette Square. Trump was joined by Vice President-elect JD Vance and his wife Usha, and among those attending were Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and fiance Lauren Sanchez; and …

The New York Times reports: President Biden warned in his farewell address to the nation last week that an oligarchy is taking shape in America. In Washington, the oligarchs are already here, buying big houses. Counting Trump himself, there are at least a dozen billionaires among his cabinet picks and those headed for senior roles in the new administration. Elon …

Semafor reports: President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance had lunch with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Wednesday, along with Elon Musk, according to people briefed on the meeting. Microsoft President Brad Smith also attended the gathering at Mar-a-Lago, the latest example of the tech industry’s increasingly close relationship with Trump following his victory in the November election. Microsoft …

Politico reports: Google CEO Sundar Pichai will join the growing list of tech executives sitting on the dais as President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office on Monday, according to a person familiar with the company’s plans who was not authorized to speak publicly. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a close confidant of the incoming president, is expected to attend the …

The New York Times reports: After Inauguration Day, the group of Silicon Valley-inflected, wide-eyed recruits will be deployed to Washington’s alphabet soup of agencies. The goal is for most major agencies to eventually have two DOGE representatives as they seek to cut costs. On the eve of Mr. Trump’s presidency, the structure of DOGE is still amorphous and closely held. …

Bloomberg News reports: Mark Zuckerberg wore a rare Swiss watch worth about $900,000 in a video explaining his company’s decision to end third-party fact checking on its social media platforms in the U.S. The Meta Platforms Inc. chairman sports a Greubel Forsey ‘Hand Made 1’ on his left wrist in the video posted to Facebook on Tuesday unveiling the policy …