We have yet to hear Brunson’s thoughts on Tom Thiobdeau’s firing or how much say he will have in the hiring of the next coach.
Month: June 2025
Thursday’s escalating explosions between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are only a prelude. It is the start of a hot war, and it could soon get far worse for Musk while doing Trump little good‚other than to have a convenient scapegoat now for the unpopular DOGE with its over-promised $2 trillion of government savings.
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This breakdown is far worse than Trump’s usual fallouts following the exits of scores of other former loyalists. Musk is different. This is not about Musk taking a principled stand on the soaring debt or on any other political issue. Musk’s biggest mistake, it would seem, was that he forgot his role—as a staffer and advisor to Trump, not the primary character he believed himself to be. Trump, who relies on a model of leadership where all power is centralized in himself while dividing his subordinates against themselves, has always resented individuals who try to outmaneuver him. Trump will never have any tolerance for business leaders who challenge Trump’s authority.
Musk apparently believed that his wealth insulated him, but that was misguided. The reality is that Musk’s position is far weaker than many realize, and though he may be the world’s wealthiest person, his wealth is highly precarious. Virtually the entirety of Musk’s worth is paper wealth, coming from his roughly 12% ownership stake in Tesla, which has an exorbitant valuation, trading at over 100x price to earnings. Tesla stock lost 14% of its value today alone, and its excessive valuation, wildly detached from fundamentals, suggest we could still be in the earliest innings of an even greater loss.
Musk may think he has leverage over Trump, but the reality is he has little. Trump doesn’t need his money: he can easily replace Musk’s campaign contributions to his causes with other donors. There are many possible campaign contributors, but there is only one president. Similarly, Musk’s political brand has become a liability. Democrats don’t want him and he likely has no home in Trump’s Republican Party as some MAGA loyalists such as Steve Bannon are even calling for Musk’s deportation. Musk thinks he can blackmail Trump by withholding SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft servicing of the International Space Station, but hurting U.S. interests for a personal vendetta will not go over well with anyone.
On the other hand, Trump has genuine and tremendous leverage over Musk. Musk’s businesses are highly dependent on the federal government directly, operationally and financially. Even setting aside the soon-to-be repealed government $7,500 subsidies for EV purchases and Trump’s influence over Tesla’s stock price, Tesla is hugely reliant on federal largesse for the build out of EV charging infrastructure, not to mention federal regulatory approval for his continued autonomous driving and robotics experiments.
So far, Tesla has evaded Department of Justice investigations and accountability for the deaths caused by the self-driving car, not to mention the concerns of waste, fraud, and abuse made possible by the EV tax credit and government subsidies. Similarly, SpaceX is hugely dependent on direct grants and regulatory permitting, clearances, and partnership from NASA and other federal agencies. As Musk headed out the White House door, Trump yanked the nomination of his friend Jared Isaacman as administrator of NASA days before Isaacman was poised for approval by the Senate. Musk’s company Neuralink is also dependent upon FDA approval and clearances for its human trials of its brain-computer interface device.
Musk says Trump would have lost without the funding and the campaign ground game Musk provided Trump’s campaign. As the partnership devolves from allies, to frenemies, to hostile adversaries, neither party will win, because neither party can apologize and walk away. Even if Musk and Trump succeed in finding some short-term off ramp, which is far from a given considering the tone Musk’s tweets have been taking thus far, it is hard to see how Trump would let this disloyalty slide.
Musk has defied naysayers and critics his entire life, soaring even higher while his critics are left behind in the dust, but one wonders whether we are now witnessing the implosion of the world’s wealthiest man in real time, with Musk having finally overplayed his hand.
.Durant instead stayed with the Suns, who finished 11th in the Western Conference.
The implosion of a powerful political alliance: Trump and Musk in their own words [deltaMinutes] mins ago Now
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Chris Russo weighed in on the drama surrounding Stephen A. Smith’s new show on SiriusXM.
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Authorities in capital say Russian drones approaching ‘one after the other’ following Kremlin’s warning it will respond to Ukrainian attack on Russian air bases
Welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine, where the capital is under attack from Russian drones early and authorities say drone fragments have fallen in different parts of the city.
Witnesses reported a series of explosions in Kyiv, with one of them reporting a large fire at a site where one drone had fallen.
The IAEA’s team at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine heard repeated rounds of gunfire that appeared to be aimed at drones reportedly attacking the site’s training centre, the head of the UN’s nuclear safety watchdog said on Thursday. There were no immediate reports of damage to the centre, it said.
Russia launched a series of missiles and drones across Ukraine hours after Trump and Putin spoke on Wednesday. At least five people – including a one-year-old boy, his mother and grandmother – were killed when a drone struck a residential building in the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Trump to increase pressure on Russia to end the war.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to “unconditionally support” Russia in the war at a meeting with top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu, Pyongyang state media reported.
If the Islanders, who pick first overall, end up taking Michael Misa, his competitive drive will be just as much a reason as his prodigious skill.
The thieves made their way inside the Long Island City apartment around 10 p.m. Saturday and swooped up the pair of pooches – worth $1,700 – plus a large stash of clothing, authorities said.