Technology
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Technology
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Elon Musk's growing influence over Trump, D.C.
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The tech magnate, who once largely eschewed politics, now has a political clout of his own to throw around as President-elect Trump heads back to the Oval Office.
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Musk has become a driving force in American politics in the past year, rising from Silicon Valley mogul and Washington outsider to a conservative thought leader in Trump’s inner circle.
Whether he is on Capitol Hill, sitting alongside Trump at Mar-a-Lago or broadcasting his views on X, his social media platform, Musk has already offered a preview of how he plans to use his new political sway under a Trump administration.
Observers predict the dynamic is likely to continue, if not intensify, once Trump officially takes office and Musk takes the helm of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) panel aimed at slashing government costs.
“My instinct is, and we’re already kind of hearing murmurings of this, is that Trump is going to have a hard time wrangling Musk,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the progressive think tank Groundwork Collaborative.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has increasingly found himself in Trump’s orbit — and in the most prominent circles in Republican politics — since throwing his support behind the president-elect and pouring at least a quarter of a billion dollars into boosting his campaign.
Musk has already shown his ability to drive the political conversation, often on X, where his posts reach millions of users in a matter of hours.
His reach played out last month when he and DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy fired off dozens of posts on X expressing their intense opposition to a short-term funding plan rolled out by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
The two stirred up conversation and doubts about the bill among lawmakers for hours before Trump or Vice President-elect JD Vance voiced their opposition to the bill. The pressure campaign forced Johnson back to the drawing table.
Owens, a former senior economic policy adviser to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), said these posts created “choppy waters” for Johnson and Trump, as Democrats dubbed Musk the “co-president.”
“I absolutely think he’s [Musk] going to be weighing in on congressional negotiations, on the appropriations process, on the tax fight, on agency rulemaking,” Owens told The Hill.
“I would expect nothing less. … He’s fired off a huge number of opinions about what the government should be doing, what agencies should be doing, what enforcement actions should be taken, and the like.”
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com on Wednesday morning.
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Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter, we're Julia Shapero and Miranda Nazzaro — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.
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How policy will be impacting the tech sector now and in the future:
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Meta is planning to lay off about 5 percent of its workforce by targeting the company’s lowest performers in preparation for what CEO Mark Zuckerberg said will be an “intense year.” Zuckerberg, in an internal memo to employees Tuesday, said he made the choice to “raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster.” The memo was first reported by Bloomberg. A Meta spokesperson …
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Steve Bannon said Tuesday that tech billionaire Elon Musk is “not gonna be totally out” of the MAGA movement, even as the former adviser to President-elect Trump has lobbed criticism at the tech billionaire. “As soon as I can turn Elon Musk from a techno-feudalist to a populist nationalist, we’ll start making real progress,” Bannon told Politico’s Dasha Burns during the “POLITICO Playbook: The First 100 Days” event, in a clip …
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President-elect Trump said Monday he had a “very good experience with TikTok” as he awaits the Supreme Court’s decision on a law that could ban the popular video-sharing platform starting Sunday. Trump emphasized the role that TikTok played in boosting his support with young people during the election. “We won young people, and I think that’s a big credit to TikTok, so I’m not opposed to TikTok,” the president-elect said …
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Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) urged state lawmakers to support a new bill that would require parental consent for children looking to create social media accounts during a Monday news conference. “These bills will address the addictive nature of social media, prohibit the generation of [artificial intelligence] child pornography, restrict the use of phones and electronic devices in schools and require parental consent for minors …
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News we've flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics:
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Meta's civil rights advisory group voice concern with content moderation changes
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Meta's civil rights advisory group sent a letter Tuesday to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to voice their "grave concern" over Meta's recent content moderation changes.
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US warns of North Korea crypto hacking threat
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The U.S., in a joint Tuesday statement with Japan and South Korea, said hackers in North Korea stole $659 million in crypto through multiple operations last year, The Verge reports.
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Upcoming news themes and events we're watching:
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The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday at 10 a.m. in a challenge to a Texas law requiring pornography websites to verify users' ages.
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Branch out with other reads on The Hill:
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Senate Democrat plans legislation to delay TikTok ban
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Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said Monday he is planning to introduce legislation to give the Chinese parent company of TikTok more time to sell the app as the ban deadline looms less than a week away. “As the Jan. 19 deadline approaches, TikTok creators and users across the nation are understandably alarmed,” Markey said in a Senate floor speech Monday. “They are uncertain about the future of the platform, their accounts, …
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Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President-elect Trump, went after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a Monday episode of his “Bannon’s War Room” podcast. “Zuckerberg can’t be trusted, at all,” Bannon said on his show, in a clip highlighted by Mediaite. “He came in the Oval Office … when I was there. … I went absolutely bonkers, but he still got to the Oval Office.” “And later, he put up $450 million of his own money to steal the …
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Two key stories on The Hill right now:
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House Republicans passed a bill Tuesday to bar transgender student-athletes from competing in girls’ sports, putting the contentious issue front and … Read more
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Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, the first of President-elect Trump’s Cabinet … Read more
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Opinions related to tech submitted to The Hill:
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You're all caught up. See you tomorrow!
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