Six months ago, Goldman Sachs analysts sounded the alarm with a “cautious view” on Government IT & Services, as Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) strike teams began slashing bloated federal contracts. Now, with billions of dollars in cancellations piling up, especially across consulting programs, those same analysts are continuing their bearish stance, warning that pain for government contractors is not over. 

A team of Goldman analyst led by Noah Poponak stated that the DOGE website now shows “41 new contract changes with $1.2bn in reported savings across our coverage,” adding, “Of the 41 changes, 26 of them are from the Department of Defense (DoD), accounting for ~$1.1bn (90%) of the new reported savings.” 

Those savings materialized between the June and July updates on DOGE’s website. Savings include:

• CACI International: $700mn in savings were reported for the revised portion of a large Enterprise IT as a Service contract. The contract’s FPDS page indicates there was $0 of action obligation remaining for the contract, but it is unclear if the remaining value was canceled or only a portion of a ceiling was changed, given this was a $5.7bn / 10 year program that started in 2022.

• Booz Allen Hamilton: 21 additional BAH contracts totaling $216mn in reported savings were logged over the last month

Across Goldman’s Government IT & Services and Defense coverage, these are the latest DOGE impacts on a company-by-company basis:

DOGE impact so far on a federal agency basis:

Canceled Contracts (with a value greater than $0) by federal agency:

In early July, Poponak pointed out that DOGE’s contract cancellations at DoD were beginning to ramp up.

Deep Staters On Edge As DOGE’s DoD Strike Team Hits Pentagon With Sweeping Contract Cuts https://t.co/7u6nYbHyLQ

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 9, 2025

The good news for DOGE’s mission is that some of its spending cuts are now being codified into law. However, both Trump and GOP lawmakers have been surprisingly slow to accelerate and sign off on these measures. While Trump did sign a rescissions bill last week targeting funding for USAID, NPR, and PBS, the pace must go into high gear. Without a more aggressive push to dismantle the bloated federal bureaucracy, it risks consuming this administration from within.

Authored by Steve Cortes via RealClearPolitics,

January 6 has become a date of hallowed pagan sacredness to the ruling class – a supposed talisman marking chaos, a shorthand for “threats to democracy.” But the media, predictably, has focused on the wrong January. And the wrong threat.

Because the real January 6 – the one that changed everything – wasn’t in 2021. It happened four years earlier, in 2017. Not at the Capitol, but rather in a glass-walled conference room on the 26th floor of Trump Tower.

That morning, President-elect Donald J. Trump received a classified briefing from top intelligence officials – a routine, transitional step for any incoming commander in chief.

But what he got wasn’t intelligence. It was a malicious setup, a trap.

FBI Director James Comey entered the room alone and handed Trump the political equivalent of a political grenade: the now-debunked Steele dossier. A document so flimsy, partisan, and salacious, it wouldn’t pass editorial review at Mother Jones, let alone FBI verification. And yet, veracity wasn’t the point.

The objective wasn’t to actually inform the incoming president, but instead, Comey arrived at the behest of President Obama and CIA Director Brennan with two missions. First, he sought to bait Trump into some sort of dubious false confession. Second, once the briefing was made, the even bigger trap was set.

How?

Because once the FBI told Trump about the dossier – even informally, even off the record – that fact became the news hook, it became the poisoned seed to grow the entire Russian collusion hoax. The contents of the briefing were leaked to legacy, Trump-hating media, likely by Brennan himself.

Within hours, BuzzFeed and CNN were live. The chyron wrote itself: “President-elect Trump briefed on Russian kompromat.” Boom. Mission accomplished. The fuse was lit.

These actions weren’t national security protections of legitimate law enforcement operations. Instead, Obama and his top security officials engaged in secret information warfare – waged not by foreign actors but by our very own intelligence community. 

Comey’s maneuver gave the press permission to launder partisan opposition research into a years-long national scandal that had the veneer of respectability because of the alleged imprimatur of the U.S. intelligence community. Even though they all knew that the story was false, from Hillary Clinton to James Clapper, in these propaganda ops, truth is not the coin of the realm. What matters is what can be effectively sold to the compliant media and a divided electorate, regardless of the absurdity of the allegations.

The story did not need to be verified, only mentioned to Trump. Then media charlatans like Jake Tapper and Joe Scarborough took their effective marching orders.

Let’s call this plot what it was: a soft coup in slow motion. A preemptive strike against a duly elected president.

For all the talk about “resistance,” this scheme wasn’t legitimate political opposition. It was preemption … and a crime.

Permanent Washington was not about to try to wait for Trump to fail. Instead, they conspired to ensure he would never get the chance to succeed. Before he signed a single order. Before he picked his cabinet. Before he took the oath of office.

January 6, 2021, made for dramatic images of chaos in Washington. While the violence vs. the police that day will always be inexcusable, the affront to our republic did not unfold on that cold January day on the Mall, but rather four years earlier, as the White House concocted a hoax, using the full powers of a weaponized federal government.

The January 6, 2017, plot does not lend itself to compelling images, but it was nonetheless a wicked, coordinated institutional betrayal carried out by insiders who simply refused to accept the will of the American people in the 2016 election.

They feared Trump not because he was reckless, but because he was serious. Serious about pulling back the curtain. Serious about cutting off the Beltway lifelines. Serious about cleaning house.

And for the permanent class – that’s the real threat. Not tweets. Not tone. But independence. So they acted. Quietly. Strategically. And with the full knowledge that the supplicant media would play its part.

What followed was years of sabotage dressed as journalism. Leaks. Investigations. Impeachments. Perjury traps. All seeded from that original sin – the January 6 meeting that gave the Steele dossier a phony legitimacy.

If the goal was to erode trust in American institutions, it worked. The public watched as once-respected agencies turned into tools of narrative warfare. They saw a sitting president hunted for crimes that didn’t exist – while his accusers were lionized for their lies.

So yes – let’s talk about January 6.

But let’s talk about the one that set the whole thing in motion. The day unelected elites turned a routine briefing into a headline ambush. The day narrative replaced truth as the driving principle of the federal bureaucracy. The day the media, intelligence community, and political class all quietly agreed: Elections only matter when the “correct” side wins.

That’s the real January 6 … and we’re still living in its aftermath.

Steve Cortes is president of the League of American Workers, a populist right pro-laborer advocacy group, and senior political advisor to Catholic Vote. He is a former senior advisor to President Trump and JD Vance, and a former commentator for Fox News and CNN.

When he’s not bankrolling lawsuits against President Donald Trump, defending his connections to Jeffrey Epstein, or funding hoaxes against Republican candidates, Reid Hoffman is coming to grips with the fact that the millions he’s dumped into the Democratic Party might not have been his smartest investment.

Hoffman, who founded the corporate cringe machine Linkedin, recently appeared on Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale’s podcast, American Optimist, where he waxed poetic from everything to the future of artificial intelligence from his unhappiness with politics.

“I regret this and wish it didn’t happen, but I think the Democratic Party really did alienate a section of Silicon Valley and the tech people,” Hoffman told Lonsdale. “Whether it was attacks on crypto or attacks on Big Tech.”

Reid Hoffman to @JTLonsdale: Democrats Alienated Part of Silicon Valley With Attacks on Crypto, Diversity Push

“I regret this and wish it didn’t happen, but I think the Democratic Party really did alienate a section of Silicon Valley and the tech people. Whether it was attacks… pic.twitter.com/xQRw6p6yin

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) July 28, 2025

“One of these things Silicon Valley shares is this deep view that the way you make massive progress for humanity is creating scale technologies, and the principal way of creating scale technologies is companies,” the leftwing billionaire added. “If you’re attacking that and limiting it, then you have all kinds of problems.”

Hoffman then tried to play the both-sides card, decrying supposed extremists on both the left and right spectrum, but, in a surprising moment of self-reflection, called out the Democrats on prioritizing racist diversity, equality, and inclusion efforts over technological progress.

“You’ve got crazy people on both sides.  [ZH: oh?] You have crazy people saying, ‘No, no, no, no, we shouldn’t allow any technological progress until you have exact proportionate of races and genders and everything else.’ And it’s like, no, no, no, no, progress and technology—it’s fundamental,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman reportedly visited Epstein’s private island, Little St. James, in 2014 for MIT fundraising with Joi Ito, the then-MIT Media Lab director, despite Epstein’s 2008 conviction as a sex offender, and was scheduled to stay at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse that year. The billionaire later expressed regret for these associations.

Hoffman also funded E. Jean Carroll’s defamation and battery lawsuit against President Donald Trump through his nonprofit, American Future Republic, raising concerns about political motivations in the judicial process.

In the 2017 Alabama Senate election, Hoffman funded American Engagement Technologies (AET) which provided funds that were used for “Project Birmingham” a disinformation campaign that created fake Facebook pages to discourage Republican voters from supporting Judge Roy Moore for the U.S. Senate, for which he later apologized, claiming ignorance of the tactics.

Authored by Yeny Sora Robles via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. State Department issued a statement on July 27 reaffirming that the United States remains steadfast in its support for the restoration of democracy and justice in Venezuela, one year after the election that saw leader Nicolás Maduro remain at the helm.

“One year since dictator Nicolás Maduro defied the will of the Venezuelan people by baselessly declaring himself the winner, the United States remains firm in its unwavering support to Venezuela’s restoration of democratic order and justice,” the statement reads.

The foreign policy agency, headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, declared that Maduro is the leader of the narco-terrorist organization Cartel de Los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), responsible for drug trafficking to the United States and Europe.

“Maduro, currently indicted by our nation, has corrupted Venezuelan institutions to facilitate the cartel’s criminal drug trafficking scheme to the United States,” added the statement.

It also accused Maduro and his group of manipulating the Venezuelan electoral system “for years” to stay in power.

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Cartel of the Suns as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” organization on July 25 and noted that the criminal group is led by Maduro and other senior Venezuelan officials in his government.

According to the OFAC, Maduro and high-ranking officials in his government have “corrupted the institutions of government in Venezuela, including parts of the military, intelligence apparatus, legislature, and the judiciary, to assist the cartel’s endeavors of trafficking narcotics into the United States.”

It noted that the cartel’s name is derived from the sun figures that often appear on the uniforms of Venezuelan military officers.

The Treasury office also noted that the Cartel of the Suns has been providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations, such as the Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel that provide “material support to foreign terrorist organizations threatening the peace and security of the United States.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement that this action “further exposes the illegitimate Maduro regime’s facilitation of narco-terrorism through terrorist groups like Cartel de los Soles.”

“The Treasury Department will continue to execute on President Trump’s pledge to put America First by cracking down on violent organizations including Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, and their facilitators, like Cartel de los Soles,” he added.

The Tren de Aragua (TdA) emerged in 2013 within the prison system of the Venezuelan state of Aragua and grew stronger through alliances with small local gangs in key areas of the country during long periods of impunity under Maduro’s watch.

Since 2018, the TdA has spread across the continent and expanded its activities to include crimes of extortion, drug trafficking, human trafficking, sexual exploitation of women and children, and money laundering. In recent years, it has taken advantage of the massive emigration of Venezuelans fleeing the difficult situation in their country.

According to the OFAC, the Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest and most powerful cartels. For years, it has been responsible for trafficking lethal drugs such as fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, and other illicit drugs to the United States and has been involved in widespread violence.

“The Cartel de los Soles supports Tren de Aragua in carrying out its objective of using the flood of illegal narcotics as a weapon against the United States. Additionally, the Cartel de los Soles has provided support to the Sinaloa Cartel,” OFAC stated.

By FreightWaves

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern today announced an $85 billion deal to tie their networks together and create the first U.S. transcontinental railroad.

The merged company — which will be called Union Pacific — will transform the U.S. supply chain and economy, strengthen domestic manufacturing, and preserve all union jobs, the railroads said.

UP will acquire NS in a stock and cash transaction that values NS at $320 per share, a 25% premium. The combined company would have an enterprise value of more than $250 billion. The railroads said the merger would create $2.75 billion in annual synergies within three years, through a combination of $1.75 billion in revenue growth and $1 billion in cost savings.

“Railroads have been an integral part of building America since the Industrial Revolution, and this transaction is the next step in advancing the industry,” UP Chief Executive Jim Vena said. “Imagine seamlessly hauling steel from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Colton, Calif., and moving tomato paste from Heron, Calif., to Fremont, Ohio. Lumber from the Pacific Northwest, plastics from the Gulf Coast, copper from Arizona and Utah, and soda ash from Wyoming. Right now, tens of thousands of railroaders are moving almost everything we use. You name it, and at some point, the railroad hauled it.”

The combined company will deliver faster, more comprehensive freight service to U.S. shippers by eliminating interchange delays, opening new routes, expanding intermodal services, and reducing distance and transit time on key rail corridors, the railroads said.  The merged Union will shift freight to rail, reducing congestion and wear and tear on taxpayer funded highways, they added.

“Norfolk Southern, like Union Pacific, is a railroad integral to the U.S. economy, with a storied 200-year legacy of serving customers across 22 states in the eastern half of the nation,” NS CEO Mark George said in a statement. “Our safety, network, and financial performance is among the best we’ve had as a company, as is our customer satisfaction. And it is from this position of strength that we embark on this transformational combination. We are confident that the power of Norfolk Southern’s franchise, diversified solutions, high-quality customers and partners, as well as skilled employees, will contribute meaningfully to America’s first transcontinental railroad, and to igniting rail’s ability to deliver for the whole American economy today and into the future. Union Pacific is a true partner that shares our belief in rail’s ability to deliver for all stakeholders simultaneously, and we are excited for our future together.”

Vena, who will be CEO of the combined railroad, invoked President Abraham Lincoln, who created the Union Pacific in 1862 with the signing of The Pacific Railroad Act.

“This combination is transformational, enhancing the best freight transportation system in the world – it’s a win for the American economy, it’s a win for our customers, and it’s a win for our people,” Vena said. “It builds on President Abraham Lincoln’s vision of a transcontinental railroad from nearly 165 years ago and advances our Safety, Service and Operational Excellence Strategy. I am confident this historic transaction will enhance competition to benefit customers, communities, and employees while delivering shareholder value.”

Creating the transcontinental version of Union Pacific is overwhelmingly in the public interest, the railroads said, and will enhance competition, consistent with the test that will be applied in the review of the transaction by the Surface Transportation Board.

The companies expect to file their application with the STB within six months, in which the companies will describe how the combined rail network will provide safer, faster, and more reliable service and increased competition. A pre-filing notification of intent to file an application could come as soon as Wednesday, and is the first official step in the merger evaluation timeline.

Eastern carrier CSX, which has been reported as a possible merger partner with Fort Worth-based BNSF, had no comment. BNSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment from FreightWaves.

“The intermodal freight supply chain thrives when it offers a competitive alternative to long-haul trucking,” said Anne Reinke, president and chief executive of the Intermodal Association of North America, in an email statement to FreightWaves. “It succeeds where there are strong efficiencies, a focus on growth, and a commitment to customer service. As this merger moves forward, we will be looking for these core values to be reinforced.”
The board of directors of both Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern unanimously approved the transaction, which is subject to STB review and approval within its statutory timeline, customary closing conditions, and shareholder approval.

The companies are targeting closing the transaction by early 2027. The deal includes a $2.5 billion reverse termination fee.

They do not plan to use a voting trust, a common maneuver in prior rail mergers that allows the shareholders of the target railroad to cash out while the deal is under regulatory review. The STB rejected a voting trust in Canadian National’s ill-fated attempt to acquire Kansas City Southern under the board’s tougher 2001 merger review rules.

The combined company will be headquartered in Omaha, Neb., which has long been UP’s home base. The NS headquarters in Atlanta will remain a core location over the long-term, with a focus on technology, operations, and innovation, among other priorities, the railroads said.

North Korea is demanding that the United States recognize it as a permanent nuclear power, according to the latest words of Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a senior official in the country’s ruling Workers Party.

She was commenting Tuesday through the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on the possibility of renewing diplomatic talks with Washington, and laid out that any future negotiations must begin with a clear acknowledgment of North Korea’s “irreversible” status as a nuclear-armed state.

In essence she vowed to never give up nukes, amid the long-running South Korean and US-backed push for nuclear disarmament on the peninsula. 

Kim warned further that attempts to deny this new reality “will be completely rejected” and stressed the country remains resolute and ready to defend itself in any situation.

Any future talks must be premised on the fact that Pyongyang’s capabilities and the geopolitical environment had “radically changed”. This new reality must be the basis for “everything in the future,” she said. 

“Any attempt to deny the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state, which was established along with the existence of a powerful nuclear deterrent and fixed by the supreme law reflecting the unanimous will of all the DPRK people, will be thoroughly rejected,” Kim said.

“The DPRK is open to any option in defending its present national position,” she added. It is by “no means beneficial” for the US and North Korea to be in confrontation, so the Trump administration should “seek another way of contact on the basis of such new thinking.”

Much of this messaging appeared a response and reaction to recent regional reporting that President Trump aims to achieve a “fully denuclearized” North Korea. She also addressed the several warm, and unprecedented, visits between Kim Jong-Un and Trump during the US leader’s first term:

Kim also said that while the relationship between her brother and US President Donald Trump was “not bad”, any attempt to use their personal relations to advance denuclearization would be interpreted as a “mockery”.

“If the US fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK-US meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the US side,” she said.

Between 2018 and 2019, Trump met with Kim Jong-un no less than three times, but which resulted in no firm lasting agreement related to denuclearization and the economic incentives reportedly offered. Instead relations were arguably improved slightly, at least in terms of opening up the possibility of further dialogue.

Pyongyang fears that the moment it gave up its nuclear arsenal, it could be subject to a regime change war – akin to what has happened with Iraq, Libya, Syria, or Iran. This fear is obviously not irrational, given recent history of countries which were persuaded to give up WMD programs.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued the Kremlin’s response to President Trump’s Monday announcement from Scotland that he’s reducing a deadline for Russia to agree a peace settlement from 50 days to 10 or 12 days, citing ‘disappointment’ in Putin not ending or at least winding down the war.

Medvedev, who serves as the current deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, wrote on X that the US President was playing “the ultimatum game” with Moscow, which we should note is of course nuclear-armed, and that each new threat like this is a “step towards war”.

Medvedev warned: “Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran” and thus that “Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with (Trump’s) own country.”

America’s own loudmouth hawk later in the day Monday responded with his own challenge pushing back. Here’s what the senator from South Carolina said on X:

“To those in Russia who believe that President Trump is not serious about ending the bloodbath between Russia and Ukraine: You and your customers will soon be sadly mistaken. You will also soon see that Joe Biden is no longer president,” Lindsey Graham said, adding: “Get to the peace table.”

Medvedev then responded to this on X, telling “gramps” to instead get busy working on America First. “Negotiations will end when all the objectives of our military operation have been achieved. Work on America first, gramps!” he said.

Trump’s new deadline means that he could impose fresh sanctions by somewhere in early August: possibly Aug. 7-9, as opposed to what was initially the 50-day window which would have ended on September 2.

How Russia’s RT presented the whole back-and-forth:

‘GRAMPS’ Lindsey Graham tries to dictate peace

Ex-Prez Medvedev tells him to SIT DOWN

‘Not for you or Trump to DICTATE when to ‘get to the peace table’

‘Work on America first’ https://t.co/8HHtxX211I pic.twitter.com/MUOJJYalCn

— RT (@RT_com) July 28, 2025

Naturally, Zelensky is hailing Trump’s tougher new timeline and ultimatum. “Everyone needs peace – Ukraine, Europe, the United States, and responsible leaders across the globe,” Zelensky said on Telegram. “Everyone except Russia.”

In follow-up, on Tuesday he commented on deadly overnight Russian attacks which included at least two two Iskander-M ballistic missiles along with 37 Shahed-type strike drones and as well as decoys.

Bilenkivska Correctional Facility was among locations struck, resulting in at least 17 dead and the hospitalization of over 40 inmates.

Zelensky announced that 22 people were killed in total in these latest Russian attacks on dozens of on cities, towns and villages. As if appealing directly for Trump to do more, he emphasized, “These were conscious, deliberate strikes – not accidental.”

A Russian airstrike on a prison in southeastern Ukraine overnight killed 17 inmates and wounded dozens of others, Kyiv said on Tuesday, after Washington pressured Russia to end its invasion. https://t.co/mgDfQ2f1Ii pic.twitter.com/xvOgL9MzHb

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 29, 2025

Still, Ukraine is having its own problems after controversial Zelensky action seen as eroding corruption oversight in the country. The EU is poised to cut off funding. An EU official told European Pravda that Brussels has indeed issued a clear warning: “Yes, the EU has warned Kyiv. If the law is not passed, loans financed through revenues from frozen Russian assets under the ERA program will stop – we will simply stop disbursing them. Funding from the EBRD and EIB will also be suspended,” the official stated in reference to key oversight offices which were gutted by Zelensky.

As previously reported in what appeared to be a leak by the South China Morning Post, moments ago US and Chinese negotiators have concluded their latest round of trade talks in Stockholm with an agreement to extend their tariff truce, Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang told reporters, without giving details of the extension.

#China and U.S. agree to extend #tariff truce after two day talks in Sweden as expected. @USTradeRep @SecScottBessent

China, U.S. to continue pushing for continued extension of pause on 24 pct of reciprocal tariffs of U.S. side, as well as counter measures of Chinese side, says…

— Eunice Yoon (@onlyyoontv) July 29, 2025

Talks were candid and in-depth, he said Tuesday, and both sides will continue close communication going forward. The meetings followed previous rounds between the world’s two biggest economies in Geneva in May and in London in June

China’s top trade negotiator says at close of talks that the two sides “will continue to push for the continued extension of the pause” in tariffs. Notably, he doesn’t say the extension has been agreed to yet

Without extension, US tariffs on China ratchet back to 145% on Aug. 12

— Megan Cassella (@mmcassella) July 29, 2025

Without extension, US tariffs on China ratchet back to 145% on Aug. 12

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) says nearly $200 billion has been saved since it was established under the Trump administration earlier this year.

According to DOGE’s website, its activities have led to an estimated $199 billion in savings so far, roughly $1,232 per person, according to an update issued on Saturday and reviewed by The Epoch Times.

DOGE said 12,426 federal contracts have been terminated, worth about $53 billion, while 15,488 grants totaling $44 billion have been canceled so far.

About $140 million was saved through 384 federal lease terminations, according to the DOGE website.

DOGE wrote in a July 26 X post that agencies terminated 141 “wasteful contracts” that have an estimated “ceiling value” of $5.1 billion, saving $498 million.

That included a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contract for a health security advisory in Senegal and a $1.4 million Department of Health and Human Services contract for professional services in Rwanda, DOGE said.

In late May, tech billionaire Elon Musk said he was leaving the federal government, citing the end of his 130-day mandate as a special government employee under the Trump administration.

Musk, who had helped DOGE with efforts to eliminate fraud and waste within the federal government, later criticized President Donald Trump and other Republicans who backed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Trump and Musk then became entangled in a public feud over the bill before the Tesla chief executive said he would create his own political party to challenge the Democratic–Republican political paradigm.

Trump referred to Musk in a social media post last week, saying he wants businesses in the United States to thrive.

“Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so!” Trump said in a Truth Social post on July 24.

“I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before! The better they do, the better the USA does, and that’s good for all of us. We are setting records every day, and I want to keep it that way!”

Responding to Trump, Musk on July 24 wrote that he disagrees with Trump’s statement on subsidies.

“The ’subsidies’ he’s talking about simply do not exist,” Musk said on X. “SpaceX won the NASA contracts by doing a better job for less money. Moving those contracts to other aerospace companies would leave astronauts stranded and taxpayers on the hook for twice as much!”

Previously, Trump signaled in a Truth Social post that he would have DOGE evaluate federal subsidies that Musk’s companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, have received.

“DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible?” Trump told reporters earlier this month amid their spat.

“He gets a lot of subsidies. Elon’s very upset that the EV mandate is going to be terminated.”

In June, Musk said that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill” and a “disgusting abomination.”

The measure eventually passed in the House and Senate before Trump signed it into law earlier in July.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday pushed back on reports saying he’s looking for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but strangely conceded it’s possible he could visit China at Xi’s invitation, which Trump confirmed had been extended.

“I may go to China, but it would only be at the invitation of President Xi, which has been extended. Otherwise, no interest!,” Trump said on Truth Social.

He had introed the remarks by stating, “The Fake News is reporting that I am SEEKING a ‘Summit’ with President Xi of China. This is not correct, I am not SEEKING anything!“

Bilateral talks among US and Chinese high-ranking delegations hosted in Stockholm this week could result in an extended tariff truce. The US side is headed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and there’s been ample speculation this could lead to an eventual meeting with Trump and Xi later this year. But amid the anticipation, speculation, and bilateral trade dialogue, Trump clearly desires to keep the upper-hand by claiming he’s not actively seeking a Xi meeting.

“We have a good relationship with China,” Trump had reiterated Monday as the third round of talks were poised to ensue. “China’s tough.” According to commentary from Rabobank:

Yesterday, China and the US also sent trade representatives to Stockholm to discuss extending the present tariff truce. While neither Scott Bessent of the US nor He Lifeng of China spoke to reporters after yesterday’s chat, conversations are expected to resume this morning. Bessent has said that “trade is in a very good place with China.”

China starting in April had reportedly laid out a set of preconditions for resuming trade talks with President Trump and his administration, as Bloomberg reported at the time, citing an insider source:

• Demand for Respect: China wants a more respectful tone from the U.S., particularly reducing disparaging remarks from U.S. cabinet members. Beijing was especially angered by Vice President JD Vance’s recent “Chinese peasants” comment. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman called Vance’s remarks “ignorant and disrespectful.”

• Unified U.S. Messaging: Chinese officials are confused by conflicting signals from Washington. While Trump’s tone on Chinese President Xi Jinping has been moderate, hawkish comments from other high-ranking White House officials have conflicted. Without a clear and consistent U.S. position, China sees little value in engagement.

• Point Person: Beijing wants the Trump administration to designate a point person to oversee trade talks. 

Early last month Trump had said something similar to his Monday “China’s tough” remarks, describing President Xi as “extremely hard” to make a deal with, which had come a mere days after the president accused Beijing of violating an agreement to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions. 

Meanwhile, in related news…

Trump’s reported snub of Taiwan president spurs concerns over deference to China https://t.co/nRiEHy8vfA

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 29, 2025

“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!,” Trump wrote on June 4. We could say that both will probably be very tough with each other, and time will tell in terms of an end result.