Elon Musk Joins Trump at Secret $1 Million per Plate Dinner

On Saturday, Donald Trump held a candlelight dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, with tech oligarch Elon Musk in tow, where guests were asked to spend $1 million per seat.

Wired reports that this dinner did not appear on the president’s official schedule, unlike a similar candlelight dinner two weeks earlier where guests were also asked to donate $1 million each. That dinner’s invitation had a “MAGA INC.” header with a note reading “Donald J. Trump is appearing at this event only as a special guest speaker and is not asking for funds or donations.”

The donations for that dinner ostensibly went to Make America Great Again Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Not much is known about Saturday’s dinner, although Instagram reels posted by different guests showed that Musk attended with Shivon Zilis, the mother of four of his 14 known children, and an executive at his company Neuralink. Trump also sat next to Musk at Saturday’s dinner.

Also taking place over the weekend in nearby Palm Beach, Florida, was the Palm Event, an annual motorsports celebration. As a result, several expensive cars appeared at Mar-a-Lago on the night of the dinner, including a Rolls Royce, a Bugatti, and a Lamborghini, among other luxury vehicles. It’s an ostentatious show of wealth for an administration claiming to be reducing fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government.

Trump holding fundraising dinners only two months into his presidency is historically unusual. Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, told Wired that he “can’t recall a sitting president in the first weeks of his administration asking for millions of dollars in fundraising.

“The concern is less about fundraising and more about access and influence. People hoping to get favorable treatment view it in their interest to donate money to Trump,” Moynihan said.

Why wasn’t this dinner on the White House’s schedule? Perhaps Trump didn’t like the attention given to the previous one, or there was something else going on. Mar-a-Lago is the site of many of Trump’s ethically questionable actions, including one-on-one meetings with business leaders who are willing to pay him $5 million for the privilege. Perhaps Trump wants his moneymaking schemes to get as little attention as possible.

Some of the men that Trump illegally deported to a mega prison in El Salvador are regular civilians and not murderous Tren de Aragua gang members as Trump continues to insist. 

On Saturday, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport over 200 Venezuelans on the grounds that they were Tren de Aragua gang members. A federal judge ordered the planes to turn around and return to the United States, but the Trump administration claimed that the judge’s written order came too late, wrongly suggesting that a verbal and written federal order hold different weight.

“These are criminals, many many criminals … murderers, drug dealers at the highest level, drug lords. People from mental institutions. That’s an invasion,” Trump said in reference to the deportees. 

In reality, immigration officials appear to be simply detaining any Latino men with tattoos.  

“The men sent to do hard labor in a Salvadoran prison with no due process include: A tattoo artist seeking asylum who entered legally, a teen who got a tattoo in Dallas because he thought it looked cool, a 26-year-old whose tattoos his wife says are unrelated to a gang,” the American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote on X. 

“Our [Immigrant Defenders Law Center] client fled Venezuela last year & came to US to seek asylum. He has a strong claim. He was detained upon entry because ICE alleged his tattoos are gang related. They are absolutely not,” immigration lawyer Lindsay Toczylowski wrote on Bluesky. “Our client worked in the arts in Venezuela. He is LGBTQ. His tattoos are benign. But ICE submitted photos of his tattoos as evidence he is Tren de Aragua. His @ImmDef attorney planned to present evidence he is not. But never got the chance because our client has been disappeared.” 

Aguilera Agüero, one of the people detained and deported, has a tattoo that reads “Real until death” in Spanish, a line from Puerto Rican reggaeton star and Trump supporter Anuel AA. Agüero’s family denies all ties to Tren de Aragua. 

“People have started identifying some of the 238 Venezuelan migrants deported to Bukele’s torture dungeons by the U.S. fascist regime. The brother of one of them posted that his relative is a barber with no criminal record and no links to any criminal organisations,” another account wrote on X. 

We’re at the point where Trump is proudly ignoring the checks and balance systems to carry out these racist and indiscriminate deportations, forcing innocent men into absolute danger in Bukele’s Salvadoran prison system.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has detained a prominent immigration advocate in Colorado.

Agents stopped Jeanette Vizguerra Monday in the parking lot of a Target where she works. Her daughter told NBC 9NEWS that she is being detained at an ICE facility on Oakland Street in Aurora, Colorado. Her family has not been in communication with her since about 3 p.m. Monday.

“Jeanette Vizguerra is a mother and pillar in her community,” Colorado Senator Michael Bennet posted on X Tuesday. “I am deeply concerned about ICE’s actions to detain her without any due process, like a deportation order. ICE should ensure Jeanette has legal counsel and immediately release her.”

Vizguerra spent years fighting her own deportation. She was charged with a misdemeanor in 2009 for driving without a license, after which authorities discovered she was undocumented and attempted to remove her from the country. But Vizguerra drew national attention for thwarting those efforts by taking refuge in a church, which has historically been considered a “sensitive location” inaccessible by ICE.

She proceeded to reside in the church for three years, and eventually created a network of local churches to house immigrants in similar need, called the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition.

Vizguerra was again scheduled for deportation in 2017 but once more took refuge in a church. She was granted a stay of deportation by the Biden administration in 2021.

The longtime activist arrived from Mexico City without proper documentation in 1997. Since then, she has struggled to find a pathway to citizenship, lacking the paperwork needed to apply for permanent residency.

ICE policy prohibits agents from accessing schools, hospitals, and religious sites such as churches, mosques, and synagogues, as well as public demonstrations and religious ceremonies such as funerals and weddings. But Donald Trump revoked that ordinance mere hours after his inauguration, leaving practically no shelter for immigrants that the Trump administration deems deserving of shoving out.

Trump has based his anti-immigrant rhetoric on the falsehood that the people who have entered the U.S. are murderers and rapists, and that they are a drain on the country’s economy and government resources as unemployed migrants struggle to obtain work and housing. In reality, undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens. And in 2022, approximately 4.5 percent of the workforce was undocumented, contributing to some $75.6 billion in total taxes, according to the American Immigration Council.

Vizguerra, however, saw the writing on the wall.

“Whatever place. I don’t care if it’s a hospital, I don’t care if it’s a school, I don’t care if it’s a church.… I don’t care if some people have 40, 50 years here,” she told CBS News Colorado in January. “Everybody is at risk.”

That has proved truer than ever just two months into Trump’s second term. So far, the administration has deported immigrants of all stripes. It has removed individuals who’ve lived and worked in the country for decades, individuals who are married to U.S. citizens, and individuals in the process of renewing their visas. It has also revoked permanent resident status from people who have dared to speak out against the Trump agenda.

Donald Trump called Tuesday for a federal judge to be impeached, after the president was accused of defying a court order barring his massive deportations.

Trump attacked Judge James Boasberg, who issued a written order Sunday temporarily barring the White House from deporting noncitizens currently in custody. The president had invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of individuals the government claims are Venezuelan gang members without due process.

Boasberg had also verbally ordered that two planes already in the air turn around and come back to the States. The flights instead continued to their destination in El Salvador—potentially marking the first instance that Trump’s White House has openly defied a federal court order.

In an enraged rant on Truth Social, the president escalated his attacks on the federal judiciary by demanding that Boasberg be impeached, and in classic Trump fashion, he also managed to make it about President Barack Obama.

“This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President—He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn’t WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, he didn’t WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING!” Trump wrote.

“I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY. I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do,” Trump wrote. “This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed Monday that the administration had complied with the judge’s order and that there was a difference between a judge’s written and verbal order. She also claimed that she was “not aware” of the president using any language about impeaching judges.

The world’s richest man thinks it’s unfair that people aren’t as interested in his products due to his far-right political views.

Elon Musk took to the social media platform he owns Monday night to vent about his alleged mistreatment.

“My companies make great products that people love and I’ve never physically hurt anyone,” Musk posted. “So why the hate and violence against me?”

But Musk had his own answer in mind.

“Because I am a deadly threat to the woke mind parasite and the humans it controls,” the Sieg heil!–waving billionaire wrote.

Tesla shares continued to tumble on Monday as one of its Chinese competitors, BYD, unveiled a system that could charge electric vehicles for a range of 249 miles in just five minutes.

Tesla comprises the majority of Musk’s net worth—but the carmaker’s ongoing eight-week slump is largely due to a global brand boycott.

Company stock is down by 50 percent so far this year, and analysts have faulted Musk’s reputational shift for the automaker’s financial woes.

Tesla historically attracted a more liberal consumer base with its electric vehicles, but since Musk went “dark MAGA,” that same base has soured on the tech billionaire and his products. That’s proven especially true in some of Europe’s stronger economies, such as Germany, which has seen sales in the country fall by more than 70 percent over the last two months, reported Bloomberg. Sales in China—where Tesla has two major factories—have similarly plummeted, falling by 49 percent in February.

Last week, the automaker’s stock had its worst day since 2020, as its Musk-induced problems coincided with historic market volatility under Donald Trump’s new tariff plans.

Board members, executives, and major investors in Tesla are jumping ship. Four top officers at the company have unloaded more than $100 million in stock since last month, reported ABC News. They include James Murdoch, the estranged son of right-wing media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk, the latter of whom shed $27 million, according to an SEC filing.

Even Tesla bulls are slowing down on the electric car manufacturer. Mizuho Securities managing director and senior analyst Vijay Rakesh cut his firm’s price target for Tesla by $85 per share, according to Barron’s. In a statement, Rakesh pointed to Musk’s polarizing persona and his influence in “geopolitics” as two reasons for the downturn.

“We believe Tesla’s sales woes are the result of a deterioration in geopolitics, brand perception (US/EU), share loss due to stronger competition (China), and softer-than-expected demand for the Model Y refresh,” wrote the analyst.

But despite Musk’s insistence on playing the victim, the multibillionaire still has the president on his side: Defying federal regulations, Trump used the White House last week as a backdrop for what was practically a Tesla commercial.

Several Tesla vehicles were parked in the White House driveway as Trump, joined by Musk and his son, answered reporters’ questions about his sudden affinity for the electric vehicle.

Tech oligarch Elon Musk has extended his influence over the White House even further: His Starlink internet service has been made accessible across the White House campus.

Trump administration officials say Musk donated the service, and that it was vetted by the Office of the White House Counsel’s lawyer handling ethics issues. But according to former White House officials from the Biden administration, tech donations need to go through approval from the chief information officers at the White House and the General Services Administration.

The Starlink system is routed through a White House data center with existing fiber cables miles away from Washington, D.C., unlike normal Starlink setups, which involve rectangular terminals that receive internet signals from SpaceX satellites orbiting arth.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Starlink was set up “to improve Wi-Fi connectivity on the complex.” Other administration staff told The New York Times that some parts of the White House complex could not get cell service, with Wi-Fi networks handling too much traffic at times.

There are a few problems with having the world’s richest man donate internet service to the White House: namely, the numerous conflicts of interest and ethics issues. Musk already collects billions of dollars through his government contracts, and controls Starlink. If White House employees are using the internet service, he could have access to their data. There are also questions as to how secure Starlink’s network is.

Starlink has also been set up at the GSA, an agency used as a base for Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. And it has contracts with many other government agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, usually to provide internet access in remote locations and in emergency situations. The fact that it’s now being used at one of the most important U.S. federal buildings raises questions about whether Musk has an ulterior motive—and what that may be.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency staffers used police and private security to forcefully take over the U.S. Institute of Peace on Monday.

The USIP, an independent nonprofit founded by Congress, had its president, Greg Moose, and its board fired last week by the Trump administration. The Associated Press reported that DOGE workers on Monday had law enforcement escort them into USIP, which is not located in a federal building, after previously being denied access.

“DOGE just came into the building—they’re inside the building—they’re bringing the F.B.I. and brought a bunch of D.C. police,” USIP lawyer Sophia Lin told The New York Times as she and other staff members were forced out of the building.

“What has happened here today is an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit,” Moose told reporters. “It was very clear that there was a desire on the part of the administration to dismantle a lot of what we call foreign assistance, and we are part of that family.”

It’s business as usual from the White House’s perspective.

Due to USIP staff’s noncompliance with Trump’s order, “11 board members were lawfully removed, and remaining board members appointed Kenneth Jackson acting president,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said. “Rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage. The Trump administration will enforce the president’s executive authority and ensure his agencies remain accountable to the American people.”

The privately operated USIP works to maintain U.S. diplomacy abroad, and its staff was doing all they could do to emphasize that before the DOGE break-in. “I can’t imagine how our work could align more perfectly with the goals that he has outlined: keeping us out of foreign wars, resolving conflicts before they drag us into those kinds of conflicts,” Moose noted. Musk seems to disagree. 

The White House co-signed on Israel’s surprise attack on Gaza late Monday. The wave of airstrikes killed more than 400 Palestinians and upended a Donald Trump–backed ceasefire agreement put in place to advance hostage negotiations.

“The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza tonight,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News late Monday.

She then delivered a chilling warning for the countries and organizations that the Trump administration believes are in opposition to the United States.

“And as President Trump has made it clear, Hamas, the Houthis, Iran—all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States of America—will see a price to pay; all hell will break loose,” Leavitt said, celebrating America’s own airstrike campaign in Yemen over the weekend.

Israeli officials had threatened an attack for weeks as it failed to move forward on a potential peace deal with Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to enter phase two of the ceasefire agreement after phase one of the deal lapsed March 1. Phase two would have started agreements to end the war and withdraw the remaining Israeli troops from Gaza before Israeli hostages were handed over. Instead of following through on their own drafted ceasefire terms, Netanyahu proposed a new arrangement: Hand over half the hostages and then discuss the end of the war.

Hamas rejected these terms, and in turn, Israel restricted humanitarian aid and cut electricity into the region in a pressure campaign to get the militant group to bend.

Both Israel and Hamas disagreed over key aspects of an alternative proposal offered by U.S. officials, which would have extended phase one into April. On Saturday, the U.S. accused Hamas of making “entirely impractical” demands of Israel in the ongoing ceasefire discussions. By Sunday, Netanyahu announced that he would be firing his domestic security chief, who had led ceasefire negotiations for most of the war.

The airstrikes are the heaviest attack by Israel since the ceasefire took effect in January. They hit in conjunction with an evacuation order, issued by Israel, for parts of northern and central Gaza near the perimeter of the two countries. The Guardian reported that the order suggested that a ground invasion involving troops could be “imminent.”

Israeli officials have claimed that attacking Hamas leadership would advance the release of hostages, even as the hostages’ families disagree. But on a practical level, the attack follows a period of rest and restocking for Israel.

“Ammunition stocks have been replenished—partly due to U.S. deliveries—and new potential targets among Hamas’ leaders identified. Planes and other equipment have been repaired. Troops have been rested,” reported The Guardian.

And it’s not clear that handing over the hostages would end the violence against Gaza, either. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition has said it intends to continue the war as long as Hamas remains in the war-battered region, reported NPR.

Donald Trump called out two reporters at The Atlantic by name in his latest tirade against media outlets that are willing to report fairly on him.

In what is becoming a more regular occurrence, the president posted yet another meltdown directed at the press on his Truth Social Monday. This time, he targeted specific journalists by name, Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, seemingly over an article they published earlier this month about his dreams of despotism.

The president claimed that the “Third Rate Magazine, ‘The Atlantic,’ that made up the ‘Suckers and Losers’ Hoax about me and the Military, and refused to even acknowledge the vast horde of people who emphatically denied this FAKE STORY,” had requested an interview with him.

Trump included his strongly worded reply, which was a list of smears and grievances.

“Ashley Parker is not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview. She is a Radical Left Lunatic, and has been as terrible as is possible for as long as I have known her,” he wrote. “To this date, she doesn’t even know that I won the Presidency THREE times. If you have some other reporter, let us know, but Ashley is not capable or competent enough to understand the intricacies of High Level politics.

“Likewise, Michael Scherer has never written a fair story about me, only negative, and virtually always LIES,” Trump continued.

“The Atlantic is doing terribly, losing a fortune, and will hopefully fold up and be gone in the not too distant future. It has absolutely no credibility, and would be far better off, in terms of ‘journalism,’ to cease publication,” Trump wrote. “Nevertheless, when you have a writer with intelligence, competence, and fairness, please let me know!”

While it’s not entirely clear what set the president off this time, earlier this month, Parker and Scherer had published a piece titled “Trump’s Own Declaration of Independence” about Trump’s outlandish demand to move the Declaration of Independence into the Oval Office.

This request presented as ridiculous for two main reasons. First, the president seems to eschew all the convictions held within the actual document: that all men are created equal, that power is divined from the consent of the governed, and the crucial rejection of monarchy, supposedly celebrated by the president who jokingly calls himself the “King.”

Secondly, on a purely logistical level, it seemed impossible. The original document, made of animal-skin parchment, is kept in an oxygen-free, argon-filled case behind heavy glass, which retracts into the wall at night and is kept away from bright lights.

But Trump seems intent on redecorating his digs to add as much pomp and circumstance as possible—and it seems he got his way, or at least some facsimile of it: A copy of the Declaration of Independence is currently hanging in the Oval Office, shielded by short blue curtains.

The Trump administration plans to upend and cripple the Social Security claims process, according to a memo obtained by Popular Information.

An internal  Social Security Administration memo, sent on March 13, outlines changes to the agency that would cause processing delays and prevent Americans from applying for as well as receiving benefits, ostensibly to reduce “fraud risks” according to its author, acting Deputy Commissioner Doris Diaz.

The changes include requiring that people seeking benefits provide proof of identity over the internet for benefit claims made over the phone. If someone is “unable to utilize the internet ID proofing, customers will be required to visit a field office to provide in-person identity documentation.”

Right now, Social Security claims and identity verification can be done over the phone thanks to staffers answering calls on its toll-free number. Actual fraud is rare, because people have to provide multiple pieces of personal information, checked against medical records, bank statements, pay stubs, and tax returns, depending on the type of claim. 

Beyond that, if there are any discrepancies, an applicant might have to mail their birth certificate to the agency. This entire process allows people who are elderly or disabled, and thus have difficulty accessing the internet or visiting a physical office, to apply for and collect Social Security benefits. 

Introducing internet verification would be a significant hardship to the 40 percent of Social Security beneficiaries who depend on the phone service. If they can’t use the internet system, they would also have to visit a physical location. Diaz’s own memo estimates that 75,000 to 85,000 people would have to visit Social Security offices under the new policy. 

But even before the Department of Government Efficiency’s massive cuts to the agency, the SSA’s physical offices had an average wait time of more than a month. They don’t accept walk-ins and would not be able to accommodate such a large increase in foot traffic. 

The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, recently announced further cuts of 7,000 employees, or about 12 percent of the agency. Physical offices around the country are being closed, and some people are more than 100 miles away from the nearest location. On top of that, one day before the memo was issued, the agency was reportedly considering ending its phone service altogether due to misguided concerns from DOGE over widespread fraud.

After an outcry over ending the phone service, the SSA denied that it was being eliminated, with this memo appearing to be a workaround. Even still, if these changes go through, many disabled and elderly people will have major difficulties in getting their benefits and may end up losing them altogether. The memo foresees this, stating there will be “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls.” All of that is a euphemism for causing irreparable damage to Social Security.