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  2. June 2025

June 2025

Musk used X to boost Trump. Now he’s wielding it against him.

For almost a year, Elon Musk marshaled the full force of X, his $45 billion social media platform, to boost Donald Trump’s political fortunes and second presidency. As he two men publicly fought in a flurry of furious online posts, Musk revealed X to be a double-edged sword. Musk spent hours firing off mocking memes, curt put-downs and explosive allegations to his 220 million followers, just as he did during Trump’s candidacy and as a member of his administration.

What the Trump-Musk breakup may mean for SpaceX

"If I cared about subsidies," Elon Musk said in 2015, "I would have entered the oil and gas industry." Yet the history of Musk's business empire tells another story. Musk's companies have long been fueled by taxpayer money, whether in the form of massive government contracts, low-interest loans, tax breaks and other support that helped make Musk one of the world's richest people. Over the past two decades, firms run by Musk have received tens of billions of dollars in federal bac

Weekly Digest

The Opportunities and Challenges of AI in Our Communications Networks

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Friday, June 6, 2025

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Cruz Releases Budget Reconciliation Text

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) unveiled his legislative directives for Senate Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill. The Commerce Committee’s reconciliation language will reduce deficits by more than $40 billion over a decade, rescind more than $1.4 billion in wasteful spending, revitalize the American economy, improve the nation’s transportation infrastructure, strengthen national security, and bolster domestic innovation and manufacturing.

Chairmen Guthrie and Hudson Ask President Trump to Remove Biden-era BEAD Regulations and Expedite Funds to Deploy Rural Broadband

House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY-02) and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Richard Hudson (R-NC-09) sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging the administration to quickly remove burdensome regulations that have stopped the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program from connecting any American to reliable broadband. “To address these issues, we introduced the Streamlining Program Efficiency and Expanding Deployment (SPEED) for BEAD Act, which outlines necessary reforms to BEAD.

Western Governors' Association Letter to Commerce Secretary Lutnick

New Mexico Gov Michelle Lujan Grisham and Utah Gov Spencer Cox, Chair and Vice Chair of the Western Governors' Association, wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to express concerns about disruptions to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. The governors expressed concern that significant required changes to BEAD plans could cause delays of up to a year.

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