The Weekly Report 2025/06/06
Here are my takes on some of the big stories of the week!
This week in The Weekly Report, Trump and Elon Musk’s alliance publicly deteriorated as the two billionaires traded shots online. I’ll talk about that and why, while it is fun to watch, you shouldn’t get too excited just yet. The New York Times reports that Trump has enlisted Palantir to compile data on American citizens. Speaking of mass surveillance, The University Of Michigan has been caught using investigators to tail student protestors. Finally, economists are saying that AI is leading to more unemployment, particularly among recent graduates.
Key Takeaways From The Collapse of Trump And Musk’s Coalition:
Last night, tempers flared, stocks collapsed, and threats were shouted from the rooftops. The inevitable finally happened: Trump and Musk’s partnership appears to have finally collapsed. Who would have guessed that two narcissistic billionaires couldn’t coexist forever? Well….
On Tuesday, Musk referred to Trump’s congressional spending bill as a “massive pork-filled abomination” and continued to attack it throughout the week. On Thursday, though, the feud took an ugly and public turn with Trump floating cutting Musk’s government contracts and Musk declaring that the reason why Trump has not released the Epstein files is because he is in them. Musk also suggested that Trump be impeached and replaced by JD Vance. In essence, America’s two loudest man-children spent Thursday night showing the world how childish they truly are. At the time of writing, the two have not yet scheduled a call and it appears that the situation will not be resolved anytime soon. Unfortunately, I doubt my proposal to resolve this conflict via nationally televised gladiatorial combat will be taken particularly seriously. Oh well, we can always dream.
In all seriousness, I think it’s OK to take a little enjoyment out of watching two horrible people fighting like children. However, we cannot let this fight distract us from the threat that Musk poses to democracy whether or not Trump is at his side. Musk is still: the richest man on Earth, a man with massive amounts of political influence, and someone with a megaphone to project his agenda to the world. If Musk truly is done with Trump, he will no doubt try and exert his influence in other ways. Whether that looks like propping up alternative far-right candidates or following through on his (ridiculous) threat to start a new political party, we can only guess at this point. But we haven’t seen the end of Elon Musk’s reign of terror, and it’s silly to believe that we have.
Some Democrats have taken it a step further and suggested that the left should “embrace” Musk. For instance, Representative (and human avatar of why the Democrats struggle to connect with progressive voters) Ro Khanna floated “courting” Elon Musk to the side of the Democrats. Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York also floated this enemies-to-lovers plan, saying “I’m a believer in redemption, and he is telling the truth about the legislation.”
Hopefully, I don’t have to explain why this is a stunningly bad idea. Have people like Khanna and Torres just forgotten the 437 weeks that happened before Thursday? Have they forgotten about him blatantly flashing a Nazi salute? Or his propping up of far-right foreign parties like the AFD? Oh, how about him picking the pockets of children with cancer whilst enriching himself with government contracts and car ads on the White House lawn? No, Democrats should not embrace Elon Musk or any corrupt billionaire for that matter. It should be out of the question. People are sick of tech oligarchs running their lives and not paying their fair share. In fact, a majority of Americans support taxing the wealthy. Thinking that embracing Elon Musk is a good plan shows that these people are out of touch. And even if Musk is telling the truth about Trump being in the Epstein files, which given Trump’s public friendship with Epstein would not surprise me, this is still not a good look for Elon. If what he’s saying is true, he essentially just admitted to covering up for a pedophile when it was convenient for him and is now suddenly concerned about sexual violence when he feels slighted. This isn’t some morally brave stance, this is a child throwing a temper tantrum.
The Palantir Panopticon:
Early on in the cinematic version of The Return Of The King, the characters acquire a mythical object called the Palantir. In the movie and the books, the Palantir allows one to communicate directly with the dark lord Sauron. Eventually, one of the hobbits by the name of Pippin picks up the Palantir in the dead of night and ends up revealing the whereabouts of him and his friends to Sauron. In the scene, Sauron says to Pippin: “I see you.” And that brings me to the recent New York Times expose about Palantir. Not the fictional object from the Lord of the Rings, but a very real company in Silicon Valley that threatens privacy as we know it.
The New York Times is reporting that Trump has tapped the Peter Thiel-founded data analysis firm Palantir to compile a “master list” of personal information on Americans. Trump has enabled the federal government to share data across agencies. He has also expanded Palantir’s influence in the government. JD Vance being the vice president is proof in and of itself of Thiel’s influence. Vance previously worked at Thiel’s venture capital firm in 2017 and Thiel funded his ascent in politics. Furthermore, DOGE has been collecting data on American citizens, including their social security information. On top of all that, Trump has already ramped up mass surveillance on peaceful protests (more on that in a second) and has unleashed AI surveillance technology on the country (told ya so!).
A system like this being implemented is a recipe for civil rights violations. Briefly putting aside the fact that these systems are often deeply flawed and discriminate against people of color, it’s easy to see a reality where a system like this could be used against critics of the president and groups of people the government does not approve of. And yes, Palantir is not even close to the start of government mass surveillance. But it’s a sign that Trump intends to turbocharge it while he is in office.
University of Michigan Caught Sending “Investigators” To Intimidate Anti-War Student Protestors:
Speaking of mass surveillance, in 1971 after the FBI’s COINTELPRO program was exposed, it was revealed that the government was surveilling activists who were critical of the Vietnam War. America was outraged. Well, it appears that history is repeating itself in Michigan.
Today, the Guardian revealed that the University of Michigan is using undercover investigators to track and surveil pro-Palestine protestors. These operatives have covertly recorded and stalked the demonstrators both on campus and off. In one particularly horrifying incident, one of the investigators drove a car at a student who had to jump out of the way. Another one of these investigators faked a disability and loudly accused a student, who was trying to confront him, of robbery. Broadly, according to video and eyewitness accounts, these people have threatened and cursed at students. These people appear to be employees of a private security firm called City Shield. According to Regent documents, the university has spent at least three million dollars on private security in response to student-led demonstrations on campus.
Now, you may be asking the obvious question: “How does the University of Michigan, which purports to support the First Amendment and the freedom to protest, justify sending goons to threaten peaceful protestors?” In a statement provided to The Guardian, a spokesperson for the university said, “Any security measures in place are solely focused on maintaining a safe and secure campus environment and are never directed at individuals or groups based on their beliefs or affiliations.” As we all know, nothing says safe and secure quite like private security contractors threatening students’ physical well-being. It should also be noted that, according to an analysis from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, ninety-seven percent of Gaza-related campus protests in the U.S. have been peaceful.
No matter what your stance on Israel-Palestine is, it is an extremely concerning sign of the political climate in the United States when dissenting views are being policed this heavily. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to assemble peacefully. Stories like this and the Trump administrations own attacks on protest, show that freedom of speech is under threat. And that should concern everyone, especially Trump’s base which has spent nearly a decade lecturing us about it.
AI Is Coming For Your Entry Level Job:
To give you a peek behind the curtain, I am a student. Furthermore, most of my readers are fellow students. So, with that in mind, here is a news story that directly impacts me and my audience. Unfortunately, it is not a positive one.
According to a report from Oxford Economics, entry-level jobs typically occupied by recent college graduates are being replaced by AI. Researchers at the AI startup Anthropic are warning the same, with Anthropic software engineer Sholto Douglass saying on a podcast that “The current suite of algorithms is sufficient to automate white-collar work provided you have enough of the right kinds of data.” Even executives at LinkedIn are sounding the alarm. The prevailing consensus is that AI will replace entry-level workers graduating from college.
This news comes as the youth unemployment rate in Canada is rapidly climbing. Canadian summer job postings are also down twenty-two percent compared to last year. Is this all the fault of AI? No, but it certainly is not helping. While the workforce is scared that their jobs are being stolen by AI, what about the people trying to enter the workforce? The implications of AI damaging the youth job market are severe. Youths in Canada face massive amounts of housing insecurity, food insecurity, and low mental health. The standard of living that our parents had in the past is often inaccessible to us. Every threat to that, digital or physical, should be taken seriously. And we as students in Canada should be concerned that we may be replaced before we can even get started.
And on that happy note, our time with each other has come to an end. Join me next week for another edition of the Weekly Report.