Trump threatens to sever Musk’s government contracts as stock prices fall

Three decades ago, foreign students at Harvard University accounted for just 11% of the total student body. Today they account for 26%.

Like other prestigious U.S. universities, Harvard has admitted booming numbers of foreign students in recent decades, seeking to recruit the world’s best students.

Yet universities’ race to the top of global rankings has made them vulnerable to a new line of attack. On Wednesday, Trump barred nearly all foreigners from entering the country to attend Harvard. The university challenged that proclamation in a legal filing Thursday.

But the Trump administration’s focus on international students poses a threat to other universities his administration has targeted as hotbeds of liberalism in need of reform. For example, at Columbia University, also a target of federal scrutiny, foreign students make up 40% of the campus.

▶ Read more about the restrictions on international students

The Ivy League school called the ban illegal retaliation for Harvard University’s rejection of White House demands.

Last month, a federal judge blocked the Department of Homeland Security from revoking Harvard’s ability to host foreign students.

The challenge filed Thursday attacks Trump’s legal justification for the action — a federal law allowing him to block a “class of aliens” deemed detrimental to the nation’s interests. Targeting only those who are coming to the U.S. to study at Harvard doesn’t qualify as a “class of aliens,” Harvard said in its filing.

“The President’s actions thus are not undertaken to protect the ‘interests of the United States,’ but instead to pursue a government vendetta against Harvard,” the university wrote.

▶ Read more about the challenge to the ban

Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who served in the first Trump administration as Interior secretary, voiced concern about the Trump-Musk dispute, saying it could imperil the Republicans’ tax and immigration bill.

“I think for some it gives ammunition and cover to vote against the big, beautiful bill,” Zinke said. “It’s unfortunate because you have the richest man in the world versus the most powerful man in the world.”

Zinke said he admired Musk’s work in seeking to cut federal spending. He called both men “good complements.”

He said his concern is shared by other lawmakers.

“I would say the fight of the egos does put the reconciliation bill in greater jeopardy. I think that’s a fair assessment,” Zinke said.

In barely three hours since Trump was asked about Musk criticizing the White House-backed spending bill and told reporters in the Oval Office that he was “very disappointed in Musk,” the two have been furiously posting on social media — intensifying an increasingly nasty spat.

Musk immediately responded on X to Trump’s original comments and unleashed a parade of subsequent posts there — with Trump firing back almost as frequently on his own social media site.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump wrote. Musk eventually alleged, without offering evidence, that Trump was “in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.”

The insults continued to fly fast and furious through the afternoon and into the evening — eventually expanding to Musk’s SpaceX, which the president suggested could see its government contracts menaced.

Johnson was visiting with Trump at the White House as the feud with Musk was escalating in real time. He had not been scheduled to meet with the president but was touring the White House with visiting guests and families.

Later, back at the Capitol, cradling the infant of one of his guests, Johnson said he had texted with Musk.

“This isn’t personal. Policy differences shouldn’t be personal,” Johnson said.

White House aides were closely following the drama playing out on dueling platforms Thursday with bemusement, sharing the latest twists and turns from the feud between their boss and former co-worker, as well as the social media reaction and memes.

Officials in the extremely online administration privately expressed the belief that like the other digital scuffles that have defined Trump’s political career, this would also work out in his favor.

Musk says that, in response to Trump threatening to cancel his company’s government contracts, he will immediately begin decommissioning the SpaceX Dragon — which was used to bring two stranded NASA astronauts back to earth.

Trump spent weeks crowing about how SpaceX brought back astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore in March, after their planned short mission to the International Space Station was extended unexpectedly. Trump blamed the Biden administration for not returning the astronauts and hailed Musk for bringing them back to Earth.

Musk nonetheless posted on X on Thursday that SpaceX “will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”

It wasn’t clear from his post, however, how serious he was amid an increasingly nasty — and highly public — feud between Trump and Musk continues.

The president took a break from furiously posting about his former billionaire adviser to host a roundtable to honor law enforcement.

“We’re backing the men in blue and we’re backing the blue very honestly,” he said.

At least in his opening remarks, Trump said nothing about Musk.

Shares of Musk’s electric vehicle company plunged more than 14%, knocking about $150 billion off Tesla’s market valuation. The shares started dropping right as Trump launched into his criticism of his former adviser.

Tesla investors have soured on Musk’s relationship with Trump after initially welcoming it right after the election. The shares tanked earlier this year as Musk’s association with DOGE damaged the car company’s brand. Shares rallied when he promised in April to focus more on Tesla.

Now, Wall Street is worried about Trump’s hitting back at Musk through Tesla.

“Trump is tit for tat. If Musk tries to mess up Trump’s bill, Trump won’t be Mr. Nice Guy” when it comes to self-driving cars, which Musk acknowledges are a key to Tesla’s future, said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.

The material on Epstein that has already been released includes mentions of Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew and magician David Copperfield, as well as testimony from one victim who said she met Michael Jackson at Epstein’s Florida home but nothing untoward happened with him.

The previously released files included a 2016 deposition in which an accuser recounted spending several hours with Epstein at Trump’s Atlantic City casino but didn’t say if she actually met Trump and did not accuse him of any wrongdoing. Trump has also said that he once thought Epstein was a “terrific guy” but that they later had a falling out.

Musk’s latest claim about Trump’s ties to Epstein taps into suspicions among conspiracy theorists and online sleuths that incriminating and sensitive files in the government’s possession have yet to be released.

Attorney General Pam Bondi fueled that speculation in February when she hyped the release of records by the department related to the case. Much of what was then distributed has for years been in the public domain.

Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released through lawsuits, Epstein’s criminal dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Elon Musk has posted without evidence that President Donald Trump is mentioned in still-secret Justice Department files related to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein and he suggests that’s why the records have not been released.

Musk provided no support for the claim on his social media platform X, but it came amid a spectacular and public disintegration of his once-close relationship with Trump.

The Trump administration is slapping sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court over the tribunal’s investigation into alleged war crimes by Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and in the West Bank.

The State Department said Thursday that it would freeze any assets that the ICC judges, who come from Benin, Peru, Slovenia and Uganda, have in U.S. jurisdictions. The move is just the latest step that the administration has taken to punish the ICC and its officials for investigations undertaken against Israel and the United States.

“As ICC judges, these four individuals have actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

▶ Read more about the sanctions

The chancellor told reporters after his meeting with the U.S. president that the lunch was very nice and Trump “was very interested in Germany, his home country, and that I invited him to visit.”

Merz, speaking in German, described Trump as “somebody with whom I share the same level.” He said he was “extraordinarily happy with the visit” and that the two leaders “get along well on the personal level.”

“Today we laid a very good foundation,” Merz said, adding that he is very much looking forward to more talks with Trump at the upcoming G7 and NATO summits.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink has discounted reports of a $1 billion estimate for updating a Qatari plane to meet the security requirements needed for Air Force One.

Under questioning Thursday from Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., Meink said some costs associated with retrofitting the plane would have been spent anyway as the Air Force moves to build the long-delayed new aircraft for use by the president. Such costs would include buying aircraft for training and to have spares available, if needed.

The actual retrofitting of the Qatar plane, Meink said, could be done for less than $400 million, but he provided no details.

Courtney said based on the contract costs for the planes that the Air Force is building, it will cost about $1 billion to strip down the Qatar plane, install encrypted communications, harden its defenses and make other required upgrades.

House Armed Services Committee chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Alabama, also warned Meink that “Congress is going to decide what we do and don’t spend.”

Shares of Musk’s electric vehicle maker Tesla fell nearly 10% Thursday, their latest notable move since the election.

The shares started dropping right as Trump launched into his criticism of his former adviser.

Tesla shares doubled in the weeks after Trump was elected, hitting an all-time high on Dec. 17. They gave back those gains and more during Musk’s time at DOGE.

In April, Musk vowed to focus much more on Tesla and its upcoming launch of driverless taxis in Texas. That pleased investors and the stock rallied until late last week when Musk ramped up his criticism of Trump’s tax bill.

Hey, Cody. Thanks for your question. Citing national security concerns, Trump banned citizens of 12 countries, primarily in Africa and the Middle East, from entering the United States and restricted access for citizens of seven other nations, resurrecting and expanding a hallmark policy of his first term.

AP’s Monika Pronczuk did a breakdown of the announcement and some key things to know. Here’s some of her reporting:

Since returning to the White House, Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him.

The travel ban results from a Jan. 20 executive order Trump issued requiring the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on “hostile attitudes” toward the U.S.The aim is to “protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes,” the administration said.

In a video released on social media, Trump tied the new ban to a terror attack Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the dangers posed by some visitors who overstay visas. The suspect in the attack is from Egypt, a country that is not on Trump’s restricted list. The Department of Homeland Security says he overstayed a tourist visa.

Chad President Mahamat Deby Itno announced his country will respond to Trump’s visa ban by suspending visas to U.S. citizens “in accordance with the principles of reciprocity.”

The Trump administration had said in its new policy that the high visa overstay rate for Chadians in the U.S. “indicates a blatant disregard for United States immigration laws.”

In a post on Facebook, President Deby suggested his government is reciprocating the visa ban to protect the dignity of Chad, an oil-exporting country of nearly 18 million people.

“Chad has no planes to offer, no billions of dollars to give but Chad has his dignity and pride,” Deby said.

Immigrants rights groups filed the case Thursday in Washington, D.C., federal court.

They argue that the Trump administration’s agreement to house detainees in El Salvador’s notorious prison is unconstitutional.

The administration has sent hundreds of migrants to the Central American state, arguing that they are now outside the reach of federal courts and no longer have constitutionally-guaranteed protections. That’s led to an escalating series of clashes with judges who have ordered the administration to return people improperly removed from the country.

Trump has suggested sending U.S. citizen criminals to the prison someday.

Most U.S. allies at NATO endorse President Donald Trump’s demand that they invest 5% of gross domestic product on their defense needs and are ready to ramp up security spending even more, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Thursday.

“There’s broad support,” Rutte told reporters after chairing a meeting of NATO defense ministers at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters. “We are really close,” he said, and added that he has “total confidence that we will get there” by the next NATO summit in three weeks.

European allies and Canada have already been investing heavily in their armed forces, as well as on weapons and ammunition, since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

▶ Read more aboutNATO defense investment

Musk basically said Trump has him to thank for being back in the Oval Office.

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” the billionaire said in his latest social media post.

Musk spent at least $250 million supporting Trump in the presidential campaign.

“Such ingratitude,” he wrote in a follow-up post.

The Department of Justice has launched an investigation into Rhode Island hiring practices, alleging the state may have violated the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against candidates “based on race or any other protected characteristics.”

The DOJ alerted Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha of the investigation through a letter sent on Wednesday.

“Our investigation is based on information that Rhode Island may be engaged in employment practices regarding its affirmative action program governing state government employment under state law that discriminate based on race, national origin, or other protected characteristics in violation of Title VII,” the letter stated, referencing the section of law that protects employees and job applicants.

Neronha’s office said the letter was being reviewed and “the subjects and focus of their investigation are unclear.”

An email was sent to the DOJ on Thursday.

The letter included a link to state of Rhode Island’s Division of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion website that stated its commitment to affirmative action and guidelines on how to implement that plan.

Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the civil rights division of the Justice Department, said no conclusions have been made. “We intend to consider all relevant information, and we welcome your assistance in helping to identify what that might be.”

Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief, a global Christian humanitarian organization, said Trump’s travel ban on 12 countries and restrictions on seven others is “the latest assault on legal immigration processes.”

Greene, said in a statement that the process has always been difficult for most people in those countries to obtain visas but the order restricts the entry even of those who meet strict qualifications and undergo thorough vetting.

Greene urged the administration to reconsider the restrictions and pursue policies that “scrutinize individuals” for security “without banning entire nationalities from lawfully visiting or emigrating to the United States.”

World Relief also opposed a similar ban enacted during Trump’s first term.

Trump claimed that six months to a year ago, military recruitment numbers “were record low” and attributed a recent uptick to “spirit” and a renewed love for the U.S.

But recruitment numbers for all military branches have been on the rise for the last few years, according to Defense Department data.

Military enlistment was 12.5% higher in fiscal year 2024, which ran from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024, than in fiscal year 2023. There were 225,000 new recruits in the former and 200,000 in the latter, said Katie Helland, who oversees recruitment policies and programs as the Defense Department’s director of Military Accession Policy, at a media roundtable in October.

Those totals include both active and reserve troops in all five military branches, as well as about 4,800 Navy recruits from fiscal year 2024 who signed contracts, but could not be shipped out due to basic training limitations.

And the recruiting numbers for the current fiscal year 2025, which started the month before Trump’s election, have continued to increase.

The session touched on many topics unrelated to the business between the United States and Germany.

Trump spoke at length about his disappointment in Elon Musk for criticizing the president’s “one, big beautiful” tax cut and spending bill. The Republican president also spread unproven theories that people other than his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, used an automatic pen to sign official documents.

All that talk largely kept Merz out of Trump’s line of fire, something some foreign leaders who visited before Merz were unable to achieve.

The billionaire responded swiftly to the president’s criticism on X, his social media platform.

“Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill,” Musk wrote. “Slim and beautiful is the way.”

He said it was “very unfair” that electric vehicle incentives were being cut while fossil fuel subsidies are left intact.

Musk also rejected Trump’s statement that he was aware of what the legislation would look like.

“False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”

Asked about a sanctions measure put forth by top Senate ally Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Trump said, “At the right time, I’ll do what I want to do.”

Over the weekend, Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal traveled to Kyiv and met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. They’ve co-sponsored a measure that would impose strict tariffs on Moscow.

Blumenthal called the sanctions proposed in legislation “bone-crushing” and said it would place Russia’s economy “on a trade island.”

The German chancellor told Trump “we are looking for more pressure on Russia” to end its war on Ukraine.

Trump so far has seemed reluctant to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin despite Trump saying “I want to see the killing stopped.”

Calling the war a “bloodbath,” Trump made that suggestion, likening intervention to trying to pull apart fighting children, “maybe you’re going to have to keep fighting.”

“You see it in hockey, you see it in sports,” Trump said. “Let them go for a couple of seconds.”

But Trump acknowledged “it’s probably not going to be pretty.”

The federal judge ruled Thursday the administration must restore hundreds of millions of dollars in AmeriCorps grant funding and thousands of service workers in about two dozen states.

U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman granted a temporary block on the agency’s cancellation of grants and early discharge of corps members, but only for the states that sued the administration in April.

The federal lawsuit, filed by Democratic state officials across the country, accused Trump’s cost-cutting efforts through the Department of Government Efficiency of reneging on grants funded through the AmeriCorps State and National program, which was budgeted $557 million in congressionally approved funding this year.

The 30-year-old agency oversees several programs that dispatch hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of people to serve in communities across the country.

▶ Read more about AmeriCorps grant funding

Trump has used the buzzy phrase to diagnose his critics, and now he’s referenced it to describe Musk.

Amid comments decrying his top DOGE lieutenant and major backer who has now levied critique over the Trump-backed spending bill, Trump suggested Musk is suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and that he’s “disappointed” in the billionaire’s recent statements.

“I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot,” the president said in the Oval Office as Musk continues criticizing the “big beautiful bill.”

Trump said Musk “misses the place” since he left his position in the administration spearheading the Department of Government of Efficiency.

He also said Musk was upset that electric vehicle incentives were on the chopping block in Republican legislation that’s currently being debated in the Senate. Musk runs Tesla, an electric automaker.

Another point of contention was Musk’s promotion of Jared Isaacman to run NASA.

“I didn’t think it was appropriate,” Trump said, and he said Isaacman was “totally a Democrat.”

Trump said, “we want to have foreign students come,” though he signed an executive order Wednesday night to block nearly all such students from coming to study at Harvard.

It’s part of the Republican president’s ongoing fight with the Ivy League school.

Trump’s order cites national security as a reason to block Harvard from continuing to host foreign students on its campus in Massachusetts.

Trump has again decried former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to sign pardons and other documents.

In the Oval Office, Trump called the usage “very dangerous” and “inappropriate,” saying he can tell “easily” when an autopen is being used.

On Wednesday, Trump directed his administration to investigate Biden’s actions as president, casting doubts on the legitimacy of his use of the autopen to sign pardons and other documents.

In a statement, Biden has called any suggestion that he didn’t make such decisions “ridiculous and false.”

Following his discussion with Xi earlier Thursday, Trump told reporters he thinks the U.S. is “in very good shape with China and the trade deal,” but he didn’t offer any specifics.

He said the U.S. has a deal with China but is sending a team for more trade talks to “make sure that everybody understands what the deal is.”

Trump said he and first lady Melania Trump will accept Xi’s invitation to visit “at a certain point.”

Trump says Merz is “a very good man to deal with” and a great representative of Germany.

But he went on to say that he’s also “difficult,” suggesting it as a compliment.

“You wouldn’t want me to say that you’re easy,” Trump said, turning to Merz, who smiled.

Asked about his travel ban proposal as he and Merz sat in the Oval Office, Trump said “it can’t come soon enough.”

Turning to Merz, Trump said, “It’s not your fault.” Of migration under Merz’s predecessor, former Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump added: “I told her it shouldn’t have happened.”

Merz is the current leader of Merkel’s party but has diverged from her in several ways, notably including cutting irregular migration as one of his focuses.

Ronald Reagan was in office during Merz’s last visit to the Oval Office, he said.

“I’m very happy to be here again and offer our close cooperation with the United States of America,” he told Trump.

Merz said Germans “owe the Americans a lot” and “we will never forget about that.”

The chancellor also noted Trump’s German background and said it’s was a “good basis” for consultation. Trump’s grandfather was born in Germany.

The German leader met with the president in the Oval Office and presented him with a gilded gift — a framed copy of Trump’s grandfather’s birth certificate.

Trump’s grandfather Friedrich Trump immigrated to America from Germany.

The birth certificate was in a gold frame, reflecting Trump’s favorite hue which he’s used to ornament his White House office.

A U.S. military Honor Guard lined the driveway entrance as the chancellor arrived, shaking hands with Trump and walking inside.

Asked by reporters to delineate a message to the people of Germany, Trump responded, “We love the people of Germany,” following up by saying his call with Xi earlier in the day “went very well.”

Merz is meeting Trump in Washington as he works to keep the U.S. on board with Western support for Ukraine, help defuse trade tensions that pose a risk to Europe’s biggest economy and further bolster his country’s long-criticized military spending.

Trump and Merz are slated to have lunch following a meeting in the Oval Office.

In turn, Trump expressed “sincere thanks,” according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua. However, no state visit is confirmed.

In his post, Trump said he “reciprocated” the invitation. “As Presidents of two Great Nations, this is something that we both look forward to doing,” Trump wrote.

Trump, during his first term, visited China in 2017. Trump earlier in 2017 hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago.

There was no state visit by either Chinese or U.S. leader to each other’s country during the Biden administration, but the two leaders met in 2023 when the U.S. was hosting the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, a grouping of 21 economies.