The Navigator, Saturday, June 7, 2025

Trump v. Musk, clone surge, CEO turnovers, Curtis Yarvin, ChatGPT propaganda, Gen Z's dance dodge, Rick Steves sounds off—and more

Illustration by New Rules Media

This week, we’ve been reflecting on how President Trump’s attacks on the nation’s social, political, economic, legal and democracy-driven norms have been escalating in both tenor and tenacity. Trump is continuing to ramp up his aggressive rhetoric and attacks on many of America’s federal agencies and private institutions. But lately, he’s been getting a lot of pushback—from the courts, philanthropic foundations, private universities, blue (and red) lawmakers, citizen groups and administrative agency heads.

Who’s winning? Not Trump, not yet, on a growing number of challenges.

Just last week:

• The Trump-Musk bromance ended. The two had gone from happily using each other for mutual financial gain to openly slagging each other off in public, taking to their respective social media platforms, X and Truth Social, to go ‘scorched-earth’ on each other. How far might Elon Musk go to try defeating the big Trump budget bill that he and several other Republicans (and now nonpartisan watchdogs) say will add too much to the federal debt? How far will Trump go to keep Musk from pulling away support for Trump’s Megabill, which if passed by the House and Senate, would be his crowning legislative achievement? Trump has already tried to get Musk to back off by threatening to cancel his SpaceX and Tesla government contracts. Trump’s opponents, meanwhile, keep hoping the feud between the two men will continue, if only to further weaken congressional support for Trump’s bill and cut the size of MAGA’s political war chest.

• Harvard is continuing to fight Trump’s demand to oversee the university’s faculty hiring and curricula. On Friday, a judge put a temporary hold on Trump’s latest effort to force compliance: a proclamation banning new foreign students from entering the U.S. to attend Harvard. Intending now to diminish Harvard’s primary income from tuition fees, Trump has already pulled billions of dollars in federal research funds from the institution, threatened Harvard’s federal tax-exempt status and probed its acceptance of foreign donations. Harvard, a private institution, said last week it will continue to mount legal challenges against Trump’s efforts to override its independence and “meddle in faculty hiring decisions and curricula.”

• The Trump administration is now scrambling to rehire many federal employees it fired and to restore some of the key government services earlier wiped out or imperiled by Musk’s DOGE, such as national weather forecasting, some air traffic control operations and federal drug safety oversight. According to The Washington Post Friday, Trump officials, who are now blaming Musk and DOGE for mistakenly firing too many people, are trying to recover many of them, along with thousands of experienced senior staffers who have opted for a voluntary exit.

• Fed Chair Jay Powell refused yet another order by Trump to lower interest rates, which Trump has been seeking, in part, to blunt the negative impact of his administration’s tariff and trade policies on consumer prices. Powell, meeting with Trump at the White House, said that only the Fed will set monetary policy, as required by law, “to support maximum employment and stable prices.” He also told Trump the Fed “will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective and non-political analysis.” The Supreme Court recently reaffirmed Powell’s independence and legal protections. Powell can’t be fired by Trump, as the Fed is an independent agency.

At New Rules Media, we’re not just watching the trends. We’re helping you to parse them and prepare for what’s next. When the world’s top-rated, 388-year-old, private university comes under attack by the White House—and basic public health services are getting cut, critical federal agencies are being hollowed out quickly and America’s economic stability is now being threatened by a proposed budget that would raise the nation’s debt by $2.4 trillion— it’s worth paying attention.

How are you navigating the ongoing uncertainty over the impact of Trump’s executive orders, his 1,116-page budget Megabill and funding cutbacks? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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The Super Bowl of Internet Beefs (The Atlantic)

Nobody wins in the Trump-Musk breakup.

International student interest in U.S. falls to pandemic-era low (ICEF Monitor)

Early search data reveals a “collapse” of student interest in the U.S. between January and April of this year. Not only are fewer students searching for U.S. programs overall. America is also losing market share to competitors like the U.K. and Australia.

The Clones are Here (The Atlantic Out Loud)

By now, nearly 60 different species and subspecies have been cloned, including fruit flies, fish, frogs, ferrets, French bulldogs, and monkeys—a feat long thought to be nearly impossible. What’s next?

Why can’t young people dance more in public? (The Monocle)

Gen Z is reluctant to shake it loose on a dance floor. Should we give them a break?

MRNA, used in Covid shots, may help rid the body of H.I.V. (The New York Times)

The technology that powered Covid vaccines may also lead scientists to an H.I.V cure. Will Trump’s proposed federal budget cuts hamper progress?

CEO turnover is breaking records this year (Forbes)

It’s also exposing deeper shifts in organizational leadership.

Curtis Yarvin’s Plot Against America (The New Yorker)

The reactionary blogger’s call for a monarch to rule the country once seemed like a joke. Now the right is ready to bend the knee.

The Price of Wartime Ambivalence (The Atlantic)

Andrey Kurkov’s detective novels argue that people living under oppressive regimes can remain neutral for only so long before they must make a moral choice, providing timely lessons.

Is Official U.S. Economic Data Getting Less Reliable? (Investopedia)

Trump’s federal hiring freeze is forcing the Bureau of Labor Statistics to cut back on collecting consumer price and inflation data, raising concerns among economists that key data on inflation and other important measures of the economy will become less accurate because of Trump's policies.

Rick Steves, America’s favorite travel writer, sounds off on rising fascism at home and abroad (Vanity Fair)

In a wide-ranging interview, Steves talks about Trump’s assault on public media and the disturbing historical echoes of the current administration: “Every time I read the news, I think, Well, that’s exactly what Hitler did, or that’s exactly what Mussolini did.”

Overcrowding and lack of food are threatening the lives of those sent to ICE detention centers (NPR)

ICE detentions have surged but deportations have lagged, creating overcrowded facilities lacking food and medicine.

Boston Dynamics’ Robot Dog Is Even Weirder Than Expected (WIRED)

For less than the cost of a round of drinks, the plasticized and somewhat terrifying—and ‘Peeing’— robotic canine hits the market for kids (and adults).

Open AI takes down covert operations tied to China and other countries (NPR)

Chinese propagandists are using ChatGPT to write posts and comments on social media sites, and also to create performance reviews detailing that work for their bosses, according to Open AI’s latest threat report.

House Republicans are Shocked to Learn that a Bill They Didn’t Read has Stuff in it They Don’t Like (Vanity Fair)

Regrets, they’ve got a few.

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