Teflon Elon, an Endless War, and a Government That Can't Keep the Lights On

Another week. Another set of stories that would each be the defining scandal of any normal political era. 🙃🙃🙃

Here's what you need to know…

⚖️ A Jury Just Found Elon Musk Liable for Defrauding Investors

For a guy who runs the government's efficiency arm and has the president's ear around the clock, Elon Musk just had a very bad Friday in a San Francisco federal courtroom.

A nine-person jury found Musk liable for deliberately driving down Twitter's stock price in the chaotic months leading up to his $44 billion acquisition of the platform in 2022. The jury deliberated for nearly four days before returning its verdict — and they didn't mince words.

Here's what happened: In May 2022, after agreeing to buy Twitter, Musk tweeted that the deal was "temporarily on hold" over concerns about fake accounts and bots. Twitter's stock dropped almost 10% in a single session. Investors who sold during that window — while Musk was publicly casting doubt on the deal — lost real money. The jury found that Musk's tweets were materially false and misleading, and that he knew it.

Attorneys for the shareholders said damages could reach as high as $2.6 billion. To be clear: that's a rounding error for a man worth somewhere north of $650 billion. But the point isn't the dollar amount. As one plaintiff's attorney put it, the verdict sends the message that "just because you're a rich and powerful person, you still have to obey the law."

The jury did stop short of finding that Musk ran a deliberate fraud scheme — his legal team called the outcome "a bump in the road" and promised to appeal. And they'll probably get their chance. Musk beat similar charges from Tesla shareholders in 2023 at the same courthouse.

But here's what's worth sitting with: the guy currently dismantling federal agencies, slashing oversight, and cosplaying as a public servant just got found liable in court for misleading ordinary investors — teachers, nurses, people with 401ks — so he could potentially renegotiate a better deal for himself. That's not some abstract Wall Street dispute. That's a character study.

💣 Week Four of the Iran War: From 'Winding Down' to 'I'll Bomb Your Power Plants'

If you were hoping this week would bring some clarity on where the U.S.-Israel war against Iran is headed, I have bad news.

On Friday, Trump floated the idea of "winding down" military efforts. By Saturday, he was threatening to obliterate Iranian power plants if Tehran doesn't fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. That's the kind of 24-hour whiplash that would be disqualifying for a local city council member, let alone the commander-in-chief of an active war.

The human cost keeps climbing. At least 13 U.S. service members have been killed and more than 230 wounded. A $200 billion Pentagon funding request is sitting at the White House waiting to be signed. And Israeli strikes on Tehran continued this weekend.

The intelligence picture isn't getting prettier either. CIA Director Ratcliffe confirmed this week that Iran has the same amount of enriched uranium today as it did before the strikes began. That detail — which was conspicuously absent from Gabbard's in-person congressional testimony — is a pretty significant data point for a war that was sold, in part, as a counter-proliferation mission.

Congress is starting to get loud about an exit plan, but there isn't one on the table. The diplomatic off-ramp Iran offered through Oman before this started has been ignored. We chose this. And now we're four weeks in with no clear endgame.

🚨 DHS Has Been Shut Down for Over a Month. The TSA Lines Are Getting Long.

The Department of Homeland Security has now been shut down for more than a month. That means TSA agents are staffing airports without pay during spring break travel season — one of the busiest stretches of the year.

The Senate tried again Friday to advance a full-year DHS funding bill and failed. Democrats blocked a procedural vote 47-37. The lone Democrat to vote with Republicans: John Fetterman. Senate Majority Leader Thune has threatened to cancel Easter recess unless a deal gets done.

This is what government dysfunction looks like in real time — not as an abstraction, but as airport security lines staffed by workers who aren't getting paid. If this isn't resolved soon, it stops being a political story and starts being a public safety one.

That's Your Week.

A billionaire found liable in court for deceiving ordinary investors. A war with no exit strategy and a cost that keeps rising. A federal shutdown dragging into week five with no end in sight.

None of this is normal. Don't let the news cycle make it feel that way.

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— Sean | Cup of Culture