The world’s richest man and the US president are at a stage in their relationship where they can’t see each other’s Instagrams. This week, the two traded gnarly personal attacks online after Elon Musk derided President Trump’s tax megabill legislation as a deficit-ballooning “abomination.”

ICYMI: On Thursday, Trump said he was disappointed in Musk, claiming he was only trashing the bill because it axes EV tax credits, which would affect Tesla. Meanwhile, Musk stated that Trump owes the presidency to his backing and accused him of being named in files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Yesterday, Trump asserted that Musk has “lost his mind” and said that he has no interest in talking to the man who was once one of his closest advisors.

In addition to putting the breakup meme machine into overdrive, the spat jeopardizes Musk’s business empire—reflected by the fact that Tesla stock tanked amid the fight. Even after gaining back some ground, it ended yesterday down 8% since the public feud began.

It's not just egos at stake

Amid Musk’s dissing spree, Trump suggested cutting off government subsidies and contracts to his companies. In response, Musk said he’d sunset Space X’s Dragon capsule, NASA’s only option for ferrying astronauts to space (aside from relying on Russia’s services), though he subsequently rescinded the threat.

But it’s not just SpaceX that may suffer. The success of Musk’s companies—which have received at least $38 billion in lifetime government funding, per the Washington Post—largely hinges on being in Uncle Sam’s good graces:

• Investors are worried the fight sets Tesla up for potential regulatory hurdles and shunning from Trump supporters. The EV maker relies on federal subsidies to build charging infrastructure. It also requires government approval for its autonomous car efforts, the backbone of its long-term growth plans.
• Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink needs the FDA to greenlight its products.
• X bonds dropped in value amid the Musk–Trump fight, creating potential fundraising complications for its subsidiary xAI.

The government has something to lose, too…with some analysts saying that it would struggle to replace Space X as a vendor. The company is set to receive $1.1 billion from NASA this year, while its Starlink satellites serve the Pentagon and the government’s rural internet expansion efforts.—SK

Job growth is slowing, but still bigger than expected. US employers added 139,000 jobs last month, government data released yesterday shows—that’s less than the downwardly revised 147,000 new jobs that were added in April, but more than economists had predicted. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate held steady. Overall, the highly anticipated jobs report reflects employers growing more cautious in the face of the economic uncertainty brought on by the trade war, but so far, there doesn’t seem to be a steep dropoff in the labor market. That could give the Fed reason to stay in wait-and-see mode on interest rates, though President Trump still used the occasion to urge Jerome Powell to cut rates “a full point” on Truth Social.

US and China to talk trade in London next week. Representatives for the world’s two biggest economies plan to meet in England on Monday to discuss trade. There will probably be some awkward stares across a tea set since tensions have run high ever since President Trump announced tariffs in April and China retaliated. Talks last month in Geneva resulted in a preliminary tariff truce, but both sides have accused the other of violating it. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will attend the London talks, which President Trump said “should go very well” after he and his Chinese counterpart spoke on the phone this week.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the US to face criminal charges. The Trump administration has brought Abrego Garcia—whose deportation to El Salvador in March became a flashpoint in immigration debates after the government admitted it was wrongful in court—back to the US, where he now faces an indictment accusing him of belonging to a gang and unlawfully transporting illegal aliens for financial gain. Returning him to the US while charging him with federal crimes gives the administration a potential way out of its standoff with the judiciary after the Supreme Court ordered it to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, something the government claimed it couldn’t do because he was in Salvadorian custody.—AR

America’s largest bank just flipped the board game off the table. This week, JPMorgan Chase told its incoming grads that they’ll be let go if they accept future-dated job offers within their first 18 months at the bank (or beforehand), according to a leaked memo reported by the social media account Litquidity.

Why? Private equity now doles out offer letters two years in advance in a summertime bonanza known as “on-cycle recruiting.” During this period, recent graduates who are just starting their bank jobs frequently lock down higher-paying PE gigs for after they complete their investment banking programs.

Wall Street doesn’t like this, but no one is cracking down like JPMorgan:

• On top of the temporary ban on accepting offers, analysts can be fired for missing any summertime job training, JPMorgan said in the memo, referencing how banking newbies have snuck out of onboarding sessions to interview for PE gigs.
• The bank also said it’ll shorten the track to associate from three years to two-and-a-half in an effort to retain talent.

Zoom out: The new rules are an escalation of JPMorgan’s already strict stance against poaching by private equity. It previously told incoming analysts that they had to disclose accepted offers, and in March, CEO Jamie Dimon said it’s “unethical” to work as an analyst while knowing you’re headed to PE soon after.—ML

Startup Builder.ai sought to make creating an app so easy that it’d be “like ordering pizza online.” But despite plenty of dough from big-pocketed investors and a voracious market appetite for all things AI, the company failed to deliver, and filed for bankruptcy this week.

The London-based unicorn pitched clients a simple message: You decide what kind of app you want to build and we’ll use AI to help assemble it “like a Lego set.” It raised more than $450 million from investors, including heavyweights like Microsoft and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. At its height, the company was valued at about $1.5 billion.

What went wrong: The company may have exaggerated…a lot. After initially forecasting $220 million in revenue for 2024, Builder.ai actually only brought in about $50 million, according to Bloomberg. That didn’t sit well with creditors, who opted to pull back their cash, which sent the company into bankruptcy. A Financial Times report suggests the startup was using several methods to inflate sales figures for years and had a slew of unpaid bills (Builder.ai declined to comment).

Putting the artificial in AI: Builder.ai may have also exaggerated its technology claims, with accusations going back to 2019 that real-life Indian engineers—not AI—did the bulk of the work.—BC

You’re going to have to forgive your former theater kid friend for being extra dramatic this weekend, because Broadway has more to celebrate than just the annual Tony Awards. It’s wrapping up a record-breaking season at the box office, bringing in $1.89 billion in ticket sales, The Guardian reports. That’s more than the previous highest-grossing season in 2018–2019 with a $1.82 billion haul.

The strong season comes in part from buzzy performances by movie stars who want you to know the theater is their first love (and who producers want you to pay through the nose to see in person)—from George Clooney in Good Night, and Good Luck to Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal spouting iambic pentameter in Othello. But a host of well-regarded new original shows like Oh, Mary! also helped get tourists and theater snobs alike into the seats. And shows geared toward the younger set even got Gen Z off their phones for the duration of a play: Romeo + Juliet, featuring Rachel Zegler in better-looking costumes than Snow White’s and music by Jack Antonoff sold 14% of its tickets to 18 to 24-year-olds, compared to the industry average of 3%, per the AP.—AR