Musk Unleashes Online Army on Federal Workers. ‘A Tough Way to Find Out She’s Losing Her Job.’
As Trump efficiency czar, the billionaire is targeting employees by name on X—sparking pushback
As co-director of President-elect Donald Trump’s nascent Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk has wasted no time posting to his 205 million followers about specific government departments he views as bloated.
But this week, Musk has escalated from targeting government agencies to singling out individuals—sparking his online army of followers to launch blistering critiques of ordinary federal employees.
One recent post by the billionaire zeroed in on Ashley Thomas, a little-known director of climate diversification at the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., after another user on Musk’s social-media platform X questioned her role.
Musk’s repost—“So many fake jobs”—garnered 32 million views, triggering an avalanche of memes and ridicule from his followers against the employee, such as, “Sorry Ashley Thomas Gravy Train is Over.”
Earlier this month, in a move heralded by many of his supporters, Trump tapped Musk and biotech-company founder Vivek Ramaswamy to spearhead DOGE—sharing its name with a Musk-promoted cryptocurrency—to slash spending, regulations, and restructure federal agencies.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday, the two men envisioned “mass head-count reductions” across the federal bureaucracy. On Wednesday, Musk shared on X a past TV interview with Milton Friedman in which the economist recommended the elimination of a number of federal agencies, including the departments of education, commerce, agriculture and housing and urban development. “Milton Friedman was the best,” Musk said in apparent agreement.
Ramaswamy in interviews has offered an unusually blunt—and likely impossible to implement—strategy for how to slash the federal workforce: firing those whose Social Security numbers start or end with odd numbers. “Boom. That’s a 75 percent reduction done,” he said on a podcast interview this fall.
Both leaders have since called out numerous instances of alleged government waste on X, soliciting public recommendations for budget cuts.
This week, Musk resumed his controversial practice of calling out individuals—a tactic going back to X’s previous incarnation as Twitter.
In 2021, Musk took aim Mary “Missy” Cummings, a Duke University engineering professor who was appointed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as a top adviser, and had been critical of Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance system.
After taking over Twitter in 2022, Musk targeted Yoel Roth, the platform’s former head of trust and safety, who had recently left. Musk tweeted, incorrectly, that it looked like Roth had argued “in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services.” Some of the platform’s users interpreted it as Musk calling Roth a pedophile, and they posted calls for Roth’s death. Roth moved out of his house temporarily because of threats, the Journal reported at the time.
Musk’s targets this week included Alexis Pelosi, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s relative and a senior climate adviser at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
But that post also included the names of two obscure federal officials with climate-related jobs—including one who had actually left her job at the Energy Department in August.
“These tactics are aimed at sowing terror and fear at federal employees,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 800,000 of the 2.3 million civilian federal employees. “It’s intended to make them fearful that they will become afraid to speak up.”
Kelley said Musk is going after the wrong target if he focuses only on federal employees. Kelley said far more is spent by federal contractors such as himself — $750 billion annually compared with about $200 billion for the civilian workforce, one third of which are veterans as he is.
“We are a comparative steal, and we want to help clean it up too,” said Kelley, a former Army sergeant. “The people I represent have been called names like deep state, but they are working people just like you and I.”
The 37-year-old Thomas, the target of Musk’s viral repost, works for a federal agency that partners with private companies to finance ways to improve living standards in developing countries.
With engineering, business and water science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Oxford, Thomas spent years doing field work in Africa and writing research papers such as one on a technology that can help extract water from air in arid countries, according to her past tweets.
She eventually went to work as the agency’s director of climate diversification in 2023, when federal personnel records show she earned $172,075 a year.
An agency official said the climate diversification portfolio is highly technical and is focused on identifying innovations that serve U.S. strategic interests, including bolstering agriculture and infrastructure against extreme weather events.
Thomas previously had served stints in various small companies and nonprofits, some of which do work in the developing world, according to her online resume.
How does a routine federal employee come to the attention of Musk, the world’s richest man?
The controversy erupted when “datahazard,” an X user whose anti-Biden posts have drawn Musk’s attention, questioned Thomas’s job on Tuesday to nearly 170,000 followers.
Musk’s repost sparked a barrage of taunts, with his followers making jeers such as, “A tough way for Ashley Thomas to find out she’s losing her job.”
Michael Skolnik, a longtime civil rights activist, was among those who fired back at the post. “You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about and dangerously targeting a person who works an honest job to provide for their family.”
A representative of the “datahazard” X account, who didn’t give a name, said it was legitimate to give names of employees like Thomas because she is on a list of senior officials who are public figures. “Taxpayers have a fundamental right to know who runs our government,” this person said via a direct message on X.
LinkedIn and Facebook pages for Thomas, who lives in the Seattle area, were no longer live as of Wednesday.
Tax rises drive surge in venture capital trust investment
Savers have put £250mn in VCTs since April, up 27% in a year
Retail investors are ploughing money into small British companies as they seek out tax-efficient products in the wake of Labour’s general election win and the biggest tax rise in the postwar era.
Savers sank £250.1mn into venture capital trusts (VCTs) from the start of the tax year to mid-November — a 26.6 per cent increase on the previous year according to figures from Wealth Club, an investment service.
In last month’s Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves raised the tax burden to its highest level since the 1950s, announced that pensions would no longer be exempt from inheritance tax and raised capital gains tax.
“Generally, as tax rules get tighter on pensions, the money has to find a home somewhere else and often it goes into VCTs,” said Alex Davies, chief executive of Wealth Club.
The VCT scheme, extended this year until 2035, allows individuals to invest in early-stage businesses via actively managed VCT funds.
Investors are rewarded with income tax relief of up to 30 per cent on up to £200,000 a year — provided they purchase shares at issue and hold them for at least five years. Dividends and capital gains are tax-free.
VCTs have previously backed household names such as the property platform Zoopla and the UK arm of the Five Guys burger chain.
On Friday, investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown launched a new online VCT investment service, citing the government’s extension of the scheme and tax changes announced at the Budget, which included raising capital gains tax from 20 per cent to 24 per cent for higher earners.
Hargreaves’ service will debut with a group of five VCTs managed by Calculus Capital, Octopus Investments and Blackfinch Ventures. Clients will pay a £50 dealing charge to apply for the VCT service and a subsequent £50 fee to trade. Hargreaves will not take commissions or charge platform fees.
Emma Wall, head of platform investments, said the government had provided “assurances” it would retain the structure and tax efficiency of VCTs.
Venture capital trusts offer the prospect of higher returns than other assets, but come with greater risk and low liquidity.
Paul Stewart, financial planner at Finura, said savers should use up their Isa and pension allowances before considering riskier VCTs.
“The big advantage [of VCTs] is the upfront 30 per cent tax relief,” he said. “Where it becomes important is for higher earners who because of the pensions taper have their annual allowance reduced. By the time you’re earning £360,000, your allowance is reduced to £10,000.”
Investors must be willing to “tie up capital for five years” to benefit from tax breaks, noted Katherine Waller, co-founder of wealth manager Six Degrees, which advises wealthy individuals and entrepreneurs.
“By investing in a VCT, you’re effectively investing in a portfolio,” added Richard Stone, chief executive of the Association of Investment Companies. “You’re spreading that risk across a range of businesses and you hope that the handful of winners beats the handful of losses. But by the nature of it being high risk, some of those businesses fail.”
Waller tells her clients that VCTs “shouldn’t ever form more than 10 per cent of the value of their estate because of the illiquidity and the level of risk”.
Inflows to VCTs hit an all-time high in 2021, surpassing £1bn for two consecutive years before falling to £882mn in 2023.
“From 2010 onwards, we saw a huge uptick in the VCT market,” said Davies. “And then [in the 2023/24 tax year] the rules on pension allowances were tweaked slightly, so that higher earners could put more into their pensions than previously. As a result there was less money in VCTs.”
The drop in VCT funding followed a wider slowdown in private markets that was driven by an economic downturn and high interest rates.
“It feels like we’re turning a corner now,” said Davies.
There were 50 VCTs totalling £6.3bn in assets under management as of the end of October, according to the AIC.
Forty-three of these invested largely in unquoted companies and managed £5.6bn. The remainder invested in companies quoted on Aim, London’s junior stock exchange for small-cap stocks.
Designer Thom Browne did not infringe Adidas trademarks, court rules
High Court judge says consumers can distinguish between three and four stripes
Luxury brand Thom Browne did not infringe Adidas’s trademarks by printing four stripes on its clothing, a judge at the High Court in London has ruled.
The German sportswear group faced off against the New York design brand earlier this year in the latest round of a long-running global legal dispute over intellectual property.
Thom Browne, known for tight-fitting grey men’s suits that are sometimes accompanied with shorts, and whose garments feature a four-stripe design, sued Adidas in an effort to invalidate its trademarks.
Adidas, which is famous for its three-stripe logo, countersued claiming that the US designer had violated its intellectual property.
In a ruling made public on Friday, Mrs Justice Joanna Smith said a consumer “paying a moderate degree of attention will generally perceive the difference between three stripes and four”.
She said: “If he or she were to be given six seconds . . . then I have no doubt that he or she would have no difficulty whatever in perceiving that difference.”
The court found a handful of Adidas trademarks covering items including tracksuit bottoms and a bag were invalid.
She also found that irrespective of whether the trademarks were valid or not, Thom Browne had not infringed them.
Brand founder Thom Browne, 59, had sported his signature suit — with shorts — when he attended the legal proceedings in July. A clothing rack had been set up with about 20 garments for the judge to examine.
Adidas has also taken legal action to protect its intellectual property in other jurisdictions. It launched proceedings against Thom Browne in 2021 in the US and a New York jury found in favour of Thom Browne last year.
In a statement following the release of the ruling on Friday, the eponymous designer — who is regarded as one of the most influential designers of the past two decades — said “David has prevailed over Goliath”.
Browne, whose garments have been sported by stars including basketball player LeBron James, added: “I see this as a triumph for designers around the world.”
Adidas said it would “carefully review the findings and determine our next steps”. It said it was pleased the court “upheld key aspects of our trademark protection, specifically ruling that the 3-Stripes mark has a strong reputation and is distinctive of Adidas products”.
It added: “Despite certain elements of the decision, Adidas continues to maintain strong trademark protection for our 3-Stripes mark in the UK and globally.”
Thom Browne, which was launched in 2001 in a small shop in Manhattan’s West Village, originally adopted a three-bar motif on its garments but said it had agreed to add a fourth bar after Adidas made a complaint in 2007.
The company is now a part of the Italian family-controlled Ermenegildo Zegna group.
Unilever will slim down but not spin off food business, says chief
Hein Schumacher to press ahead with IPO of ice-cream unit as part of turnaround plan for FTSE 100 consumer group
Unilever will slim down but not spin off its food division, its chief executive has said, as the London-listed consumer goods group presses ahead with the listing of its ice-cream unit.
Hein Schumacher, who has launched a turnaround plan for the FTSE 100 group, has identified several food brands to “prune”, amounting to about £1bn in sales revenue, he told the Financial Times. Unilever’s food business generated €13.2bn turnover in 2023, of which the largest brands, Knorr and Hellmann’s, accounted for 60 per cent.
“I believe in fewer, bigger, better . . . and that is what we choose to execute on,” he said in an interview ahead of the company’s capital markets day on Friday.
Since taking over as CEO last year, Schumacher has pushed through a rapid and wide-ranging restructure, including the separation of Unilever’s ice-cream division, a cost-cutting drive and hefty job losses.
His comments come as the mayonnaise-to-soap consumer group shelved plans to find a private equity buyer for its ice-cream business — which includes Ben & Jerry’s, with which it is entangled in a legal spat over Unilever’s alleged silencing of the brand’s support for Palestinian refugees.
Schumacher’s pledge not to demerge the food business — whose other brands include Colman’s, Pot Noodle and Marmite — brings clarity to Unilever. A separation and sale of the division was previously explored as a way to fund the acquisition of GSK’s consumer health business but the pharmaceutical group rejected Unilever’s £50bn bid in 2022.
The Dutch chief executive, who joined Unilever from dairy co-operative Royal FrieslandCampina, said he was in the process of deciding where to list the ice-cream business and said he would announce details in the first half of next year. Schumacher added that he had “left the door open” to offers.
“We’re talking to governments, to authorities, but also to stock exchanges, the banks, etc” Schumacher said of the planned initial public offering. “We’re gathering all the facts to make the right call for that business.”
Unilever unveiled a new set of strategic priorities on Friday, including focusing investment in its best-performing emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and Brazil, accelerating growth of its premium brands in the US and taking its high-margin beauty and wellbeing businesses international.
The company also reiterated its medium-term target for mid-single-digit sales growth and volume growth of 2 per cent. The company expects to achieve €800mn in cost savings by the end of next year.
After more than half a decade of lacklustre performance at the company, Schumacher has implemented a “growth action plan” — known internally as “the gap” — which has been well received by investors. The company’s share price has risen 21 per cent this year.
Top-15 shareholder Nick Train said he was impressed by the company’s new management, which he said had “a clear agenda and incentive to create value for shareholders”. He added that while the ice-cream unit was a “fine business”, he saw the logic in the spin-off.
“That is the world number one ice-cream company with the world’s leading brands, and objectively, it’s the sort of asset we might be interested in investing in anyway,” Train said.
At the capital markets day, Schumacher also announced a new company tagline — “Brighten everyday life for all” — a departure from the previous mission statement set out by former CEO Paul Polman, “to make sustainable living commonplace”.
Unilever has drawn criticism from its non-profit partners since it scaled back some of its ESG targets. But Schumacher told the FT the company’s spending on sustainability had increased year-on-year, although he declined to give an exact figure.
“I want to be careful that if I call out the number, that people say, oh, they’re spending so much on sustainability,” he said, pointing out that much of the spend is going towards compliance with regulation.
“I’m not going to look back and be apologetic about changes we made. I’m going to be on the front foot and hold people accountable,” he added.
No, BYD is not taking over NIO as fake rumors claim
A rumor spreading like wildfire on social media claims BYD will be taking over NIO (NYSE: NIO) as the EV giant gobbles up market share in China. The rumor was posted by a suspected BYD employee, but NIO is denying the claim.
BYD acquiring NIO would be a massive move as China’s leading EV maker continues to dominate the market. But that’s not going to happen.
According to CnEVPost, NIO’s assistant vice president for branding and communications, Ma Lin, denied the rumors that BYD is taking over the company on Friday.
Ma posted a screenshot on social media asking BYD’s general manager of branding and PR, Li Yunfei if the person who posted the fake rumor was an employee.
Earlier today, the suspected employee claimed BYD and NIO were setting up a joint venture. In a Weibo post, the suspect said BYD would have majority control of the partnership with a 51% share while NIO would get the remaining 49% ownership.
Ma told Li that if it was, in fact, a BYD employee, he needed to issue an official clarification and apologize. If not, they can get the police involved together. Li also denied the rumors, saying the claim was seriously untrue.
NIO denies rumors that BYD is taking over the company
This is not the first time rumors surfaced that BYD will be taking over NIO, but because it is a suspected employee, the post has garnered more attention.
BYD is on a major hiring spree as it ramps up production to meet the higher demand. The EV giant now has over 900,000 employees, making it by far the largest A-share listed company in China.
After selling over 500,000 vehicles for the first time in a single month in October, BYD’s surge is heating up as the EV giant expands overseas for growth.
October was BYD’s fifth consecutive record sales month as it closes in on auto leaders like Ford in global deliveries.
NIO is also gaining momentum, with sales topping the 20,000 mark for the sixth straight month in October. With output of its new lower-priced Onvo L60 electric SUV ramping up, NIO expects to continue seeing higher demand.
Ma said on Friday that NIO’s “recent situation is quite good.” The company’s head of PR added, “Cash flow turned positive in the third quarter, gross profit improved in October, earning an extra RMB 100 million, and Onvo (deliveries) will exceed 10,000 in December.”
NIO is launching its third brand, Firefly, with deliveries kicking off in the first half of 2025. The company expects sales to double next year as it works to become profitable by 2026.
OpenAI Talks to Samsung About AI Features, Strikes Search Deals with Apps
OpenAI has discussed powering artificial intelligence in Samsung devices, similar to a deal the AI developer has with Apple, The Information reported. The discussions are part of a multipronged attack by OpenAI on Google, which is Samsung’s most important partner in using the Android mobile operating system and distributing Google’s mobile apps.
OpenAI also has discussed or reached deals with a slew of website publishers and apps—including Conde Nast and Priceline—to use the company’s conversational AI so that readers or customers can interact with the sites and apps in the same conversational tone they use with ChatGPT, according to the report.
Roadrunner Scores Fresh Investment, Eyes Deals
Investors are buying out activist Elliott Investment Management and plotting a course for the less-than-truckload carrier to expand
An investment vehicle co-led by the head of Roadrunner Transportation Systems is buying most of an activist’s stake and returning the trucker to the mergers and acquisitions game that hobbled it a decade ago.
Chris Jamroz, Roadrunner’s executive chairman and chief executive, is teaming up with Milwaukee investor Ted Kellner to take a more than 80% stake in the carrier that will reduce activist Elliott Investment Management to a minority shareholder.
“We’re putting additional fresh capital on the balance sheet,” Jamroz said, and “starting to hunt for M&A targets.”
Jamroz declined to specify the size of the deal, which closed Thursday, or how much money is on the balance sheet beyond saying the figure totaled “tens of millions” of dollars.
Jamroz said that he and Kellner will control the Downers Grove, Ill.-based carrier through Prospero Staff Capital, an investment vehicle owned by Jamroz’s investment company LyonIX Holdings. Elliott will retain a minority stake.