Good morning. In this edition:

• ✌️ Elon Musk is getting out of DOGE
• 💿 Taylor Swift’s masters win
• 🌆 Ancient Mayan city uncovered

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.50-minute read (1,196 words).

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“Whatever you are, try to be a good one.”

–William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)

Elon Musk officially said goodbye to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Friday, when his 130-day legal tenure as a special government employee expired.

The report card

Since the Trump administration took over in late January, major efforts by Musk and his DOGE team include:

• Effectively taking control of the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human-resources arm.
• Enacting major budget cuts and headcount reductions to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), citing inefficiency and waste—though the moves have drawn legal pushback.
• Leading efforts that cut 280,000+ jobs across the US government—out of ~2.3 million total civilian federal employees—per data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

DOGE’s overall initiatives have saved ~$175 billion in federal spending, per the most recent update to its website. On the campaign trail, Musk said he’d slash government spending by $2 trillion, but later amended his target to $1 trillion shortly before taking office.

But its math isn’t always mathing. Several budget experts and media outlets have called DOGE’s cost-cutting claims inflated. Critics claim many of its savings aren’t backed by basic paperwork, leading to errors like overstating Education Department savings by hundreds of millions of dollars, and mistakenly counting an $8 million canceled contract as $8 billion.

• Detractors also point to a recent nonpartisan report that estimates DOGE’s efforts will cost the federal government ~$135 billion this fiscal year due to factors like paid leave for employees, lost productivity, and re-hiring mistakenly fired workers.

Looking ahead…While President Trump has said Musk “is really not leaving” and will still manage some DOGE affairs in the future, the world’s richest man indicated he plans to focus the vast majority of his attention on his businesses, including Tesla, SpaceX, and X. Musk’s departure likely won’t have a major impact on DOGE, but its work could run into some legal hurdles, per analysts—a federal judge last week allowed a case challenging DOGE's authority within the federal government to continue, and several others are still pending.

📊 Flash poll: In general, do you support Elon Musk’s efforts as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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When Taylor Swift on the Speak Now album sang “there is nothing I do better than revenge”—she wasn’t kidding. This weekend, Swift announced that she has purchased the master recordings of her first six albums, the initial sale of which to a third party kicked off a re-recording revenge campaign.

Let’s rewind:

• Six years ago, the masters of Swift’s first six albums were sold by Big Machine Records to then-music manager Scooter Braun. After a public internet brawl where the country/pop star voiced her anger over the sale, the masters were then sold to Shamrock Capital.
• In an effort to take some ownership of her material, Swift began re-recording and releasing her first six albums. The re-recordings eventually grew into blueprint for The Eras Tour, which went on to become the highest grossing tour of all time.

What does owning your masters mean? With the reported ~$360 million purchase from Shamrock Capital, Swift gains full control over how her music is used, distributed, and monetized. Masters are the original sound recording of a song from which all other copies are made.

Other stars are learning from Swift’s example: Olivia Rodrigo worked the ownership of her masters into her contract before signing with Geffen Records in 2020, while Zara Larsson bought back her catalog in 2022. Chappell Roan and Bad Bunny have also attested to having some of the best deals in modern music.

The West Wing meets MTV’s Catfish: The FBI is investigating a recent series of incidents involving an apparent impersonator who pretended to be White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in texts and calls to her contacts, including prominent Republicans and business executives.

• In some of the messages, requests were given that were initially believed to be official—including, in one instance, asking a lawmaker to compile a list of individuals who could be pardoned by the president.
• The calls also reportedly featured a voice that sounded like Wiles, leading officials to believe AI was used to mimic the chief of staff.

The jig is up: Alarm bells started going off for some lawmakers when the impersonator began making requests for things such as cash transfers and asking questions about President Trump that Wiles should know, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people who received these messages. The texts and calls also didn’t come from her phone number.

How did it happen? Wiles claims her personal phone (not her gov’t one) was hacked. However, it would also be possible to put together a similar target list from a combination of publicly available information and data sold by gray-market brokers, Wired reports.

Maybe a good time to start using safe words…The use of AI-based voice cloning surged 442% between the first half and second half of 2024, according to CrowdStrike.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📝 President Trump said he would double tariffs on foreign steel to 50% while speaking to US Steel workers; he later posted to Truth Social that he’s putting the same tariff on aluminum.
• 🏡 Summer rentals in the Hamptons are down 30%.
• 🤖 Builder.ai, a Microsoft-backed AI software startup that’s raised $450+ million to date, is reportedly insolvent; the company, which previously came under fire for using human programmers instead of AI like it marketed, is also being accused of inflating sales. | Grammarly, the writing assistant software company whose ads are shown nearly every time a YouTube video is clicked, raised $1 billion in non-dilutive financing.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Niphtio

• 🏆 The 2025 NBA Finals will feature the Indiana Pacers against the Oklahoma City Thunder; Game 1 is Thursday. | The Edmonton Oilers will face off against the Florida Panthers in the NHL Stanley Cup Final; the best-of-seven series starts Wednesday.
• 🙏 Valerie Mahaffey, Desperate Housewives star and Emmy winner, died at age 71.
• 🎥 Netflix’s fifth annual Tudum Event took place Saturday evening; it featured release dates and footage for Squid Game S3, Wednesday S2, Stranger Things S5, and more. | Lilo and Stitch surpassed Sinners to become the second-highest grossing film at the US box office this year.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🌌 President Trump withdrew the nomination of astronaut and billionaire Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. | The European Space Agency beamed the “Blue Danube” waltz to NASA’s Voyager 1 in honor of composer Johann Strauss II’s 200th birthday.
• 🌋 Scientists can tell when a volcano is close to erupting from the greenness of the trees around it when viewed from space, per a new study; more vibrant leaves—due to excess CO2—indicate a blast is potentially imminent.
• ⛰️ Four British climbers successfully ascended Mount Everest in less than a week—rather than the typical 1-2 months—using xenon gas and other treatments to help the climbers acclimate. (Dive deeper: The quest to conquer Everest in a single week.)

US, WORLD & POLITICS

in partnership with Arro

• 🧑‍⚖️ The Supreme Court allowed the Trump admin to proceed with a plan to revoke temporary legal protections for 500,000+ immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela while a legal challenge plays out.
• 🌍 At least 21 people were killed and 150+ more injured in an attack near a food aid distribution center in Gaza yesterday, per the Red Cross; Israel denied claims from Hamas that the incident was “Israeli gunfire” targeting civilians; the situation on the ground was unclear as of late last night.
• 🇺🇦 Ukraine said a drone attack that took 18 months to execute successfully destroyed 40+ military aircraft deep inside Russia, causing ~$7 billion worth of damage.

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☝️ Archeologists in Guatemala unearthed the remains of an ancient Mayan city that dates back ~3,000 years; researchers say the city’s pyramids, monuments, and “unique canal system” indicate it was one of the most important Mayan ceremonial centers.

🤔 Did You Know? Astronauts can’t burp in space without throwing up a little, since the lack of gravity means gases don’t naturally stay at the top of their stomachs.

📰 Worth a Read: North Korea infiltrates US remote jobs—with the help of everyday Americans

🖱️ Clickbait: How did root beer get its name?

Monday: The latest Russia-Ukraine peace talks begin in Istanbul

Tuesday: National Egg Day

Wednesday: Muslim pilgrims will start converging on Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the annual Hajj

Thursday: Private Moon lander from ispace attempts to land on lunar surface; Nintendo Switch 2 released

Friday: 81st anniversary of D-Day; May jobs report released; Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas in the John Wick universe, hits theaters

On Friday, we covered how a federal appeals court temporarily paused a ruling, handed down by the Court of International Trade one day earlier, that had declared most of President Trump’s tariff plans to be illegal.

❓ Our question to you (long-form): What are your thoughts on the current situation regarding the Trump administration’s tariff plans?

• “Tariffs boost the domestic economy by increasing business done in the USA. But more importantly help to reverse the dependency on foreign manufacturing. It has a long term impact on returning the jobs, profits and supply chains to our country. Regardless of how you feel about Trump personally. The shift needs to be made. Otherwise we run the risk of being completely dependent on China and other countries for basic necessities.”
• “Trump’s tariffs are going to cause hardships on all of us and I am glad that a federal panel of judges has intervened. Trump needs to make these decisions in partnership with Congress like every other sitting president has done.”
• “Every modern country uses tariffs or currency deflation to encourage other countries to buy their stuff while protecting their economy. Trump is using tariffs in a different way - to create deals and revise the terms of existing unfavorable deals. That's brilliant! Bring back jobs. Raise the American lifestyle through meaningful employment. Encourage innovation onshore instead of offshore. One step at a time.”

Click here to read more of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note: Some responses may have been edited for length; Sample size: We received 165 longform responses.

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words.

1. Bar
2. Iter
3. Lith
4. Mut
5. Per

🎉 Identical twins Bill and Jack Casey just celebrated their 100th birthday with cake, drinks, and friends at a retirement home in Oxfordshire, England.

🗑️ After Macario Martinez’s music went viral online, he found himself recording music in studios and touring the festival circuit—though he has no plans to leave his beloved trash collection job.

🏆 Australian fitness enthusiast Olivia Vinson completed 7,079 pull-ups in 24 hours to claim—and nearly double—the Guinness World Record for a female.

1. Bar = Pressure (e.g., barometer)
2. Iter = Again (iteration)
3. Lith = Stone (monolith, Paleolithic)
4. Mut = Change (mutation)
5. Per = Thoroughly (persistence)

1. Count determined as number of unique email addresses in StartEngine’s database as of 03-07-2025. One individual may have more than one email address. Note that in In May 2023, StartEngine acquired assets of SeedInvest, including email lists for SeedInvest’s users, investors, and founders.

2. The underlying companies held by StartEngine Private Funds LLC, and StartEngine Private LLC (together, “StartEngine Private”) are not participating or involved in the offering. The availability of company information does not indicate that the company has endorsed, supports or otherwise participates with StartEngine Private or any of its affiliates. StartEngine Crowdfunding LLC purchases shares from current and former employees, early investors, and advisors of the companies and sells the shares to StartEngine Private for each offering. When you make an investment in a company on StartEngine Private, you are purchasing an interest in a series of StartEngine Private Funds LLC or StartEngine Private LLC, each a Delaware limited liability company (together the “Series LLCs”), which were created to hold shares of privately held companies. An investor will not directly own or hold shares of the private company but instead will own member interests in a series of the Series LLCs, which either directly or indirectly, will hold shares in the company. There may not be a one-to-one economic parity on the value of the Series LLCs interests and the underlying shares.

3. Based on our 2024 Form 10-K. This revenue growth has been driven by StartEngine Private, a new product line that offers funds in late stage companies. This product line has driven over $28 million of the $48 million in revenue from 2024. Net loss also increased to $16.5 million. To understand the impact on margins, see financials.

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