While Elon Musk is taking an axe to the federal government, Tesla’s brand is starting to see the impact.
The company is facing calls for a boycott, protests and vandalism at its stores, and even the superfan equity analysts who cover Tesla are starting to change their tune. “Opinions on Elon Musk have taken a turn for the worse along political affiliations,” Stephen Gengaro, an analyst with Stifel, said in a research note. And as Gengaro notes, most future EV buyers are Democrats.
Tesla posted its first annual sales drop last year, and its shares are down 18.8% in February, though still up big since Donald Trump’s victory. The losses have made Musk $43 billion poorer.
FIRST UP
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to work with DOGE to “significantly” reduce the federal workforce and slow hiring, a move that comes as controversy surrounds Musk’s powerful agency. Trump appeared alongside Elon Musk in the Oval Office on Tuesday to answer questions about the DOGE’s recent actions, as Musk defended the DOGE’s cuts, saying they’ve done them transparently.
MORE: The former Tesla engineer and DOGE ally now at the head of a critical tech-focused division of the federal government, known as the Technology Transformation Services, requested last week that he be given admin access to nearly all of the projects that the division operates, according to three current staffers. The staffers were alarmed as such access is highly unusual and would violate internal security measures.
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BUSINESS + FINANCE
Tariffs are quickly becoming the hallmark economic policy of the second Trump Administration, as the president is set to announce reciprocal tariffs that he argues will level the playing field for the U.S. in global trade. Reciprocal tariffs are straightforward in theory—the U.S. would set the same levies on imported goods from a given country that the other country imposes on their U.S. imports—but far murkier in practice. Countries often charge different tariffs on different classes of goods, and the taxes charged can also take several different forms.
TECH + INNOVATION
Elon Musk’s surprise $97.4 billion bid for the nonprofit controlling OpenAI muddled up CEO Sam Altman’s efforts to turn the company behind ChatGPT to a for-profit venture. In order to make that transition, the nonprofit has to be bought out and become a minority shareholder–and Musk has attempted to forcefully raise the nonprofit’s price.
On his first foreign trip since taking office, Vice President JD Vance spoke critically about the EU’s regulation of U.S. tech companies, warning it could stifle advancements in AI. At the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, Vance’s speech was followed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said “global leadership” in AI was still up for the taking.
MONEY + POLITICS
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump is facing dozens of lawsuits challenging his executive orders, and while Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk have both publicly attacked those court orders, continuing to ignore federal courts defies hundreds of years of precedent set by previous presidents. Vance and Musk are more likely attempting to “bully the courts into not ruling against them,” Georgetown Law Professor David Cole told Forbes.
In mid-December 2024, the House Ethics Committee quietly updated its website to block search engines from indexing its pages, making it hard for the public to find them. At the time, the committee was under pressure to release its investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who Trump had first picked to be attorney general.
WORLD
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The White House announced Tuesday the Trump Administration had secured the release of American prisoner Marc Fogel from Russia as part of an “exchange,” freeing the American prisoner who had been held for more than three years for allegedly bringing medical marijuana into the country. The White House did not say what the U.S. exchanged to secure Fogel’s release.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, President Donald Trump again said the U.S. will take control of Gaza, doubling down on his controversial statements from last week. When asked about Trump’s plan—which includes permanently relocating Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan—King Abdullah II said he wanted to wait until Egypt presented Trump with a plan “and not get ahead of ourselves.”
TRENDS + EXPLAINERS
Google Maps users in the U.S. started seeing “Gulf of America” this week, following a flurry of executive orders from President Donald Trump, including one that renamed the Gulf of Mexico. Google also removed default acknowledgments for Black History Month and Pride Month from Google Calendar, with a spokesperson citing the difficulty of maintaining the cultural observances on a global scale.
DAILY COVER STORY
From Anguilla To Australia, Forbes Travel Guide’s 2025 Star Award Winners
JW Marriott Mauritius Resort
TOPLINE From the ancient streets of Azerbaijan to the rugged terrain of Western Montana, Forbes Travel Guide’s annual Star Awards celebrate hospitality’s finest across the globe. This year’s winners—the most geographically diverse list in FTG’s 67 years—showcase excellence across 90 countries, with Brunei, Finland, Montenegro and Romania making their debut appearances.
Behind every Forbes Travel Guide Star Award lies a thousand small gestures: the concierge who tracks down a hidden café beloved by locals, the chef who sources ingredients from a generations-old farm, the spa therapist who crafts custom aromatherapy blends from native flowers. From established luxury capitals to emerging destinations, the 2,187 award recipients for 2025 demonstrate that true luxury is not measured in thread counts or square feet, but in moments of genuine connection.
For the third consecutive year, Macau remains the world’s Five-Star hotel capital. The posh Chinese territory—just off the western coast of Hong Kong—tallied 24 top-ranking hotels with the additions of Epic Tower at Studio City Macau and Raffles at Galaxy Macau, an opulent property with the brand’s largest suites.
The United States had several notable Five-Star wins this year. Montana’s RiverView Ranch was joined by The Maybourne Beverly Hills, a glamorous escape with an outpost of New York City’s famed Dante bar; The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Fort Lauderdale, a water-inspired refuge; and Spa Montage Big Sky, an alpine retreat in Montana.
WHY IT MATTERS FTG’s ratings are objective, independent and data-driven. Beyond these metrics, inspectors assess the intangibles behind a truly remarkable guest experience: whether a property allows you to continue a health-conscious lifestyle and enhance your well-being; whether the location, design or other elements conjured a strong sense of place; and whether all that added up to a stay that was unforgettable.
MORE Forbes Travel Guide’s Top 12 Destinations For 2025
FACTS + COMMENTS
Rapper Kendrick Lamar dominated Spotify and Apple Music charts following his halftime performance with SZA at Super Bowl LIX, further signifying the lucrative marketing opportunity for what is technically an unpaid gig:
More than 11 million: Number of Spotify streams of “Not Like Us,” Lamar’s five-time Grammy-winning diss track from a feud with Drake, on Monday alone
175%: The spike in streams across Lamar’s entire catalog
More than 35 million: Number of YouTube views Lamar’s Super Bowl performance had as of Tuesday afternoon, far surpassing viewership on Usher’s performance from 2024
STRATEGY + SUCCESS
New research suggests that too much screen time can reshape our brains, and there are a few neurological red flags to watch out for in your own habits. There’s “digital hoarding” of downloads, screenshots or memes you “plan to sort later,” social withdrawal that might manifest in going camera-off in meetings or minimizing digital interactions, as well as a common complaint in the modern era: increasingly fragmented attention spans.
VIDEO
QUIZ
A record 127.7 million viewers watched Super Bowl LIX on Fox and other platforms Sunday, plus one very important attendee in-person at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome: President Donald Trump. Who was the first sitting president to attend the NFL’s championship game?
A. Ronald Reagan
B. George W. Bush
C. Barack Obama
D. Donald Trump
Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.
