• I took a red-eye flight from NYC to Berlin with Norse Atlantic Airways in October 2022.
• For $180, I traveled through the night on a nonstop economy flight with a row of seats to myself.
• Although I thought the flight itself was ideal for a red-eye, I started my trip feeling exhausted.

In October 2022, I took an eight-hour red-eye flight with Norse Atlantic Airways, an airline I'd never heard of.

Norse Atlantic Airways is a budget airline that started flying in 2022 with nonstop trips from the US to Germany, Norway, the UK, France, Greece, and Italy.

The flight from my home in NYC to Berlin kicked off a two-week train trip through Europe. I booked my travels with the lesser-known airline because it was the cheapest nonstop flight leaving from my local airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). 

I selected an economy-light ticket, the lowest tier available, for $88. The booking included a seat and storage space under the seat in front of me. I also spent $75 for advanced seat selection, and there was a $20 airport check-in fee. The trip cost a total of $183.

In the past, I've appreciated domestic red-eye flights because they give me an extra day at my destination.

But this was my first international red-eye flight, and the long-haul journey through the night left me exhausted at the beginning of my trip. To me, it wasn't worth the day I saved.

I arrived at JFK at 9:30 p.m. for my 12:30 a.m. flight.

I could have checked in online for free, but I wanted to print my boarding pass at the airport.

On a late Sunday evening, the terminal at JFK felt quite empty.

Aside from people in line to board an aircraft, I hardly saw anyone.

My flight began boarding at 11:30 p.m.

I was among the last to board and got situated in my seat right around midnight.

The flight's seating arrangement was three columns with three seats in each row.

I paid extra to select a window seat before the flight so that I could lean against the window to rest.

A representative from Norse told Business Insider that economy-light seats are 17.2 inches wide with a 3-inch recline.

It felt like a standard plane seat to me.

I thought I had enough legroom, even with my backpack shoved underneath the seat.

The seat pitch was between 27 and 32 inches, according to the representative.

In front of me, there was an entertainment screen with movies, TV shows, and information about my flight.

Although I spent most of the time trying to sleep, I appreciated having the screen.

As the plane prepared for takeoff, I was thrilled that I had a whole row to myself.

In fact, I noticed many of the seats were empty.

My seat back pocket contained a menu of amenities, including earbuds, blankets, neck pillows, and sleep masks, although I didn't buy any.

Amenity prices ranged from $3.50 to $6.50.

After takeoff, the plane was quiet and dimly lit. But I hardly ever sleep well on planes, and this was no exception.

I woke several times through the night.

At one point in the night, I went to the bathroom and found it cleaner than most aircraft bathrooms I've been in.

Unlike most economy aircraft bathrooms I've used, the floor wasn't sticky and the trash can wasn't overflowing. 

In the morning, flight attendants came around with food and beverage service. So I looked at the menu in my seat back pocket.

I found that food and beverages weren't included in the price of my ticket, so I decided to skip it.

I landed in Berlin nearly an hour earlier than scheduled, so I was only in the air for seven hours.

Still, when I got off the plane, I felt completely exhausted due to a lack of sleep.

Despite feeling tired, as I would after any red-eye flight, I was impressed by the budget airline and would definitely book with Norse again.

The flight was comfortable and clean, and landing early was a nice bonus.

Once in Berlin, I still had a two-hour train journey to my Airbnb outside the city, and I could barely keep my eyes open.

Even after a night of sleep, I found that the exhaustion from the overnight flight — combined with jet lag — lasted for days. This wasn't ideal at the start of a two-week adventure.

My exhaustion wore off within a couple of days of my trip, but I had a lingering thought — next time I fly internationally, I won't mind spending a little more money and a little less time at my destination for a day flight.

• I'm midway through my 'e-comm experiment' and have 500 pickleball paddles in production.
• I spoke to an expert about how to most effectively sell my product.
• He suggested a hybrid Shopify-Amazon model and said ads are essential.

Years of writing about individuals who make money selling products online sparked my curiosity: Is this something I can do? What would startup costs look like? Is it time-consuming? Difficult?

To answer those questions, I teamed up with a friend to develop a product (pickleball paddles) to sell online.

Product selection and development — phase one, if you may — has been time-consuming, challenging, and expensive. But we made a paddle we're proud of, the Peak Pro, and 500 of them are headed from a factory in Asia to my studio apartment in Los Angeles.

Phase two — actually selling the product — is officially underway, and my first observation is that it's going to present more challenges than phase one. Luckily, I've interviewed smart people who have done it before, and I have no problem asking for advice.

I reached out to Tyler Walter, cofounder of the product-sourcing company 330 Trading, which I'm also working with to manufacture my paddles. He's based in Taiwan and works closely with US e-commerce businesses, advising them on everything from initial product development to creating diverse supply chains.

I asked him selling-specific questions: How can I get consumers to buy from Peak Pickleball when they have endless options? He told me he'd tailor his answers specifically to my company, as every brand is a bit different.

Two pieces of advice stood out.

1. Build a Shopify and Amazon store

Walter advised me to start with a hybrid Shopify-Amazon model. In general, I'll get better margins with Shopify, as there are fewer costs associated with selling on that platform, but I need Amazon for traffic, especially when I'm first establishing the brand.

"Amazon is guaranteed traffic. There's a guaranteed flow of people who are going to see your product every single day," he said. And, using tools like Helium 10, I can estimate what that traffic is going to look like. "You can see exactly how many people are searching for pickleball paddles on Amazon every day, or pickleball-related items or even racket-related sports, so you can drill down into those details before you ever go live."

With Shopify, on the other hand, I'd have to generate my own traffic through things like social media campaigns, ads, and word of mouth.

Walter told me it's smart to start with the hybrid model since I haven't yet nailed down my typical customer.

Amazon will work well for the customer who is newer to pickleball and not yet intertwined in the community. They may come across my product while searching for a medium- to high-grade paddle online. "Amazon is amazing for that, the best in the world," he explained, especially if I can optimize my listing page, rack up good reviews, and rank well on the marketplace. "If there's enough traffic on Amazon every day for pickleball paddles, which we've already determined there is, then you're going to get people that you would never otherwise get who are just searching for pickleball in general."

Shopify, on the other hand, may serve a different customer: Someone who is more engaged in the pickleball community or cares more about the brand of paddle they're playing with. The customer who buys into our image, feel, and the technical aspects of our product will likely go directly to our website.

A Shopify sale is going to mean more profit, "but you have to be able to do the work to tell that brand story," Walter said.

That raises the question: What customer am I after?

If I can't definitively answer that yet, Walter told me a hybrid approach allowing me to test both types of customers is a smart strategy.

"You can test out the first 500 paddles and see where you get more traction and where you have better profit margins, and then invest more resources into that channel moving forward," he said. "But there's a good chance that you guys run this for the next five years and you might always be a hybrid model. It might always be both."

2. The key to standing out on Amazon: SEO, reviews, and ads

Walter sold me on setting up an Amazon store in addition to the Shopify one, but I had a follow-up question: Sure, millions of people log into Amazon every day, and hundreds of thousands may be searching for pickleball paddles, but how are they going to find mine? How do I avoid getting lost in the Amazon beast?

A variety of factors contribute to a product's rank on Amazon, but Walter pointed to two: search engine optimization, also known as SEO, and reviews.

SEO is essentially what you do to rank higher and generate more traffic — and a lot goes into it. For me, creating a listing page with relevant keywords and quality images is going to be important, especially the keywords.

Walter told me to use Helium 10 to know what keywords I should be using, whether it's paddle sports, pickleball, pickleball paddle, or carbon fiber paddle — and, if I have the resources, pay an SEO expert to optimize my listing page.

Reviews are also key to ranking well on Amazon, and he said I should always encourage customers to leave reviews. One idea is to include a blurb in the thank you email customers receive after placing an order reminding them to share their feedback.

Additionally, he told me that paid ads are essentially necessary.

"Ads are going to give you the best fighting chance of selling through all of your inventory profitably," he said. "If you're doing it right, a dollar into advertising should come back as $2 to $3 of revenue."

He acknowledged that it may feel nervewracking at first to pay for ads without knowing exactly what's going to come from them but assured me I could test ads on a budget of a couple of hundred dollars. Amazon ads are affordable compared to Google or Meta or TikTok ads since Amazon already has so much traffic, he explained, "so you can test it out with a very small budget."

He told me to keep in mind that because reviews are so important, even if we initially just break even from ads, it's worth it if they drive sales that lead to product reviews.

I shouldn't tackle ads on my own, though. He said it's worth it to hire a professional. There are two main fee structures: a flat fee or a percentage of sales. As a new business, the second option probably makes more sense so that I'm not spending too much cash up front. However, if I start selling a lot of paddles, the percentage of sales model might become more expensive, at which point I might want to consider switching to the flat-rate model.

I have no problem with outsourcing and have already done quite a bit of it. It's saving me time, and headaches — and, ultimately, helping me create a better product.

More from "The E-commerce Experiment":

• I started an e-commerce business with $5,000 up front after writing about financially independent Amazon sellers. Here's how I doubled my budget.
• My friend and I pooled $10,000 to start an e-commerce company. After months of brainstorming products, we chose pickleball paddles.
• Months into launching a pickleball e-commerce company with $10,000, I'm already over budget. Here are all of my startup costs, including a surprise $2,095 expense.
• I launched an e-commerce company with a $10,000 budget after interviewing top Amazon sellers. Here's everything I outsourced to save time, including a $250 task that was the best money I spent.

• A survey shows Bluesky users are more Democratic and politically engaged than Threads users.
• Threads has 300 million monthly users, surpassing Bluesky's 24 million.
• Bluesky allows users to add their own moderation policies.

A new survey revealed stark political and behavioral differences between users of rival social media platforms Bluesky and Meta-owned Threads.

Bluesky's user base skews heavily Democratic, with nearly half of its users identifying with the party, according to findings published earlier this month by CivicScience, a research and survey company. In contrast, only 34% of Threads users identified as either Democrat or Independent.

The study also found that Bluesky users are more politically engaged overall. And nearly three-quarters of them said that they experienced higher levels of stress postelection. In contrast, 33% of people who used Threads daily said that their stress levels decreased after Donald Trump's victory on November 5.

"With the surge of Bluesky coming so directly in the wake of the presidential election, it's not surprising that the user base is disproportionately more left-leaning than the user base of Threads," John Dick, CivicScience CEO and founder, told Business Insider.

The survey included 12,188 Threads users and 5,431 Bluesky users. This roughly mirrors the ratio of both platforms' user bases in the adult US population, as 18% of respondents reported using Threads daily, compared to 8% for Bluesky, CivicScience data found.

Both social networks experienced significant user growth following the US election, particularly as billionaire Elon Musk, the owner of X, threw his weight behind Trump and actively promoted misinformation that reportedly garnered over 2 billion views.

Still, Threads seems to be eating Bluesky's lunch. Earlier this month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the platform had more than 300 million monthly active users, compared to Bluesky's 24 million users at the beginning of this month.

Bluesky began life inside Twitter in 2019 as a project started under the company's former CEO, Jack Dorsey. Its goal was to give users more control over moderation. Bluesky has been an independent company since 2021 and is a decentralized social network.

Bluesky is powered by the "AT Protocol" (Authenticated Transfer Protocol), which means that while Bluesky operates the main server, anyone can create and run their own server that can work with Bluesky. This allows users to choose different providers while maintaining a unified social network experience. Crucially, this also means that users can add their own moderation policies on top of Bluesky's built-in moderation systems.

"The decentralized moderation policies of Bluesky, which allow for more proliferation of political content on the platform, could be exacerbating this phenomenon," said Dick of Bluesky's left-leaning user base, "as Democrats and liberals create a sort of tribal safe space for their views and conversations."

Beyond politics, the survey revealed an optimism gap between the two platforms regarding AI. Bluesky users appear to be significantly more bullish on the technology, with 62% believing that AI will have at least a somewhat positive impact on the quality of their lives over the next decade, compared to 51% of Threads users.

Overall, More Bluesky users are likely to use platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and X every day compared to Threads users who gravitate toward Facebook and Instagram, which are both owned by Meta.

About two-thirds of Americans have recently felt the need to limit their political news consumption, according to a recent poll.

Why it matters: The reluctance to consume political news is reflected in TV ratings. Americans of all parties, and Democrats in particular, are tuning out politics.

• People don't feel the same need to avoid news about overseas conflicts, the economy or climate change, per an AP-NORC survey conducted in early December.
• The poll also found that Americans want public figures to talk less about politics.

By the numbers: About seven in 10 Democrats said they're stepping back from political news.

• About six in 10 Republicans and independents say the same.

By the numbers: On Election Day, 25% fewer people watched coverage across 18 live TV networks this year compared to 2020.

• MSNBC and CNN have both seen viewership drop dramatically since election night.
• MSNBC's prime-time viewership dropped 54% in the five weeks after the election, while CNN's fell by 45%, per Nielsen data.

The other side: Fox News viewership has increased, the AP reported.

• Since the election, 72% of people watching any of the three main cable news networks have tuned into Fox, per AP. That figure was 53% before Election Day.

Zoom out: Americans began tuning out political news before the election, Axios' Sara Fischer previously reported.

• Engagement during the primary cycle was down earlier this year compared to the previous one.

What to watch: Network ratings in previous years have bounced back after the post-election news slump, per the AP.

• For now, it's unclear whether people who avoided news about the election and President-elect Trump's victory will tune back in for coverage of what he actually does as president.

Go deeper: Dems warm to conservative media after rough 2024

Methodology: The poll of 1,251 adults was conducted Dec. 5-9. The margin of error for adults overall is +/- 3.7 percentage points.

• Beyoncé performed at halftime during the Christmas Day game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans.
• The performance paid homage to Texas and Mexican cultures through costumes and cameos.
• Beyoncé also wore a custom look designed by Lindsey James Show Clothing, styled by Shiona Turini.

Beyoncé took over the field at halftime during the Christmas Day game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans, which streamed live on Netflix. And it was such a visual and musical spectacle that you might've missed some things.

The Houston native performed eight songs from her "Cowboy Carter" album during her 12-minute performance at NRG Stadium in Houston. The spectacle fittingly included several nods to Texas, Mexican, and rodeo culture and an appearance from her daughter, Blue Ivy.

Since you might have missed some easter eggs, cameos, references, and details, we rounded them up:

Beyoncé's performance included several nods to her hometown culture of Houston.

During her performance, Beyoncé included several nods to Texas and Houston culture, superficially Western and rodeo culture.

She began the sprawling show singing "16 Carraiges" while sitting on a white horse. She wore a custom white cowboy hat designed by ASN Hats, a Cowboy Carter sash, and a Roberto Cavalli coat from the designer's archive.

The horse was pulled by a man always wearing a cowboy hat, wide belt buckle, and cowboy boots.

As the horse walked into the stadium, it passed several low-rider cars, popular in Houston, that sat in front of an American flag seemingly wrapped in plastic.

Later in the performance, Beyoncé performed a line dance, another nod to Texas and rodeo culture.

Cameos in the performance also made clear that Bey wanted to celebrate rodeo culture, such as the inclusion of bull-riding icon Myrtis Dightman, Jr. and the first Black Rodeo Queen in Arkansas, Ja'Dayia Kursh.

Beyoncé also paid tribute to Mexican culture.

During her performance on the field, Beyoncé said, "One, two, tres!" It seems as if the pop star was attempting to include the 2.7 million Spanish speakers in the city of Houston.

One of her outfits also resembled the pattern of a mariachi singer.

Lastly, Mexican Cowgirl Melanie Rivera was spotted among the crowd of performers.

Beyoncé performed with her daughter, Blue Ivy.

Beyoncé has collaborated with her firstborn, Blue Ivy, many times over her career, and Christmas Day was the latest. It marked the first time the 12-year-old performed onstage with her mom since 2023's Renaissance World Tour.

While Blue Ivy performed choreography behind and beside Beyoncé, she notably appeared to be the only dancer on the field who didn't wear a platinum blonde wig.

Beyoncé's longtime dance captain, Ashley Everett, returned.

The biggest Beyhive fans spotted Beyoncé's longtime dance captain, Ashley Everett, was among the hundreds of dancers on the field. Her appearance comes after she was absent from Bey's Renassaince World Tour.

Everett became famous as one of two dancers in Beyoncé's iconic "Single Ladies" music video.

Even the Houston Texans owners got in on the fun.

During the performance, Beyoncé recreated a traditional homecoming parade, complete with a car caravan and the appearance of two "homecoming" queens — Miss Rodeo Texas Princess 2004 and Miss Rodeo Texas 2015.

In one of the cars was also Texans owner Cal McNair and his wife Hannah — another nod to Houston.

The performance had a homecoming feel.

Beyoncé had her own homecoming, as the Houston native returned to perform during this Christmas Day performance. She made that plain by bringing a Texas homecoming game vibe to her performance, complete with drum majors, line dancing, and performers sporting sashes. She also featured 200 members of Texas Southern University's Ocean of Soul Marching Band.

• "A Complete Unknown" stars Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan during his rise to fame in the '60s.
• The movie's climax is Dylan's performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
• Dylan performed with an electric band, causing him to be ostracized from the folk scene.

James Mangold's new film "A Complete Unknown" reaches its climax when Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) takes the stage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, drawing boos from the crowd and disgust from his peers.

But out of all the performances Dylan gave in the '60s, what made this one so controversial? To understand its outsize significance in Dylan's career, as well as music history at large, it's important first to rewind.

The Newport Folk Festival was cofounded in 1959 by jazz promoter George Wein and music manager Albert Grossman. (The latter is best known for representing Dylan between 1962 and 1970.)

Dylan made his debut at the annual event in 1963 alongside Joan Baez, a close collaborator who was already a folk superstar. He returned the following year for a solo set in his typically sparse style — guitar, harmonica, raw vocals — and sang now-beloved tracks like "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Chimes of Freedom."

Dylan amassed an adoring crowd in 1964 and became known as one of the festival's biggest draws. He was expected to return for the 1965 edition, alongside friends and folk staples like Baez and Pete Seeger.

It was also expected that Dylan would deliver another solo acoustic performance. Instead, the 1965 Newport Folk Festival is better known as the night Dyan went electric.

'An artist can't be made to serve a theory'

The original script for "A Complete Unknown" was based on Elijah Wald's 2015 book "Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties."

Wald recounts how a 24-year-old Dylan took the stage with an electric guitar, breaking with convention and shocking — even enraging — the crowd who gathered to hear traditional finger-picked tunes.

Instead, Dylan opened with "Maggie's Farm" ("Well, I try my best to be just like I am / But everybody wants you to be just like them / They say 'Sing while you slave' and I just get bored") and "Like a Rolling Stone" ("When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose / You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal"), backed by a full band.

Before the performance, Dylan had been growing agitated with the expectations placed on him by fans and the media, who were hailing him as the bastion of protest music. However, according to Baez, Dylan wasn't particularly interested in politics beyond its service to his songwriting. His music leaned more toward commentary than activism.

"I think what happened with Bobby is the same as with The Beatles. They are really talented, but they don't want to accept responsibility for what's going on," Baez said in 1967. "And the minute they write a song that was sort of saying, 'I'm on this side or that,' then everybody's going to jump all over them for being part of a cause, and they don't want it."

At the time, the folk scene was all about social awareness and advocacy. Baez was a fixture at protests and civil rights marches, for example, while Seeger was avidly pro-worker and tracked by the FBI for suspected ties to communism. By contrast, Dylan avoided political events throughout the '60s and even declined to denounce the Vietnam War, a cause that united many of his contemporaries. (When asked to do so by Sing Out! in 1968, he replied, "How do you know that I'm not, as you say, for the war?")

Dylan's girlfriend in the early '60s, Suze Rotolo, said he balked at the idea of getting boxed in — as a person or a musician — in her 2008 memoir "A Freewheelin' Time."

"The old-left wanted to school him so he would understand well and continue on the road they had paved, the one that Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and others had traveled before him. They explained the way of the road and its borders," she wrote. "Bob listened, absorbed, honored them, and then walked away. An artist can't be made to serve a theory."

In short, Dylan didn't feel beholden to the folk tradition. So, on that pivotal day in Newport, he decided to swap his acoustic guitar for the famed Sunburst Fender Stratocaster.

"When Dylan took the stage with that unprecedented amped-in performance, he fatefully intertwined folk with rock 'n' roll," Rolling Stone reported. "But more immediately, he was harassed by the audience, who booed him loudly and called him a traitor to the folk genre."

The dissenters included Seeger, who had supported Dylan's career since they met years prior in Greenwich Village. Seeger was also a prominent member of the festival's board of directors and has been credited with booking Dylan for the lineup.

It's been widely reported that Seeger, watching Dylan's performance from the wings, told the audio technicians he wanted to chop the cables with an ax. (It's unlikely that Seeger actually tried to cut Dylan's sound, as he's depicted attempting in "A Complete Unknown," but rumors about that day can be hard to separate from reality. Seeger later said he was only upset because the sound was distorted.)

Not everyone was horrified. Johnny Cash was famously supportive of his friend's shift toward rock, while Baez later told Rolling Stone, "I just thought he was very brave to do it, even though I didn't like the sound of it. But I learned to like it, because he was still writing wonderful stuff."

Still, Dylan was shouted off the stage in Newport after just three songs. After a brief intermission, he returned with his acoustic guitar to play "Mr. Tambourine Man" and, fittingly, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." The crowd cheered for these songs, but bootleg videos show Dylan looking stoic.

'Judas!'

In the following years, Dylan was ostracized from the folk community. Fans thought electric Dylan was an out-of-touch sell-out, less authentic than acoustic Dylan, and they weren't afraid to let him know.

"A Complete Unknown" shows a furious concertgoer screaming "Judas!" at Dylan in Newport, which actually did happen — only it happened several months later in Manchester, England, during Dylan's 1966 world tour. (He'd just released "Blonde on Blonde," which has since been vindicated by fans and critics as one of his best albums.)

One fan identified as Lonnie, who attended the Manchester show in question, is quoted in C.P. Lee's 1998 biography "Bob Dylan: Like the Night."

Lonnie told Lee he doesn't regret how the crowd treated their one-time hero: "It was like, as if, everything that we held dear had been betrayed," he said, adding, "We made him and he betrayed the cause."

Ironically, the immediate backlash seemed to reinforce the very reason Dylan stepped back from folk music in the first place.

In his 2004 memoir, "Chronicles: Volume One," Dylan said his admirers had been acting increasingly possessive. "Screw that," he wrote. "As far as I knew, I didn't belong to anybody then or now."

Dylan's rebellious streak made him perfectly suited for the rock world, which embraced him with open arms.

Dylan refused to play at the Newport Folk Festival for another 37 years before he finally returned in 2002. By that time, change and genre-hopping had become not a sticking point for Dylan's fans but a key part of his allure.

Once again, he sang "Like a Rolling Stone." This time, it was met with applause.

• Elon Musk is the world's first $400 billion person.
• It's not just his wealth that increased in 2024.
• Thanks to Donald Trump, Musk will enter 2025 with unprecedented power.

Elon Musk is more than just the world's richest person.

He's also the self-proclaimed "First Buddy" of President-elect Donald Trump, who will soon return to his position as leader of the free world. Trump has named Musk as co-leader of "The Department of Government Efficiency," giving the tech titan major sway over federal spending.

Like many moments in Musk's life, it's a remarkable turnaround story.

2024 began with Musk briefly relinquishing his wealthiest title, first to French luxury titan Bernard Arnault and then to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Musk's rival in space travel.

Musk had also backed the wrong candidate. In early 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who Musk had aligned himself with, abruptly ended his campaign after Trump blew him out in the Iowa Republican caucuses. By March, Trump, trying to orchestrate his own comeback, privately met with Musk to ask for his financial support. In response, Musk said his checkbook was closed.

He changed his mind, spending over $277 million backing Trump and the GOP. Musk even campaigned for Trump in Pennsylvania, the biggest swing state.

Musk's wealth surged after the 2024 election election. His big bet is still paying off.

January: Musk visited Auschwitz amid an uproar

Musk ended 2023 under siege. In what he later called his "dumbest" tweet ever, the billionaire promoted an antisemitic post. Media Matters, a liberal nonprofit, accused X of placing ads next to pro-Nazi content, allegations that sent advertisers fleeing the platform.

He apologized for the post but lashed out at advertisers, including Disney CEO Bob Iger, telling them "to go fuck" themselves.

In late January, Musk accepted an invitation to visit the site of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Afterward, he said he had been "naive" about the Holocaust.

February: Musk returned to the Super Bowl

Musk had a prime seat to watch the Kansas City Chiefs win their second-straight Super Bowl.

This was Musk's first big game since reports surfaced that he spent the 2023 Super Bowl frustrated that President Joe Biden's tweet received more engagement than his own. According to Platformer, Musk pressured Twitter engineers to begin working on ensuring that his future posts would get much larger exposure.

March: X abruptly ended a deal with Don Lemon after a testy interview

X is a platform that champions free speech, and we’re proud to provide an open environment for diverse voices and perspectives. The Don Lemon Show is welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we believe in providing a platform for creators to scale their work…

— Business (@XBusiness) March 13, 2024

Musk's X has become a new home for many commentators, including conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon inked a deal with the platform for similar support, but those plans were scrapped after Lemon's interview with Musk.

Lemon, who later sued Musk, questioned the CEO's commitment to welcoming "diverse voices" on X in the wake of the abrupt cancellation.

"His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me," Lemon wrote in a since-deleted post.

April: Musk made a surprise visit to China

Musk sent Tesla shares higher in April amid a previously unannounced visit to China. According to Reuters, the Tesla CEO was there to soothe tensions over the automaker's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, which has long been hoped to launch in its second-biggest market.

The entry of Tesla's technology into China continues to be delayed.

Musk's ties to China are receiving renewed attention given the powerful post he will occupy outside the Trump administration. Multiple House Democrats accused Musk of helping kill an initial bipartisan year-end spending bill due to including a provision that would regulate US investments in China. Congress eventually averted a government shutdown, but the final legislation did not include the investment restrictions.

"This awful creature needs to be expelled from Congress! Ugh …," Musk wrote on X, in response to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, calling him out for tanking the deal.

May: Musk welcomed Indonesia to SpaceX's Starlink

SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service exploded in popularity over the year.

In May, Musk headed to the resort island of Bali to welcome Indonesia to Starlink, making it the third Southeast Asian country to receive the service.

Even bigger announcements came later in the year. In September, United Airlines announced it would launch Starlink service early next year. Several major cruise ship companies now offer Starlink as well.

Global internet traffic from Starlink more than tripled in 2024, as Business Insider previously reported.

July: Musk 'fully' endorsed Trump

I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery pic.twitter.com/ZdxkF63EqF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2024

Musk came off the sidelines in a major way by endorsing Trump after the former president survived an assassination attempt. Like others in Silicon Valley, the billionaire later said admired Trump's courage.

With blood across his face, Trump held up his fist and yelled "Fight" as Secret Service agents ushered him off the stage to safety.

It wasn't fully clear at the time, but Musk had already been working to support Trump. Just a day before shots rang out, Bloomberg News reported that the Tesla CEO had donated to a pro-Trump super PAC.

October: Musk joined Trump on the campaign trail

Musk soon became one of the biggest megadonors of the entire 2024 cycle. He wasn't done trying to influence the presidential race.

In October, Musk joined Trump as the former president returned to Butler, Pennsylvania, at the exact location of the July assassination attempt.

"As you can see, I am not just MAGA, I'm dark MAGA," Musk said while wearing an all-black Make American Great Again hat.

Trump's campaign seized on Musk's attire and used it to fuel further fundraising.

SpaceX showed it can catch a rocket in midair

It wasn't all politics. In mid-October, Musk's SpaceX conducted its fifth test flight of its Starship rocket.

The company made history and pulled off an engineering marvel when it demonstrated its ability to catch a 233-foot-tall Super Heavy booster as it descended back toward the launchpad.

The spectacle moved Musk's vision for reusable rockets and, thus, cheaper space travel one step closer to reality.

Musk started $1 million giveaways to voters

Musk didn't stop at donating hundreds of millions to help Trump. He hit the campaign trail, focusing on Pennsylvania, widely viewed as the 2024 election's most important state.

The billionaire went even further in a controversial step, giving away $1 million to voters in swing states. The Trump ally's attorneys later admitted that the checks weren't the result of a true lottery.

Philadelphia's district attorney, Larry Krasner, filed a lawsuit in October attempting to stop the effort. Just before Election Day, a Pennsylvania judge ruled that the checks could go on.

November: The Trump-Musk bromance simmered at Mar-a-Lago

The whole squad pic.twitter.com/5yQVkFiney

— Kai Trump (@kaitrump) November 6, 2024

Late on November 5, it became clear that Trump's political comeback would be successful. Musk was at Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club to watch the results unfold.

Trump thanked Musk by name in his victory speech early the next morning.

"We have a new star, a star is born," Trump told boisterous supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, a few hours before the election was called in his favor. "Elon. He is an amazing guy."

Kai Trump, one of the president-elect's granddaughters, went even further, declaring Musk part of the family's "squad" in a photo that showed over a dozen Trumps next to Musk holding his son, X Æ A-12.

Musk, Trump, and some cabinet picks enjoyed a night out

Musk and Trump remained virtually inseparable after the election. The billionaire maintained a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago.

When the president-elect left his club, Musk would often join him. On November 16, Musk joined Trump's sprawling entourage to watch UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department, and former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who Trump nominated to be director of national intelligence, were among those who sat nearby.

December: DOGE took over Capitol Hill

Musk wasted little time working on DOGE, the outside advisory panel that Musk and Ramaswamy have said will cut $2 trillion from the federal budget.

In December, Musk and Ramaswamy visited Capitol Hill to discuss their plans with GOP lawmakers. Musk even brought his son along.

Musk sent GOP lawmakers into chaos

Ever seen a bigger piece of pork? pic.twitter.com/ZesFCNSNKp

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024

Musk wasn't done disrupting Washington.

In mid-December, House lawmakers finally reached a deal to avoid a government shutdown just before the Christmas holiday. As was often the case, lawmakers loaded the legislation full of unrelated provisions, stretching the bill to over 1,500 pages long.

Trump's "First Buddy" soon joined a handful of conservative activists in fomenting an effort to kill the bill. Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican who helped break the deal with House Democrats, had to scrap it.

There was brief concern that Musk's actions might lead to a government shutdown, an occurrence he and Trump encouraged if the final deal didn't give them what they wanted.

Ultimately, Trump didn't get his wish for lawmakers to increase the debt ceiling. Musk declared he was satisfied with the final product, which trimmed the deal down which funded the federal government through March 14, included $100 billion in disaster relief, and extended farm policies for a year.

Trump said Musk can't be president

Democrats pounced on the opportunity to blame Musk for the funding bill's death. Some even called him President Musk.

Musk responded by lashing out at Democrats. He said on X the statements were a ploy designed to drive a wedge between him and Trump.

Trump addressed the fracas just before Christmas, joking to a conservative conference that he wasn't worried about the Tesla CEO who can't be president.

"No, he's not gonna be president, that I can tell you," Trump said. "And I'm safe, you know why? He can't be, he wasn't born in this country."