Arno Michaelis is a former white nationalist skinhead, lead singer of the neo-Nazi metal band Centurion, and member of Hammerskin Nation, one of the most violent white supremacist gangs in the US.

From 1987 to 1994, Michaelis played a central role in spreading neo-Nazi ideology through music, street violence, and recruitment efforts across the United States and beyond. His band sold over 20,000 copies of its white supremacist albums within six months.

Michaelis provides a rare look inside the world of violent extremism, detailing how white nationalist groups recruit young men, fund their operations, and use propaganda to radicalize followers. He describes the brutality of life inside the movement, the constant state of fear and paranoia, and how his involvement led to addiction, crime, and self-destruction.

After leaving the movement, Michaelis became an anti-hate activist, speaker, and author. He works with Parents for Peace to deradicalize extremists, exposing the tactics used by white nationalist groups and guiding individuals away from the influence of extremism through prevention. He is the author of "My Life After Hate" and "The Gift of Our Wounds," which was cowritten with Pardeep Singh Kaleka, whose father was killed in the Oak Creek Sikh temple shooting.

If you are concerned about someone's extreme beliefs or behaviors, Parents for Peace has a free and confidential helpline at 844-49-PEACE (844-497-3223) or email at [email protected].

If you or someone you know is dealing with substance misuse or mental illness, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Helpline (1-800-662-4357) for 24/7, free, confidential treatment referral and information.

For more:

Instagram: @ArnoMichaelis

Parents for Peace: www.parents4peace.org

Books: https://www.parents4peace.org/our-team/arno-michaelis/

• Goldman Sachs has a grand plan to thin its ranks and cuts costs.
• The plan is codenamed "Project Voyage," Business Insider has learned.
• See what Project Voyage entails — and who stands to be impacted.

Goldman Sachs has a grand plan to thin its ranks and cut costs — and it's codenamed "Project Voyage."

CEO David Solomon has tasked staff with providing the bank with lists of executives who could help save the company money through layoffs or relocations, Business Insider has learned. The plan, which has been nicknamed "Project Voyage," kicked off in the fourth quarter of 2024 and is expected to be rolled out over a number of years, according to a former Goldman employee, who was not authorized to speak to the press and asked to remain anonymous.

The initiative will be rolled out firmwide, affecting divisions including global banking and markets, asset and wealth management, engineering, operations, communications, marketing, and back-office functions, this person said.

A Goldman spokeswoman pointed BI to comments Solomon made in January about "a three-year program" to better manage the bank's expenses.

"As discussed at length on our fourth-quarter earnings call, we're focused on operating the firm effectively and prudently over the long term, managing our business to meet the needs of our clients and re-investing for growth," a Goldman spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

Who could be impacted

Every year, Goldman Sachs cuts as many as 5% of its bottom performers through a process known internally as the Strategic Resource Assessment, or SRA. Employees who routinely fail to comply with Goldman's five-day-per-week office attendance policy, for example, could be vulnerable to a cut through the SRA —particularly if they're found to be underperforming in their job.

This year's SRA, however, will be informed to some degree by "Project Voyage," the ex-Goldman insider said.

The bank's vice presidents — a title that sits between associate and managing directors — will be eyed for cuts in part because Project Voyage has identified this group as too large and costly. As BI reported on Wednesday, Goldman's VP ranks have become so bloated that its VPs have been increasingly reporting to other VPs rather than managing directors. Compensation for client-facing VPs can reach $1 million, including base salary and bonuses, the former employee estimated.

In addition to thinning out bloated parts of the organizational chart, Project Voyage will pinpoint employees who could help save the company money by relocating from Goldman's New York City headquarters, located in lower Manhattan, to lower-cost offices such as Dallas, Texas; and Salt Lake City, Utah, according to people familiar with the program.

The plan also calls for jobs lost through the SRA to be backfilled in lower-cost locations rather than New York, this person said.

Goldman divisional heads are compiling their lists of cuts and relocations through their chief operating teams. On Wall Street, divisional COOs tend to oversee the administrative functions for their teams.

Goldman's office in Dallas is on track to increase from its current headcount of about 4,600 employees to 5,000 by the time it opens a $500 million state-of-the-art campus in 2028. The city's mayor previously authorized $18 million in tax incentives for the firm if it meets that target. The incentives are valid through the end of 2028.

Reed Alexander is a correspondent at Business Insider covering Goldman Sachs and Wall Street banks. He can be reached via email at [email protected], or SMS/the encrypted app Signal at (561) 247-5758.

• Trump says he wants his Cabinet to lead his federal overhaul, not Elon Musk.
• Musk has had broad authority to reshape the government, but Trump now appears to be tightening his leash.
• Lawmakers and judges express concern over DOGE's rapid cuts and unclear leadership.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he wants his Cabinet to lead the overhaul of the federal government, not DOGE's de facto leader, Elon Musk.

"I had a meeting, I said I want the Cabinet members to go first, keep all the people you want, everybody you need," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "It would be better if they were there for two years instead of two weeks, because in two years they'll know the people better. I want them to do the best job they can."

Trump appears to be trimming Musk's mandate after essentially allowing the White House DOGE office unrestrained authority to reshape the federal government. Musk has frequently bragged about all the things he's done as the unofficial leader of DOGE to gut the federal workforce, like offering millions of staffers a buyout, and to reduce government spending, like "feeding USAID into the "wood chipper."

It doesn't mean Trump is upset with Musk. Trump told reporters the billionaire is doing "an amazing job" and rejected the idea that the DOGE office was moving too quickly. At the same time, Trump still wanted his Cabinet to assert more power when it comes to cutting staff.

Although DOGE was originally Musk's idea, now that the task force has an official administrator, Trump is distancing the billionaire from it, at least in some public channels.

"We say the 'scalpel' rather than the 'hatchet,'" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "The combination of them, Elon, DOGE, and other great people will be able to do things at a historic level."

Lawyers suing the DOGE office noted Trump's comments during his address to Congress on Tuesday when he twice called Musk the "head" of DOGE. A White House official had previously declared in court that Musk is not leading the DOGE office.

Members of Congress, including some Republicans, have expressed unease with the extent and speed of DOGE's cuts. Some of those lawmakers had received an earful from their constituents when they returned home. Federal judges have also taken issue with some of the DOGE-linked cuts.

Multiple times Justice Department lawyers haven't been able to answer who leads the DOGE office or whether that command structure had changed. These questions still remained after the White House named Amy Gleason as acting administrator of the DOGE office. Trump has blurred that line repeatedly by saying Musk leads DOGE, even though the world's richest man isn't a DOGE office employee.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Instagram has a new app to rival TikTok's editing app CapCut.
• The "Edits" app launches on March 31, and some creators already have access.
• A new tag will appear for videos that are edited in the app.

Instagram's battle with TikTok has entered the video editing realm.

In January, the Meta-owned platform announced it would launch "Edits," a separate app for editing videos, this year. It's a clear move to compete with TikTok parent ByteDance's own editing app, CapCut, which could also stop operating in the US due to a divest-or-ban law.

This week, Instagram began adding a label to some videos with a "Made with Edits" tag on posts. When you click on the tag, it prompts you to pre-download the Edits app, which is slated to launch on March 31. On TikTok, videos edited in CapCut using templates have a similar tag directing users to CapCut.

If a video is edited in the Edits app and someone posts the video to Instagram from Edits, the tag will appear.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri, Instagram's top executive, posted reels with this tag this week. The "Made with Edits" label will soon appear on more videos as Instagram onboards creators who have been given early access to test the app. One talent manager told BI that one of their creator clients already had access.

Reels made in Edits will also be optimized for higher-resolution video — up to 2K resolution. (Last month, some users spotted this language in the Instagram app when posting reels: "Reels made with Edits are optimized for high-quality playback on Instagram.")

You may be asking: Will this affect how reels perform or are ranked on Instagram?

As of now, Instagram is not giving preferential ranking to reels with the "Made with Edits" tag, the company confirmed to BI.

• Sam Bankman-Fried's crisis PR rep didn't know about his interview with Tucker Carlson.
• The rep, Mark Botnick, resigned from the role on Thursday.
• The crypto scammer is reportedly seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump.

Tucker Carlson's jailhouse interview with Sam Bankman-Fried came as a surprise to everyone — including the crypto scammer's crisis manager.

Mark Botnick, who had represented Bankman-Fried since the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November 2022, resigned from his role on Thursday after learning of the interview.

He told Business Insider that he had no involvement in planning the interview with Carlson, which was posted to social media outlets on Thursday afternoon — Bankman-Fried's 33rd birthday.

"As of today, I no longer represent SBF," Botnick told BI.

Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty in 2023 of an $11 billion fraud and money-laundering scheme through his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.

Botnick is a seasoned public relations operative, having worked on several political campaigns for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He represented Bankman-Fried through the turbulent waves of his criminal case, including when he violated the terms of his bail and was jailed ahead of his trial due to witness tampering.

In recent weeks, Bankman-Fried has gone off-script. He posted messages on X offering advice on the Trump administration's efforts to fire federal employees. Botnick told BI that he was not involved in those X posts and is unsure who posted them on his behalf.

Bankman-Fried's conversations with journalists have gotten him in trouble before. His interviews with The Financial Times, Bloomberg News, and Vox were cited in his criminal trial as evidence of how he misled FTX investors and customers.

Botnick referred additional questions about Bankman-Fried to his criminal appeals attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, who didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

A representative for the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Bankman-Fried is incarcerated, declined to comment on his interview with Carlson. A representative for Carlson's media company didn't respond to a request for comment.

The former crypto mogul — who once had an on-paper net worth of over $26 billion — has been fishing for a pardon from President Donald Trump, Bloomberg News reported.

Trump and Bankman-Fried may have some perceived enemies in common, although Bankman-Fried didn't raise the issue with Carlson, a staunch Trump ally.

The federal judge who oversaw Bankman-Fried's trial and sentenced him, Lewis Kaplan, also oversaw two cases that the writer E. Jean Carroll successfully brought against Trump. Danielle Sassoon, the lead prosecutor in Bankman-Fried's criminal case, resigned as the acting head of the US Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York after refusing a demand from a Trump-appointed Justice Department official to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Carlson raised the question of a potential pardon in the interview.

"If you are not pardoned, how old will you be when you get out?" he asked Bankman-Fried.

Bankman-Fried said he'll be in his late 40s.

During FTX's collapse, in 2022, Bankman-Fried had considered an interview with Carlson, a Fox News host at the time, to "come out as a republican" and rail "against the woke agenda" as a way to restore his reputation, he wrote in a Google Document that became public as part of his criminal case.

"Note: these are all random probably bad ideas that aren't vetted," Bankman-Fried wrote at the top of the document.