• Walmart's announcement that it will raise prices due to tariffs has other retailers "delighted."
• The news gives retailers cover to raise their own prices, experts told BI.
• Trump's criticism of Walmart sends a warning about discussing price hikes.

Consumers may not be psyched about Walmart's announcement that it's going to raise prices because of President Donald Trump's tariffs, but other retailers are likely breathing a sigh of relief.

Retail analysts told Business Insider that Walmart did other companies a favor with the news, giving them more freedom to raise their own price tags.

"What they are doing is providing air cover for the tens of thousands of retailers — extra-large, large, medium, and small — all of whom are faced with exactly the same issue, and all of whom are going to be raising their prices," said Mark Cohen, a professor at Columbia Business School and the former director of retail studies at Columbia Business School. Other retailers are, he said, "delighted" about the benchmark Walmart set.

Retailers across the board are contending with rising costs, the experts told BI, but Walmart "leads the market on price," according to the cofounder of the blog Omni Talk Retail, Chris Walton. The country's biggest retailer said shoppers will probably start to see prices tick up at the end of this month and more drastically in June, and those BI spoke to agreed with that timeline.

"We have always worked to keep our prices as low as possible and we won't stop. We'll keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can given the reality of small retail margins," Molly Blakeman, a spokesperson for Walmart, told BI in a statement.

GlobalRetail analyst Neil Saunders wrote in an email that Walmart's honesty about price hikes might open the door for other retailers to have "open dialogues." Yet the honesty didn't come without consequences — Trump bashed the company in a Truth Social post, saying Walmart should, '"EAT THE TARIFFS,' and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I'll be watching."

Representatives for the White House directed BI to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's comments on Monday about Walmart, when she confirmed that Trump will be "watching" the company and said he "has always maintained that Chinese producers will be absorbing the cost of these tariffs."

Trump's reaction will likely influence how other retailers manage their own pricing conversations, the experts said.

"Retailers will have learned they need to be very careful — and it's very tricky — on how they articulate that so as to not wind up on a Truth Social post," Michael Baker, a senior analyst at D.A. Davidson, told BI. "That does add a layer of complication."

He anticipates executives will figure out how to more delicately discuss tariffs on coming earnings calls so as not to anger the president. Walton told BI that other retailers may try to avoid talking about rising costs publicly, and instead let shelf prices speak for themselves.

"President Trump has sent a warning shot that he doesn't like companies talking about price increases related to tariffs," Saunders wrote. "That may make some retailers more hesitant to draw a link, but I don't think it will stop them putting up prices. They will need to financially."

The president has issued not-so-subtle warnings about price hikes before, like when he sharply criticized Amazon for its reported plans to publicize how much tariffs were contributing to rising costs. Amazon said it had no plans to do so on its main site at the time, but experts told BI that the swift reaction sent a "warning signal to other companies" nonetheless.

Though Walmart may be one of the first big box retailers to publicize looming price hikes, it's better positioned to deal with the new tariffs than some competitors. Both Saunders and Baker said the company's scale gives it the ability to offset some of the tariff impact.

• Small business owners told BI that a 90-day trade deal with China doesn't let them plan confidently.
• Some aren't sure what taxes existing orders will face and feel like they're "gambling."
• The uncertainty of the short window has caused some to pause expansion plans.

When tariffs on Chinese imports dropped from 145% to 30%, Connor Alexander hit print on a new board game that he's publishing. If he's lucky, the game will be ready to ship in 60 days and arrive in the US a couple weeks later.

By that point, tariffs could be back up.

"This pause on the tariffs doesn't really help me. In fact, it just kind of terrifies me, because we're in a situation where 90 days from now is the earliest my stuff could be hitting the port," Alexander, a 54-year old board game publisher in Seattle, Washington, told Business Insider. "If that pause goes back to 145%, if it gets turned off, I'm out of business. I'm done."

Under the most recent trade agreement with China, the US lowered tariffs on Chinese goods to 30%. The agreement lasts for 90 days and it's unclear what will happen after it expires. Kush Desai, a spokesman for the White House, said in a statement that "the Trump administration is committed to restoring American Greatness with an America First economic agenda of negotiating balanced trade deals, cutting regulations, unleashing energy, and streamlining our government."

BI spoke with four small business owners about the new trade deal. They said they're glad that the tariffs were lowered, but that 90 days is not long enough to make decisions confidently — now, business feels like a guessing game.

Racing against the clock

When tariffs were at 145%, Alexander said he'd paused production on two projects for his company Coyote and Crow Games, which produces board and card games that represent the Indigenous community. He decided to green light both games when the trade deal went into effect, partly because he'd already sunk years and money into them.

Yet Alexander isn't sure that he'll be able to take advantage of the new rates, which are significantly higher than before the trade war began.

Under the fastest circumstances, 90 days may not be long enough to get his game that's currently being printed in China to the US, especially with potential shipping delays. He has no idea what taxes he'll end up paying on the game when it arrives.

Haley Pavone, the 29-year-old founder and CEO of Pashion Footwear, which makes convertible heels, called the trade deal "a mix of relief, but also frustration."

"If I could make a shoe in 10 minutes, I'd be stockpiling right now, but they take four months to make and this is only a 90 day reprieve," Pavone said. "It's not enough time to make any kind of change other than continuing to play it safe."

Her summer shoes have arrived and fall products are in production, but she said she hasn't placed her holiday order yet. Pavone said that her fall shoes should arrive in August, but she doesn't know what taxes she'll pay on them.

"It's anyone's guess," she said.

Hugo Ramirez, 42, told BI he typically buys all of his nonperishables from China for Frio Mexican Treats, an ice cream and churro shop in Appleton, Wisconsin that features flavors from his hometown of Chihuahua, Mexico.

When 145% tariffs were in effect he paused all of his orders from China and started buying from US manufacturers instead, but the materials were more expensive and not customized.

For Jessica Kim, the 34-year-old owner of Mycha LA and Chicago, a company that operates vending machines for boba and specialty teas, the 90-day window offered a brief opportunity to receive a shipment, but no chance for long-term planning. She sources all of her vending machines, non-perishables, and a few specialty tea leaves from China.

An order of 10 machines that was meant to arrive in February was delayed and was only ready to be shipped at the end of April. Kim paused the order, though, because of the 145% tariffs in place at the time. When the taxes dropped to 30%, she approved the delivery, and the machines are scheduled to arrive by mid-June.

"I was trying to time it, almost like gambling," she told BI.

'Guessing game'

Alexander told BI he's anticipating a $10 to $20 price hike on his games if tariffs stay at 30%, but he can't accurately predict costs.

"I've already had to tell my customer base, 'I don't know what I'm going to have to charge you in the long run. I'll know when that inventory gets here,'" Alexander said. "I'm taking a chance. I'm gambling on my business."

Pavone said she has no choice but to remain "as cautious and risk-averse as possible," which will likely impact her supply and pricing long-term.

"While we're trying to put that budget together, we're having to play a guessing game of what happens at the end of the 90 days," she said about her holiday order.

Pavone has also been impacted by President Donald Trump closing the de minimis loophole, which allowed shipments under $800 to avoid import taxes.

To cope, she's raised prices on her products and attached a tariff tax to US orders, so consumers can see how much more they're paying. Prices haven't changed for her international customers.

Expansions paused in their tracks

Pavone said she had planned to grow her staff — she had an offer letter out but has rescinded it.

Ramirez said he's also stopped thinking about expansion because it would mean having to buy new machines from China. So far, he said he's managed to keep prices stable on core orders, like a single scoop, but raised the cost of premium items.

He said he doesn't want to play the blame game, and is instead focused on solutions, but he's unsure of the upside of the tariffs.

"If they're going to fix the current markets and help us small businesses grow, I'm all for it," he said of the Trump team. "But as far as what I can see, this is what my experience is."

• Elon Musk said that Neuralink, his brain chip company, is launching a clinical trial in the UAE.
• The announcement follows news that Starlink, his satellite internet company, is coming to Saudi Arabia.
• Neuralink announced the clinical trial just one day before Trump arrived in the UAE.

Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company, is launching a clinical trial in the UAE — and the announcement came just one day before President Donald Trump arrived in the country.

The company said on Wednesday that it's partnering with the Cleveland Clinic for a clinical trial in Abu Dhabi, its first outside of the US. Called UAE-Prime, the clinical trial will focus on how individuals with motor and speech impairment "can use thought to control devices & communicate," according to a post on X.

Just one day prior, Musk announced that Starlink, his satellite internet company that's a part of SpaceX, had been approved for maritime and aviation use in Saudi Arabia.

Both of the companies' Middle East expansions coincided with Trump's multi-day tour to the Gulf. A number of key business and tech leaders traveled to the region as well. Trump has largely focused on deal-making throughout the trip, previously saying he wants to secure $1 trillion worth of investments.

Representatives for Neuralink and Musk did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

• A Hasbro exec said the company's plans drastically changed after tariffs on China were paused.
• She said the company halted pricing changes and plans to halt some production entirely.
• Still, the toymaker exec said the environment is uncertain and "every day is a new adventure."

On Sunday, the toy maker Hasbro was preparing big changes to contend with triple-digit tariffs on Chinese imports.

By Monday, all of those calculations were different.

Gina Goetter, Hasbro's Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, said that President Donald Trump's decision to temporarily lower tariffs on China from 145% to 30% drastically altered the company's plans. She called the announcement a "pleasant surprise" at JP Morgan's Technology, Media, and Communications Conference.

"A 30% world is very different from a 145 on how we're treating decisions like pricing, how we're treating allowances, how we're working with our retailers on promotions," Goetter said at the conference on Wednesday.

Agility, she said, has been key in making decisions in the current environment.

Hasbro, which produces Nerf guns and Play-Doh, had been planning to change the pricing of some products when the 145% tariffs were in place, Goetter said.

Now, many of the pricing moves have been paused, though Goetter said some will still go through where it makes sense.

"What Monday's announcement allows us for is to go back to those products where we were taking pricing and be very thoughtful," she said.

Beyond upping some prices, Hasbro had planned to stop making some products altogether because the new manufacturing math simply didn't work. Goetter said on Wednesday that the company had also been planning to take an unprecedented move and produce some items only for international markets.

Plans to reconsider manufacturing are now themselves being reconsidered, Goetter said. Hasbro makes many of its board games in the US, she said, and though the company is "actively exploring" what else it can produce domestically and in other parts of the world, Monday's announcement changes that calculus as well.

Ultimately, Goetter said the math is just quite different, at least for now. Hasbro had previously predicted that 145% tariffs could shave off $180 million from the company's yearly net profits, and Goetter said that the new 30% tax brings that closer number to between $50 and $70 million.

Given that the current agreement is temporary and the trade environment remains volatile, Goetter acknowledged that no decision is final.

"In the tariff world, every day is a new adventure," she said.

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 — This article was updated to clarify that the company is looking into what else it can produce domestically and in other parts of the world.

• Elon Musk said that Saudi Arabia has approved Starlink, his internet satellite system.
• Musk made the announcement during the Saudi-US Investment Forum to a room full of corporate leaders.
• Starlink is already in more than 125 countries and growing rapidly.

Elon Musk on Tuesday said that Saudi Arabia has approved Starlink for maritime and aviation use, expanding the satellite internet system's already massive global reach.

"I'd also like to thank the Kingdom for approving Starlink for maritime and aviation use," Musk said at the Saudi-US Investment Forum to raucous applause.

Starlink, which is owned and operated by Musk's company SpaceX, has rapidly grown in the past few years. Its traffic tripled in 2024 and it's available in more than 125 countries, according to the company. The satellite internet service has been crucial to the war in Ukraine and seeks to expand to an ever-growing list of nations. It's the biggest internet satellite constellation to date, though Amazon is working on a competitor.

Musk's comments come as President Donald Trump embarks on the first overseas tour of his second term, flanked by some of America's most prominent private sector leaders. Trump has said he wants to secure $1 trillion worth of investments during his trip to the Middle East, and deals have already started rolling in.

The trip hasn't been free of controversy — the president's stated intention to accept a $400 million jet from Qatar, for example, has legal experts and bipartisan politicians alike concerned.

• Ticketmaster announced a slate of changes Monday, including upfront prices and updated wait times.
• The changes came the same day a new ban on junk fees went into effect.
• Ticketmaster came under scrutiny after Taylor Swift's Eras tour, when the site crashed.

If Taylor Swift ever tours again, her fans will at least know how long they'll have to wait in line for tickets.

On Monday, the Biden-era ban on junk fees went into effect and Ticketmaster announced a slate of changes it's making to comply with the new rules. Some of the changes address frustrations Swifties faced when they tried to buy tickets for her 2022 Eras tour in droves, only to have Ticketmaster crash.

The company said that it will now tell hopeful fans their exact spot in line and how many people are ahead of them. It will provide "real time sale updates" for the most popular events as fans wait in line, providing information on ticket availability and pricing.

Ticketmaster is also introducing "All in Prices," which will display the full ticket price upfront, including all fees. The all-in price doesn't include local taxes or delivery fees, though.

In 2022, Swift loyalists spent hours on their computers waiting for Eras tickets — one fan previously described the seemingly endless queue as "a madhouse." Human beings battled bots for the coveted seats, and some ended up shelling out thousands for resale tickets. Ticketmaster committed to "fighting more bots harder than ever" on Monday.

It's not just the FTC that scrutinized Ticketmaster after the fiasco — the Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against Live Nation Entertainment, its parent company. The DOJ alleges that Live Nation and Ticketmaster unlawfully dominate the market, stifling innovation in having too much control over fans and artists. Ultimately, the ongoing suit seeks to break up Live Nation — fitting, given that Swift is the champion of the breakup song.

Representatives for Swift and Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment.

• A slew of business and tech execs are scheduled to speak at Tuesday's Saudi-US Investment Forum.
• The forum will focus on a range of issues, from AI, to energy, to manufacturing.
• Tuesday's forum coincides with Trump's crucial visit to Saudi Arabia.

As President Donald Trump embarks on the first international trip of his second term, a small crowd of Wall Street and Silicon Valley executives are also jetting off to Saudi Arabia.

On Tuesday, executives from companies like Google, Nvidia, and BlackRock are scheduled to speak at the Saudi-US Investment Forum, according to the event's website. The forum will cover a range of topics — AI, energy, defense, and manufacturing, to name a few — and host some of the kingdom's power brokers.

Investment is top of mind beyond Tuesday's conference: Trump has said he wants to secure $1 trillion worth of deals during his trip to the gulf, multiple outlets reported.

Here are some of the biggest names scheduled to take the stage. Representatives for the Saudi-US Investment Forum did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Andy Jassy, Amazon

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is listed as a featured speaker as Saudi Arabia is working to establish itself as a global AI leader. Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud business, has committed to investing more than $5.3 billion in Saudi Arabia in the coming years to build data centers for the computing power needed to run AI models.

Alex Karp, Palantir

The Palantir CEO is scheduled to speak at the conference, and has recently credited a pro-defense tech wave for solid first quarter performance. Alex Karp said on a recent earnings call that part of Palantir's success had to do with "an unvarnished cacophony of the combination of 20 years of investment and a massive cultural shift in the US."

Elon Musk

Elon Musk is listed as a speaker, just a few months after Tesla announced it will be entering the Saudi market. The world's richest man has previously had a somewhat rocky relationship with Saudi Arabia over unsuccessful business deals.

Larry Fink

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, launched an investment firm in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last year, and CEO Larry Fink stressed the firm's global reach on a recent earnings call. He was once a leading voice on issues like ESG and DEI, but the firm's recent annual letter didn't mention either issue. Instead, Fink wrote in it that BlackRock is now betting big on the private market.

David Sacks

Trump's AI and crypto czar is among the White House officials scheduled to speak. On Sunday evening, David Sacks posted about arriving in the Middle East on X, saying that America needs to be the "partner-of-choice" when it comes to AI, and that "effective AI diplomacy is vital now more than ever."

Jensen Huang

Representatives from Nvidia spoke at this year's Global AI Summit, hosted in Saudi Arabia, and now CEO Jensen Huang is set to represent the chips giant at Tuesday's conference. A top Saudi AI official told CNBC in September that the country hoped to get access to Nvidia's high-performance chips within the year. Groq, a semiconductor startup and potential competitor to Nvidia, announced that it has gotten a $1.5 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to expand the delivery of its AI chips.

Jane Fraser

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser is among the Wall Street leaders slated to speak. She also spoke at Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative in October.

Stephen Schwarzman

Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone, also spoke at Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative ahead of the presidential election and said he thought that Trump would be a better president the second time around. Last year, the billionaire said he wants Blackstone to become the "largest financial investor" in global AI infrastructure.

Kelly Ortberg, Boeing

Boeing has had a relationship with Saudi Arabia since the 1940s, according to its website. Though CEO Kelly Ortberg is scheduled to speak in Saudi Arabia, Boeing has made headlines related to a different country in the Middle East, after multiple outlets reported that the Qatari royal family plans to give the Trump administration a Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet to be used as Air Force One. The plane is worth a staggering $400 million and has been criticized by figures on both political parties for potential conflicts of interest.

Ruth Porat, Alphabet and Google

Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet, is scheduled to speak, and Google has made recent investments in Saudi Arabia. In 2024, the company announced that it was opening an AI hub in Saudi Arabia, and a 2025 partnership between Accenture and Google Cloud seeks to further generative AI capacities in the country.

Arvind Krishna, IBM

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna recently announced a new slate of AI products from IBM as the company seeks to grow its generative AI business. In February, IBM announced it was expanding its AI efforts in Saudi Arabia and the company opened regional headquarters in the country last year.

Omeed Malik, Founder and President of 1789 capital

Omeed Malik founder and president of 1789 Capital, a VC firm that counts Donald Trump Jr. among its partners. He recently started a private club in Washington, DC, that caters to the MAGA social scene once co-hosted a Trump fundraiser that raised upwards of $10 million. 1789 Capital invests in energy and software, among other industries, and it bills itself as anti-ESG. Instead, it focuses on "EIG" — entrepreneurship, innovation, and growth.

• Justin Lopas learned crucial lessons about running a startup from his time at SpaceX and Anduril.
• His time working for Musk, sometimes directly, taught him "culture is the most important thing."
• Lopas told BI about the other takeaways from his SpaceX years he applies to his company, Base Power.

Justin Lopas has seen Elon Musk's management style up close, and he's embracing some of the things he's learned.

Lopas, a 30-year-old cofounder, worked in manufacturing and mechanical engineering at SpaceX and Anduril before launching his company Base Power, a Texas-based home battery company, in 2023.

He talked to BI about how his time at both companies, and experience working directly with Musk, has helped guide his own work at Base Power, from the culture to the interview process.

Representatives for SpaceX and Anduril did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Landing the jobs and getting the right people

Lopas was just a sophomore at the University of Michigan when he landed an internship at Musk's rocket company in 2013. He later returned to SpaceX full time in 2016 and moved to Anduril in 2020. At SpaceX, he split his time between working on the Falcon rocket and building out manufacturing capabilities in Boca Chica Village, Texas (before it became the city of Starbase).

In his interviews at both SpaceX and Anduril, Lopas said he noticed that interviewers tended to focus on practical skills and addressing actual questions the company is facing.

He uses the same strategy when talking to applicants for Base Power.

"It's like, 'Here's a problem that we're working on now, how would you solve it?'" Lopas said. "I found that to be a far more effective way to judge somebody's technical talent than, 'Can you solve this sort of Mechanical Engineering homework problem?'"

Culture is everything

Lopas' biggest takeaway from his years at SpaceX wasn't limited to engineering expertise.

"Culture is the most important thing, I pretty firmly believe that," he said. "I learned a lot of that specifically at SpaceX."

When he was there, Musk's company emphasized a few basic concepts that Lopas is now trying to instill at Base Power: high ownership, first principles, and a good work ethic.

High ownership is the idea that an employee should own any problem that's related to their work, even if it doesn't explicitly fall into their job description.

"Are you going to go solve the problem, or are you going to look for ways to define the problem so that it's not your problem? The answer has to be 'yes' to the former," Lopas said.

He also learned to approach every problem from the concept of "first principles": disregard assumptions about how things should be done.

"For almost everything we're doing, there's a 'traditional' way to do it," he said. "But if you think about the problem from first principles, oftentimes the way it is normally done is not the way it should be done."

His team applies the concept to seemingly small decisions, like mounting batteries on the floor instead of the more conventional location on a wall.

Speed matters

Lopas said that "speed is basically everything" at SpaceX and Anduril. A focus on reducing bureaucracy was another key lesson, though he said that some degree of internal management is necessary.

"The thing that SpaceX taught me, and that we're trying to embody here is, 'Does that person or process add any value to the company or the organization?'" he told BI. "And if the answer is no, you should get rid of it."

After acquiring Twitter, for example, Musk cut almost 90% of the staff, and many have criticized his similar chainsaw approach to paring back the federal government through the White House DOGE Office.

Before President Donald Trump took office for a second time, Musk wrote in an op-ed that DOGE aimed to drastically reduce headcount and costs and combat an "ever-growing bureaucracy."

Musk as a boss

Lopas worked directly with Musk while in Boca Chica Village and "really enjoyed" it. He said the billionaire could quickly get to the root of a problem and simplify it.

"I was fascinated by how quickly he was able to learn things or understand things that he did not necessarily have a background in," Lopas said.

Base Power is still in its early days, but Lopas is thinking about how to build a company that borrows principles from the ones he came from. In doing so, he said he thinks he's got a good shot at building a business that can "stand the test of time," he said.

Have a tip or experience at one of Musk's companies? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at alicetecotzky.05. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Real ID rules took effect Wednesday after more than 20 years.
• Ahead of the deadline, thousands of Americans still had not upgraded their state IDs.
• At airports in New York City and Atlanta, wait times were low and compliance was high.

Amid warnings of long lines, confusion, and last-minute scrambles, the nationwide Real ID rollout arrived with an unexpected twist: calm.

Leading up to the deadline, some 81% of flyers were presenting adequate ID, the Transportation Security Administration said, leaving hundreds of thousands still in need of an upgrade.

Business Insider reporters were on the ground at two of the US's busiest airports — New York City's LaGuardia Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — to see how the new rules would play out. We weren't the only ones eager to capture the possible chaos; news crews also littered the terminals, cameras ready.

As the first few hours passed, things appeared surprisingly organized. There were no snaking security lines, travelers largely came prepared with the right documentation, and the TSA ran a two-line strategy to keep things moving.

Wait times were low, and there was a separate system for people without a Real ID

Wednesday is generally a low travel day, and posted wait times for the regular checkpoint at both airports — including across all of their respective terminals — were less than 10 minutes during the morning rush. Even less for TSA PreCheck.

Jayden Martinez, an airport employee in LaGuardia's Terminal B, told BI that travelers without a Real ID are put in a separate security line but that it's "not really affecting the TSA wait times."

Everyone with an acceptable ID, including Real IDs and passports, is given a slip of paper indicating they're good to fly. Another employee said there had been far more compliant than noncompliant travelers.

Martinez said crowds could change on a busier travel day. Two employees in Terminal C said the same. New York's Real ID compliance is only about 45%.

Across the river in New Jersey, where compliance is among the lowest in the country at about 19%, government-posted TSA wait times at Newark Liberty International Airport were between two and 18 minutes.

In Atlanta, many rows of rope lines were out in apparent anticipation of crowds. But with Georgia reporting nearly 100% compliance, security lines were similarly empty on Wednesday morning.

"We've had low Real ID noncompliance, even lower than expected," Alexis Pickeral, the Atlanta airport's lead TSA officer, told BI. People without a Real ID were given a red noncompliance card and faced more thorough screening of their bags and persons. "It doesn't take very long," Pickeral said.

Travelers were budgeting for extra security time

Ahead of the deadline, which was in the works for nearly 20 years, the government and airlines warned about long security queues and encouraged people to arrive earlier than normal. Most appeared to have heeded their advice.

Scott Adkins and Erin Courtney were flying from New York to Illinois, and both knew about the Real ID deadline. They said they arrived an extra 45 minutes early.

Adkins said he got his Real ID years ago without even realizing it, but Courtney wasn't able to get an appointment and instead brought her passport (halfway through her conversation with BI, she double-checked that her passport wasn't expired).

"As soon as they started announcing it, that's when I started thinking about it, but I didn't do anything or try to make an appointment until like a month ago," Courtney said. She added that her local Department of Motor Vehicles was telling people who had passports not to get their Real ID.

Two women from Birmingham, Alabama, who were leading a college trip, said they arrived early at LaGuardia. Both had their Real IDs and knew it was the first day of implementation.

Getting the updated license, however, wasn't so easy — one of them had to return to the DMV three times and got it only five days ago, they said. For about four months leading up to the trip, they told students they would need to have a Real ID or a passport.

Hayden B, who has a Real ID and was alerted about the enforcement deadline a few weeks before her flight by both Delta Air Lines and the government, said she had no issues at the checkpoint when flying from Las Vegas to Atlanta on Wednesday.

"This was my first time flying. Security took five minutes," she said.

• There's a new, Trump-aligned private club in DC, where membership can reach half-a-million dollars.
• David Sacks said the club will replace older establishments and attract a new type of Republican.
• Private clubs are popping up across the US, including in the nation's capitol.

There's a new private club in DC for the "younger, hipper, Trump-aligned Republican."

That's how David Sacks, President Donald Trump's crypto and AI czar, described Executive Branch on the latest episode of the All-In podcast. The most exclusive membership costs a small fortune, and Trump's orbit is full of people who can pay the price.

Interest in private clubs is soaring across the country, including in DC. Ned's Club, a separate members-only space, opened just steps from the White House earlier this year.

Here are five key details about Executive Branch, which is billing itself as MAGA's hottest new hangout.

Membership can cost half a million dollars

Founding members have to shell out $500,000 to join the invite-only club. Sacks said on All-In that there are around 10 founding members, including himself and billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya. They have "additional benefits," Sacks said, though he didn't specify what their special perks include.

According to the club's website, the waiting list for new members is closed.

Owners include the sons of Trump World

Sacks said on the podcast that his government work means he can't be an owner, but Politico reported that Donald Trump Jr., megadonor Omeed Malik, investor Chris Buskirk, and Zach and Alex Witkoff are the owners. Sacks congratulated the owners in a post on X, which each of them, except Trump Jr., reposted.

Malik and Buskirk cofounded 1789 Capital, an anti-ESG VC firm that has invested in Tucker Carlson's new conservative media project. Trump Jr. is a partner at the firm.

The Witkoff brothers are the sons of Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy and a real-estate developer. The elder Witkoff has known the president for decades.

Palihapitiya responded to a request for comment from Business Insider with a poop emoji.

The other reported cofounders and owners didn't respond at all.

An alternative to the 'old and stuffy' DC

Executive Branch promises to remake the DC social scene in Trump's image, Sacks said.

"The clubs that exist in Washington today have been around for decades. They're kind of old and stuffy," he said on All-In. "To the extent that there are Republican clubs, they tend to be more Bush-era Republicans as opposed to Trump-era Republicans. We wanted to create something new, hipper, and Trump-aligned."

He said the founders wanted to create a place where people could hang out without fear of bumping into lobbyists or "a fake news reporter."

The club will reportedly be in Georgetown

The club will be based in the upscale neighborhood of Georgetown, Politico and other news outlets reported. Sacks didn't share any location details on All-In.

Lower-cost options are available

While founding members pay a staggering half-a-million dollars to join Executive Branch, other invitees can dole out a smaller sum, Sacks said on All-In.

"I think people are getting a little bit carried away with that number," he said of the $500,000 price tag. Sacks didn't specify how much lower-tier membership costs.

Regular membership at Ned's Club costs $5,000 a year, on top of a $5,000 joining fee, BI reported in April. The Founders' membership there comes in at $25,000 a year, with a $125,000 initial fee.

• Project Kuiper is Amazon's satellite internet venture.
• It sets off a new era in Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk's rivalry: Project Kuiper vs. Starlink.
• Here's the lowdown on Kuiper's history, technology, goals, and competitive stake.

Amazon is seeking to expand its already giant reach with Project Kuiper, an internet satellite venture. Kuiper will directly compete with SpaceX's Starlink, furthering the billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk's decadeslong rivalry.

The $10 billion venture aims to bring broadband internet to tens of millions and, if successful, could support some of Amazon's other goals. The project gets its name from the Kuiper Belt, a part of the solar system past the eight major planets. Kuiper has secured launches from various aerospace companies, including Blue Origin, which is owned by Bezos, Amazon's founder and executive chairman.

Here's everything to know about Project Kuiper's founding, operations, and competition with Starlink.

Project Kuiper's founding and technology

Kuiper promises to bring broadband internet access to tens of millions of people, especially those in underserved areas, Amazon says. The company says its services will help close the digital divide, since satellite internet brings faster connections to rural communities.

Amazon plans to eventually launch more than 3,200 satellites through Kuiper, which is based out of Washington. Kuiper has three primary components, according to Amazon: infrastructure on the ground, satellites, and customer terminals.

Ground infrastructure links the satellite network and the internet. The satellites, which sit in low orbit, transmit data between the ground infrastructure and users. Each user installs an outdoor antenna, or a "customer terminal," that connects to the satellite and delivers WiFi.

Kuiper will work with Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud business and the base of its profits. The ground services will connect with AWS, meaning Amazon could own all of the infrastructure from the server to the satellite in space and have more control over pricing, quality, and reach.

It's not just AWS — Kuiper also has the potential to work with and boost other Amazon services. Alexa, for example, relies on an internet connection. Kuiper could bring the voice assistant to people who currently lack internet. The same goes for bringing the internet to new potential Amazon Prime members and general customers.

Timeline and launch plans

Amazon began researching Kuiper in 2018, and the Federal Communications Commission gave the company a license to start sending satellites to space in July 2020. Kuiper's initial launch of prototype satellites was scheduled for late 2022 but was delayed when Amazon changed the rocket-delivery system. Eventually, Amazon sent its first two Kuiper prototype satellites into orbit in October of 2023. Those satellites were used to test parts of the Kuiper system before deploying the whole network.

On April 28, 2025, Amazon launched 27 satellites and the company said it had established communications with all of them. A rocket from United Launch Alliance, a joint venture Boeing and Lockheed Martin, sent the satellites into space. Amazon said it has secured more than 80 launches with a range of rocket companies in addition to ULA, including Blue Origin, SpaceX, and the French company Arianespace.

When it approved Kuiper's plans, the FCC said Amazon needs to deploy at least half of its satellites by the end of July 2026.

Kuiper internet will become available to customers before the end of 2025, if launches stay on schedule and all goes to plan. The project is hugely expensive — Amazon has invested $10 billion into Kuiper — but could also be quite profitable.

Unlike Amazon's core e-commerce business, which has thin margins, broadband services could have an 80% margin, BI previously reported.

Project Kuiper vs. Starlink

Bezos' Kuiper and Musk's Starlink have the same basic goal: to provide fast broadband satellite internet, mainly to people in remote areas. Both services require users to install antennas.

Musk's Starlink has a big head start in nearly every respect. By the time Kuiper launched its first 27 satellites, Starlink had thousands of satellites in space and millions of users. Its web service is booming, and Musk has said he eventually hopes to form a constellation of 42,000 satellites. The service has geopolitical importance, too; Musk sent thousands of Starlink terminals to Ukraine during the early days of its war with Russia, for example.

The broadband service is a big part of SpaceX's bottom line, with a projected revenue for the fiscal year 2025 of $12.3 billion.

As Kuiper races to catch up to Starlink, the billionaire space race will continue to take on new technological and global significance here on Earth.

• I went to a retirement home to have a conversation with residents about DOGE's changes at the Social Security Administration.
• Even those with few expenses are carefully watching the monthly checks and their 401Ks.
• Residents said extra savings won't last forever and they're "more fearful" than they've been before.

On Thursday, I pulled into the parking lot at Atria Tanglewood, a senior living facility on the south shore of Long Island, about an hour outside of Manhattan. In a basement-level room, surrounded by wide-brimmed hats left over from the facility's Kentucky Derby party the day before, I talked to four residents about Social Security and their savings.

Two lifelong Democrats, an independent, and a formerly "very involved" Republican, none of them support President Donald Trump. Despite having relatively few expenses, all of them are alarmed.

Social Security checks as a source of stress

In recent months, Trump and the White House DOGE Office have enacted big changes at the Social Security Administration, like staffing cuts that have impacted customer service. Some of the more than 73 million people that claim Social Security benefits are worried about their monthly checks, even though Trump has vowed not to touch the SSA's funding.

When asked for comment, a representative for the White House directed Business Insider to a recent press release about the SSA, which highlights "enhancing customer service, reducing waste, fraud, and abuse, and optimizing its workforce."

All four of the residents I spoke with are retired and get Social Security, and they each said they've been keeping up with the changes at the SSA. They're still receiving their benefits, but some are nervous about the money.

Judy Martin, 89, started receiving benefits in 1992 and said the changes "scare" her.

"Our checks get deposited right into a checking account, and every month, I'm very cautious, looking to make sure that they come in," she told me. "I'm just being on the safe side."

The same goes for Bob Katz, an 85-year-old former clinical pharmacist: "I've been concerned. Every month I know what it's supposed to be, so I check. So far, so good."

Those I spoke to said they mainly put their Social Security money toward rent, but said the checks don't comprise the majority of their monthly income. Martin said if her and her husband's checks are ever delayed, they might not be able to afford their room at Atria Tanglewood anymore.

None of those I spoke with said that they think Trump will actually slash Social Security funding — they, like many politicians, think it would be a political nightmare.

'My 401K is a 201K'

Even more than their Social Security checks, those I talked to are watching their savings accounts. When I asked if anyone had looked at their 401Ks amid the recent market turmoil, all of them nodded.

"I'll oversimplify it: My 401K is a 201K," said Benjamin Meyer, a 78-year-old former alcohol retailer. "Not really. I haven't lost that much, but I don't like what's going on." He said, though, that he believes the money will come back, just like it did after 2008.

Martin said she and her husband have lost a chunk of their savings, and she is keeping an eye on the market.

"The last time it went down it did come back up, but who knows now what's going to happen?" she said.

Judy Perlman, who told me her age is "unlisted," said she and her husband were always conservative with their investments. Now her daughter manages her money, and Perlman doesn't think it's in the stock market, though knows her daughter is stressed. Both Katz and Meyer brought up additional savings, but said the extra money can't last forever.

Living at an assisted living facility, the residents I talked to don't have many expenses other than rent. Perlman said she buys gifts for her grandkids; Katz mentioned copays and prescriptions.

Perlman said she recently listened to a radio show about past presidents and remembered how much turmoil she's lived through — and forgotten about.

"The McCarthy era, remember that? The war?" she asked, being met with nods. "Those of us that are older have been through a lot of different situations and somehow we always manage to get out of it. I'm more fearful now, though."

• Some women who have changed their name through marriage or divorce are struggling to get Real IDs.
• Several women told BI they've had to make multiple trips to try and get the right marriage documents.
• Americans are scrambling to get Real IDs ahead of the deadline to get the identification for flights.

At the end of last summer, Debra Kohn became very well-acquainted with her local Pennsylvania DMV.

She ended up making three trips there, along with one to the clerk's office, to obtain a valid Real ID — and all because her marriage certificate from 1986 was from a justice of the peace, not the county.

Starting May 7, anyone getting on a domestic flight will no longer be able to use an old driver's license. Instead, they will need a Real ID or other form of valid identification.

Like Kohn, Americans need to bring a slew of documents to the DMV, including an original marriage certificate for those who have changed their names. Getting an original marriage certificate from the state usually takes weeks and costs a fee.

Kohn isn't alone in her Real ID difficulties. Though many married or divorced women have the necessary documents handy or can get them relatively easily, others have taken to social media to share their difficulties. Business Insider spoke to four women about the lengthy, often confusing process.

Representatives for the Transportation Department, TSA, and Department of Homeland Security did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

'Extremely frustrating'

Kohn, 68, told Business Insider she probably spent six hours getting the necessary certificate — one with an official raised seal — between her many trips and time spent at the DMV. She hasn't heard of any of her friends having similar issues.

Jessiqua, a 34-year-old in Oklahoma who asked to go by her first name for fear of retaliation from her ex-husband, said lengthy divorce proceedings made it difficult for her to get a Real ID in 2020 and 2021, even though she wasn't even switching back to her maiden name.

"When I went to get my Real ID, they wanted my marriage certificate and they wanted my divorce document," she told BI. "I was in the middle of a divorce. I didn't have a divorce document, I had to fight for one."

Eventually, she got a legal separation document from her lawyer.

Julie Anderson, a 58-year-old in Massachusetts, said she got "lucky" when applying for a Real ID in April of this year. Divorced but with her ex-husband's last name, she only brought a copy of her marriage license (along with a divorce decree). The DMV employee talked to his supervisor and, somehow, they accepted her copy.

"The person at the desk said, 'I'm really surprised they did,'" Anderson told BI. "Luckily they did, because I went to my files and I went through everything, I don't even own a copy of my original marriage license."

Diane Wagner, 53, wasn't as fortunate and found the whole process "extremely frustrating." She visited her DMV office in St. Louis, Missouri, three times in one day to try and get the right marriage certificate, because the copy she had at home wasn't enough.

"It was a whole day running around, between waiting in line and finding all my items and going back and waiting in line again."

Eventually, she paid a fee and applied for a certified marriage certificate online, which arrived about two weeks later.

"Had I known there was gonna be all these hoops, I maybe never would've changed my name," Wagner said.

People are scrambling to get their IDs

The Real ID Act, passed in 2005, was a response to the September 11 attacks. It was initially meant to go into effect in 2008, but the deadline has been pushed multiple times. Now that it's actually here, it seems many Americans are scrambling to get their Real IDs.

Business Insider checked availability at some DMV offices on May 2. Some offices, like the one in Fort Benton, Montana, had openings in early May, whereas others were totally booked. In the Louisville, Kentucky, offices, for example, the earliest appointments were on July 1. And Illinois' DMV website displayed a pop-up: "Due to the federally-mandated Real ID requirements, our facilities and website have been overwhelmed with requests for Real IDs."

Illinois has set up a "walk-in Real ID Only Supercenter," according to the pop-up message, and some local municipalities are hosting their own events to deal with the overflow. People can still get their Real ID after the new rules go into effect.

The day she spoke to BI, Wagner tried to finally get her Real ID. She showed up at 4:40 p.m. to an office that closed at 5 p.m.

Even so, she was turned away. There were too many people in line.

• Retail experts told BI that the White House's sharp rebuke of Amazon could affect retailers nationwide.
• The response likely halted any plans retailers had to note how tariffs impact prices, experts believe.
• Consumers might blame tariffs for price hikes even if retailers don't highlight them, the experts said.

Retailers have a new factor to manage in their tariff plans: Getting called out by President Donald Trump.

Companies are likely rethinking how to address any of their own tariff-related price hikes after the White House called out Amazon, four retail experts told Business Insider, making a complicated business environment even trickier to navigate.

After Punchbowl News reported that Amazon planned to publicize how much tariffs were contributing to price hikes on its website, press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the proposal a "hostile and political act" during a press conference. Amazon denied the report. A spokesperson told Business Insider that only its low-cost Amazon Haul store considered listing import charges on some products and never approved the plan, but the situation could have a chilling effect nonetheless, experts told BI.

"The sharp reaction to Amazon sends a warning signal to other companies that the administration is going to lash out at any firm that explicitly highlights the negative impacts of its tariff policy," GlobalData retail analyst Neil Saunders wrote in an email to BI.

"Any retailer who was even considering implementing something along the lines of what it was reported Amazon was planning has likely immediately stopped all work and any further discussions to that end," wrote Chris Walton, Omni Talk Retailer's cofounder, in an email to BI. He thinks retailers will let the price "speak for itself" rather than draw any attention to tariffs.

"There is really no workaround that I can think of that wouldn't catch the potential ire of DC given what we saw yesterday," Walton wrote.

Some retailers, including Target and Walmart, have already said they will need to raise prices because of tariffs, and one of Trump's former advisors predicted that consumers could see the hikes by the end of May. Trump has paused plans for additional tariffs on many countries for now, but has raised the levies on China, a huge exporter of consumer goods to the US.

When asked for comment, a representative for the White House directed BI to Leavitt's statements during her press conference.

Companies communicate with consumers about how prices are calculated all the time, Rob Lalka, a professor at Tulane's Freeman School of Business, said. Think, he said, about stores noting a state sales tax on a receipt.

"That's always a way of redirecting public backlash against higher prices away from the company itself and toward policy or a policymaker," Lalka said.

And consumers generally appreciate the transparency, according to Jason Miller, a professor of supply-chain management at Michigan State University.

"We could know from some well-established theories about the fairness of raising prices that it's much easier to say, 'Hey, I'm having to charge you more because my costs went up and here's the exact amount my costs went up,'" Miller told BI. "People are much more accepting of that, because they view it as legitimate."

With Trump's Amazon rebuke, retailers are more hamstrung in how they can address rising costs. Saunders wrote that retailers might become "more sensitive" about any messaging around price hikes. Nearly every retailer will be affected given the global nature of our supply chains, but Saunders thinks the apparel and electronic sectors will likely face particularly tough questions.

As much as the Trump administration steers retailers away from highlighting tariffs — Saunders said it's "sensitive to the growing backlash" and working to "manage the narrative" — consumers might get there on their own.

"Consumers are smart, and if they see prices go up at their favorite retailers, they will put two and two together and know that it is likely because of tariffs," Walton wrote. Saunders also wrote that the messaging might not matter much if prices rise sharply, since Americans are "very aware" of the impact tariffs might have.

The potentially bigger consideration for retailers, Walton told BI, is how to set their future prices to remain competitive. Like many other questions plaguing businesses, that answer remains uncertain.

"How that plays out is still anyone's guess," Walton said.

Dominick Reuter contributed to reporting.

• Andy Jassy said the pace of transitioning to AI is a factor to keep an eye on.
• He worries that the country's education system won't set people up for the future economy.
• Amazon has invested heavily in AI, and Jassy said he bets it will change nearly "every experience."

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy considers himself an AI optimist, but even he has reservations about how quickly we're adopting the technology.

"One of the things we have to watch is that the pace of this transition may be quick, it may be quicker than other technology transitions in the past," Jassy said while speaking at the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit on Tuesday. "We have to make sure that we're responsible about the way the algorithms work and the way the models work."

Jassy said there will inevitably be unintended consequences of adopting AI and that "one of the biggest problems" doesn't have to do with the technology at all, but instead the country's education system. He said he's worried about a declining quality in education and whether it will equip people for the tools of the future, like coding apps.

"It's going to be very empowering, but we've got to make sure that our education keeps up so people are successful in this new economy," Jassy said. President Donald Trump has sought to reshape the country's education system, from K-12 through the university level, during his first 100 days in office.

Ultimately, Jassy said he believes that AI is likely the largest technology transformation since the internet and will improve "almost every experience that we can imagine right now."

Amazon uses AI across its business — Jassy said the company has a "very substantial investment" in the technology — and is working on a new "reasoning" AI model tentatively scheduled to launch in June, Business Insider previously reported. Other companies, like Google and OpenAI, have released their own reasoning models.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

• A military spouse who has worked in government for 25 years is retiring early ahead of another move.
• Retiring gives financial safety, but she feels forced into the choice by the hiring freeze and DOGE.
• The situation — and how it's impacting military families— makes her sad she voted for Trump at all.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with a federally employed military spouse who's taking up the Department of Defense on its Deferred Resignation Program/Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (DRP VERA) offer because she feels she's out of options. She has requested anonymity because her early retirement is not yet approved. Business Insider has verified her identity and employment.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told BI that "President Trump has consistently stood up for our military families — delivering crucial reforms that improved VA healthcare, decreased veteran homelessness, and enhanced education benefits. His efforts to cut wasteful spending and make agencies more efficient will ensure our government can better serve all Americans, especially our veterans and their loved ones."

My 25 years of government service are about to come to an end — not because I want them to, but because I feel I don't have another choice. I'm opting into the DRP VERA before my husband and I move to Hawaii in June for his job in the Navy.

Part of me is at peace, but another part is full of resentment. I feel pushed into this choice — pushed by DOGE. It's been such a stressful, emotional decision. I'm not ready to end the only career I've known, but I'm also not ready to stay behind as my husband moves thousands of miles away.

I agree with DOGE that the government should get smaller. There are plenty of things that can be cut, but I expected more organization and empathy when I cast my vote for Trump in November. At this point, I'm sad I voted for him at all.

'Doesn't feel like support to me'

I'm no stranger to military moves. My dad spent 23 years in the Navy, I've been married to two different Navy guys, and I've worked for the DoD since I was in my early twenties.

Finding a new job during past moves with my ex and my current husband hasn't always been easy. The application process is long, and waiting for the right opening is frustrating, but it's always been possible. Federal employment was the safest option for me, a rare type of stability in a life of movement.

This time feels totally different.

Trump says he supports military spouses, but relocating during a hiring freeze doesn't feel like support to me, not to mention that summer is peak military move season. Nobody in HR has answered my questions. I'm asking them to show me how they're supporting us, and so far, they've not shown anything.

Even though Trump has made accommodations for military spouses working in the government, the hiring freeze would make it impossible for me to get a new job in Hawaii.

As of just a few weeks ago, I was planning to stay behind in Virginia and wait out the freeze. Neither I or my husband was keen on that, but it just wasn't financially feasible for me to go to Hawaii without a paycheck or any sense of how to get a job in the private sector for the very first time — in my 50s and without a degree.

Finances are simpler, but internal life isn't

When the DoD announced a second opportunity to take a DRP VERA, which is open to anyone older than 50 with more than 20 years in the government, I knew it made sense financially. Assuming it's approved, I'll keep getting my paycheck through September.

The finances are simpler now, but my internal life isn't. I don't talk politics much anymore — it's too personal for me at this point.

Now it's my life, as well as other military lives, caught up in the balance.

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These are the faces behind President Donald Trump's unprecedented first 100 days.

Whether they're a familiar image on TV screens or shy away from the spotlight, these 14 people have played a crucial role in authoring the deluge of executive orders and policies that have eroded norms, upended global markets, and laid the foundation for Trump's second term.

They have championed many of the policies reorienting America today: tariffs, deportations, federal worker firings, and budget cuts. Others drive the Trump brand, shaping media and public perception of the administration as it rolls out an agenda at lightning speed.

"President Trump has assembled an exceptional team dedicated to Making America Great Again," Assistant Press Secretary Liz Huston said. "Under his leadership, the Cabinet and White House officials are united in their mission to usher in a new Golden Age in America."

Love it or hate it, the 14 people on this list are behind it all, in alphabetical order.

Scott Bessent

Call him the market whisperer. A former hedge fund manager who now finds himself as the Treasury secretary at the center of the US's most complex trade negotiations in decades. Wall Street counts him as a moderating influence, and shares tend to go up when Bessent speaks. But Trump is a protectionist at heart, and it remains to be seen if Bessent's relatively trade-friendly views will win out.

Pam Bondi

Bondi is among a handful of the president's personal lawyers who now wield power. As US attorney general, she's made it a point to go after "domestic terrorists" attacking Tesla dealerships. Following Trump's lead, Bondi has directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, who is charged with shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. She praised the DOJ's landmark antitrust victory over Google, though it remains to be seen how she'll handle Big Tech going forward.

Tom Homan

The official White House border czar, Homan is the man behind mass deportations. He has defended sending alleged gang members to El Salvador, and promised "another flight every day" of migrants being sent out of the country in an interview in March. Homan worked at ICE under former President Barack Obama and during Trump's first term, and is listed as a contributor to conservative road map Project 2025.

Mike Johnson

As Speaker of the House, Johnson owes his gavel to Trump. The first 100 days will look easy in comparison to what lies ahead. The easiest part will likely be trying to codify some of the White House's DOGE office's cuts into laws. Johnson will face a taller order in trying to squeeze Trump's sweeping tax cuts and immigration plans through a narrowly controlled chamber. Thus far, Johnson has faced down internal dissent over Trump's tariffs.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Many might know RFK Jr. as a vaccine skeptic or the face behind Make America Healthy Again, but he's also floated big cuts in his role as health secretary. Proposed changes at the FDA, CDC, and NIH could influence programs like HIV/AIDs prevention and food facility inspections. RFK Jr. recently directed all food companies to remove synthetic dyes from their products by 2027, and he's criticized other private sector industries, like weight-loss drugs.

Karoline Leavitt

As the youngest White House press secretary, Leavitt, 27, is often the public face of the second Trump administration's policies. She's known to spar with reporters during press briefings, particularly when it comes to thornier subjects like tariffs and immigration. The sometimes-combative dynamic was on display when talking about the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man: "Based on the sensationalism of many of the people in this room, you would think we deported a candidate for Father of the Year."

Howard Lutnick

A Wall Street billionaire, Lutnick is Trump's secretary of commerce and a big tariff advocate. He called for reciprocal tariffs during his confirmation hearings and has accused other nations of ripping America off. Unlike Bessent, his counterpart at Treasury, Lutnick is much more loquacious in his TV appearances, and not always to the White House's benefit. He urged Americans not to worry about a recession even as Trump was conceding that tariffs might bring short-term pain.

Stephen Miller

As White House deputy chief of staff, Miller is again the point man of Trump's immigration policy, though he's considerably more powerful than during the president's first term. Miller has helped lead Trump's ramp-up of deportations and invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. Outside immigration, Miller has taken an active role in Trump's clashes with Big Law.

Elon Musk

The de facto leader of the White House DOGE office has wielded unmatched power at the center of the administration's efforts to slash the federal workforce. He has retained his brazen persona, speaking his mind more openly than many conventional political appointees. Musk has criticized Trump's tariffs, dismissed a fellow White House advisor as "a moron," and went so far as to suggest that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme." Faced with Tesla investor backlash, Musk has signaled that he will be stepping back from DOGE.

Peter Navarro

One of Trump's top trade advisors, Navarro is the mastermind behind the tariffs that have scrambled markets and global trade. He was a fixture in Trump's first term and has been a long-time hawk on trade with countries like China. He has returned with his protectionist, anti-trade policies after a stint in jail for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the January 6 committee. When announcing Navarro's appointment, Trump said he "was treated horribly by the Deep State." Navarro has publicly clashed with Musk over tariffs.

Marco Rubio

Senate Democrats hoped their former colleague would moderate Trump's foreign policy as secretary of state. Rubio has instead presided over a dramatic reduction in the size and scope of the State Department, starting with the US Agency for International Development, which Musk described as having been fed "into the wood chipper." Rubio has been vocal on immigration, defending actions like deporting migrants to El Salvador and canceling student visas for people he said were engaged in pro-Palestinian protests (some visas have been reinstated). As the nation's top diplomat, Rubio has put pressure on Ukraine to accept a peace deal with Russia.

JD Vance

Trump's second-in-command has wasted little time staking out his role. Vance has welcomed the fight and dismissed the concerns of fellow Republicans deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump. The vice president has served as the face of a Euro-skeptic White House. "Have you said thank you once?" Vance asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before an Oval Office visit went off the rails.

Russell Vought

Though Vought served in Trump's first administration, he's perhaps best known as one of the key authors of Project 2025. Trump has tried to distance himself from the playbook, but many of its priorities echo in his agenda so far: firing federal employees, mass deportations, and abolishing the Education Department, to name a few. Vought is the director of the Office of Management and Budget and helps carry out the DOGE agenda.

Susie Wiles

The first woman to serve as a president's chief of staff, Wiles largely stays out of the spotlight but plays a big role wrangling the many dueling personalities in Trump's orbit — Mac Stipanovich, a longtime Florida operative, told Politico that "she is an expert in unstable, dysfunctional, famous men." Wiles has been a part of Trump's inner circle for years. Level-headed and controlled, she keeps the administration's machinery running.

• VC founder Abhijoy Mitra told BI that economic uncertainty can create transformative companies.
• He said "tectonic shifts" let founders reimagine the future of key industries, like AI and energy.
• Mitra and his cofounders outlined other key factors to starting a successful company.

Markets are ping-ponging, tariffs are on-again-off-again, the job market is unstable — and the cofounder of a venture capital firm sees opportunity.

Abhijoy Mitra, who founded venture capital firm CIV alongside partners Jeff Rosenthal and Patrick Maloney, told Business Insider that some of the most successful VC funds have capitalized on volatility.

"Some of the funds that have performed fantastically well over the last few decades are funds that are able to actually invest in times of entropy and chaos, when things are in flux and things are transforming," he said. "I think lots of great companies are born out of periods of displacement." Mitra mentioned Microsoft, IBM, and Airbnb, all of which were founded during recessions.

CIV both backs existing companies and builds new ones in key industries, including AI and energy. Mitra, who has a background in technology investing, said startups are especially well-positioned to capitalize on times of "wild chaos."

"There's a tectonic shift happening in real time, and there's an opportunity to sort of reimagine the way industries are being built," he said. "Uncertainty, while long term certainly is not desirable, it does create pockets of opportunity."

The CIV founders focus on companies that they think will define future industries in the US, and stay both relevant and profitable beyond short-term uncertainty. Mitra and Rosenthal told BI that prioritizing a large market, capital efficiency, and the right business partners are other keys to success.

In the past few years, VC firms have downsized and investors have raised the bar when deciding which companies to back. The industry's fading luster is now backlit by general economic volatility, with a potential recession looming.

Mitra isn't alone in seeing opportunity in the disorder, though. Market experts previously told BI that it might actually be a good time to buy stocks.

• Many tech leaders tried to get close to Trump after the election, donating to his inaugural fund.
• One expert told BI that, since then, it's been a "rocky road" for Silicon Valley leaders and Trump.
• Here's where some of tech's big names — and businesses — stand with the president a few months in.

Some of the biggest tech leaders tried to get in President Donald Trump's good graces before he took office for a second time, meeting with him at his Mar-a-Lago resort and snagging prime spots at Trump's inauguration.

A few months into his presidency, many of those tech leaders are now dealing with tariffs and other disruptive policies, like immigration restrictions and funding cuts, that could impact their bottom lines.

At the time of writing, Trump had exempted many electronics from the harshest levies on China and instead said they would be moved to a different tariff "bucket" in the future. Yet other tariffs have caused US CEOs to pause spending and hiring, and they could make it more expensive to build AI data centers.

The stocks of all publicly listed companies included here have dropped since the inauguration, as has the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite.

Darrell West, a senior fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, said some of the tech leaders have "probably been disappointed."

"The tech leaders had a buddy-buddy relationship with Trump early in the administration, but since then, it has been a rocky road," he said. Moving forward, he anticipates that tech leaders will still try to remain close to Trump, even if it doesn't guarantee returns.

"The fact that he meets with CEOs does not mean that he follows the advice they give him," he said.

Here's where some of the biggest tech leaders — and their companies — stand with the president now.

Representatives for Meta, Nvidia, and Amazon declined to comment to Business Insider. Representatives for the White House and other companies did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, X, Boring Company, Neuralink

Elon Musk spent at least $277 million backing Trump and Republicans during the election, has influenced policy and personnel decisions, and is the face of the White House DOGE Office — for now.

The world's richest man has remained close to the president in the months since, but his involvement in Washington seems to be waning. Americans are souring on his political involvement, according to public opinion polls, and he has been viewed by some as a political liability. During a Tesla earnings call in April, Musk announced that he would be stepping back from DOGE and devoting more time to Tesla.

Tesla has suffered since Trump took office due to a widespread protest movement and plummeting sales. Musk has publicly criticized Trump's tariffs but said on the earnings call that Tesla is generally "the least affected car company" when it comes to levies. SpaceX could also benefit from new government contracts.

Other than Tesla, Musk's companies are privately held.

Mark Zuckerberg: Meta

Mark Zuckerberg and Trump have a tumultuous history, but the Facebook founder has recently tried to patch things up. The Meta CEO called Trump a "badass" before the election and ended fact-checking on Meta platforms. The company donated $1 million to the inaugural committee.

Court proceedings recently began in the Federal Trade Commission's blockbuster trial against Meta. The government is trying to force Meta to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, arguing that the company operates as an illegal monopoly. Zuckerberg was the first witness and testified for hours.

Before the trial, Zuckerberg tried to have the suit dismissed. The FTC asked for $30 billion to settle, but Zuckerberg offered only about $1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Meta could also take a hit from tariffs, since Chinese advertisers buy ads on its platforms. The company could lose $7 billion in ad revenue, the Journal reported.

Sundar Pichai: Alphabet

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election, and Google donated $1 million to the inauguration fund.

The company hasn't been spared from lawsuits — in April, the Department of Justice kicked off a remedy hearing for Google, where it will decide the company's fate after a previous ruling that it's a monopoly. One proposed solution is separating Chrome, Google's flagship search engine. Google has said it intends to appeal the case, and an executive said in a blog post that the DOJ's proposed solutions are "unnecessary and harmful."

Alphabet, Google's parent company, reported first-quarter earnings on April 24 and exceeded initial revenue expectations despite market volatility.

Jensen Huang: Nvidia

Unlike many of his counterparts, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang did not attend Trump's inauguration. He spent the day celebrating Lunar New Year with employees in Asia. He met with Trump shortly after, however, and Nvidia donated $1 million to the inaugural committee.

The chipmaker sources many of its semiconductors abroad, primarily in Taiwan, making the trade environment tricky. Yet in a March interview with CNBC, Huang sounded relatively calm about tariffs, saying that he's "enthusiastic" about building in the US and that "in the near term, the impact of tariffs won't be meaningful."

Morgan Stanley said in April that Nvidia was still its "top pick" in the market.

Tim Cook: Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook personally donated $1 million to the inaugural committee and attended the event. He also had dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election.

Apple is vulnerable to tariffs as the company manufactures many of its products in China. Analysts predicted that the original tariffs could massively drive up iPhone prices; It remains unclear exactly how prices will change in the fluctuating trade environment. The company is ramping up production in India.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts sent Cook a letter asking for more information about his reported efforts to get specific tariff exemptions. She wrote that they "raise fresh concerns" about corporations' abilities to "gain special favors."

Jeff Bezos: Amazon

In addition to his role as the founder and executive chairman of Amazon, Bezos also owns The Washington Post. During the most recent election, he sparked controversy by deciding that the WaPo wouldn't endorse a candidate.

After Trump won, Bezos had dinner with Trump and Musk at Mar-a-Lago. Amazon donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, and Bezos and his fiancée attended the inauguration.

Amazon is facing an ongoing antitrust lawsuit from the FTC and tariffs look set to affect it. Some Amazon sellers have had to raise prices, though a representative for the company previously told BI only a "tiny fraction of items in our store" have been impacted.

Shou Zi Chew: TikTok

TikTok is running up against the clock — Trump has repeatedly paused enforcement of a US ban to try and broker a deal with potential bidders for the company in America.

CEO Shou Zi Chew, the company's CEO, met with Trump in December and attended the inauguration. TikTok spent $50,000 on an inauguration party for Gen Z and influencers that helped spread the president's campaign message. The app's future remains uncertain.

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a privately owned Chinese company.

Sam Altman: OpenAI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman personally gave $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund and attended the event. He also visited the White House early in Trump's term to announce Stargate, a $500 billion private-sector AI infrastructure investment that spurred a public spat with Musk.

The company gave the White House recommendations for an "AI Action Plan" due to be submitted to Trump in July and advocated for a light regulatory environment.

OpenAI is a privately held company. At the end of March, it announced a new funding round that put its valuation at $300 billion.

Satya Nadella: Microsoft

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella didn't attend Trump's inauguration but did congratulate him online, like many other tech leaders. Microsoft donated $1 million to the inaugural fund.

• Companies are describing economic conditions as "volatile" and "impossible to predict."
• Firms like GM and UPS are overhauling earnings forecasts amid uncertainty caused by Trump's tariffs.
• Here's a list of companies that have lowered or pulled their guidance as a result.

Volatile. Challenging. Uncertain.

This is the language of corporate earnings calls amid President Donald Trump's tariffs.

As a result of the uncertainty, companies are lowering or outright scrapping their earnings forecasts.

Here's a look at the big brands that have made adjustments to their guidance in recent earnings reports.

GM

GM said it would suspend earnings guidance for 2025 and freeze a $4 billion share buyback as it assesses the impact of Trump's tariffs on imported cars.

Two days later, after the White House announced measures to ease the blow of the tariffs, GM said it had slashed its guidance for this year and had a current tariff exposure of between $4 billion and $5 billion.

Like other Detroit automakers, GM, which builds several models for the US market in Mexico and Canada, is highly exposed to the tariffs. Barclays analysts previously warned that the levies could wipe out "effectively all" of GM, Ford, and Jeep and RAM owner Stellantis' profits.

UPS

Parcel giant UPS said it would pull its financial guidance in its first quarter earnings release, as well as announcing plans to cut 20,000 jobs throughout 2025.

"Given the current macro-economic uncertainty, the company is not providing any updates to its previously issued consolidated full-year outlook," the company said.

It reported virtually flat revenues of $21.5 billion, a drop of 0.7% compared to the same period in 2024.

P&G

Procter & Gamble now forecasts flat sales growth in fiscal year 2025, compared to a previous projection of a 2% to 4% increase. The consumer goods conglomerate, which owns brands like Tide and Charmin, also cut its core EPS outlook to $6.72 to $6.82, down from $6.91 to $7.05.

"We will have to pull every lever we have in our arsenal to mitigate the impact of tariffs within our cost structure and P&L," P&G's CFO, Andre Schulten, said on a call with reporters.

In the company's earnings release, CEO Jon Moeller pointed to a "challenging and volatile consumer and geopolitical environment."

"We're making appropriate adjustments to our near-term outlook to reflect underlying market conditions while remaining confident in the longer-term growth prospects for our brands and the markets where we compete," he said.

PepsiCo

The food and beverage giant warned of higher production costs and lower consumer spending amid "increasingly dynamic and complex geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions."

"As we look ahead, we expect more volatility and uncertainty, particularly related to global trade developments, which we expect will increase our supply chain costs," CEO Ramon Laguarta said in the company's earnings release. "At the same time, consumer conditions in many markets remain subdued and similarly have an uncertain outlook."

PepsiCo lowered its core EPS forecast for the year to a 3% decline, where it previously forecast a single-digit increase.

"Relative to where we were three months ago, we probably are not feeling as good about the consumer," PepsiCo's CFO, Jamie Caulfield, said in a post-earnings call.

Chipotle

Chipotle lowered its guidance for the fiscal year and now forecasts a sales increase in the low single digits, compared to low- to mid-single digits previously forecasted.

"In February, we began to see that the elevated level of uncertainty felt by consumers are starting to impact their spending habits," interim CEO Scott Boatwright said on the company's earnings call. "We could see this in our visitation study where saving money because of concerns around the economy was the overwhelming reason consumers were reducing the frequency of restaurant visits."

United Airlines

United Airlines took the rare step of offering two sets of outlooks: one for a stable macroeconomic environment and one for a recessionary environment.

"The Company's guidance is based on consensus market macroeconomic expectations," it said in a securities filing. "However, a single consensus no longer exists, and therefore the Company's expectation has become bimodal — either the U.S. economy will remain weaker but stable, or the U.S. may enter into a recession. The Company is therefore providing two separate guidance benchmarks based on these two different macroeconomic views."

The filing added that the macro environment "is impossible to predict this year with any degree of confidence."

Delta Air Lines

Delta was one of the first airlines to pull its guidance when announcing Q1 earnings.

"Given current uncertainty, Delta is not reaffirming full year 2025 financial guidance and will provide an update later in the year as visibility improves," the carrier said in an earnings release.

CEO Ed Bastian said in the company's earnings call that it would be "premature" to project the year "given the broad macro uncertainty."

American Airlines

American Airlines also withdrew its full-year guidance, noting that it plans to provide an update "as the economic outlook becomes clearer."

"Aircraft cost too much already," CEO Robert Isom said on the earnings call when asked about tariffs. "I don't want to pay any more for aircraft. It doesn't make sense."

He added, "And certainly, we're pulling guidance. Certainly, it's not something we would intend to absorb. And I'll tell you, it's not something that I would expect our customers to welcome. So we've got to work on this."

In an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Isom said "uncertainty" was the reason American pulled their guidance.

Southwest Airlines

The airline has withdrawn its guidance on full-year 2025 and 2026 earnings before interest and taxes.

"Amid the current macroeconomic uncertainty, it is difficult to forecast given recent and short-lived booking trends," it said in an earnings release.

JetBlue

JetBlue joined many of the country's airlines by pulling its financial forecast for the year in earnings on April 29.

CEO Joanna Geraghty cited "the macroeconomic uncertainty," and said the firm was looking at further capacity reductions due to lower demand, as well as evaluating its schedule for retiring planes.

Like for Southwest, the uncertainty comes at a challenging time, with both airlines working to turn around their lack of profitability.

Air Canada

In early May, Air Canada lowered its annual profit forecast for 2025 amid the impact of tariffs and slowing demand for travel to the US.

"The noise around tariffs and trade disputes definitely had an impact, but also we believe some travellers avoided the US simply because it was expensive, with the Canadian dollar trading at levels not seen since 2020," Michael Rousseau, Air Canada's president and CEO, said on an earnings call.

Air Canada lowered its annual earnings outlook to between C$3.2 billion and C$3.6 billion, equivalent to between $2.6 billion and $2.3 billion. This is roughly C$200 million, or $144 million, lower than earlier estimates.

Thermo Fisher

CEO Mark Casper said on a recent earnings call that the updated guidance "incorporates the expected net impact of current tariffs and the changes driven by the current policy focus of the US."

Thermo Fisher said it expects a $400 million revenue headwind as tariffs hit the sales of products made in the US and sold in China. It also expects tariffs to raise the cost of parts it sources in China.

Snap

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, declined to issue guidance for Q2 in its first-quarter earnings report on April 29.

"Given‬‭ the‬‭ uncertainty‬‭ with‬‭ respect‬‭ to‬‭ how‬‭ macro‬‭ economic‬‭ conditions‬‭ may‬‭ evolve‬‭ in‬‭ the‬‭ months‬‭ ahead,‬‭ and‬‭ how‬‭ this‬‭ may‬ impact‬‭ advertising‬‭ demand‬‭ more‬‭ broadly,‬‭ we‬‭ do‬‭ not‬‭ intend‬‭ to‬‭ share‬‭ formal‬‭ financial‬‭ guidance‬‭ for‬‭ Q2," the company said in a letter to investors.

Snap also said that while the company's revenue has continued to grow, it has "experienced‭ headwinds‬‭ to‬‭ start‬‭ the‬‭ current‬‭ quarter."

Stellantis

The auto giant, which owns companies including Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Chrysler, and Peugeot, said on April 30 it was suspending its financial guidance. Stellantis said it was rolling back the guidance because of the uncertainty tariffs are causing.

"The company is highly engaged with policymakers on tariff policies, while taking action to reduce impacts," the carmaker said in a statement.

Mercedes

Mercedes-Benz joined the list of automakers that have withdrawn their full-year guidance amid tariff-related uncertainty. The German luxury car brand said on April 30 that it can't offer reliable estimates in the current environment.

On a call after the announcement, Mercedes' chief financial officer said its previous guidance wouldn't have changed without the tariffs.

Ford

Ford is the latest auto giant to suspend guidance and outline how tariffs will impact its bottom line.

In its first-quarter earnings release on May 5, the American carmaker said it would suspend its full-year financial guidance because of supply chain disruptions and the possibility of increased tariffs in the US. The company said that retaliatory tariffs and other restrictions from foreign governments also pose risks.

Ford estimated that full-year adjusted earnings before interest and taxes will take a $1.5 billion hit because of tariffs.

"These are substantial industry risks, which could have significant impacts on financial results, and that make updating full year guidance challenging right now," Ford wrote in the earnings release.

American Eagle

American Eagle withdrew its guidance for the year "due to macro uncertainty," according to a press release, but didn't mention tariffs. The clothing retailer said that it anticipates revenue to decline roughly 5% in the first quarter compared to last year, coming in at approximately $1.1 billion. Same-store sales are expected to decline around 3%.

CEO Jay Schottenstein said that the company has had trouble selling items and now has excess inventory, and that "we are clearly disappointed with our execution in the first quarter."