There’s a certain kind of panic that only hits the progressive elite when one of their favorite taxpayer-funded pet agencies gets its gravy train derailed. Right now, that panic is swirling around the Internal Revenue Service — and not because it’s coming after your paycheck, but because Elon Musk and President Donald Trump are finally coming after them.

This week, critics on the left are clutching their pearls over the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump administration’s bold initiative to rip the waste and bloat out of Washington. The so-called outrage? DOGE is finally swinging the axe at the IRS, cutting back a bloated, ineffective bureaucracy that’s been coddled for decades and weaponized against working Americans.

The same folks who applauded $80 billion in new funding for IRS auditors under Biden — enough to fund an army of tax snoops — are now crying foul because 7,000 bureaucrats are being shown the door. And DOGE insiders say that’s just the start.

Let’s break it down.

The Biden-era IRS was on track to become the most bloated enforcement agency in America, not counting the alphabet soup of federal three-letter agencies. Armed with the latest in surveillance technology and flush with tens of billions in new funds, Biden’s IRS wasn’t going after Wall Street — it was coming after Main Street. The new rule? Audit the little guy and ignore the elite.

Now, with Trump back in the Oval Office and Musk leading DOGE like a buzzsaw through bureaucratic red tape, things are changing fast. No more blanket audits on working families. No more excuses for an agency that can’t balance its own books. DOGE is bringing real accountability — and you’d better believe the D.C. swamp doesn’t like it.

Progressives claim this is going to “hurt tax revenue.” What they really mean is it’s going to hurt their ability to keep feeding a federal machine that only grows more powerful the more cash it siphons from taxpayers. According to the Yale Budget Lab, cutting 7,000 IRS staffers will save $7 billion in payroll and cost $71 billion in potential tax revenue. They cry “fiscal irresponsibility,” but forget to mention that same bloated agency couldn’t track down billions in COVID-era fraud, overpaid IRS bonuses, and “refunds” that went to deceased recipients.

Oh, and let’s not forget — this is the same IRS that conveniently “lost” emails during the Lois Lerner scandal when conservative groups were being targeted for audits. Now we’re supposed to believe they’re the champions of fiscal discipline? Give us a break.

Make no mistake — the IRS is not a revenue-maximizing machine. It’s a political weapon, and for far too long it’s been aimed at the wrong targets. The Trump-Musk efficiency crusade is about refocusing the government on serving the people, not surveilling them.

Of course, Biden loyalists are throwing tantrums. One of Joe’s former economic advisors even claimed that Musk’s cuts to the IRS are a “backward approach to government efficiency.” Apparently, cutting thousands of ineffective bureaucrats while demanding better results is now radical. In the real world, we call that basic business sense — the very kind Musk used to build multiple billion-dollar companies while the federal government hemorrhaged trillions in debt.

The truth is, cutting the IRS down to size is long overdue. Trump has made it clear: it’s time to rein in federal overreach and return power to the people. The DOGE-led assault on the administrative state is just the beginning. This is about restoring fiscal sanity, shrinking government bloat, and dismantling the Leviathan one useless agency at a time.

Sure, the IRS might collect less in the short term. But it’s not because honest Americans are skipping out on their taxes — it’s because the government’s spending addiction is finally being put on notice.

The left is right about one thing: this isn’t just a budgetary shift. It’s a philosophical one.

No more “starve the beast.” This time, we’re slaying it.

A senior Trump White House official is making waves with a bold economic strategy that could upend America’s fiscal playbook and solidify our global dominance in the digital age. Bo Hines, Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, suggested the U.S. could tap into its gold reserves to build a national Bitcoin stockpile—without adding a single penny to the federal deficit.

Executive Director of the @WhiteHouse crypto working group @BoHines talks $BTC, ways to buy more of it and the thinking behind including $ETH, $XRP, $ADA and $SOL in the separate stockpile. https://t.co/dBe1trxAAH pic.twitter.com/mz5Y5p4HgB

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) March 21, 2025

That’s right. The Trump administration is reportedly weighing a strategic play to convert gold profits into Bitcoin—a move that not only modernizes America’s monetary assets but bypasses the bureaucracy and bloat of traditional spending bills.

According to Hines, “If we actually realize the gains on the U.S. gold holdings, that would be a budget-neutral way to acquire more Bitcoin.” Translation? We use wealth we already have to invest in the next-generation financial system, all without running up the tab on taxpayers.

This radical proposal comes on the heels of the proposed Bitcoin Reserve Act of 2025, introduced by Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.). The legislation lays out an ambitious plan for the federal government to acquire 1 million Bitcoins—roughly 5% of all that will ever exist—over the next five years. That’s a $60 billion moonshot at current prices, but it’s one with a major upside for the American people.

The purchase would be funded not with new taxes, bloated spending packages, or reckless borrowing, but by selling off Federal Reserve gold certificates—assets that have quietly appreciated for decades while D.C. insiders keep raiding the Treasury.

This isn’t just some libertarian fantasy. It’s a calculated move to position the United States as the global leader in the digital financial revolution. Under President Trump’s second term, America is embracing real assets—Bitcoin, gold, and energy—as cornerstones of national security and economic sovereignty.

While Biden-era bureaucrats used our financial might to prop up crony green energy deals and fuel inflation with endless stimulus checks, the Trump administration is pivoting toward fiscal sanity and long-term resilience.

Remember: Bitcoin isn’t just some speculative gamble. It’s an anti-inflationary asset, immune to the money printers at the Federal Reserve and China’s digital yuan manipulations. As fiat currencies wobble under the weight of debt and mismanagement, Bitcoin stands as a decentralized hedge against economic tyranny—and the Trump administration knows it.

In fact, Trump allies have quietly been building the foundation for this policy shift since his return to office. DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) has slashed waste, trimmed federal fat, and restructured how government assets are evaluated. Now, Hines’ proposal represents the next step in Trump’s broader strategy to modernize the federal balance sheet.

Let’s not forget that America’s gold reserves are sitting ducks—valued at hundreds of billions, yet barely touched for decades. Meanwhile, countries like Russia and China are hoarding gold and launching digital currencies to challenge the dollar’s dominance. If we continue to play defense while our adversaries go digital, we’re setting ourselves up for a collapse in currency confidence.

Trump’s team understands that standing still is not an option. A gold-for-Bitcoin strategy lets the U.S. move first, move fast, and lock in digital dominance before the rest of the world wakes up.

While critics on the Left foam at the mouth about Bitcoin’s volatility or environmental impact, they miss the bigger picture. The world is shifting toward decentralized finance—and whoever controls the rails of this system will control the future of money. Do we want that to be Beijing or Washington?

Hines hinted that “countless ideas” are on the table—and under President Trump, only the “best ideas” will make the cut. This administration is not interested in small ball. It’s thinking generationally.

In classic Trump fashion, this proposal is disruptive, unapologetic, and rooted in economic realism. The America First strategy is no longer just about steel and oil. It’s about digital assets, blockchain integrity, and financial sovereignty.

If we want to preserve the dollar, strengthen national power, and secure our economic future, the choice is clear: back Bitcoin with gold gains, and let America lead the new financial frontier.

In a move that underscores a dramatic return to America First immigration policy, President Donald Trump’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has officially paused the processing of certain green card applications—particularly for refugees and asylum seekers imported during the disastrous Biden administration years.

According to a statement from a USCIS spokesperson to Breitbart News, the pause is being instituted “to better identify fraud, public safety, or national security concerns.” This move is part of Trump’s recent Executive Order 14161, titled Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats. It’s also connected to the administration’s newly announced policy that designates drug cartels and other transnational criminal networks as foreign terrorist organizations.

Finally. After four years of lax vetting and open-door madness under Joe Biden, America is getting serious about who we let into our communities.

The temporary pause specifically affects green card applications from individuals granted asylum under the Biden regime and the wave of so-called “refugees” brought in under the guise of humanitarian parole. Let’s not forget, Biden’s refugee numbers were astronomical—hundreds of thousands flooded into the country, many with little to no vetting and a rubber stamp from the NGOs that pocket taxpayer dollars under the bloated refugee resettlement racket.

Some of these individuals now seeking green cards came from the chaotic and botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Others include those from countries with known ties to terror networks. It’s only common sense to say: we should take a breath before handing out permanent residency to anyone who hasn’t been properly screened—and with Biden’s track record, you can bet many haven’t been.

Trump’s executive order from late January halted all new refugee admissions into the U.S., a move predictably met with howls of protest from the open-borders lobby and their enablers in the activist judiciary. NGOs and left-wing attorneys filed lawsuits to stop the administration from enforcing basic national security protocols. But this week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals handed a win to Team Trump by allowing the order to move forward while litigation continues.

This is a sea change from the Biden years, when immigration policy was run more like a humanitarian free-for-all than a sovereign nation’s defense plan. The America Last ideology of the Left—where anyone from anywhere can cross our borders and immediately be on a path to citizenship—is finally being replaced with rational, responsible governance.

Let’s be clear: This pause is not about cruelty. It’s about caution. It’s about prioritizing the safety of the American people over the demands of globalist NGOs and partisan immigration lawyers.

President Trump has made it crystal clear—America will not be a dumping ground for the world’s problems. The days of putting foreign nationals ahead of American citizens are over. Every refugee, every asylum-seeker, and every green card applicant will face real scrutiny. If that slows the process down, so be it. National security is not a paperwork game. It’s life or death.

This is what leadership looks like. While Biden handed out green cards like candy at a parade, Trump is putting up the necessary guardrails to protect American families. It’s time we treat immigration like the serious national security issue it is—not a left-wing social experiment.

It turns out the government has been “paying” respect to a few too many immortals.

Thanks to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — the Elon Musk-led federal cleanup crew under President Donald Trump — more than 7 million outdated and potentially fraudulent Social Security records have now been marked as deceased. That’s not a typo. Millions of “people” in the system were listed as 120 years old or older. Some were registered as being over 140.

Unless the government has been quietly tracking a secret population of vampires or high-functioning zombies, this was long overdue.

Back in February, Musk called attention to the problem by releasing a spreadsheet from the SSA’s own data, showing an eye-popping number of active Social Security numbers with no recorded death, some dating back to the 19th century. In typical Musk fashion, he joked, “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.”

While the SSA insists most of these records weren’t linked to active benefit payments, that’s hardly the point. This is about government waste, sloppy bookkeeping, and a system that — before Trump and Musk got involved — was practically begging to be exploited.

And let’s not pretend fraud hasn’t happened. In 2021 alone, watchdogs reported that more than $1 billion in Social Security payments went to dead people. And that’s just the fraud we caught. Under the Biden administration, no one lifted a finger. Now DOGE is steamrolling through the mess — correcting millions of ancient files with missing death dates and cleaning out a bureaucracy that hasn’t seen a mop since the Cold War.

This is precisely the kind of no-nonsense efficiency conservatives have been demanding for decades. Elon Musk isn’t just tweeting memes anymore — he’s digitally disinfecting federal agencies that have been bloated, outdated, and error-prone for generations.

Of the 7 million death record updates so far, DOGE says another 5 million still need to be cleaned up. And while the SSA claims they already stop payments for anyone listed over 115, that’s not good enough. In Trump’s America, we don’t tolerate a single dime going to fictional centenarians or phantom citizens.

This isn’t just an audit. It’s a reckoning.

If you ever needed a clear case of how the judicial left plays defense for elite grifters, look no further than Biden-appointed Judge Angel Kelley blocking the Trump administration’s commonsense 15% cap on “indirect costs” for NIH grants.

What are “indirect costs”? Good question — because the universities sure won’t tell you. These are vague, unitemized overhead charges tacked onto research grants — basically, a blank check from taxpayers for Ivy League institutions to spend however they please.

Let’s look at the numbers: Harvard professor Elizabeth Janiak received $495,000 in federal funds for a study using “intersectional frameworks” to examine “power and oppression” in abortion. Real cutting-edge stuff. Out of that, $168,000 went to indirect costs — a stunning 51 cents on the dollar going not to science, but to Harvard’s administrative slush fund.

Let that sink in.

Judge Kelley says capping these runaway costs at 15% would be “disruptive.” Good. This whole system deserves disruption.

Because here’s the punchline: Private industry doesn’t even pay these “indirect” costs when they fund university research. They demand transparency. Accountability. But when the government doles out your money? The elite institutions get to keep their hand in your pocket with zero oversight.

And don’t tell us they need the cash. Harvard’s endowment is over $50 billion. That’s billion with a B. They’ve got more money than some countries — and they’re still coming for yours.

Even worse, this taxpayer-funded gravy train is being used to push woke ideology, not science. NIH grants are now fueling “research” that sounds more like gender studies seminar talking points than hard data. And the ruling class is just fine with that, as long as the checks keep clearing.

At a March 7 rally, Francis Collins — former NIH head — literally demanded more money for this bloated machine, even while preaching the gospel of DEI.

We’re supposed to trust these people?

Enough.

Taxpayer-funded research should mean real science with real outcomes — not golden parachutes for tenured radicals looking to validate leftist narratives under the guise of “research.” The Trump administration’s 15% cap is a small but vital step toward cleaning up this rigged game.

And if Harvard has to dip into that $50 billion piggy bank instead of yours? Cry us a river.

Talk and preparation for AI sovereignty within nations is not simply about advancing technology; it is about national security. AI is the defining technology of our time. Its use has changed the face of the world. This is why nations must rapidly work toward an ability to develop, control, and deploy AI infrastructure without external dependencies. Their economic resilience and digital autonomy are at stake.

The launch of DeepSeek and the upheaval around it are the main driving factors for the U.S.’ need for AI sovereignty. U.S. chip vendors have struggled to run the model efficiently, and concerns over privacy and potential data flow to China have sparked discussions about restricting these models on U.S. government-issued devices. AI sovereignty is not simply about who builds the best tech. It is about who owns the infrastructure and controls the data—they will dictate the future of AI innovation. Governments and enterprises seeking to maintain control over their AI capabilities cannot afford to rely solely on foreign cloud providers or centralized Big Tech ecosystems.

The main driver toward sovereign AI is computational power. Training and deploying modern AI models require substantial processing capabilities, which in turn place a heavy burden on energy grids worldwide. AI inference which allows AI to make real-time decisions requires continuous operation, further escalating energy consumption. Ongoing innovation and growth in AI infrastructure are essential to meet these demands efficiently while maintaining national control over AI capabilities.

The traditional GPU-based architectures of AI computing are proving unsustainable at a national scale. A single large-scale AI model requires hundreds, sometimes thousands, of GPUs. This means consuming megawatts of power, which demands massive cooling infrastructure.

To build and secure domestic AI capabilities, it must establish efficient AI infrastructure, reduce reliance on foreign technology while maintaining scalability, and explore alternatives to inefficient GPU clusters. Achieving this requires optimizing AI accelerators for sovereign, energy-efficient, and scalable deployments, ensuring long-term technological independence.

SambaNova, Groq, and NVIDIA are leading the development of sovereign AI infrastructure, each with a distinct approach. SambaNova’s Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) provides an on-premises alternative to GPU-based AI, enabling governments and enterprises to run massive models with significantly fewer chips while maintaining full data ownership—critical for defense, finance, and health care. Groq specializes in AI inference, using its low-latency Language Processing Unit (LPU) to deliver real-time processing with 10 times better power efficiency than traditional accelerators. Its partnership with Saudi Aramco signals a shift in large-scale sovereign AI deployment.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA’s H100 and upcoming Blackwell GPUs are poised to become the building blocks of worldwide present scalability and energy challenges. Large deployments require thousands of power-hungry GPUs, making sovereign on-premise AI costly. Additionally, NVIDIA’s reliance on cloud-based models raises concerns over data sovereignty and national security.

The rapid global adoption of AI is driving a surge in energy consumption, with some predictions suggesting that AI data centers could use more power than entire countries by 2030. Ensuring sustainability without compromising performance requires efficient solutions that reduce both costs and energy use. Specialized AI accelerators play a crucial role in optimizing power efficiency, allowing nations to build sovereign AI infrastructure without straining their energy grids. Companies like SambaNova and Groq are working toward approaches that reduce energy requirements. Their architectures allow governments and enterprises to deploy AI at scale while lowering the total ownership cost.

The global AI race is not about who develops the best model but who controls the infrastructure that powers them. As governments move aggressively to secure their own AI capabilities, prioritizing on-premise deployment, energy efficiency, and geopolitical independence, there are a few key trends we must keep track of.

First is the expansion of national AI clouds in places like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Europe. How will these nations continue to invest in sovereign AI data centers, and at what pace? Next is the rise of energy-efficient AI compute. Can Groq and SambaNova make good on their promise of AI that is both powerful and sustainable? Then, watch the shifts in AI hardware. Can NVIDIA maintain its market lead as specialized accelerators gain traction? Finally, what do the new regulatory frameworks look like for AI sovereignty? Data localization and AI governance laws will reshape global AI strategy. How do nations and those that build infrastructure respond and adapt?

The nations and enterprises that invest in sovereign AI today will control the AI-driven economy of the future—those who fail to act risk falling behind. AI sovereignty cannot be a theoretical discussion; it has to be a strategic necessity. The future of AI will not just be built on models alone but on who controls the infrastructure that runs them.

Nuclear power is back in the spotlight this week, and not just in the U.S. President Donald Trump floated a plan to overhaul Ukraine’s crippled energy grid by bringing in American utility experts to manage and potentially rebuild its nuclear infrastructure. It’s a bold foreign policy play that combines energy dominance with global influence—and it’s part of a broader shift happening much closer to home.

With artificial intelligence consuming energy like a Silicon Valley startup burns through venture capital, nuclear power has suddenly become Silicon Valley’s favorite solution. Microsoft is leading the charge by partnering with Constellation Energy to reboot the dormant Three Mile Island nuclear site—yes, the same location that sparked fears after its infamous 1979 meltdown. But this time, it’s the safe reactor next door that they’re resurrecting.

Amazon, Meta, Google, and even Apple (which recently rebranded nuclear as “clean energy”) are racing to stake their claim in the nuclear revival. After years of pushing unreliable wind and solar schemes for ESG clout, Big Tech is finally waking up to the reality that intermittent energy doesn’t cut it for 24/7 AI supercomputers. “Tech companies spent a decade loudly claiming they were powered solely by renewables, undercutting both the financial and cultural foundation for the nuclear energy they now realize they need,” said Mark Nelson of Radiant Energy Group.

The numbers don’t lie. The U.S. currently runs 54 nuclear plants across 28 states, but deep blue states like New York and California have been shutting them down under pressure from environmental radicals. Indian Point, which used to power a quarter of New York’s electricity, was shuttered in 2021. California plans to close Diablo Canyon—its last nuclear plant—this year. Meanwhile, the demand for power is skyrocketing. AI alone is projected to account for 12% of all U.S. electricity consumption within the next few years.

Done right, nuclear power is the cleanest, most powerful energy source available. But decades of fear-mongering over Chernobyl and Fukushima have put it on the back burner—until now. With modern technology and safety standards, the risk is lower than ever, and the payoff is immense.

Even more bizarre is the latest player entering the nuclear game: Enron. Yes, that Enron. Led by 28-year-old Connor Gaydos, best known for the satirical “Birds Aren’t Real” conspiracy theory, Enron has filed to provide energy to Texans again, with a focus on nuclear power. Sources say the bid is real—backed by seasoned energy veteran Gregory Forego and aimed at expanding across the northern U.S. over the next few years.

“Enron is this young, fresh, innovative place for people to team up and come up with solutions to our biggest problems. And nuclear is the perfect place to start,” Gaydos told reporters.

The irony might be rich, but the reality is clear: nuclear energy isn’t just making a comeback—it’s becoming essential. As President Trump puts America back on the map for energy independence and global leadership, nuclear power is poised to be a cornerstone of that vision.

The only question left is: which state will be smart enough to light the match first?

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum dropped a bombshell this week that should have every American asking one question: why are we paying other countries to fuel our economy when we’re sitting on a $100 trillion treasure chest of oil, gas, and minerals?

At a policy event in Washington, D.C., hosted by Breitbart News, Burgum laid out what many in the Biden-era bureaucracy refused to acknowledge: America is rich in resources, but it takes leadership to unleash them. Fortunately, President Donald J. Trump is back in the Oval Office and wasting no time putting the country’s energy dominance back on the fast track.

“What’s our debt? Thirty-six and a half trillion. What are our assets?” Burgum asked. The answer? More than double our national debt, buried in untapped land and offshore reserves. Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of the Interior is finally treating America like the energy powerhouse it is, not some global charity case.

Burgum revealed that the U.S. controls 700 million acres of surface land through Interior and the Department of Agriculture, plus another 2.5 billion acres of offshore territory. That includes mineral-rich land filled with critical resources we need for defense, infrastructure, and energy independence. While globalists talk about dependence on China for rare earth minerals, Trump’s administration is cutting through red tape and putting American workers back on the front lines of domestic production.

Trump has already declared “efficient, reliable, and affordable energy” a national security imperative. And he’s backing it up. His EPA is rolling back the Biden-era climate shackles on power plants and automobiles. Meanwhile, Secretary Burgum is making it clear to the oil, gas, and mining industries: the era of federal hostility is over.

“Thank you,” Burgum told an audience of energy executives in Houston—two words, he noted, that no one in the Biden administration dared utter. That simple expression of gratitude is a clear signal that the Trump administration values the industry that powers our homes, fuels our vehicles, and supports millions of jobs.

The message is clear: America’s energy dominance isn’t a thing of the past. It’s the future—and it’s being written now, by leaders who know that prosperity, strength, and independence begin beneath our feet.

Elon Musk’s social media experiment is paying off big time. The company formerly known as Twitter, now called X, has reportedly regained its $44 billion valuation—the same amount Musk paid when he bought it in 2022.

This major turnaround marks a stunning comeback for the platform, which faced a mass advertiser exodus, mass layoffs, and liberal media meltdowns over Musk’s “free speech absolutist” approach.

According to Financial Times, a secondary financing round has placed X’s valuation back at $44 billion, proving that Musk’s vision is working.

A separate Bloomberg report suggests Musk himself participated in the financing round, which raised nearly $1 billion in new equity. Alongside $12.5 billion in debt, this deal values X at roughly $32 billion, proving that while the company still has a way to go, it’s far from dead—despite what corporate media tried to claim.

Musk didn’t just buy Twitter—he overhauled it. From the moment he took over, he slashed woke bureaucracies, cut thousands of jobs, and reinvented the company into a next-generation “everything app.”

• Content Moderation Freedom: X dismantled Twitter’s leftist censorship machine, allowing free speech to thrive.
• Premium Subscription Model: With verified blue checkmarks available for paying users, Musk broke the left-wing monopoly on “official” voices.
• AI Integration: X is now home to Grok, an integrated AI chatbot built by Musk’s xAI, designed to combat left-wing misinformation with real, uncensored intelligence.
• Everything App Vision: Musk has signaled his long-term goal is to turn X into a full-service platform with built-in payments, content creation tools, and artificial intelligence.

Musk’s comeback isn’t just about business—it’s about politics. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is working closely with President Donald Trump and is the unofficial head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk has described X as an “accelerant” for his bold vision of the future—a place where free speech reigns, Big Tech censorship is crushed, and America First policies can be communicated directly to the people.

And here’s the kicker—X’s valuation is now on par with what Twitter was earning before Musk took over.

So much for the “Musk ruined Twitter” narrative.

Remember when leftists cheered as advertisers abandoned X? Remember when the media declared Musk’s takeover a failure?

They were dead wrong.

• Fidelity, which slashed its X valuation by 72% in December, was clearly premature.
• Corporate media tried to declare X dead, but the market is proving otherwise.
• X’s 25% stake in xAI—valued at $45 billion—puts it ahead of the pack in the AI arms race.

With Musk in full control and Trump back in power, X is well-positioned to be the biggest force in media, AI, and digital payments.

The woke tech establishment thought they could kill X and Musk’s vision—but they failed.

And now? Musk and Trump are building something even bigger.

In a bold new twist in U.S.-Russia relations, Moscow is now courting none other than Elon Musk—hoping to turn his dream of a manned Mars mission into a joint U.S.-Russia venture.

Yes, you read that right—the same Russia that’s been saber-rattling in Ukraine, antagonizing NATO, and facing U.S. sanctions is now extending an olive branch through SpaceX’s Mars ambitions. And the timing? Just minutes before President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Moscow’s Space Play: A Strategic Gambit

The Russian Direct Investment Fund, Moscow’s sovereign wealth fund, made a very public flirtation with Musk, with its head, Kirill Dmitriev, signaling Russia’s interest in a joint Mars mission.

“We believe that Musk is a unique leader who is focused on humanity moving forward together,” Dmitriev gushed in an interview with Russian state media.

That’s quite the about-face from a nation that’s spent the last decade antagonizing the U.S. on multiple fronts—from cyberattacks to military maneuvers.

Why Musk? Why Now?

Dmitriev, a Harvard and Stanford-educated banker, has long been a key Kremlin player, navigating high-stakes diplomacy with the White House and Saudi Arabia. He is personally sanctioned by the U.S., but that hasn’t stopped him from singing Musk’s praises.

His overtures to Musk come just as the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo-Soyuz mission approaches—a Cold War-era moment of space collaboration between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Dmitriev is framing his offer as a throwback to those “good old days”—claiming a Mars mission could unite the U.S. and Russia for the “benefit of humanity.”

But make no mistake—this isn’t just about space exploration. Putin knows Musk holds massive influence over both Washington and Silicon Valley, and this is a strategic attempt to get Russia back in America’s good graces.

A PR Stunt or a Serious Proposal?

While Moscow is making headlines with its talk of space cooperation, the reality is Russia’s space program has been struggling.

• Roscosmos (Russia’s space agency) has fallen behind in rocket innovation.
• Russia’s economy is battered by sanctions.
• The Kremlin wants in on the next big space race—and Musk is the undisputed leader.

It’s no coincidence that Dmitriev’s pitch coincides with Musk’s high-profile SpaceX Dragon mission—which successfully returned American and Russian astronauts from the International Space Station.

What’s Next? Will Musk Play Along?

Musk has yet to respond publicly—but given his outspoken support of Trump, his nationalist economic views, and his desire to keep the U.S. at the forefront of technological innovation, it’s hard to imagine him jumping into bed with Moscow.

Trump, Musk, and the New Space Race

Under Trump’s leadership, NASA and private industry have led an unprecedented resurgence in space dominance—and Musk has been central to that success.

Will Musk even entertain Russia’s proposal? Or is this just another Kremlin ploy to undermine Trump’s America First agenda?

One thing’s for sure—Trump, Musk, and the GOP aren’t about to let Putin steal America’s shot at being the first to land on Mars.