Why Elon Musk Is Getting Back Into U.S. Politics

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0:20Alex Ossola:Elon Musk is back in U.S. politics. Musk is focused on converting Trump voters, some of whom only show up to vote for Trump in the presidential election, into voters for the midterms and down-ballot races. Plus, Intel's stock sells off after the chipmaker posted a loss and predicted another one this quarter. And would you watch along as a world-famous rock climber scales a skyscraper with no ropes? Netflix is betting on it. It's Friday, January 23rd. I'm Alex Osula for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

1:03Alex Ossola:Intel's shares slid after its fourth quarter report, which showed that the chipmaker's turnaround is still a work in progress. It projected a loss for the current quarter as it spends heavily to produce more of its latest chips. It's also contending with an inventory shortage that makes it challenging for Intel to capitalize on demand for the latest data center servers that use its chips. Intel's stock has more than doubled in the last six months, with investors expecting higher sales of those chips. Today, the stock fell 17%. Elsewhere in markets, the major stock indexes went in different directions, with the Dow dropping 0.6%, while the S &P was nearly unchanged, and the Nasdaq gained.

1:42Alex Ossola:Gold and silver futures hit their latest highs, with gold closing in on$5 ,000 a troy ounce and silver closing above$100 an ounce for the first time. And forecasts for cold, snowy winter weather continued sending natural gas prices higher. We're exclusively reporting that the Justice Department is investigating an alleged spy operation by Silicon Valley startup deal into a rival company, Rippling. That's according to documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the matter. Rippling filed a complaint last year saying one of its employees stole trade secrets for Deal, an HR company valued at around$17 billion.

2:18Alex Ossola:A Rippling employee in Ireland has said in an affidavit that Deal recruited him to spy on Rippling. A Deal spokeswoman said today the company isn't aware of a criminal investigation but is willing to cooperate with authorities.

2:33Alex Ossola:It's a midterm year and Elon Musk is signaling a return to U.S. politics. He's already donated$10 million toward a Republican Senate candidate in Kentucky this year. For more on what's driving Musk, I'm joined now by WSJ Enterprise reporter Emily Glazer. Emily Musk spent nearly$300 million to help get Trump and Republicans elected in 2024. He was the biggest political donor that we know about in the country. Then he stepped back. There was a big backlash to the Doge government cost-cutting effort that he championed. He had that falling out with Trump in the summer. And then he told investors he was going to focus on Tesla.

3:09Alex Ossola:So what's brought him back into politics? What we've learned is that his political apparatus has been activated. There are some early meetings with different types of vendors. And as you mentioned, Musk has given$10 million toward a Kentucky Senate candidate. Nate Morris has ties to Vice President J.D. Vance. We know that VP Vance has kept in touch with Elon Musk about supporting Republicans, especially in the hopes that they could keep that majority in the House and the Senate, which is often really hard to maintain for a president's party. Our understanding from our sources is that Musk is focused on converting Trump voters, some of whom only show up to vote for Trump in the presidential election, into voters for the midterms and down ballot races.

3:57And this is a mutually beneficial relationship. Musk continues to have a way to influence the administration. So it is back on, even though many really thought he was totally done.

4:10Alex Ossola:You mentioned that Musk has kept in touch with Vance. Where does Musk's relationship stand with Trump? So the two of them were really going at it quite publicly and called each other names frequently last year. But toward the end of last year, things began to thaw a little bit. there was a big turning point around September at the conservative activist Charlie Kirk's funeral. Musk and Trump sat in the same box. Our sources say that they spoke at length there. And from there, the two began to meet more, talk more, including as recently as a dinner this month that Musk had with President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, which he did post a photo about on X.

4:51Alex Ossola:You know, I'm glad you brought up X because we've seen a lot of the issues that Musk cares about come through in his posts on X. He posts about culture war issues, including opposing medical treatment for transgender children. What kinds of issues can we see Musk back, possibly for the midterms? Musk owns X now, and he uses it to amplify his points. He's posted a lot more recently about a vision for a leaner U.S. government. He is very big on cutting federal spending, deregulation, and proof of citizenship mandates at the polls. He recently backed that, and it's something that President Trump has been a backer of as well.

5:31Alex Ossola:What does his involvement mean for these races? What was his track record? Well, it doesn't always mean they win. Musk made a huge investment in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race in 2025 that did not pay off. And instead, there was a victory by a liberal judge. That was WSJ Enterprise reporter Emily Glazer. Thanks, Emily. Thank you. The White House didn't comment and Musk didn't reply to requests for comment. Coming up, why the U.S. government wants you to drink less diet soda. That's after the break.

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6:42Alex Ossola:We've been talking on the show in recent weeks about the government's new dietary guidelines. One longstanding recommendation is for Americans to limit their intake of sugary drinks. Now the guidelines say consumers should ditch artificial sweeteners, too. Think aspartame and sucralose. That's a blow to U.S. food and beverage makers, which for decades have used artificial sweeteners to cut down on sugar. Laura Cooper, who covers beverage companies for the journal, is here to discuss. Laura, where might have listeners encountered these artificial sweeteners before? I mean, like when I hear aspartame, the first thing that comes to mind for me is Diet Coke, but I'm sure that's not the only place.

7:18Definitely not the only place. It's in a lot of beverages. It's in energy drinks. It's in soda. It's in low or zero sugar iced teas. It's also in food. It's also in gum, for instance. So it's widely used and you could encounter it, especially if you see a diet or a zero sugar branding, then there's likely to be one of these sweeteners, though not 100 percent.

7:42Alex Ossola:Food and beverage companies have been using these artificial sweeteners for years. But some of these beverage companies are already struggling now as consumer habits are changing, like they're shifting away from traditional soda. So what does this aspect of the new dietary guidelines mean for these companies? I mean, will the food company shift to more natural sweeteners now? It's hard to say. I don't know. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Keurig Dr. Pepper declined to speak to me for this story. What I will say is that the soda companies have worked for a very long time to move away from sugar, and this was what they were using to do that.

8:16I don't anticipate that diet or zero-sugar offerings will go away. They're very much a big part of business, and people really love them. That was WSJ reporter Laura Cooper.

8:27Alex Ossola:Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Alex. Researchers are trying to get a better handle on the health effects of artificial sweeteners. Some large studies show a connection between them and certain health problems, while other studies don't find any links to health problems. The beverage industry says the alternative sweeteners are safe.

8:47Alex Ossola:South Korea has put into place strict laws around artificial intelligence, saying it's the first government in the world to do so. The rules require disclosures for when companies use AI for a range of activities, from screening loan applicants to managing nuclear facilities. They also require labels for AI-generated content. Violations can result in fines of up to 30 million won, or more than$20 ,000. And the French Navy has seized a ship carrying Russian oil in the Mediterranean. French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X after the operation that the tanker was coming from Russia, was, quote, subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag.

9:26Alex Ossola:It's a signal of Western countries' more aggressive approach to the smuggling network of more than 1 ,000 ships that move sanctioned oil around the world.

9:39Alex Ossola:And finally, you may have heard of world-renowned climber Alex Honnold. He starred in the 2018 documentary Free Solo, where he scaled Yosemite's El Capitan without ropes. Now he's ascending the more than 1 ,600-foot-tall Taipei 101 Tower in Taiwan, again with no safety gear. And he's doing it live on Netflix. As you can hear in this clip from a trailer, he's playing it cool about the dangers involved. No matter how much you prepare, occasionally things just happen. If you fall, you're going to die. WSJ reporter Ellen Gammerman covers arts and culture for the journal and says Honnold is known for daredevil pursuits.

10:19He's built differently than most of us. Like literally, they've looked at MRIs of his brain and he is very slow to have a fear response. He's done trial runs with ropes on the actual building. He's known for his meticulous preparation. And he's also got fierce powers of concentration.

10:40Alex Ossola:Netflix is streaming The Climb during primetime TV hours in the U.S. Netflix is going for these kind of prestige reality live stream moments. They've had a couple of Jake Paul boxing matches. They had the live roast of Tom Brady, which, of course, really took off culturally and got a big audience. And so I think they're trying to do more of this. they really went for the morbid curiosity and this can't look away kind of instinct. And they're hoping that that pays off for them with the climb. Personally, I don't think I have the stomach to watch. But what do you think of Netflix live streaming his climb?

11:21Alex Ossola:Let us know in the Spotify comments. And that's what's news for this week. Tomorrow, you can look out for our weekly markets wrap up, What's News in Markets? Then on Sunday, we'll be discussing how immigration officers authority has changed under President Trump. That's in What's New Sunday. And we'll be back with our regular show on Monday morning. Today's show was produced by Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producer Tali Arbel. Michael LaValle wrote our theme music. Jessica Fenton is our technical manager. Aisha El-Muslim is our development producer. Chris Zinsley is our deputy editor. And Falana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of news audio.

11:56Alex Ossola:I'm Alex Osula. Thanks for listening.

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