Weekend Edition: ‘This is how he nego tiates’

Welcome to the weekend!

This week’s most-read stories revolve around two men, as Donald Trump and Elon Musk divvy up a to-do list for overhauling the federal government. Who’s handling what? You fill in the blanks:

Last Saturday, a standoff at USAID led DOGE employees to call _____, who threatened to involve the US Marshals.

On Monday, _____ asked officials to submit plans for a US sovereign wealth fund, which he said could be used to facilitate a TikTok sale.

Also Monday, _____ said his team was shutting down some payments to federal contractors, though the Treasury Department later walked it back.

As of Thursday, ____’s offer for federal employees to resign had already been accepted by more than 50,000 workers. Next up: poor performers.

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Playing a Long Game

When Trump poked Justin Trudeau about Canada becoming the 51st state, Canadians took it as a joke. When he made “Governor Trudeau” quips, they saw it as punching down. But when Trump mused about using “economic force” to absorb the country, a switch flipped: Oh, he means it. The constant broadsides are splintering the allies’ relationship, writes Derek Decloet, and the damage may last for a generation.

US history is rife with impulsive moves whose impact lasts for decades. Among them, the George H.W. Bush administration’s 1991 decision to house Haitian asylum seekers at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. If the base is the proverbial poisonous fruit that tempts US presidents, that was the original sin, writes A. Naomi Paik. It set legal and historical precedent for Trump’s own plan to hold 30,000 migrants at Gitmo.

No one understands an inflection point like Bill Gates, whose happenstance experience with a computer in high school cascaded into a series of opportunities and, ultimately, Microsoft. In Source Code, the first in a memoir trilogy, Gates attributes his success in part to that kind of luck. But the book can also be read as a thank you to Gates’s parents for their chill approach to child-rearing, writes Gary Sernovitz.

Dispatch

With his three-piece suit and black-rimmed spectacles, Koichi Anno cuts an imposing figure. He also has a flair for the dramatic, referring to himself as a “guardian of assets” and “butler of money.” Except Anno is no real-life financier: He’s the lead of Private Banker, a Japanese TV series streaming on Netflix. The show highlights a world of billionaires, Ponzi schemes, and succession squabbles — and reflects shifting attitudes toward money in a nation that has long avoided ostentation.

Smoke and Fears

Weekend Plans

What we’re wondering: How much should authors get paid to license books to AI? Most experts agree that tech companies should pay creators whose work is used to train AI models. Deciding on the right number is the hard part.

What we’re watching: Kenya. Trump’s plan to decimate US foreign aid is already being felt in the African country, where it has left programs for healthcare, food aid, anti-terrorism operations and pandemic preparedness in jeopardy.

What we’re buying: lab-grown diamonds. There’s a crisis afoot in the $80 billion diamond industry, as a demand slump spurred in part by synthetic alternatives leaves De Beers floundering and threatens to frustrate its owner’s plans to sell.

What we’re not buying: luxury watches. Neither are young consumers in China, who are eschewing big logos for less ostentatious options as part of a slump in demand for everything from handbags to trench coats and jewelry.

What we’re betting on: the Super Bowl. Crypto.com and Kalshi made an end-run around state regulators to allow wagers on the National Football League’s championship game, traditionally the biggest betting day on the US calendar.

One Last Thing

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