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May 30, 2025

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Elon Musk is finishing his official role in the Trump administration, but if President Trump’s latest Truth Social post is any indication, the billionaire isn’t going far.

‘I am having a Press Conference tomorrow at 1:30 P.M. EST, with Elon Musk, at the Oval Office,’ Trump posted Thursday. ‘This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific!’

Musk’s government service will end May 30, the legal 130-day limit for his ‘special government employee’ designation. He was appointed in January to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), created by executive order on Inauguration Day.

‘As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,’ Musk posted on X Wednesday. ‘The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.’

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt emphasized Thursday ‘the DOGE leaders are each and every member of the President’s Cabinet and the president himself, who is wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse from our government.’

And the cuts are adding up.

According to a May 26 update on DOGE’s website, the initiative has saved $175 billion through asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud payment crackdowns and other spending cuts. That translates to about $1,087 in savings per taxpayer.

DOGE’s reach has extended across the federal government, but not without pushback.

Democrats in Congress have sharply criticized Musk’s role. During a February House Oversight hearing, Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., called his influence ‘reckless and illegal,’ accusing Trump of ‘outsourcing governing to a billionaire who answers to no one.’ 

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, warned Musk was acting as an ‘unelected official’ inside the executive branch.

Despite the criticism, markets are welcoming Musk’s return to the private sector. Bloomberg reported Tesla shares rose 4.2% this week on news of his government exit.

In an investor call earlier this month, Musk reassured shareholders, ‘Starting in June, I’ll be allocating far more time to Tesla and SpaceX now that the groundwork at DOGE is in place.’

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stacy and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

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President Donald Trump wrote a fiery, lengthy post on social media Thursday night in response to the intense legal battle surrounding his proposed tariffs.

On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit allowed Trump’s tariffs to temporarily remain in effect, just one day before the US. Court of International Trade on Wednesday ruled that Trump overstepped his authority over tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

On Truth Social, Trump wrote that the U.S. Court of International Trade ‘incredibly’ ruled against the ‘desperately needed’ tariffs, but the order was stayed by the federal court.

‘Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America?’ the Republican’s post read. ‘Is it purely a hatred of ‘TRUMP?’ What other reason could it be?’

Trump then took aim at Leonard Leo, a chairman on the Federalist Society’s board of directors. Trump said that he used the conservative legal organization to pick out judges when he was ‘new to Washington.’

‘It was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges,’ Trump wrote. 

‘I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real ‘sleazebag’ named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions.’

Trump added that he was ‘so disappointed’ in the Federalist Society ‘because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations.’

‘This is something that cannot be forgotten!’ the Republican said. ‘With all of that being said, I am very proud of many of our picks, but very disappointed in others. They always must do what’s right for the Country!’

The president then rounded out his lengthy post by calling attention back to his pending tariffs, which he claimed would lead to a ‘rich, prosperous, and successful United States of America.’

‘The ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade is so wrong, and so political!’ Trump said. ‘Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY.’

‘The President of the United States must be allowed to protect America against those that are doing it Economic and Financial harm. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and Bill Mears contributed to this report.

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E.l.f. Beauty announced on Wednesday plans to acquire Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand Rhode in a deal worth up to $1 billion as the cosmetics company looks to expand further into skincare.

The acquisition — E.l.f.’s biggest ever, according to FactSet — is comprised of $800 million in cash and stock, plus an additional potential $200 million payout based on Rhode’s performance over the next three years. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of the company’s fiscal 2026 — or later this year.

“I’ve been in the consumer space 34 years, and I’ve been blown away by seeing this brand over time. In less than three years, they’ve gone from zero to $212 million in net sales, direct-to-consumer only, with only 10 products. I didn’t think that was possible,” CEO Tarang Amin told CNBC in an interview. “So that level of disruption definitely caught our attention.”

In a news release, Bieber said she’s excited to partner with E.l.f. to bring her brand to “more faces, places, and spaces.”

“From day one, my vision for rhode has been to make essential skin care and hybrid makeup you can use every day,” said Bieber. “Just three years into this journey, our partnership with e.l.f. Beauty marks an incredible opportunity to elevate and accelerate our ability to reach more of our community with even more innovative products and widen our distribution globally.”

Launched in 2022, Rhode has more than doubled its customer base over the past year and generated $212 million in revenue in the 12 months ended March 31. The company’s growth has primarily come through its website, but it plans to launch in Sephora stores throughout North America and the U.K. before the end of the year.

As part of the acquisition, Bieber will serve as Rhode’s chief creative officer and head of innovation, overseeing creative, product innovation and marketing. The brand was launched alongside two co-founders, Michael and Lauren Ratner, but it was Bieber’s influence and name that turned it into a billion-dollar brand.

Under her direction, Rhode last year became the No. 1 skincare brand in earned media value — or exposure through methods other than paid advertising — with 367% year-over-year growth.

Rhode is a solid match for E.l.f., which has seen growth skyrocket in recent years in large part to its digital prowess. The company has legions of online fans and is known for TikTok marketing that feels more natural to consumers.

The company is also looking to dig deeper into skincare, which has become more popular with all age groups, particularly E.l.f’s younger, core consumer. In 2023, it acquired skincare brand Naturium for $355 million. Its acquisition of Rhode will allow it to build on its skincare growth and reach a higher income consumer.

“E.l.f. cosmetics is about $6.50 in its core entry price point, Rhode, on average, is in the high 20s, so I’d say it does bring us a different consumer set to the company overall, but the same approach in terms of how we engage and entertain them,” said Amin.

E.l.f. made the announcement as it posted fiscal fourth quarter results, which beat Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines.

Here’s how the beauty retailer performed compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended March 31 was $28.3 million, or 49 cents per share, compared with $14.5 million, or 25 cents per share, a year earlier. Sales rose to $332.7 million, up about 4% from $321.1 million.

E.l.f.’s sales have increased rapidly in recent years, but investors have grown concerned as that growth started to slow and the threat of tariffs began weighing on its business. The company sources about 75% of its products from China, which currently faces a 30% duty on exports to the U.S. Last week, it announced plans to raise prices by $1 to offset higher costs from tariffs.

While U.S. duties on Chinese imports are 30% now, that could change as President Donald Trump negotiates with Beijing. As a result, E.l.f. said it isn’t providing a fiscal 2026 outlook “due to the wide range of potential outcomes related to tariffs.”

Amin said E.l.f. paid more than 145% in duties before Trump agreed to slash the levies on Chinese goods, but those costs didn’t come through during the quarter and will show up when the company reports its fiscal 2026 first-quarter earnings.

E.l.f. shares dropped more than 13% in extended trading Wednesday.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Boeing’s airplane deliveries to China will resume next month after handovers were paused amid a trade war with the Trump administration, CEO Kelly Ortberg said Thursday, as he brushed off the impact of tit-for-tat tariffs with some of the United States’ largest trading partners this year.

Ortberg had said last month that China had paused deliveries.

“China has now indicated … they’re going to take deliveries,” Ortberg said. The first deliveries will be next month, he told a Bernstein conference on Thursday.

Boeing, a top U.S. exporter whose output of airplanes helps soften the U.S. trade deficit, has been paying tariffs on imported components from Italy and Japan for its wide-body Dreamliner planes, which are made in South Carolina, Ortberg said, adding that much of it can be recouped when the planes are exported again.

“The only duties that we would have to cover would be the duties for a delivery, say, to a U.S. airline,” he said.

Regarding the rapidly changing trade policies that have included several pauses and some exemptions, Ortberg said, “I personally don’t think these will be … permanent in the long term.”

He reiterated that Boeing plans to ramp up production this year of its best-selling 737 Max jet, which will require Federal Aviation Administration approval.

The FAA capped output of the workhorse planes at 38 a month last year after a door plug that wasn’t secured when it left Boeing’s factory blew out midair in the first minutes of an Alaska Airlines flight.

Ortberg said the company could produce 42 Max jets a month by midyear and assess moving up to 47 a month about half a year later.

The company’s long-delayed Max 7 and Max 10 variants, the largest and smallest planes in the narrow-body family, are scheduled to be certified by the end of the year, he said.

Many airline executives have applauded Ortberg’s leadership since he took the reins at Boeing last August, tasked with stemming years of losses and ending reputational and safety crises, including the impact of two fatal Max crashes.

CEOs have long complained about delivery delays from the company that left them short of planes during a post-pandemic travel boom.

“I do think Boeing has turned the corner,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” earlier Thursday. He said supply chain problems are limiting deliveries of new planes overall.

“We over-ordered aircraft believing the supply chain would be challenged,” he said.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Nvidia shares jumped on Thursday after posting a positive set of earnings, sparking a rally in global semiconductor stocks.

Shares of Nvidia were 6% higher after the company posted better-than-expected earnings and revenue on Wednesday, even as it took a hit from U.S. semiconductor export restrictions to China.

Nvidia has been seen by investors as a bellwether for the broader semiconductor industry and artificial intelligence-related stocks, with its latest strong numbers sparking a rally among global semiconductor names.

Nvidia’s earnings helped boost other chip names, with Taiwan Semiconductor, AMD and Qualcomm all up about 1%.

In Japan, Tokyo Electron closed more than 4% higher, while SK Hynix, which is a supplier of high bandwidth memory to Nvidia, was nearly 2% up at the close of markets in South Korea.

In Europe, ASM International, BE Semiconductor Industries and ASML were all in positive territory.

The semiconductor industry has faced a number of headwinds from uncertainty around tariff policy in the U.S. and chip export restrictions to China.

Companies such as ASML, which makes machines that are critical for manufacturing the most advanced chips, have seen billions wiped off their value as a result.

Nvidia on Wednesday said it wrote off $4.5 billion of H20 chip inventory that it couldn’t ship to China because of export curbs, saying it also calculated $2.5 billion of lost revenue as well.

The restrictions on China do not seem to be going away.

The U.S. has ordered a number of companies, including those producing chemicals and design software for semiconductors, to stop shipping goods to China without a license, according to a Reuters report on Thursday.

Despite this, Nvidia still managed to post financial results for the April quarter that beat market expectations, allaying fears that demand for its graphics processing units, which have become key for training huge AI models, is dwindling.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS