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LONDON — Ukrainians were already having doubts about their future with the West before former President Donald Trump’s reelection on Nov. 5 likely raised more questions. Gallup surveys show that Ukraine’s hopes for quick accession to NATO and the European Union were beginning to wane and that approval of the leadership of Ukraine ’s biggest military backer — the United States — was falling. In August, just over half of Ukrainians surveyed (51%) expected that Ukraine will become a NATO member in the next decade, down from well over 60% in the first two years of the Russia-Ukraine war. Twenty-two percent think Ukraine will never be accepted into the bloc, about double the rate from previous years. Ukrainians’ expectations for their country’s accession to the EU follow a similar trajectory. In 2022 and 2023, 73% of Ukrainians believed their country would be accepted within the next 10 years. While a majority (61%) in 2024 continue to expect this, it is 12 percentage points lower than before. Fifteen percent think Ukraine will never be accepted into the EU, more than double the 7% who said so in 2023. Ukrainians’ hopes for a quick accession to the EU slipped even as formal talks began in June 2024, one decade after the Euromaidan protests put Ukraine on a path to greater alignment with the West. The path to joining NATO — a military alliance, unlike the EU — is somewhat more complex. In October, former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg referenced the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO even if Russia occupied parts of its territory. But Ukraine’s accession to NATO faces challenges from within the EU. For example, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico recently reiterated his promise to block Ukraine’s accession to NATO while he remains in office, even though he supports Ukraine joining the EU. Goodwill Toward U.S. Leadership Fizzles For many years, Ukrainians’ opinions of U.S. leadership were largely mixed. Between 2014 and 2021, approval of U.S. leadership typically hovered between 20% and 40%, with a similar percentage expressing disapproval. That changed dramatically with the onset of the war in 2022. The U.S. became Ukraine’s largest provider of military aid, and approval of its leadership jumped accordingly to 66%, one of the highest rates in the world at the time. Since then, assistance to Ukraine has become a politically charged topic in the United States, with many Republicans seeking to delay and even halt the flow of military aid that Ukraine relies on. In 2024, approval of U.S. leadership has fallen to 40%, broadly in line with pre-2022 sentiments. Nearly as many now disapprove of U.S. leadership (37%) as approve, and the goodwill that the U.S. built up following Russia’s invasion has disappeared. Approval of Berlin Much More Stable Ukrainian attitudes toward Germany’s leadership have followed a different path. When the war began, disapproval of Berlin rose from 20% to 35%, while approval remained stable. In the early months of the war, Germany was among the more hesitant Western powers with regard to introducing sanctions against Russia, given their reliance on Russian energy imports. In 2023, Ukrainian approval and disapproval of Germany’s leadership (53% vs. 20%, respectively) were on par with U.S leadership (53% vs. 22%). As Ukraine’s approval toward the U.S. has declined further in 2024, Germany’s leadership remains stable and broadly in line with pre-war levels. For the first time since the war began, Berlin is now viewed more highly than Washington.SSI Payments – Find out if you will receive $484, $967 or $1,450 on your next deposit
Jones, Mellott help Montana State run over Montana 34-11Prince Stash on Tripping With Pink Floyd, Personal Style, and Becoming a Social Media Star at 82ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100 years old. The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023 , spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the center said in posting about his death on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s. “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said. A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon. Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Yet Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter acknowledged in his 2020 “White House Diary” that he could be “micromanaging” and “excessively autocratic,” complicating dealings with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. He also turned a cold shoulder to Washington’s news media and lobbyists, not fully appreciating their influence on his political fortunes. “It didn’t take us long to realize that the underestimation existed, but by that time we were not able to repair the mistake,” Carter told historians in 1982, suggesting that he had “an inherent incompatibility” with Washington insiders. Carter insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term. Ignominious defeat, though, allowed for renewal. The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind base of operations, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. “I was not interested in just building a museum or storing my White House records and memorabilia,” Carter wrote in a memoir published after his 90th birthday. “I wanted a place where we could work.” That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, The Carter Center had declared at least 113 elections in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be free or fraudulent. Recently, the center began monitoring U.S. elections as well. Carter’s stubborn self-assuredness and even self-righteousness proved effective once he was unencumbered by the Washington order, sometimes to the point of frustrating his successors . He went “where others are not treading,” he said, to places like Ethiopia, Liberia and North Korea, where he secured the release of an American who had wandered across the border in 2010. “I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don’t,” Carter said. He announced an arms-reduction-for-aid deal with North Korea without clearing the details with Bill Clinton’s White House. He openly criticized President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized America’s approach to Israel with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” And he repeatedly countered U.S. administrations by insisting North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position that most aligned Carter with Republican President Donald Trump. Among the center’s many public health initiatives, Carter vowed to eradicate the guinea worm parasite during his lifetime, and nearly achieved it: Cases dropped from millions in the 1980s to nearly a handful. With hardhats and hammers, the Carters also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Nobel committee’s 2002 Peace Prize cites his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter should have won it alongside Sadat and Begin in 1978, the chairman added. Carter accepted the recognition saying there was more work to be done. “The world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place,” he said. “The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect.” Carter’s globetrotting took him to remote villages where he met little “Jimmy Carters,” so named by admiring parents. But he spent most of his days in the same one-story Plains house — expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents — where they lived before he became governor. He regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the coronavirus pandemic raged. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral. The common assessment that he was a better ex-president than president rankled Carter and his allies. His prolific post-presidency gave him a brand above politics, particularly for Americans too young to witness him in office. But Carter also lived long enough to see biographers and historians reassess his White House years more generously. His record includes the deregulation of key industries, reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cautious management of the national debt and notable legislation on the environment, education and mental health. He focused on human rights in foreign policy, pressuring dictators to release thousands of political prisoners . He acknowledged America’s historical imperialism, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders and relinquished control of the Panama Canal. He normalized relations with China. “I am not nominating Jimmy Carter for a place on Mount Rushmore,” Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s domestic policy director, wrote in a 2018 book. “He was not a great president” but also not the “hapless and weak” caricature voters rejected in 1980, Eizenstat said. Rather, Carter was “good and productive” and “delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office.” Madeleine Albright, a national security staffer for Carter and Clinton’s secretary of state, wrote in Eizenstat’s forward that Carter was “consequential and successful” and expressed hope that “perceptions will continue to evolve” about his presidency. “Our country was lucky to have him as our leader,” said Albright, who died in 2022. Jonathan Alter, who penned a comprehensive Carter biography published in 2020, said in an interview that Carter should be remembered for “an epic American life” spanning from a humble start in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing through decades on the world stage across two centuries. “He will likely go down as one of the most misunderstood and underestimated figures in American history,” Alter told The Associated Press. James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains and spent his early years in nearby Archery. His family was a minority in the mostly Black community, decades before the civil rights movement played out at the dawn of Carter’s political career. Carter, who campaigned as a moderate on race relations but governed more progressively, talked often of the influence of his Black caregivers and playmates but also noted his advantages: His land-owning father sat atop Archery’s tenant-farming system and owned a main street grocery. His mother, Lillian , would become a staple of his political campaigns. Seeking to broaden his world beyond Plains and its population of fewer than 1,000 — then and now — Carter won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. That same year he married Rosalynn Smith, another Plains native, a decision he considered more important than any he made as head of state. She shared his desire to see the world, sacrificing college to support his Navy career. Carter climbed in rank to lieutenant, but then his father was diagnosed with cancer, so the submarine officer set aside his ambitions of admiralty and moved the family back to Plains. His decision angered Rosalynn, even as she dived into the peanut business alongside her husband. Carter again failed to talk with his wife before his first run for office — he later called it “inconceivable” not to have consulted her on such major life decisions — but this time, she was on board. “My wife is much more political,” Carter told the AP in 2021. He won a state Senate seat in 1962 but wasn’t long for the General Assembly and its back-slapping, deal-cutting ways. He ran for governor in 1966 — losing to arch-segregationist Lester Maddox — and then immediately focused on the next campaign. Carter had spoken out against church segregation as a Baptist deacon and opposed racist “Dixiecrats” as a state senator. Yet as a local school board leader in the 1950s he had not pushed to end school segregation even after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, despite his private support for integration. And in 1970, Carter ran for governor again as the more conservative Democrat against Carl Sanders, a wealthy businessman Carter mocked as “Cufflinks Carl.” Sanders never forgave him for anonymous, race-baiting flyers, which Carter disavowed. Ultimately, Carter won his races by attracting both Black voters and culturally conservative whites. Once in office, he was more direct. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over,” he declared in his 1971 inaugural address, setting a new standard for Southern governors that landed him on the cover of Time magazine. His statehouse initiatives included environmental protection, boosting rural education and overhauling antiquated executive branch structures. He proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the slain civil rights leader’s home state. And he decided, as he received presidential candidates in 1972, that they were no more talented than he was. In 1974, he ran Democrats’ national campaign arm. Then he declared his own candidacy for 1976. An Atlanta newspaper responded with the headline: “Jimmy Who?” The Carters and a “Peanut Brigade” of family members and Georgia supporters camped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, establishing both states as presidential proving grounds. His first Senate endorsement: a young first-termer from Delaware named Joe Biden. Yet it was Carter’s ability to navigate America’s complex racial and rural politics that cemented the nomination. He swept the Deep South that November, the last Democrat to do so, as many white Southerners shifted to Republicans in response to civil rights initiatives. A self-declared “born-again Christian,” Carter drew snickers by referring to Scripture in a Playboy magazine interview, saying he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” The remarks gave Ford a new foothold and television comedians pounced — including NBC’s new “Saturday Night Live” show. But voters weary of cynicism in politics found it endearing. Carter chose Minnesota Sen. Walter “Fritz” Mondale as his running mate on a “Grits and Fritz” ticket. In office, he elevated the vice presidency and the first lady’s office. Mondale’s governing partnership was a model for influential successors Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Biden. Rosalynn Carter was one of the most involved presidential spouses in history, welcomed into Cabinet meetings and huddles with lawmakers and top aides. The Carters presided with uncommon informality: He used his nickname “Jimmy” even when taking the oath of office, carried his own luggage and tried to silence the Marine Band’s “Hail to the Chief.” They bought their clothes off the rack. Carter wore a cardigan for a White House address, urging Americans to conserve energy by turning down their thermostats. Amy, the youngest of four children, attended District of Columbia public school. Washington’s social and media elite scorned their style. But the larger concern was that “he hated politics,” according to Eizenstat, leaving him nowhere to turn politically once economic turmoil and foreign policy challenges took their toll. Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres of Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and nonwhite people to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the nation’s second highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993. He appointed Paul Volker, the Federal Reserve chairman whose policies would help the economy boom in the 1980s — after Carter left office. He built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. But he couldn’t immediately tame inflation or the related energy crisis. And then came Iran. After he admitted the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979 by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Negotiations to free the hostages broke down repeatedly ahead of the failed rescue attempt. The same year, Carter signed SALT II, the new strategic arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, only to pull it back, impose trade sanctions and order a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hoping to instill optimism, he delivered what the media dubbed his “malaise” speech, although he didn’t use that word. He declared the nation was suffering “a crisis of confidence.” By then, many Americans had lost confidence in the president, not themselves. Carter campaigned sparingly for reelection because of the hostage crisis, instead sending Rosalynn as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy challenged him for the Democratic nomination. Carter famously said he’d “kick his ass,” but was hobbled by Kennedy as Reagan rallied a broad coalition with “make America great again” appeals and asking voters whether they were “better off than you were four years ago.” Reagan further capitalized on Carter’s lecturing tone, eviscerating him in their lone fall debate with the quip: “There you go again.” Carter lost all but six states and Republicans rolled to a new Senate majority. Carter successfully negotiated the hostages’ freedom after the election, but in one final, bitter turn of events, Tehran waited until hours after Carter left office to let them walk free. At 56, Carter returned to Georgia with “no idea what I would do with the rest of my life.” Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business. “I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything,” Carter told the AP in 2021. “But it’s turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years.” Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a cancer diagnosis in his 10th decade of life. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015 . “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” Former Associated Press journalist Alex Sanz contributed to this report.Key Small Arms And Light Weapons Market Trend 2024-2033: Technological Advancements
Opinion: Is university worth it? Yes, for both students and society
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Juan Sebastian Gorosito scored 21 points as Ball State beat Bellarmine 86-82 on Saturday. Gorosito added three steals for the Cardinals (4-6). Mickey Pearson Jr. added 18 points while going 3 of 6 and 12 of 12 from the free-throw line and he also had three steals. Jermahri Hill shot 6 for 9 (1 for 3 from 3-point range) and 1 of 3 from the free-throw line to finish with 14 points. The Knights (3-8) were led in scoring by Billy Smith, who finished with 33 points. Bellarmine also got 18 points, six rebounds and two steals from Dylan Branson. Gorosito scored 12 points in the first half for Ball State, who led 47-42 at the break. Hill's jump shot with 16:02 remaining in the second half gave Ball State the lead for good at 52-50. NEXT UP Up next for Ball State is a Saturday matchup with Evansville at home, and Bellarmine visits Wyoming on Thursday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .
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In recent years, Carter had received various hospital treatments, including when he revealed in August 2015 that he had brain cancer and was undergoing radiation treatment — an illness he recovered from, seemingly against the odds. In addition to being president, the 100-year-old was a U.S. Navy submarine officer, a farmer, a diplomat, a Nobel laureate, a Sunday school teacher and one of the world’s most well-known humanitarians. Carter won the presidency in 1976, following the Nixon and Ford administrations, at a time of grave political and social tumult not unlike our own. During his tenure, the Democrat prioritized human rights and social justice , enjoying a solid first two years, which included brokering a peace deal between Israel and Egypt dubbed the Camp David Accords . But his administration hit numerous snags — the most serious being the taking of U.S. hostages in Iran and the disastrous failed attempt to rescue the 52 captive Americans in 1980 . The blowback from the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics , held in the former Soviet Union in response to that country’s invasion of Afghanistan, may have also hurt Carter. Richard Moe, who served from 1977 to 1981 as chief of staff to Vice President Walter Mondale, offered an alternative view of Carter’s presidency in 2015 , citing numerous achievements. “ As worthy as Jimmy Carter’s post-presidency has been, it shouldn’t overshadow his time in office, which has been too often overlooked, and which stands in sharp contrast to what we see in the [ Trump administration],” Moe said. In November 1980, Republican challenger Ronald Reagan beat Carter, relegating him to a single term of office on a wave of staunch conservatism. “We told the truth, we obeyed the law, and we kept the peace,” said Vice President Walter Mondale at the end of Carter’s term . In the introduction of his 2015 book, A Full Life , Carter repeated the Mondale quote, adding, “We championed human rights.” As the years passed, a more nuanced image of Carter emerged, taking into account his post-presidential activities and reassessing his achievements. He founded the Carter Center in 1982 to pursue his vision of world diplomacy and received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to promote social and economic justice. Carter said basic Christian tenets such as justice and love served as the bedrock of his presidency, and the ex-president taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist, his church in Plains, well into his 90s. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who is also a senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King, Jr. preached, wished the Carter family comfort as the former president entered hospice. "Across life's seasons, President Jimmy Carter, a man of great faith, has walked with God," Warnock tweeted. "In this tender time of transitioning, God is surely walking with him." Both Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter made plans to be buried at their family home in Plains , near “a willow tree at the pond’s edge, on a gentle sloping lawn, where they will be buried in graves marked by simple stones.” The Carters’ property has already been deeded to the National Park Service. With additional reporting from AFP.By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Reported sightings of drones over New Jersey have prompted a spike in the number of people in the state pointing lasers at airplanes flying overhead, which is illegal and can be dangerous, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said. The FAA said reports are up 269% to 59 in the first half of December, compared with eight in the same period last year. Aiming a laser at an aircraft is a serious safety issue and a violation of federal law. U.S. agencies have repeatedly said the spike in drone sightings does not pose national security risks and appear to be mostly aircraft, stars or hobbyist drones. The FAA said it has received dozens of new laser reports from pilots in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania airspace. The FBI in New Jersey separately warned people Wednesday not to shoot at suspected drones or point lasers at them, warning "there could be dangerous and possibly deadly consequences if manned aircraft are targeted mistakenly" as drones. Federal agencies have stepped up tracking of drones in New Jersey and in nearby states after a frenzy of public concern. Fewer than 100 of the more than 5,000 reported sightings in New Jersey and other northeastern U.S. states merited investigation, officials at the Defense Department, Homeland Security Department, FBI and FAA said this week. The Biden administration gave members of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee a classified briefing on the issue on Tuesday. Officials have repeatedly said most of the large fixed-wing sightings involved manned aircraft, and came after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday called for more federal comment on the reported sightings. There are about 1 million registered drones flying about 42 million flights annually. "There are thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones lawfully in the sky on any given day. With the technology landscape evolving, we expect that number to increase over time," agencies said this week. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
Sam Darnold completed 33 of 43 passes for a career-best 377 yards to go with three touchdowns and one interception, and the Minnesota Vikings escaped with a 27-25 win over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis. Justin Jefferson had eight catches for 92 yards for Minnesota (14-2), which won its ninth game in a row. Jalen Nailor, Jordan Addison and Cam Akers had one touchdown reception apiece for the Vikings. Jordan Love completed 19 of 30 passes for 185 yards and one touchdown for Green Bay (11-5). Josh Jacobs and Emanuel Wilson each rushed for a touchdown and Malik Heath had a touchdown catch for the Packers, who lost to the Vikings for the second time this season. Minnesota's nine-game winning streak matches its third longest in franchise history. The Vikings are enjoying their longest stretch of success since 1975, when they won 10 straight. Green Bay rallied with back-to-back touchdowns in the fourth quarter to pull within two. Wilson scored on a 5-yard run to cut the Packers' deficit to 27-18 with 6:12 to go. Love brought Green Bay within 27-25 with 2:18 to play. He fired a 3-yard touchdown pass to Heath, who scored on a quick slant. The Vikings got the ball on the following kickoff and never gave it back to Green Bay. Darnold secured the win when he lobbed a pass to Akers for a first down to set up the victory formation. The Packers opened the scoring late in the first quarter with a 22-yard field goal by Brandon McManus. Minnesota responded to grab a 13-3 lead at the half. Darnold found Nailor for a 31-yard touchdown with 11:52 remaining in the first half. Nailor was wide open and made a basket catch near the back of the end zone. Reichard rounded out the first-half scoring with field goals from 25 yards and 50 yards. The Vikings increased their lead to 20-3 on the opening drive of the second half. Addison made a diving grab for an 18-yard touchdown. Green Bay pulled within 20-10 with 5:07 left in the third quarter. Jacobs scored on a 2-yard run. Darnold's third touchdown pass, this time to Akers, made it 27-10 in favor of the Vikings with 51 seconds remaining in the third quarter. --Field Level MediaSmith's career-high 205 yards rushing carries San Diego past Morehead State 37-14
WASHINGTON — Elon Musk, clad in tuxedo and black tie, took the stage at President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort shortly after the election with all the swagger of the winning candidate himself. "The public has given us a mandate that could not be more clear, the clearest mandate. The people have spoken. The people want change," Musk told the audience of Trump's biggest donors, campaign leaders and appointment seekers. "We are going to shake things up. It's going to be a revolution." Except the so-called mandate was not one he won from American voters, and Trump may grow weary of the overwhelming attention Musk is attracting. Musk's attachment to Trump has created an alliance between America's most powerful politician and its richest businessman — and roughly the same percentages of Americans have favorable views of each, according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About 4 in 10 Americans have a somewhat or very favorable view of the world’s richest person, very similar to the percentage who view Trump positively. Likewise, about half of adults have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Musk — again, similar to Trump. But experts are split on whether that overlap in public opinion is a good or bad thing for Musk's businesses or for Trump's politics. But it could have far-reaching effects in both realms. Musk, whose net worth tops $400 billion, oversees six businesses while continuing to work closely with Trump: electric car manufacturer Tesla, the X social media platform, space technology company SpaceX, brain link company Neuralink, the startup xAI and tunneling operator The Boring Co. Even though there could be a “negative impact” for Musk’s buisnesses in terms of “potentially alienating some of their customers that might not be fans of Trump, the benefits far outweigh any negatives when it comes to having a right-hand seat next to Trump in the White House," said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, identified himself as an investor in Musk's Tesla and a driver of Tesla's new Cybertruck, the futuristic pickup that has gotten huge amounts of attention but also been the subject of safety concerns and multiple recalls. "Having your CEO not working at your company and working at the job of having to fire government employees ... as a shareholder, I'm paying someone to not work for my company," he noted. "As a Cybertruck owner with self-driving that sucks and doesn't work, I'm like, 'Dude, this isn't fair.'" But despite his skepticism, Gerber said he won't stop investing in Musk's businesses. "I've made a lot of money with Elon," he said. "I'm not in the business of investing based on the popularity of CEOs." One political strategist argued that Musk is the ideal validator for someone who cultivates an image of success in business and who has stocked his Cabinet and key adviser roles with billionaires. "Trump has always pushed this narrative that he's a successful developer and a very successful businessman. I think having Musk with him is his double-down on this business success, good-for-the-economy, good-for-everybody-making money kind of persona," said Christine Matthews, a national political pollster who has worked for Republicans. "In this case, Musk is seen as this successful, innovative, tech entrepreneur, frontier-buster,” she added. Musk also has at his disposal X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that he purchased and turned into a megaphone for conservative ideas. And having spent an estimated $250 million to support Trump in the election, Musk has signaled he is willing to back Republican primary challenges to GOP members in the House and Senate seeking reelection in 2026 who are shaky on Trump's appointments and agenda. Trump has already tasked Musk with leading a group to reduce the size of the federal government and reduce the rulemaking authority of the federal bureaucracy. Musk’s Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump's plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon. Tesla's stock price has nearly doubled since Trump's victory, creating an additional $750 billion shareholder wealth in the past six weeks. But Gerber feels that jump is because investors believe Tesla will have an advantage when it comes to autonomous driving because Trump could grant the company a national autonomy license. The relationship between the two men has no parallel in U.S. history, said David Nasaw, biographer of American business tycoons Andrew Carnegie and William Randolph Hearst. He noted that Musk, to a level unlike other tycoons, has relied on subsidies and favorable government decisions for his success from Tesla to SpaceX. "He's a unicorn," Nasaw said of Musk.