The backlash escalated Thursday, when Vivek Ramaswamy, in a post on X, criticized an American culture that he said “venerated mediocrity over excellence.”

We may be seeing some of the first major fissures forming in the Trump-Musk dalliance. Over the holiday week, Elon Musk entered into a heated online debate with notable Trump figure and culture warrior Laura Loomer over the president-elect's immigration policy,

The conflict centers on Musk and Ramaswamy’s recent praise for foreign tech workers, beginning soon after Indian immigrant Sriram Krishnan joined the team of Trump’s AI and crypto czar David Sacks. It’s pitted Trump’s tech mogul donor class against his older network of far-right influencers like activist and Trump companion Laura Loomer while escalating into racist rhetoric against Indian Americans in particular.

A noticeably slimmed-down Elon Musk joked about his weight loss after he was photographed dressed up as Old Saint Nick.

Elon Musk turned heads with a decadent his tree. Dressed head-to-toe in a Santa costume, he captioned his photo "Ozempic Santa," flaunting a slimmer figure. The Tesla CEO was picked by president-elect Donald Trump to co-lead the inaugural Department of Government Efficiency shortly after the election.

The tech billionaire celebrated Ozempic in a Christmas Day social media post that contrasted with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s stance on the drug.