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President Donald Trump has threatened to escalate his feud with tech billionaire Elon Musk into weaponized federal policy, canceling his longtime ally's subsidies and federal contracts as Musk rails against Trump and attacks his signature tax cut bill currently under debate in the Senate.

But if Trump wants to really bring the heat and do something constructive for the American people in the process, analyst Van Jones said on a CNN panel Thursday, he should start investigating the workers Musk brought into the government through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force.

The fiery back-and-forth falling out between President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk that escalated on Thursday reveals a core fear that the president has in this moment, former Trump White House communications strategist Alyssa Farah Griffin told a CNN panel.

This followed one of Griffin's co-panelists, longtime Trump loyalist and right-wing commentator Scott Jennings, expressing the hope that Musk, who blew up the feud in part over his rage at the fiscal insolvency of the GOP's "big, beautiful bill" to extend tax cuts, could instill deficit discipline in the party.

Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL), chair of the House DOGE Caucus, said he was "hurting" after a feud broke out between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.

Bean told Nathaniel Reed of Scripps News that he hated to see Musk and Trump taking shots at each other on social media. The former DOGE administrator accused Trump of being part of the Jeffrey Epstein files, while the president threatened to end Musk's federal contracts.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) warned a group of artificial intelligence experts that "superhumans" were "a real concern" if wealthy people were allowed to have chips implanted in their brains.

The claims were made by the Florida Republican at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday.

A White House correspondent dished up some behind-the-scenes details leading up to president Donald Trump tossing Elon Musk overboard.

The president finally responded to his ally's criticism of the Republican budget bill Trump is pushing to get passed, saying he was “very disappointed” in Musk and claimed the tech billionaire suffered from "Trump derangement syndrome," and CNN's Kristen Holmes revealed some new reporting on what led to their apparent split.

Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) called out Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, one of President Donald Trump's top advisers on tariffs, after he claimed bananas would be less expensive if they were grown in the U.S.

"Mr. Trump promised to bring down the cost of goods, day one," Dean said during a Thursday House Appropriations Committee hearing. "And what he has done through his trade deficit fixation and his tariff chaos has nakedly increased the cost of goods."

President Donald Trump finally responded to Elon Musk's criticism of his "big beautiful bill" and commented on the black eye he sported in his White House farewell, and CNN's Dana Bash received a text while on air pointing out the significance of those remarks.

The president's billionaire benefactor left his role as a special government employee last week, and days later he harshly criticized the Republican budget bill, but Trump did not comment on Musk's remarks until Thursday afternoon in an Oval Office meeting with German chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Former President Bill Clinton defended former President Joe Biden, speaking to "The View" on Thursday, and blamed bad staffing for a poor debate performance.

Promoting a new fictional book co-written with James Patterson, Clinton was asked about President Donald Trump and Biden.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell disputed multiple reports that said U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang cautioned him to stop doing interviews and posting on social media about his defamation trial.

According to Colorado Politics, Lindell received a verbal warning from the judge on Wednesday after he spoke on his LindellTV network and posted on X about the trial.

President Donald Trump had a press conference on Thursday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz where he went off on a tangent about the use of an autopen for a president to sign cards, letters and other documents.

Trump announced Wednesday that he would appoint a special counsel to investigate President Joe Biden's pardons and use of the autopen.