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.

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,

Panama President Jose Raul Mulino said China has no stake in the Panama Canal and US warships pay the same toll rates as other nations, pushing back against Donald Trump’s threats over the key waterway.

In a Christmas Day message on Truth Social, Trump sarcastically wished a merry Christmas to “the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal” and “making certain that the United States puts in Billions of Dollars in ‘repair’ money,