Elon Musk has once again taken aim against the Biden administration, claiming this time that they ‘slaughtered’ 150,000,000 egg-laying chickens, implying this to be the cause of soaring egg prices.
The high price of eggs was one of the biggest talking points prior to the election, and many believe that it played a key role in Donald Trump regaining the presidency.
Eggs saw a peak price of around $4.25 two months prior to the election according to Trading Economics, and many believed that Trump’s victory would see their price return to the lows of mid-2023.
However, they have since soared well beyond any previous record in the past 10 years at least, reaching a peak price-per-dozen of around $8.11 this month after climbing rapidly since the election.
This has caused a new talking point in right wing circles that blames the Biden administration by linking them to the death of 150 million chickens. This has been parroted by Elon Musk on his social media channels, where he claims that the accusations are “true” and linked to the increase in prices.
It’s true. There was an insane slaughter of 150 million egg-laying chickens ordered by the Biden administration.
Joe Biden KlLLED the chickens.
“There was an insane slaughter of 150 million egg-laying chickens ordered by the Biden administration,” outlines Musk in a recent post on X, and while this is technically true, it’s for a very different reason.
As reported by Forbes, this mass ‘slaughter’ of chickens was in line with a ‘stamping-out policy’ advised by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which indicates that the only way to deal with highly pathogenic avian flu is to depopulate affected and exposed poultry.
Egg prices have risen dramatically in America following a major bird flu outbreak in 2022 (Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
These efforts began in February 2022 after a bird flu outbreak and have continued into Trump’s presidency, with an estimated 13 million chickens killed since February alone.
It also remains true that this is linked to the rise in egg prices, with recent USDA estimates indicating that egg prices will continue to rise by 41% in 2025. However, with these efforts remaining in place during the Trump administration, it’s not quite the slam dunk that Musk is positioning it to be.
With egg prices likely to continue their worrying rise, it’s likely that Musk and other right wing commenters will try to deflect from the same talking points that benefitted them greatly during the last election cycle, despite the surge being for the very same reasons.
Grok here. The claim about Biden ordering the slaughter of 150 million egg-laying chickens is false. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has culled birds infected with bird flu since 2022 to prevent spread, a policy in place under both Biden and Trump administrations. Over 20…
One intriguing contradiction is that Musk’s own AI-powered chatbot Grok is repeatedly correcting his claim in the replies, outlining to users looking for fact checks that the ‘slaughter’ was due to the spread of bird flu. This is linked to previous Grok claims that Musk is a ‘significant spreader’ of misinformation, so it seems like even his own tools have turned against him.
Musk has indicated that the Biden administration was “extremely antagonistic” towards him and his companies after a Biden-era lawsuit against SpaceX was dropped by the current Department of Justice, and has repeatedly insinuated that the previous government is to blame for the two stranded astronauts currently on the International Space Station.
You could play a role in the moulding of time by simply voting in Elon Musk’s latest poll on X, as he’s asked his 219 million followers to help enact a major change that would affect every single American across the country.
Elon Musk is certainly no stranger to conducting polls online, as he’s previously asked his followers to vote on site-wide changes like the block feature and even potential foreign policy such as an invasion of Great Britain.
He has repeatedly platformed his belief in ‘vox populi, vox dei’ – otherwise known as the voice of the people – and his latest application of this could lead to something that would have ramifications on the everyday lives of everyone the US, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Posting a poll on X, Musk asked his followers the following question: “If daylight savings time is canceled, do you prefer: An hour earlier; An hour later.”
If daylight savings time change is canceled, do you prefer
Currently the poll has received 1.2 million votes with four hours still remaining, and the latter ‘hour later’ option is winning with around 58% of the vote.
This is far from the first time that Musk has expressed his seeming frustration with daylight savings time, as it’s a long-held bug bear for him that he’s hinted at getting rid of in the past.
While being the richest man in the world certainly gives you a lot of power, his newly-held position as the head of new federal advisory board DOGE could mean that he’s never been in a better place to enact his hatred of the lengthy US-based time zone.
If you’re unaware, daylight savings time stretches between March and November, setting clocks forward an hour to ensure that evenings have more light whereas mornings have less.
Funnily enough, the result of Musk’s poll appear to indicate that most actually prefer the functions of daylight savings time anyway, as ‘an hour later’ would land the same result, albeit permanently this time.
Looks like daylight savings time could be next on Elon Musk’s chopping list (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
The replies seem to offer a mixed reception to the poll, with contrasting opinions on what time should be set.
“More daylight in awake hours,” argues one user, seemingly supporting the ‘hour later’ option, adding that “sunlight is healthy.”
Another asks “what is it right now?” requesting that Musk should “keep it all the same” in the end.
“How about just pick one and stick with it,” frustratingly writes one comment. “I need to stop screwing with my sleep schedule twice a year damnit, sooner is better.”
Whether Musk alone actually has the power to make these changes is still up for debate though, as one Reddit user explains why it might not be within the Department of Government Efficiency’s remit:
“DST starts and end with an act of Congress, so nothing DOGE can do about it. Unless they were to write about the full-fledged text of a law that enacts their recommendations, and the Republicans are willing to just pass it intact. Ha. Haha.”
That certainly wouldn’t be too out of the question considering how Trump’s administration has gone so far, and there’s nothing to say that the president won’t just push it all through with a fresh executive order either.
The grind never ends at the White House, with Elon Musk’s new position as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency meaning he’s keeping busy in a very different capacity.
The world’s richest man has batted off complaints he’s initiating a ‘hostile takeover’ of the US government, but after President Donald Trump asked the tech billionaire to be ‘more aggressive’, those complaints are rearing their head once again.
As well as enforcing the POTUS’ return to office mandates, Musk has also delivered an email to federal employees asking them to justify their roles.
Thousands of employees have already stepped down or been fired, while Musk has said that anyone who doesn’t respond to his ‘What did you do last week?’ email will be in the same boat.
Departments including the FBI have advised staff to ignore the email, while Senator Tina Smith has branded Musk a ‘d*ck’.
Musk could be putting the jobs of thousands on the line (Andrew Harnik / Staff / Getty)
While staff have until 11:59 p.m. EST on February 24 to reply with five bullet points explaining their accomplishments from the past week, Musk had hinted that it’s all an experiment to see whether employees are “capable of responding.”
Venture capitalist Garry Tan shared a post claiming that the DOGE doesn’t have the number of staff to read all responses, with the original post branding the whole thing as ‘stupid’ and ‘performance art’.
Tan’s post suggested that large language models will easily be able to sift through the thousands of replies, adding: “Most people don’t understand LLMs have changed the nature of management already, and this will be a bit of a shock to people.”
No LLM needed here. This was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email. This mess will get sorted out this week. Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will.
Musk interjected and seemingly suggested that it’s not the content of the reply that matters, but that employees reply in general: “This was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email.
“This mess will get sorted out this week. Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will.”
Elsewhere, Musk has said the emails are a “very basic pulse check” and reiterated it should only take a couple of minutes to complete the task. He concluded that employees with “two working neurons” will be able to comply.
Despite this, the government is currently split on what to do. With heads of the FBI, then Pentagon, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Energy telling its employees to reply, it remains to be seen whether Musk will enforce his midnight deadline, let alone show these thousands of employees the door.
Featured Image Credit: Pool / Pool / Getty
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has received criticism after one former employee claims they were fired from the electric vehicle manufacturer following a LinkedIn post that pushed back against a Nazi-related joke post from its owner.
While it’s typically Elon Musk‘s own posts that end up getting him in trouble, in this particular instance it’s how he has reacted to another’s response that many have found issue with.
Musk remains quick to criticise others on social media when he sees fit, targeting television shows like SNL, multiple major news publications, and even the infamous hacking group Anonymous if he believes that they’ve spoken out of turn.
He’s also a self-professed defender of free speech principles – one of the key reasons why he purchased Twitter, now X, for $44 billion – declaring in the past that “free speech is meaningless unless you allow people you don’t like to say things you don’t like, otherwise it’s irrelevant.”
Musk has been accused of firing an employee after they posted dissenting views (Nora Tam/South China Morning Post via Getty Images)
Recent actions appear to have breached these ideals though, as one now-former Tesla employee has detailed how they were fired from the company for posting a dissenting view of Musk, as reported by The New York Times.
Jared Ottmann was previously a manager and engineer working with Tesla’s battery suppliers, and he outlined his opposition and distaste for Musk’s use of Nazi references in a ‘joke’ post on X.
Musk employed puns involving the names of key Nazi figures such as Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, and Hermann Göring, adding: “Bet you did nazi that coming [laughing emoji].”
Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people will Goebbels anything down! Stop Gőring your enemies! His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler! Bet you did nazi that coming 😂
Ottmann wrote in response: “Well, we have seen it coming. Elon’s behavior, whatever the underlying motivations, are well documented.
“Starting in 2022 and especially the last week I’ve raised the issue internally multiple times, with managers, HR, legal compliance, investor relations. And while overwhelmingly people offer support, Tesla as a company has remained silent.”
He then continued to outline that “this post by Tesla’s current CEO name drops genocidal a**holes as a joke and has 308,000 likes,” adding that “the silence from Tesla is deafening.”
Ottmann then confirmed last Thursday, February 27, that he had been fired from the company, although he has not offered any further statement in reference to his dismissal.
Musk has been criticized for his far right political leanings, including an alleged Nazi salute (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
Both Musk’s post on X and Ottmann’s firing come at a time when the Tesla CEO is under heavy fire for his far right political leanings.
Not only has been been criticized for his new role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, but he controversially appeared to use a Nazi salute at the presidential inauguration, although he has since denied this.
On top of this, Musk has retained strong support for far right German political party AfD, who themselves have been fined for using Nazi slogans, leading the tech mogul to be criticized by the head of a concentration camp memorial.
This is far from the first time that Musk has been accused of firing employees with dissenting beliefs, and it continues for many to challenge his maintained stance as a ‘defender’ of free speech and First Amendment principles.
Elon Musk has controversially urged America to withdraw from NATO in a social media post, coming shortly after US President Donald Trump’s fiery dispute with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Despite not formally holding a position within government, Elon Musk has become one of the current administration’s most important people following his support of Donald Trump during the election campaign trail.
The richest man in the world was appointed the head of a new private advisory board – the Department of Government Efficiency, otherwise known as ‘DOGE’ – and has been tearing through government spending in order to remove what he and his team deem to be ‘wasteful’ and ‘inefficient’.
Musk has also crucially used his power and influence as owner of social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to ignite conflict with foreign governments, criticizing the UK government’s handling of grooming gangs and even threatening invasion.
Contrastingly, he has also continually pledged support for far-right German political party AfD prior to their election, which many believe is also linked to his alleged Nazi salute at the presidential inauguration.
His involvement in foreign policy now extends to NATO and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as he has urged the US to withdraw from the global alliance following Trump’s repeated criticisms of Zelenskyy, as per the Mirror.
I agree
It’s time to leave NATO and the UN.
“I agree,” remarked Musk in a quoted post from political commentator David J. Freeman, who declared: “It’s time to leave NATO and the UN.”
Both organizations were formed following the conclusion of the Second World War, and the United States was a founding member of the two.
President Trump has heavily criticized Zelenskyy in recent weeks, calling him a ‘dictator’ who ‘should have never started’ the war between Ukraine and Russia. Trump’s administration has also held meetings with Russian officials regarding resolution to the conflict, and has demanded access to and ownership of Ukraine’s vast rare earth deposits.
Zelenskyy’s clash with Trump and Vance in the White House might have spurred Musk’s position (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
This also comes after a heated clash between Zelenskyy, Trump, and Vice President J.D. Vance in the White House, in which the president threatened to withdraw support for Ukraine if Zelenskyy couldn’t make a deal.
NATO has since held an emergency meeting on March 2 to discuss support for Ukraine, at which US officials were completely absent.
“Together, we reaffirmed our determination to work for a permanent peace in Ukraine, in partnership with the United States,” a statement from the UK government reads.
“We must not repeat the mistakes of the past when weak deals allowed President Putin to invade again,” outlines the statement, adding that “we have agreed that the UK, France and others will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting which we will discuss further with the US and take forward together.”
President Trump has also issued frustration with the lack of military spending from NATO members, requesting that the minimum spend to GDP ratio be raised from the current 2% to 5%.
