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100 years before Elon Musk, one of America’s richest men came to fix Washington. It didn’t end well.

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100 years before Elon Musk, one of America's richest men came to fix Washington. It didn't end well.

He was one of the richest men of his time, a powerful force in business and then in government — so influential that political adversaries taunted the White House that he was “the real president.”

Today, that’s Elon Musk’s story, as the world’s richest man winds down his tumultuous time in Washington as a “special government employee” in President Donald Trump’s administration. But while Musk’s astronomical wealth and the work of his Department of Government Efficiency have been one of a kind, there are strong echoes of another businessman-turned-slasher-of-government who came to Washington just more than 100 years ago.

Andrew Mellon, a Pittsburgh banker and one of America’s wealthiest men in the early 20th century, was treasury secretary to three Republican presidents — Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover — for more than a decade in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Like Musk, Mellon came to Washington with the aim of drastically cutting back federal spending. Like Musk, he remained involved in his private businesses at the same time, as biographer David Cannadine has chronicled, sparking fierce protests from opposition Democrats. Like Musk, political opponents made him a national boogeyman and suggested that Mellon was the true power in Washington.

Three presidents served under him, the joke went. Sen. Robert La Follette Sr., a Wisconsin progressive, said Mellon was “the real president of the United States. Calvin Coolidge is merely the man who occupies the White House.”

And as Musk leaves the White House and appears to consider his political legacy, voicing concern that Trump and Republican lawmakers won’t follow through on his hopes of big spending cuts, Mellon’s own complicated legacy illustrates how difficult even titans of industry have found the task of permanently bending politics and government toward their will.

Mellon achieved his goals for a time, paring back yearly federal spending to approximately half the level it was before he took over the Treasury Department and reforming U.S. tax laws.

But the Great Depression turned the nation sharply against him and the Republican Party personified by wealthy businessmen, with Mellon becoming a political lightning rod in the way Musk has this year.

President and Mrs. Coolidge with Andrew Mellon
Andrew Mellon (center) with President Calvin Coolidge and first lady Grace Coolidge on the White House lawn in 1926.Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

In “Mellon: An American Life,” Cannadine wrote that Mellon’s son recalled witnessing an early exercise in political social media targeting the treasury secretary: a rhyme written on a urinal at a rest stop between Pittsburgh and Washington.

“Mellon pulled the whistle, Hoover rang the bell,” it began, “Wall Street gave the signal, and the country went to hell.”

When Democrats took back Congress in the backlash after the Depression began, they investigated the intersection of Mellon businesses and government contracts they won while he was in the Cabinet, initiating impeachment proceedings before he resigned to take an ambassadorship.

And ultimately, Mellon saw his low-spending, laissez-faire ethos pushed aside in national politics by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, which ushered in a wave of government spending and social programs that were anathema to Mellon-era Republicans.

No historical comparison lines up neatly in all respects. While Musk and Trump’s administration sought to slash programs through presidential orders and an expansive view of executive power, Mellon worked through Congress to enact his budgetary priorities.

Mellon was fabulously wealthy, thanks to investments in businesses from aluminum to oil to early airlines and beyond, but Musk’s businesses and riches are on a significantly different scale. And Mellon’s final work with the government, years later, was also of a decidedly nonpolitical nature: He established the National Gallery of Art, seeding it with his impressive private collection.

President Trump and Elon Musk speak alongside Tesla vehicles at the White House
President Donald Trump and Elon Musk at the White House on March 11. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

Musk’s story is far from its final chapter, with more twists and details to come even as he ends his stint at the White House. What we know for sure, though, is that wealth and power of that magnitude endure through the years.

In a twist of fate, after the Trump administration and DOGE slashed grants and staff this year, the Mellon Foundation, which was launched by Mellon’s children decades ago using part of the family fortune, stepped in to fill $15 million of the gap.

And there’s another eye-popping financial connection between the Mellon years and Musk’s time in government.

Musk was the biggest disclosed donor in the 2024 elections. The second-biggest? Timothy Mellon, Mellon’s grandson, who gave nearly $200 million in support of Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other causes, according to OpenSecrets — paving the way for Musk’s stint with DOGE in Washington.

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Loose Women’s Nadia Sawalha brands ITV cuts ‘absolutely brutal’

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Loose Women's Nadia Sawalha brands ITV cuts 'absolutely brutal'


Helen Bushby

Culture reporter

Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock Nadia Sawalha on Loose WomenKen McKay/ITV/Shutterstock

Loose Women panellist Nadia Sawalha has said ITV’s cuts to its daytime schedule came “out of the blue” and have been “absolutely brutal” for those working on the show.

ITV announced last week it was axing more than 220 jobs and making cuts to shows including Loose Women and Lorraine.

Speaking on her YouTube channel, Sawalha said: “What’s been brutal, absolutely brutal, over the last week, honestly I feel tearful about it, is that hundreds of people… are going to be made redundant out of the blue, these are all the people behind the scenes that support us in every way.”

There have been reports that the pool of panellists will be reduced, and Sawalha said she “could be let go tomorrow, [or] I could be let go in five years”.

In an annoucnement last week, ITV boss Kevin Lygo stressed that daytime is “a really important part” of its programming, and said he recognised that the plans “will have an impact on staff”.

Getty Images Lorraine Kelly smiling in a gold dress while holding a Bafta television awardGetty Images

Lorraine Kelly’s shorter weekday show will now air for 30 weeks out of 52

In her video, Sawalha, who has also appeared in EastEnders, Dancing on Ice and The Bill, said Loose Women and Lorraine had been “highly successful”, but that she accepted inflation was “insane, and cuts have to be made”, before becoming emotional.

“Behind the scenes there are people that are really suffering, and what you don’t realise is when you attack the show you attack them, because you never see all the army of people behind the scenes and how hard they work,” she said.

“So to all my friends and colleagues behind the scenes that have just got a huge shock out of the blue, I’m so sorry.”

She added that she thought some conversations about the cuts had been “misogynistic”, stressing the impact of the cuts on many of her friends and colleagues on the show, who have worked there for decades.

“I can’t tell you how upsetting it was to see people walking around numb with shock and fear about what they are going to do… [when] television is coming very slowly to its natural end.”

Speaking from her own perspective, she added: “What people don’t realise at Loose Women is that we’re self-employed. I am self-employed. Every contract is a new contract.

“I could be let go tomorrow, I could be let go in five years, you don’t know because we’re not employees.”

‘Impact on off-screen staff’

Under the changes, Loose Women will be broadcast for 30 instead of 52 weeks. Lorraine Kelly’s morning show will also be cut to 30 weeks, and will reduce from an hour to 30 minutes.

While ITV did not comment on Sawalha’s views, they referred to Lygo’s comments about the cuts in last week’s announcement.

“I recognise that our plans will have an impact on staff off-screen in our Daytime production teams, and we will work with ITV Studios and ITN as they manage these changes to produce the shows differently from next year, and support them through this transition,” ITV’s managing director of media and entertainment said.

“Daytime has been a core element of ITV’s schedule for over 40 years and these changes will set ITV up to continue to bring viewers award winning news, views and discussion as we enter our eighth decade.”

During weeks when Lorraine is not on air, Good Morning Britain will extend by half an hour, from 06:00 BST to 10:00 BST. This Morning will stay in its slot on weekdays across the year.

In February, ITV announced that soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale would see their content cut by an hour a week between them from next year.

Earlier this month, ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said the company was making “good progress” on a cost-cutting drive, and that she expected to make £30m non-content savings during 2025.

In the past few years, there has been a downturn in advertising revenue, part of a funding squeeze throughout the TV industry.



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French MPs vote to scrap low-emission zones in blow to Macron

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French MPs vote to scrap low-emission zones in blow to Macron


France’s National Assembly has voted to abolish low-emission zones, a key measure introduced during President Emmanuel Macron’s first term to reduce city pollution.

So-called ZFEs (zones à faibles émissions) have been criticised for hitting those who cannot afford less-polluting vehicles the hardest.

A handful of MPs from Macron’s party joined opposition parties from the right and far right in voting 98-51 to scrap the zones, which have gradually been extended across French cities since 2019.

The motion was put forward by Pierre Meurin of the far-right National Rally, and backed by some motoring organisations.

But it was a personal victory for writer Alexandre Jardin who set up a movement called Les #Gueux (Beggars), arguing that “ecology has turned into a sport for the rich”.

“Everyone played their part in the vote. The MPs voted either for the end of this nightmare, or they abstained,” he told Le Figaro newspaper.

“They were afraid of going back to their constituencies if they had voted against the abolition of the ZFEs.”

The low-emission zones began with 15 of France’s most polluted cities in 2019 and by the start of this year had been extended to every urban area with a population of more than 150,000, with a ban on cars registered before 1997.

Those produced after 1997 need a round “Crit’Air” sticker to drive in low-emission zones, and there are six categories that correspond to various types of vehicle.

The biggest restrictions have been applied in the most polluted cities, Paris and Lyon, as well as Montpellier and Grenoble.

They have turned into something of a lightning rod for Macron’s opponents.

Marine Le Pen condemned the ZFEs as “no-rights zones” during her presidential campaign for National Rally in 2022, and her Communist counterpart warned of a “social bomb”.

The head of the right-wing Republicans in the Assembly, Laurent Wauquiez, talked of “freeing the French from stifling, punitive ecology”, and on the far left, Clémence Guetté said green policies should not be imposed “on the backs of the working classes”.

The government tried to head off Wednesday night’s revolt by watering down the restrictions, but also preserving the zones in Paris and Lyon. This amendment was defeated by a large margin.

Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the minister for green transition, told MPs that “air pollution is behind almost 40,000 premature deaths a year… and the low-emission zones have helped bring down [that number]”.

The Greens and Socialists also voted to maintain the zones.

Green Senator Anne Souyris told BFMTV that “killing [the ZFEs] also means killing hundreds of thousands of people” and Socialist MP Gérard Leseul said the vote sent a negative signal as it did not address the reduction that had to be made to levels of air pollution.

The abolition is expected to go through the upper house, France’s Senate, but it still needs to be approved in a broader bill in the lower house in June and will have to be approved by France’s Constitutional Council, which is not guaranteed.



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