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Trump’s billionaire brigade poised to upend Washington: ‘We are in a post-conflicts-of-interest world’

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With a combined net worth of over $450 billion, the tech titans who have arrived in President Donald Trump’s inner circle — including venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, investor David Sacks and Elon Musk — are poised to disrupt Washington with their focus on innovation and deregulation.

They have their sights set on everything from defense contracts for new drones and lasers to venture-backed medical innovation.

We brought together Blue Light News’s emerging tech reporter Derek Robertson with Business Insider reporters Madeline Berg and Peter Kafka to dissect what this means for Washington.

Our reporters tell us that Trump’s billionaire allies are interested in moving federal policy at the faster pace they’re accustomed to in Silicon Valley — and in a direction that could help their businesses.

“I think we are in a post-conflicts-of-interest world,” Kafka says, noting that Trump could feel more empowered and unrestrained during his second term in office.

Robertson echoed the sentiment, saying these billionaires could be “essentially setting policy for fields that they stand to massively profit from.”

But they also could be in for a rude awakening, in which their interests might clash with the prerogatives of Congress to set spending priorities.

The next four years will test how much leverage the world’s richest men really have in the White House. As they exercise it, particularly in an age of unprecedented income inequality, it could force a big political question: How will this newfound influence among the billionaire class land with the country’s working class?

Kafka sums it up simply: “Do people feel richer or poorer?”

To see the full conversation, which is a collaboration with Business Insider, watch the video.

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Politics

Oz Pearlman recounts WHCA dinner shooting: ‘Really shocking’

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Oz Pearlman recounts WHCA dinner shooting: ‘Really shocking’

Mentalist Oz Pearlman on Sunday recounted when a gunman exchanged fire with law enforcement outside the ballroom where Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was taking place. Pearlman told host Dana Bash on BLN’s “State of the Union” that he was performing a trick for President Trump…
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House Democrat urges King Charles to acknowledge Epstein victims during address to Congress

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House Democrat urges King Charles to acknowledge Epstein victims during address to Congress

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Sunday urged King Charles III to acknowledge the victims of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during his address to Congress next week, when the monarch will make his first state visit to the U.S. “I am hopeful that King Charles…
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Raskin says he hopes for transparent investigation into WHCA dinner shooting

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Raskin says he hopes for transparent investigation into WHCA dinner shooting

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Sunday expressed hope that a transparent investigation into the shooting at Saturday’s White House Correspondents Association dinner will be conducted. “I hope that this investigation is done with complete openness and transparency and integrity,” Raskin, who was attending the event, told host Dana Bash on BLN’s “State of the Union.”…
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