Josh Dawsey

AI position

No x-risk mention

Covers Altman/Musk as Trump-orbit political players, never AI risk or safety substance.

Why influential

Has access to decision-makers and can set elite understanding through scoops, sourcing and authoritative framing in a major newsroom. Primary policy lanes: white house; campaigns; investigations; executive power.

Who pays attention

White House and congressional staff, lobbyists, agency press shops, consultants, donors and competing political reporters

Work samples

• How Sam Altman Outfoxed Elon Musk to Become Trump's AI Buddy

  Jul 17, 2025 · article

  WSJ investigation co-bylined by Dawsey, Keach Hagey, Dana Mattioli, and Berber Jin on Altman's maneuvering to become Trump's top AI ally over Musk; no direct Altman/Musk quotes, sourced to unnamed officials and an OpenAI spokesperson statement.

• The Inside Story of How Altman and Musk Went From Friends to Bitter Enemies

  Feb 17, 2025 · article

  Co-bylined WSJ investigation (Dawsey, Hagey, Jin, Mattioli) on the OpenAI co-founders' falling out, framed around personal/business rivalry rather than AI policy substance.

• 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America

  Jan 1, 2025 · article

  Book co-authored with Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf on the 2024 campaign.

AI-world contacts

• Sam Altman — CEO, OpenAI

  • Wrote aboutmention · directness unverified · Jul 17, 2025 — How Sam Altman Outfoxed Elon Musk to Become Trump's AI Buddy — Tried: (1) direct WebFetch to wsj.com — blocked ("unable to fetch from www.wsj.com"); (2) https://r.jina.ai/https://www.wsj.com/... — returned empty content behind a CAPTCHA notice

• Elon Musk — Founder, xAI

  • Wrote aboutmention · secondhand · May 28, 2025 — Musk Tried to Derail OpenAI's Abu Dhabi Deal Unless xAI Was Included — Could not access the WSJ article directly (blocked), r.jina.ai mirror returned only a CAPTCHA notice, and archive.ph was unreachable. Via WebSearch, multiple outlets summarizing th

• Greg Brockman — Co-founder/President, OpenAI

  • Wrote aboutmention · directness unverified · Jul 17, 2025 — How Sam Altman Outfoxed Elon Musk to Become Trump's AI Buddy — Reached full article text via tovima.com mirror (twice, different prompts) and it contains no mention of Greg Brockman at all — only Altman, Musk, Trump, and lawsuit/political deta

• Ilya Sutskever — Co-founder, Safe Superintelligence Inc. (formerly OpenAI Chief Scientist)

  • Wrote aboutmention · directness unverified · Jul 17, 2025 — How Sam Altman Outfoxed Elon Musk to Become Trump's AI Buddy — Tried: direct WebFetch to wsj.com (blocked - "unable to fetch"), r.jina.ai mirror (returned empty content, CAPTCHA-blocked), archive.ph/newest mirror (blocked - "unable to fetch"),

• Bret Taylor — OpenAI board chair; CEO/co-founder, Sierra

  • Wrote aboutmention · directness unverified · Jul 17, 2025 — How Sam Altman Outfoxed Elon Musk to Become Trump's AI Buddy — Read the full article via a tovima.com mirror and confirmed via WebSearch summary of MSN mirror; the piece covers Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Trump, Larry Ellison, Masayoshi Son, etc.,

• Peter Thiel — Investor / tech figure, Founders Fund / Palantir

  • Wrote aboutmention · secondhand · Jul 28, 2024 — Inside the powerful Peter Thiel tech network that launched JD Vance — "The former president fielded repeated calls from tech entrepreneur David Sacks, Palantir adviser Jacob Helberg and billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Vance's former emplo