Elon, Inc.Another Emergency: What IS Going on With Elon and Trump?
It didn't take long after our emergency episode yesterday for the beef between Elon and Trump to escalate. The X and Truth Social posts went flying, everyone from Steve Bannon to Kanye West weighed in, and Trump even threatened to sell the Tesla he bought a few months ago. David Papadopoulos and Max Chafkin couldn't wait to dive into the latest news of the feud, and tell us what we should be watching out for next.
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A star is born Elon pumped up on Mars Juthan Kennedy.
He is the Thomas Edison plus plus plus of our age. Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity. I feel for the guy. I would say ninety eight percent really appreciate what he does. But those two percent that are nasty, they are out in four fos. We were meant for great things in the United States of America, and Elon reminds.
Us of that we don't have a fourth branch of governments called Elon musk Hey, Mac, David Papadopolis.
We're back here, We're back here, Elon Inc.
Again.
Another emergency episode.
I love it, two emergencies in one twenty four hour period.
But we just figured here at Elon Inc. That it's just happened in too fast and furious to not be back in your feet again here on Friday, because you know, after Max and Josh Green recorded early yesterday afternoon, the hits just kept coming. You know, Max, The only thing that I regret yesterday as I was watching this all happen and go down, is that my desk in the office. I only had one bag of popcorn with me that was at least a five bagger.
You know, this has been disastrous for Elon Musk's businesses as and Elon Inc. The conglomerate that is, the Elon Musk companies. But for X, I gotta say a lot of great content. I mean, I'm sure the traffic is looking good. I think that the grock usage is undoubtedly off the.
Charts until that license is pulled from them, which I suspect to happen any minute. Man, it's got to be you know, the numbers got to be way up, all right. Any event. Bring our listeners up to speed on what transpired after yesterday's recording.
Yeah, so when we recorded yesterday, we were in the as you heard, you know, we were in the throes of it. By the way, Dana Hall, who I am dying to talk to, she's still out. She's on vacation these past two days. So but anyway, we were reacting in real time, and in that moment, you know, it was really just unfolding. You had Trump, you know, giving what I think in retrospect, I'm not sure if I said this at the time, was like for Trump a relatively gracious you know, Like obviously he was criticizing Musk, he was saying, I wish he wouldn't attack the big beautiful Bill, but he was also praising him, he was thanking him. I got the sense that Trump was actually attempting to kind of navigate what was sort of a dicey situation where.
His I think Max. I think someone had given him a script that he was trying to stick to, and he initially was, and then the more people were, more questions he got, and the more they baited him, he just threw the script out.
So he said a couple of things that I think clearly got under Musk's skin. He suggested that Musk had been upset about the EV tax credits, which is true, must have been tweeting about the EV tax credits. Although that made Musk mad. He's you know, and he started and that's when the kind of back and forth started. He also brought up Jared Isaacman.
I told you, Jeric isaacmanh you know, the the the appointment to lead NATHA. Trump absolutely just flat outshad it. Basically, we put a bullet in his head. We took him out back and we decided, you know, this ain't happened.
The thing that Trump said and he kind of almost implied, and I have to go back and listen to the tape, but he kind of almost implied there have been something corrupt about having somebody this close, that it was inappropriate, you know, and that combination of the the sort of weirdness of having you know, a close ally of Elon Musk in this position of power, on top of Isaacman's you know, previous Democratic Party donations, it was too much.
Of course, the read through there is Elon Musk, I Donald Trump. I'm saying, Elon Musk's guy is out. That was my rethrup. But then the thing after that, it escalated in this back and forth, you know, yeah, Musk on X, Trump on truth and you.
Know, well, and the thing that happened so after Elon Musk went on on X and said, you know, Trump would never have been elected without me such ingratitude, which of course is that's going to get under Donald Trump. And you started to see this dynamic that I think a lot of people had been had expected to play out much sooner play out. You know, I feel like there had been this kind of quiet uh, sort of conversation going on between the like White House, the grizzled Trump reporters and the grizzled Elon reporters. And you kind of saw it in that conversation I hid with Josh Green. Like Josh Green has been high on this feud almost from the beginning, because if you're if you've watch Donald Trump, you know that he has this tendency to kind of churn through people. You have the Josh said, you know, on various podcasts that I've done with him to two of these alpha guys, and and and then on the other side you had the Elon Musk. Folks like me, people who had followed Elon Musk had seen him kind of you know, like sort of connect, maneuver his himself, change his positions, you know, do pretty much every rhetorical trick in the book to attain influence, saying hey, he's gonna be able to do this, and and that that second take seemed to hold sway for a while, but you know, yesterday it all came crumbling down. David I wrote, like a week ago, don't Berett bet on the Elon Musk Donald Trump breakup? And I gotta tell you.
Now, are we gonna Are we gonna retract that? Now? I suppose we don't.
It sounded smart on Friday when they had that, when they had that White House, uh press briefing, and and and then of course now you know, not so smart. But anyway, Trump, after we stopped taping, Trump went on truth Social and said he would the best way to reduce the deficit was to cancel all of Elon Musk's government subsidies, kind of using a line that you had seen some of the left leaning opponents of the Trump administration pull out, like, hey, if you want to deal with Doge, why don't you stop giving handouts to Elon Musk? And Elon Musk went to went like it went ballistic. He accused Trump essentially a pedophilia. He said that Trump had been associated with Epstein, and the reason Epstein, more information about Epstein hadn't come out was because Trump was essentially covering.
It up, which we should be We should be clear we have no evidence of any kind.
No, Yeah, it seems like he was just shooting from the hip. He suggested that Trump should be impeached and replaced with JD. Vance. He also and I think in a way. This was the most This was like the craziest one. He said he was gonna unilaterally cancel the Dragon spacecraft. The Dragon spacecraft is how the US government gets to and from the International Space Station. We talked about those astronauts, you know, being you know, whether or not they were stranded up there, but the astronauts that were up there, and they needed a SpaceX spacecraft to bring them down. Musk was saying, fine, you don't like me, you don't want to deal with me. Programs canceled. He tweeted, go ahead, make my day. And then you saw people in Trump world say, Harry totally. And he saw people in Trump world of Steve Bannon suggesting the government should nationalize SpaceX. And honestly, if that, if that dispute went much further, I think you would have seen other folks say that. You look at what conservative lawmakers. The problem that Elon Musk has now is he he carved out this like maximalist deficit hawk position, which I think he could have, which I think would have been okay. It would have been like a public negotiation with Trump over what's in this tax bill. But he also talked like a crazy person. So so it's very hard to take his criticism seriously when he's also you know, hurling these unfounded allegations about Jeffy the whole thing.
The whole thing, you know he came off in Yesterday's a touch unhinged. I mean, I would say a touch, you know, Max, to your point on the financial damage that Trump can inflict on Musk and is honestly the brtality of his empire. One only needs to think about what the Trump administration right now is doing to an institution like oh, say, Harvard, uh and to appreciate, you know, the kind of you know, unconventional tactics they're willing to use. And by the way, a brief parenthetical aside, I wonder if Musk is going to start getting more of those Musk and his team are going to start getting more of those drug tests over there at space X. But I will just say this though, Max. Here at the time we're recording, just am noon on Friday, I notice on my Bloomberg terminal that Tesla stock is bouncing back a bit. Things have whided a little bit this morning. Maybe maybe maybe they're gonna be kissing and making up soon.
Look, maybe my take from last week will along, I do think, and you know, I'm like hesitant to make this prediction just because I did not see this one coming. You know, I really was surprised. I've covered Elon Musk for a long time. Little of what he does surprises me, but this did because it just seems so self destructive. It's like it it does not help his company to pick this kind of fight with Donald Trump, and I think they're investors who are still hoping for some kind of reconciliation. Actually, last night, amid the flurry of tweets, some random Twitter user, you know, uh, sent a message to Musk saying it might be a good idea to take a couple of days and cool off.
And so was that random guy? Was that Bill Ackman?
Well, no, no, Bill Ackman was another one. You had Kanye West, you had Bill Ackman, and this guy with just a couple hundred Twitter followers. Musk responded, I think he responded to Ackman as well, kind of saying sounds like a good idea. So there was actually some sign on Thursday night yesterday, as we're recording this, that that that he might that he might try to walk this back. There had been a signal from the White House that they would be open to having a call with Elon Musk, but then Trump told CNN no call. He also said he's planning on selling the Tesla that he bought at that White House event, And so the standoff continues. Although I think Musk, you know, if he's trying to help himself and his companies, will try to find a way to de escalate. I think it's going to cost him some humiliation. He's gonna have to eat crow. It's also going to cost him, I would guess, a substantial campaign contribution or a contribution to Donald Trump's super pack.
Yeah, because as much as Trump has to lose here, potentially, I think it's pretty clear that it's a more dangerous game for Musk. Musk has more to lose. Uh. And I think we saw that pretty quickly in the first several hours. I mean, he still is by far the world's richest person, but you know, he personally saw his wealth collapse thirty four billion dollars in four hours, Okay, And in a scenario in which this thing just kept ratcheting up and up and up, that number was just going to keep cratering. It is off the front burner, at least for the moment. Well, listen, we are definitely going to be back in your feeds next Tuesday for a regular weekly show, but in the intro MAAC anything, our listeners should be, you know, alert for two things.
One is the robotaxi launch supposedly is going to happen as soon as next week. I we'll see, right it wasn't shaping up to be some kind of blockbuster. We'll see if they go through with it, if they try to use it as a way to change the channel, or if they decide, hey, you know better to delay this. We have kind of excuse to delay it. Even the other thing, and I think this is really important Tesla investors. You know, I still think it's unthinkable that they would replace Musk, And we've talked about this a lot, just because of the way the shareholder bases, just because of the way the board is constructed. They are going to give him the benefit of the doubt to the extreme. But in my own conversations with Tesla investors, including bulls, you're hearing a change in tone, and you're seeing it in some public comments as well, not like hey, we need to get rid of Musk, but kind of a return to where we were a few weeks ago when they were asking him to return to his companies. I think that we are not that far from more investors sort of speaking out if this doesn't de escalate quickly, because Tesla is just in an incredibly difficult position where it's already alienated it's left wing fan base, it's in danger of alienating its right wing fan base. So that's something I'm gonna be watching this weekend if something big happens. Of course, you know, David, you and I we're going to do this again.
I mean I will if that happens, I will stop for a few minutes watching and betting on this weekend's horse races, and we'll do this, Max, We'll absolutely do this. My parting shot is I think they need to bring back the Twitter sitter and that would certainly help. Okay, that would probably be a big help. Max Chaffkin, Thank.
You, sir, Thank you, David so soon.
This episode was produced by Magnus Hendrickson. Anna Mathurakus is our editor. The elon ing theme is written and performed by Taka Yathuzawa and Alex Sugujura. Brendan Francis Noona was our executive producer and stage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcast. A big thanks to our supporters, Joel Webber and Bradstone. I'm David Papadopoulos. If you have a minute, rate and review our show, it'll help other listeners find us. See you next week, if not before the
