Elon Musk and Trump SCREAMING FIGHT IN OVAL OFFICE TONIGHT!
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hi, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. Welcome to the Arena. It's wonderful to have you with us
00:06on this Wednesday. Today, we are halfway through President Trump's first 100 days in office,
00:12and there are new signs that his honeymoon with the American people on what has been
00:16his strongest issue may be over. Take a look at CNN's exclusive new poll. A majority of
00:23Americans, 56%, now say that they disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy. He's underwater
00:30on the issue that voters care about the most, the issue that got him elected. And this is
00:37the worst rating of Trump's political career on the economy, worse than at any point in
00:42his first term. So is the whiplash of the past few weeks finally destroying this image
00:48Americans have of Donald Trump? With lots of companies and thousands of employees, I'm
00:55always looking for someone who's new and talented. I'm looking for someone who's a sharp negotiator.
01:01I'm looking for the apprentice. So what is President Trump doing to reconnect with Americans
01:09and their economic concerns? He is hawking $100,000 cars, of course. Quite literally,
01:17as markets were closing yesterday when the Dow was down more than 400 points, Trump was
01:21making a sales pitch for Tesla. People are watching thousands of dollars evaporate from
01:27their retirement accounts as Trump was holding this piece of paper in his hand showing just
01:32how much Tesla's cost, some into the six figures. Now, it's not clear which one of these Trump
01:39actually bought, but this entire display led to this question from a Fox News reporter,
01:45no less. I think they're going to do great. So is the Trump honeymoon over? We should be
02:07clear there are some positives for the president in the new poll we have here,
02:11including strong approval for his immigration crackdown. And this just in, the markets
02:17stabilizing somewhat, the S&P and the Nasdaq closing in positive territory moments ago,
02:22their first attempt to rally after that massive selloff that was triggered by Trump's trade war
02:27and his comments about a possible recession. Still, Trump may be putting his own political
02:35capital on the line for someone that Americans like a lot less than they seem to like the
02:40president. In our new poll, more than half of Americans have an unfavorable view of Elon Musk.
02:47He is underwater. And nearly two thirds say that Musk does not have the right experience for his
02:54role slashing and overhauling the federal government. And yet, this is the image that
03:02President Trump is leaving all of us with. All right, joining us now is our panel,
03:07Sochi Hinojosa, former DNC senior advisor, communications director, Jonah Goldberg,
03:10co-founder, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, CNN anchor and chief political correspondent,
03:14Dana Bash, and Scott Jennings, CNN senior political commentator. Welcome to all of you.
03:18Thank you so much for being here. Jonah Goldberg, I actually want to start with you on this kind of
03:23Tesla display that we saw yesterday and how it fits into this big picture, because Trump does
03:29seem to be losing ground on something that Americans have given him all the credit for
03:33in the past. You know, so the first thing I want to know is whether or not Trump got the
03:37undercoating on that. You know, they put that into the factory. You just can't get that removed.
03:42Look, I think Trump still very much likes having Elon Musk around, not just because he wrote $100
03:48million or made a $100 million pledge to his various PACs and whatnot. Sure.
03:54You know, Musk gets to play bad cop for him. Exactly. And to have the richest man in the world
04:00playing bad cop for him, you could see why that would appeal to Donald Trump.
04:04I don't think that this relationship lasts forever. The act is going to get old. There's
04:10been reporting that the Doge people are desperate to find actual wins because a lot of them have
04:15been exaggerated. And eventually this is going to the conversation is going to move from the
04:20slashing phase to some other phase. And the show will get over. And I think they'll figure out a
04:26way to peacefully move them off to the side. The headline you've probably heard, markets are
04:32slumping and it's hitting Elon Musk's Tesla extremely hard. A crash there. The steepest
04:38drop in five years landed for that company this week, as Musk has been doing just about everything
04:44but spending full time running Tesla. Working with the government, working with political
04:51speeches and appearances instead of focused on his companies, where so many people expect him to
04:57keep track of the stock. Meanwhile, Trump and Musk's alliance is now using your taxpayer
05:04resources and the White House itself for the extremely odd, controversial and allegedly
05:12possibly corrupt presentation that you see here. The pair spent 30 minutes at the White House on
05:18what many called an obvious ad and conflict of interest where the president of the United States
05:25hawked Tesla at the White House to an invited group of reporters. Trump also basically suggesting he
05:33was shopping for a new car and hawked the products. An intrepid photographer showing that Trump's
05:39notes revealed a price list of Tesla cars, meaning this was quite specifically a sales job for one
05:45company owned or tied to his own political ally. Obviously, a big part of Musk's wealth
05:57related to the notes you see there is all the Tesla stock he owns. It read like a Tesla sales
06:03putsch, one outlet put it. And news reports noting the brazen conflict here, Trump making the White
06:09House a kind of Tesla, quote, showroom or car lot to boost Musk's company.
06:18This is beautiful. Whoa. Check it in. OK, let me get in this second.
06:27Do you want my notes? Yeah, they gave me notes. So I'm not buying. I don't need those. Yeah.
06:33I took it. Thank you. Let me get into this sector. I'll watch Secret Service go crazy.
06:40Thank you. I mean, if you actually drove it around.
06:47Wow. Everything's computer. That's beautiful. Wow.
06:52Yeah, it's just a break in an accelerator.
06:57I don't want to give you your secret service. That's beautiful.
07:01Maybe start it. Should I?
07:07Oh, it's going to get around the hole. So do you want to actually drive it?
07:13You don't you don't want me to drive it to you. I love Tesla.
07:17Which one are you going to buy? The one I like is that one.
07:21And I want that same color.
07:23This event is exactly the kind of conflict these two men said they would avoid.
07:31Musk has spent over 250 million dollars on Trump related campaign efforts.
07:35He's floating another 100 M as I mentioned to you tonight.
07:39If Trump's administration were doing anything to possibly help Elon Musk's Tesla,
07:45remember, Musk recently and falsely claimed that he was going to buy Tesla.
07:51And he's going to buy Tesla.
07:53If Trump's administration were doing anything to possibly help Elon Musk's Tesla,
07:59remember, Musk recently and falsely claimed that he would recuse from it,
08:03which, of course, means he would have had to recuse from this entire White House event.
08:09And he's also said in that same clearly false set of remarks that he never asked Trump for anything.
08:17I mean, I haven't asked the president for anything ever.
08:21And if it comes up, how will you handle it?
08:23Well, you won't be involved.
08:25Yeah, I'll recuse myself if it is.
08:27If there's a conflict, you won't be involved.
08:29I mean, I wouldn't want that and he won't want it.
08:33That was just one of those things they said amidst this blizzard.
08:37And maybe Fox's Sean Hannity will do, could do, should do a follow up piece,
08:42because kind of embarrassing when they make that claim on your own program in your interview
08:46and then you don't mention when they violate it.
08:50The claim was false.
08:52Recuse means removing yourself from the participation to avoid a conflict of interest.
08:59This was a conflict of interest because they're promoting Musk's Tesla.
09:04And he did not recuse from what is a much needed boost,
09:08potentially for his company as its stock tanks in total freefall this week.
09:15The Washington Post notes Trump is openly rewarding his friends.
09:19Musk hypes the spending for Trump.
09:21That's the back and forth. There's the conflict.
09:23All of this as federal agencies, all the way up to the White House promotion for Tesla.
09:28We see Trump trying to bend the government to help Musk.
09:31And it goes well beyond what you see just in these kind of sort of embarrassing efforts to hawk cars.
09:38If they're great cars, why do you need the government involved in selling them in that manner?
09:42But a Trump prosecutor also made a possibly illegal vow to investigate members of Congress who criticize Elon Musk.
09:49That's, again, helpful to Musk coming from the Trump administration.
09:53And then Trump recently said he agrees with a suggestion that people who protest Tesla are actually, quote,
10:00domestic terrorists harming a great American company.
10:04And, quote, we would not expect American judges to allow any sort of treatment of protesters as domestic terrorists because they go to a Tesla, as you see here.
10:16But it is quite an extraordinary breach.
10:19The political hypocrisy also extends the Republican Party, which always for decades has said they want free markets.
10:27They don't want the government picking winners and losers, even at a broad level, even at the industry level.
10:33Remember a much smaller lawn for a political ally, while Musk uses X, the platform he bought to stream,
10:41to broadcast the appearance of what some see as a politician he bought now trying to get everyone else to buy Musk's cars.
10:51It's not what a free market looks like.
10:54We are witnessing in a very blatant way the fusion of selected businesses that are on the winner's list and the government,
11:03which is using your taxpayer dollars at the very time that this administration's policies are crashing the markets, including Tesla.
11:12And all of this done by these people who very publicly and falsely claim they would recuse over any conflicts.
11:20The first step, catching them, maintaining your ability to be outraged about lies and the misuse of tax dollars and fact checking.
11:33So folks, a lot of people are saying that behind the scenes, Donald and Elon are flipping out and some of it is spilling into public.
11:43As a lot of people are saying that Elon Musk is hurting Trump's image, that Trump is hurting Elon's business,
11:52and that both of them are realizing that they can't both be president, that they can't both be the world's most powerful man,
12:01and that it's going to come to a head.
12:04And again, Trump is bad for Elon because Elon's companies are down.
12:08Now part of Elon's companies being down is that Trump is messing with the entire economy.
12:13So like his company is suffering like most companies, but his company is down way more in the last month than some of companies that are similar in nature.
12:23That Elon's company is collapsing while others are merely faltering.
12:29But of course Elon's not great for Trump either because all Elon has done has put a recognizable face on his harebrained schemes.
12:38He makes Trump look weak on the one hand and stupid on the other.
12:43That Elon's Doge program has been the single biggest spotlight to how his whole approach is ruining workers' lives.
12:56These men have both exposed each other and are angry at each other for ruining each other's lives.