Original subtitles

I'm a big fan of Elon.

Elon gave me tremendous endorsement.

It was a political melding of egos verging on romance.

Take over, Elon! Yes, take over!

Donald Trump and Elon Musk were always an odd couple.

I think they admired each other's egos and the chutzpah.

It was always a bit of a case of strange bedfellows, but it did seem to work.

This is what victory feels like.

until it didn't now the trump musk loving has imploded i don't believe you

can put two wealthy narcissistic old men in a room and expect everything to go

smoothly i'm not just mega i'm goth gothic mega president trump's not afraid

to punch back if someone punches him first elon and i had a great

relationship this spectacular bust up played out in the public playground of

social media this is A high level of emotion between two

extraordinary men who have a phenomenal amount of power.

It's a kind of a high school rivalry there. Wild allegations and veiled

threats leveled against each other. For Elon Musk to zero in on the Epstein file

was really going right to the rawest nerve he could have touched.

Elon just grabbed that because he was having a tantrum.

But why has everything turned so sour?

President Trump's empowered a guy with more power than any American citizen's

ever been empowered.

Behind the scenes, there were these bitter disagreements.

I don't think Elon Musk truly has conservative values.

I think he saw an opportunity presented to himself to align with Donald Trump.

Is there a way back to the White House for Elon Musk?

There's a history with Donald Trump where people prove useful to him, and

then inevitably they get tossed overboard.

And what does this fallout mean for the future of America?

He's an unpredictable personality. I think he's highly unlikely to go silent

when it comes to elections in America.

We've got to wait and see how this runs.

I love Donald Trump as much as any straight man can love another man. Yes,

a bit crass and a bit cringy, but that is what Elon Musk said about Trump back

in February.

Now the world's richest man and the world's most powerful have fallen out in

a spectacular and public fashion.

Many would say they saw it coming. This is not the end of Doge, but really the

beginning. I mean, there's a sense that Trump is such a big personality that

there's really not enough room for another big personality.

There was always a risk that you have two alpha male, two big egos, two very

successful characters that are in many ways provocative, unorthodox.

Yeah, that was potentially a bad mix.

And I think many of us, it wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when.

The working relationship was wound up on the 30th of May.

Musk, who had been serving in Trump's administration, left the role with a

textbook Oval Office send-off.

Despite sporting a black eye, Musk said was from his five-year-old son, everyone

was all smiles.

Mr. Musk, what do you think would be easier, colonizing Mars or making the

government official?

There was this very...

a harmonious celebratory send-off with Elon standing next to the president, the

president lavishing him with praise.

They had a really nice Oval Office send-off for Elon.

He's going back to the private sector.

You know, he got the key to the ceremonial key to the White House. That

was all very, you know, diplomatic by the president.

And what was interesting is we learned very soon afterwards that behind the

scenes there were these bitter disagreements.

A few days later, those behind-the-scenes disagreements spilled

into public view, leading to breathless hyperbole from the media.

Meltdown. The Elon Musk and Donald Trump alliance has gone up in flames.

I want him to stop.

I've had it.

This is like, it's like, I don't want to see my parents fighting.

Look, Elon and I had a great relationship.

I don't know if we will anymore.

In a blizzard of social media posts, things got catty.

Musk called out Trump's apparent ingratitude and said that he was the

deciding factor in the president's victory.

So there.

I think during the campaign, Trump needed Elon Musk. He gave him a lot of

money at a time that was extremely important and crucial.

It's hard to say whether Trump would have won without that money, but, you

know, $250 million during a campaign is significant.

So he needed that money.

Trump needed Elon's money during the campaign.

Does he need him now? No.

He doesn't need him anymore.

Both Elon Musk and President Trump like to use hyperbole. And I think that's

fine, as long as people understand that and don't take it literally.

But, you know, Elon had a point. He was a massive contributor to the campaign.

But I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that he wouldn't

have won without me.

then the jibes and insults turned into threats donald trump suggested the

easiest way to save billions in government spending was to bin musk's

government contracts

Has a lot of contracts through SpaceX, hundreds of millions of dollars. He also

has the possibility of getting very important electric vehicle waivers. So

the dollar value to Elon Musk of the federal government is very large. It's

hundreds of millions of dollars. He's got a lot of money.

He gets a lot of subsidy.

So we'll take a look at that.

Only if it's fair. Only if it's fair for...

Him and for the country, I would certainly think about it, yeah, but it

has to be fair. Look, it's very concerning, the personalization of

politics. And the president can look at this and say, you know, not that SpaceX

is good or bad.

for America's space program, for America's use of satellites, for

intelligence, for any number of things, but that he doesn't like Elon Musk and

maybe he'll cancel the contracts.

That is an unhealthy place for a democracy to operate.

Musk went nuclear, suggesting that Donald Trump's name appears in the so

-called Epstein files, government documents about the disgraced pedophile

financier.

Donald Trump...

You know, for years was a social friend of Jeffrey Epstein.

He's, of course, denied any of, you know, the wrongful conduct that Epstein

was involved in. However, it's always been the subject of sort of urban legend

conspiracy theory that somehow Donald Trump's name will come out in a highly

unflattering way.

So for Elon Musk to zero in on that was really going right to the rawest nerve

he could have touched.

People say things.

when they're angry, and they were doing it on social media in a very public

forum. I wish that maybe that meeting was held behind closed doors.

Musk deleted the post on X shortly after, but he wasn't done with his jives

at the president.

He indirectly called for Trump's impeachment and said the president's

trade tariffs would lead to a recession.

He's one of the most competitive people I've ever known.

I am too. I chose never to compete with Elon.

I just stay away from it. I only like to commit when I'm pretty sure I'll win.

And Elon, I doubt he even thinks about winning, right? I think he just knows

he's going to win. That's how confident he is.

How did things turn so bitter so quickly? And exactly why did these two

fall out?

Apparently, there were three men in the relationship.

I'm honored and very grateful to be here before you today as President Donald

Trump's nominee to lead the National Aeronautic and Space Administration.

His name is Jared Isaacman, and he was Elon Musk's friend and choice to run

NASA.

He almost had the job, until Trump decided he didn't want him anymore.

He had a record of having contributed to Democratic candidates, and Trump

basically objected to that on the grounds that if he had contributed to

Democrats, you could not trust his loyalty going forward.

According to reporting in the New York Times, just moments before that rather

soppy send-off for Musk in the Oval Office, the one with the golden key,

Trump had been handed a dossier detailing all the contributions made by

Jared Isaacman to the Democratic Party.

Now, once the cameras had left, Trump then turned on Musk and confronted him

with this, declaring that Isaacman would no longer be leading the NASA

Corporation. Musk was furious, left in a huff.

and let rip on social media.

He recommended somebody that he, I guess, knew very well.

I'm sure he respected him, but to run NASA.

And I didn't think it was appropriate.

And he happened to be a Democrat, like totally Democrat.

And I say, you know, look, we won.

We get certain privileges. And one of the privileges, we don't have to appoint

a Democrat.

Remember, NASA, of course, would be a major customer for Elon's space

business. So it would make sense that Musk would want to have someone he

supports and endorses in that position at NASA.

It wasn't just NASA. The two men also fell out over Trump's tariffs and his

new tax bill, officially called the Big Beautiful Bill.

The simplest way to describe it is it's a tax and spending bill. And what it

does is reduce taxes or keep taxes low and then reduces spending.

But in aggregate, if you look at the bill, it's estimated to increase

America's debt by two, between two and five trillion.

If you take Musk at his word, he is deeply offended by this tax cutting

bill, which he thinks will explode the deficit.

Musk publicly aired his views on the bill just days after he left the White

House in this revealing CBS interview.

I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which

increases the budget deficit, doesn't decrease it, and undermines the work

that the Doge team is doing.

Not that Trump agreed, of course.

I am right about the great, big, beautiful bill.

Since the fiery exchanges on social media...

Trump's approval ratings have taken another hit.

As for Musk, he's back on X, sheepishly for once, saying, I regret some of my

posts about President Trump last week. They went too far.

But has the damage already been done? And is this Musk trying to get back into

Trump's good books to rekindle a relationship that was transformative for

American politics?

So how did the bromance between Trump and Musk really come about? Who really

is the billionaire who is now persona non grata in the White House? He is

still the world's richest man. He owns his own social media platform with 220

million of his own followers. He set up and ran a brand new government

department and he had the ear of the President of the United States.

So what were his ambitions really?

It's going to be very exciting.

As the president said, we're going to have a golden age.

He joined the MAGA movement at a crucial moment. He definitely helped Donald

Trump get elected and gave him about $250 million to help him with his

presidential campaign.

That quarter of a billion dollars was the single biggest donation of the

entire election.

One must now claims ensured Trump's victory. I don't think so, said Trump.

Who did you say?

Oh, let me tell you, we have a new star.

A star is born, Elon.

Come here, Elon.

Did you see his rocket yesterday?

It was captured.

And so it seems with Trump's heart, this was far more than just transactional.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.

They truly looked like brothers from another mother.

There's no question that over the first few months of the administration, you

really saw Donald Trump embrace Musk and bring him into his circle. It was always

a bit of a case of strange bedfellows, but it did seem to work until it didn't.

After the election, Musk even moved into a cottage at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's

private Florida club.

Elon Musk was constantly having dinner with Trump, helping with senior cabinet

officials who Trump was considering hiring.

He has been pretty open about showing up at Donald Trump's meetings, whether

those are meetings with foreign leaders like President Zelensky, you know, he

showed up on that call, or meetings with other business leaders.

For some, Elon Musk's influence on Donald Trump was immediately palpable.

On Musk's advice, Trump set up a new department with Musk at the helm.

At the suggestion of Elon Musk, I will create a government efficiency

commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit

of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic

reforms. We need to do it.

Can't go on the way we are now.

Elon Musk and his team were granted full access to the Treasury's federal payment

system, which holds the sensitive personal data of millions of Americans,

as well as details of government contracts.

His remit was to slash the federal budget by getting rid of hundreds of

government agencies and their staff.

The point is not to be cruel or have people not be able to pay their mortgage

or anything. It's just that we just have too many people in the government sector

and that they could be more productive elsewhere.

He wielded his axe swiftly.

The International Aid Department was closed, amongst other cost-cutting

measures. We'll remember you as we announce billions of dollars of extra

waste, fraud and abuse.

Just as an example, Doge cancelled $101 million for DEI contracts at the

Department of Education.

One man with experience of working hand-in-hand with Trump is his former

chief strategist, Steve Bannon.

He's a convicted felon with views considered beyond the pale by many.

Speaking earlier this year, he saw Musk's power as unprecedented and

unpalatable. President Trump's empowered a guy with more power than any outside

of government advisor, consultant, individual, American citizen's ever been

empowered. That is a massive mandate.

It's never been done.

There were fears that Musk's access to US government data were threats to

national security.

Vladimir Putin calls you outstanding.

What do you call him, sir?

He's accused of having regular contact with Vladimir Putin, though Musk says

he's only spoken to him once.

The body language was as awkward as his business links to China.

His supply chain for Tesla is in China. I do think he loves this country, but I

think that his fortune is so tied up with China and the Chinese Communist

Party that there is a threat there and a real danger there and something we

really have to keep our eye on.

Musk's dual role as global businessman and government insider raised red flags

for many, with some assuming that he had ulterior motives.

I do think he felt the government was wasteful and inefficient.

But there's no question that behind all that, there was a very specific business

motive, because his space business, his electric vehicle business, all relies on

government contracts, waivers, and other incentives.

So there was... I think a melding of both.

But could his ambitions have been genuine? Did he really think the

government needed a dramatic overhaul and that he was the man to do it?

Elon's the smartest person I've ever met, literally.

He simply doesn't conceive of failure.

He has that level of just absolute confidence in these gigantic endeavors

that he takes on.

But many were more skeptical of Musk's foray into U.S. politics, and they

wondered, what are his ulterior motives?

You would think that someone who spends that much money electing a president

would want something in return. That's just how American politics have always

been with these large donors.

There's always an end goal.

His superpower is his relentlessness and his drive.

He's obviously incredibly smart as an engineer, but also in the understanding

how... government contracts work? Is he out for himself? Sure, as every

entrepreneur is at the end of the day.

Compounding the suspicion that Musk was just following the money are his

seemingly fickle political leanings.

He backed Obama, who was an advocate of commercial spaceflight.

He backed Biden until Tesla was snubbed by the White House Electrical Vehicle

Summit. This has led some to say that the billionaire heartlessly curries

favor with those who might benefit him commercially.

I don't think Elon Musk truly has conservative values.

I think he saw an opportunity presented to himself to align with Donald Trump,

and I don't think it mattered which side of the aisle it was.

I don't believe that money is at all important to Elon.

It only is a tool for doing the things he wants to do.

That's something I think most people don't understand about him. You don't

see him wearing expensive jewelry. You don't even see him wearing good clothes.

Talking to Musk in person, he's just a fun guy. He's down to earth.

You wouldn't think that this is the guy responsible for SpaceX and Tesla and

Neuralink.

If a life of riches doesn't motivate Elon Musk, then what does?

For some who've known him for decades, there are three issues in particular

that Musk believes he alone can fix.

The first time I met Elon, which was on 24 years ago, he had three goals.

To make human species multi-planetary.

To get humanity off its addiction to fossil fuels.

We wanted to produce something that was better than any gasoline car.

And then the third one was to prevent tyrants from controlling free speech.

He wants to be seen as someone who is a hero for humanity.

With Twitter and his purchase of that company, you know, he gave himself this

mission. of free speech.

And arguably it was purchasing Twitter in 2022 that saw the tech billionaire

transition from rocket scientist to political player.

For Elon Musk, buying Twitter at 44 billion US dollars, massively over the

odds, was a calamitous business decision.

But maybe this wasn't about making money. Maybe this was about power and

influence, about grabbing our attention.

He felt like free speech had become less important on the platform as Twitter

would censor people sometimes.

Conservatives had their accounts limited or taken down or silenced. There was all

of this terrible, terrible censorship happening.

Twitter bosses had removed Donald Trump after the January 6th insurrection and

other accounts that they saw as spreading misinformation.

But once Musk got his hands on Twitter, he quickly reinstated Trump and others,

including far-right influencers and people accused of racism.

Twitter was rebranded as X.

His name is Elon Musk. He saved Free Spoot.

I think Elon Musk purchased Twitter because he saw an opportunity to

influence the election.

Blue ticks verifying accounts were removed, content moderators were sacked.

He's got the most followers on the platform.

He's tweeting non-stop every day, almost manically.

Musk's behaviour is to pause the headline...

which may say something outrageous and just say, wow.

Or terrible.

Or huge, if true. As if somehow that's validating it.

Some of what he's tweeted, I profoundly disagree with and think is potentially

outrageous. But the whole point about free speech is that it's not free unless

someone is offended.

Free speech is the bedrock.

of democracy.

If people don't know what's going on, if they don't know the truth, how can you

make an informed vote? You must have free speech in order to have democracy.

But far from being a bastion of free speech, Musk stands accused of

manipulating the algorithm to favor right-wing commentators and even his own

posts, something that Musk and X deny.

There's clear evidence.

that the algorithm has been changed so that his voice is amplified as a result.

Twitter in its original form had no algorithm to it. All the people you were

following, you would just see what they'd recently said.

Now, it's just his master's voice.

It's just what Elon Musk wants you to hear.

He prioritises his own opinions over everyone else's.

And people who disagree with him are abused on his platform.

So that's not free speech.

Anyone saying that Elon Musk's posts are popular because of the X algorithm

should probably just admit that Elon's X posts are popular because he is among

the most famous people in the world.

And he's not a free speech absolutist. I'm banned on Twitter. He's anything but

a free speech absolutist. That's the easiest part of the hypocrisy that's out

there.

He likes to masquerade as some sort of maverick, you know, free speech warrior.

The goal is to have a service that is as broadly inclusive as possible, where

ideally most of America is on it and talking.

I really don't go there anymore because it's just filled with racism and anti

-Semitism. People are literally monetizing their hate speech on Twitter

now. There's no kind of guardrails anymore, so...

There's so much misinformation on it. We're seeing so much more misogyny.

I think Elon Musk wants power, and he wants to use that power to create a

society that he deems acceptable.

For some, Musk's use of X is simply to push his own image of how society needs

to change.

He posts and talks incessantly about what he calls the woke mind virus.

He believes that diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI, aimed at

helping minorities into the workplace, is holding the West back.

I think Musk is truly worried that if diversity and inclusion efforts are not

stopped, that is a way for America to lose its influence and its economic

power. I have not been politically active before, and I'm politically

active now because...

Every instinct that I have tells me that this is a fork in the road.

He views it as an existential crisis, that wokeness and progressivism are

changing the world. He's talked about shifting demographics, and he

wants to put an end to that.

And now some of his views are U.S. government policy.

As of today...

It will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government

that there are only two genders, male and female.

For Elon Musk, woke is a label that he applies to anything that he simply

disagrees with.

You know, he's spending more time on X than ever, sometimes tweeting hundreds

of times a day.

And one of the subjects of Musk's musings on X...

politics overseas.

And yes, he's already had Britain in his sights.

But it wasn't the first time that Trump had fallen out with someone who'd flown

too close to his particular son.

Nor was it the first time this year that Musk had attacked another world leader.

Elon Musk had begun 2025 using his Platform X to fire barbs at Keir

Starmer.

Now he's out of favour with Trump, could his interest in British politics go

further than potentially defamatory posts?

I think Musk has an interest in the mother country. I think he has an

understanding of the Anglosphere that means that he cares about the UK.

And, of course, his granny was a scouser.

His whole stick is he's against woke culture.

And I think for him, Keir Starmer, who, after all, is a human rights lawyer and

is putting up taxes, you know, that's the sort of person that he loves to hate

politically.

His interest in Britain...

seemed to start not long after the Labour Party came to power.

During last year's riots, he posted that Britain was heading for civil war.

He's also claimed that the perpetrators were being locked up solely for their

social media posts.

In Britain, they're... I kid you not.

How can this be real? They are releasing convicted pedophiles from prison in

order to put people in prison for Facebook posts.

He also shared, then deleted, a conspiracy theory that suggested the

Prime Minister was setting up detainment camps on the Falkland Islands.

Elon Musk circulates information which is untrue and tries to

distort what's going on. And he has this huge platform.

He's got over 200 million followers.

People say he only seems to get about four hours sleep.

Is this his way of relaxing?

Perhaps most controversially, he called for the release of far-right activist

Tommy Robinson, who at the time was in prison for contempt of court.

I think what he wants to do is cause chaos and disruption.

I think he's doing it for sport.

At the end of the day, he's not accountable to anyone.

He doesn't sit in any House of Parliament, he's not a senator, nobody

has ever cast a single vote for Elon Musk.

It's perfectly legitimate for Elon Musk or for anyone else to offer an opinion

about British politics.

But ultimately, British voters will determine Keir Starmer's fate, not Elon

Musk.

But if his influence in American politics declines, could Elon Musk shift

his attention more seriously to matters on this side of the Atlantic?

Last December, rumours emerged that he was interested in donating.

to one party in particular.

Elon Musk, Nigel Farage, and Nick Candy, Nigel Farage's treasurer, had a fruitful

conversation at Mar-a-Lago.

There was a lot of speculation about whether or not Elon Musk would support

the Reform Party financially.

We know Elon Musk wants to give you millions.

Are you looking for ways to try and get that money into your coffers? We don't

know anything about Elon Musk other than he's supportive of our position.

If he offered you loads of money, would you try and take it?

If people offer us money legally, we will take it.

As Donald Trump is now finding out, things move very quickly in Musk's

fickle world.

It wasn't long before Musk turned on Farage after the reform leader said that

Tommy Robinson doesn't belong in his party.

Musk called for Farage to be replaced as leader.

He has a whole range of opinions, some of which I agree with very strongly and

others of which I'm more reticent about.

I never wanted Tommy Robinson to join UKIP, I don't want him to join Reform

UK, and he won't be.

Unlike Trump, Nigel Farage played down the rift.

And we know that in the world of Musk and Trump, characters can come in and

out of favour on either side of breakfast.

You know, next week he could be best buddies with Nigel.

It's a very unstable, fickle world you're dealing with.

There's no question that if Musk decided to bring his full resources to bear in a

country like the UK, he could have a huge influence.

If he were, for example, to give £100 million to Reform UK, Nigel Farage's

party, he could turn reform into a fairly big threat overnight.

But what about other countries? We've already seen Musk intervene across the

world. He's been a visceral critic of Australia's centre-left government and

lent his support to populists in places like Argentina.

Musk's backing can bring a huge amount of attention.

His support for the German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland caused

real consternation.

He even starred his big brother at one of their campaign rallies.

Let's go!

It was striking that Elon Musk openly endorsed that party,

which in Germany is essentially under a kind of pariah status.

Clearly there are elements of the party which are essentially neo-Nazi, they're

essentially old-time fascists.

He has certainly given them a level of prominence they have never seen before.

You know, he is the world's richest man.

That kind of stamp of approval may go a long way with some people.

It's good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that

in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything.

I thought the timing of that intervention was really interesting

because it was just a few days before the Holocaust Memorial Day.

to basically say, just forget about all of that and move on.

I thought that was absolutely extraordinary.

You know, I think there's like, frankly, too much of a focus on past guilt and we

need to move beyond that.

Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents or even let alone

their parents, their great-grandparents.

If you're telling people to forget about that, particularly a party that has

engaged with some sympathies to...

To neo-Nazis, I think that leads us down a dangerous path.

My heart goes out to you.

He's an unpredictable personality.

In some ways, when it comes to his political interventions, he's even more

unpredictable than President Trump.

Nobody fully understands why. What does he gain?

And I'm not entirely sure that Elon Musk himself probably understands what he

gains and what he loses.

Elon has the two tactical nuclear weapons of modern politics.

Remember, you have a guy that can write a $250 million check, a quarter of a

billion dollars, and it doesn't change his lifestyle.

And he has an incredibly powerful social media platform.

Those two combined, my understanding, the way I look at European politics, I

don't think there's a centrist or center-left government that could

withstand if he came at it full bore and backed one of the populist nationalist

parties.

It seems unlikely that Musk's falling out with Donald Trump will see him

quietly fade into the background.

He wants to exert more influence for his own business interests.

But at the same time, he has sincerely held beliefs about the political

ideologies in some countries not serving their own people. And so he is wanting

Trump-like leaders in countries around the world.

He's using his platform.

to dictate what other countries should do to try and galvanize the populace

to overturn their own elected governments i mean that's highly

subversive it's highly anarchic but it's all uh it's all in the cause of

capitalism it's all hysteria it's all hysteria

he has given us truly a global town square where we can all disagree

agreeably, and through that disagreement can get closer to truth.

The issue with this new oligarchy that we see, this tech bro oligarchy, is that

rules don't really matter to them. These guys are so big. They are more powerful

than presidents.

They have more wealth than some nation states.

That is really scary.

That is dead, dead scary.

No one signed up for this.

The most effective thing we can do is to not use their social platforms.

But already that's impossible, isn't it?

They've got us. It's too late.

But is it too late for Musk's relationship with Donald Trump? The

question now is whether there's any chance of a reconciliation.

Yes, Musk has got the golden key, but will Trump change the locks forever?

Oh, that's beautiful.

In March, the White House drive was turned into something like a Tesla

showroom.

Who else but this guy would design this and everybody on the road is looking at

it? Donald Trump even bought his own red model.

It symbolised the president's apparent closeness with Elon Musk.

But to many, it was a relationship that was always likely to end in acrimony.

Trump has now hinted that he could flog the car.

Brand new, barely driven, sole owner. It sits in a far-flung corner of the White

House car park.

I don't think that you can put two wealthy, narcissistic old men in a room

and expect everything to go smoothly.

One way of looking at it is it lasted longer than some people thought. I mean,

some people predicted that this would last a matter of weeks or a couple of

months. And in fact, they really stretched it out over six or seven

months, if you count the pre-election period.

So I would say that they did OK in kind of Trump terms.

You're witnessing the dawn of the golden age of America. That's

what it's going to be. We're bringing it back.

But from the beginning of the new administration, the warning signs were

flashing red.

Just two days after the inauguration, Musk publicly criticized one of the

president's flagship announcements,

a billion-dollar AI infrastructure project.

Together, these world-leading technology giants are announcing the formation of

Stargate. So put that name down in your books.

Musk posted on X, that the firm backing the plans just didn't have the cash.

But at that stage, Trump seemed understanding of his criticism.

Mr. President, does it bother you that Elon Musk criticized a deal that you

made publicly that he said that he committed that? No, it doesn't. He hates

one of the people in the deal.

It's not helpful to bring a vendetta from Silicon Valley.

into the Roosevelt Room of the West Wing, you've got to be a team player. If

you have a problem, go to the president personally, talk about it, and remember,

you do serve at his pleasure.

People in the deal are very, very smart people, but Elon, one of the people he

happens to hate, but I have certain hatreds of people, too.

It was just one of a number of reported clashes between the MAGA base and Elon

Musk.

But once the president announced his tariffs on China, problems between Trump

and his first buddy were widely predicted.

The fundamental tension, I think, in this relationship is all about China.

Tesla has a lot of plants, a lot of manufacturing in China.

This is something that I think can only be done in China.

But there's no question that if Trump had stuck long term with large tariffs

against China, that would have posed all kinds of problems for Tesla, which has a

huge amount of production in China, relies on China for parts. So I do think

that long term, Elon Musk would have probably found tariffs to be a bigger

and bigger problem. Thank you.

When you have personalities that big.

And that determined, you know, there is the potential, not just for a difference

of opinion on a major issue, but for that difference of opinion to become

explosive. Oh, yeah, there's definitely plots.

There's always plotting in D.C.

There's a lot of support for him and then a lot of people who feel really

betrayed.

From Donald Trump's perspective, is the biggest betrayal still to come?

As the feud with Musk played out online, the Tesla CEO floated the ultimate

infidelity. The idea of starting a new political party. He even shared a

potential name, the America Party.

I think he's highly unlikely to go silent when it comes to elections in

America, but he's going to be weighing it up. He's certainly threatened to

support Democratic candidates.

I'm not saying that Musk couldn't shake things up and he couldn't bring a lot of

money to bear, but to really set up a party that appeals broadly enough to

amass a kind of a majority in the Electoral College is a very, very hard

task for any third party in the U.S. system.

I've said that myself a few times. You know, when you're really frustrated with

the traditional parties, the important thing to keep in mind here is that...

an elon musk type or president trump type they can be disruptive you know

that's their nature many are wondering though if the sun has already set on

this big beautiful bromance thank you thank you donald trump has a long

history of reconciling with even his harshest critics as long as they kiss

his ring after all jd vance once wondered whether trump would be an

american hitler Now he's his vice president.

The court of President Trump is fluid.

I've been known to be out on occasions, right?

And other days I'm in. We're going to win some, we're going to lose some, but

directionally, I couldn't feel more comfortable.

Trump does have this capacity for, you know, letting bygones be bygones.

So I wouldn't rule out that the two of them find some kind of common ground.

Well, thank you very much. It's an honor to have President Zelensky of Ukraine.

I go back to the Oval Office, Donald Trump and Zelensky. I mean, horrific,

humiliating exchange.

You're in no position to dictate what we're going to feel.

We're going to feel very good. You will feel influence. We're going to feel very

good and very strong. You will feel influence. You're right now not in a

very good position.

And how long was it until their meeting at the Vatican?

President Trump certainly has the ability.

um to to turn and twist and torque when it's in his interest to do so

right now there are

bigger issues for president trump after he sent the national guard to los

angeles in response to protests over immigration raids on this topic at least

elon musk appears to back donald trump call it makeup x

I'm starting to see a lot of reconciliation with him retweeting some

of the comments from both President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance,

specifically about the L.A. riots.

So I think they're already in a de-escalation, to say the least.

Elon Musk now admits that he regrets some of his posts about President Trump.

And if they rekindle their relationship, there's one shared goal in particular

that appeals to them both.

out of this world.

And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American

astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.

Everything is about Mars with Elon. It always has been and always will be.

about landing on Mars.

Trump wants to be a historic figure, like how JFK was associated with the

space program in the 1960s, helping land Americans on the moon.

They are completely aligned on this topic.

Who wouldn't want to be known as the president that got humans to Mars?

And who am I going to rely on? I'm going to rely on my first buddy, Elon Musk.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, the sooner Musk goes to Mars, the better.

That would be great.

Two billionaires with monumental egos, swobbling online and trading insights.

Well, that certainly provided quite a lot of entertainment.

But beyond the spectacle, what is the fallout? What does it mean for Trump's

signature big, beautiful budget bill? What about the future of Doge? What

about Musk's business interests?

Could Musk become a thorn in Trump's side?

And ultimately, this question.

What has more clout?

Presidential power?

or billionaire money.

The greatest capitalist in the history of the United States of America,

Elon Musk.

If Elon Musk could rule the world, I think he would.

An oligarchy is taking shape in America, and that's terrifying.

Take over, Elon. Yes, take over.

Is Elon the nicest person in the world? No. Is Elon the evil person that some

portray him as? Absolutely not.

President Trump's not afraid to punch back if someone punches him first. So,

you know, I think that we should have expected that. Ultimately, the president

is more powerful than the richest person in the world.

There's something bigger going on here. It's about power. It's about influence.

Trump has four years. He has term limits.

Whatever damage Trump does to democracy, we could recover from.

Whatever damage Musk does to how we think,

we may not recover from.

He's not ever going to just go back to the engineering department at SpaceX.

He's now had a taste of power and a taste of politics and he sees he can

have an influence.

We're going to find out who wins this.