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Elon & Trump Fight! The Breakup of the Summer | Pivot

June 06, 2025 / 55:27

This episode of Pivot covers the public fallout between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, their recent exchanges on social media, and the implications for their respective businesses. Hosts Cara Swisher and Scott Galloway discuss the breakdown of the Trump-Musk relationship, including Trump's comments on Musk's government contracts and Musk's accusations regarding Trump and Epstein.

Swisher and Galloway analyze the rapid escalation of tensions between Trump and Musk, highlighting Trump's remarks about Musk's black eye and the accusations of being in the Epstein files. They describe the situation as a dramatic breakup reminiscent of reality TV.

The hosts also touch on the financial impact of this feud, noting significant drops in Tesla's stock value and the potential consequences for Trump's media ventures. They discuss how this conflict could affect the political landscape and the business world.

Additionally, they explore the broader implications of Trump's executive orders and how they may serve as distractions from his conflicts with Musk. The episode concludes with predictions about the future of both figures and their businesses.

TLDR

Trump and Musk's public feud escalates, impacting their businesses and political dynamics.

Episode

55:27
00:00:00
We're having a good day here over at Pivot. Oh my god. Oh my god. Let's just
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liberate. Literally. Hi everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast
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Network. I'm Cara Swisser and I'm Scott Galloway and it's Liberation Day. When I
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heard about these two Yeah. when I saw the tweet were basically the fastest zero to Europe pedophile land speed
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record set. Yeah. From Elon Musk. I got to be honest. The blood flow came back. Yeah. Did it. The blood flow came back.
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I'm even hard up. Oh my god. Oh my god. Mean girls except with old men. The first breakup of pride. Oh my god. Let's
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explain what's happening here cuz listen, Trump Elon bromance is officially over. Let's just say let's
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they have broken up. This is like housewives of New York like but times 20 on steroids. The two men laid into each
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other publicly on Thursday. This is after like troubling a couple a week or so of troubling as Elon left and they
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had that nice little Oval Office thing. But today it it broke hard, real hard. Speaking of hard, um, with Trump
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expressing his anger and frustration after Elon called his big, beautiful bill a disgusting abomination, which is
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fantastic. Sitting in the Oval Office with Germany's chancellor, Trump suggested Elon was suffering from Trump
00:01:25
derangement syndrome, which is something Elon's accused people of. Meanwhile,
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Elon started [ __ ] posting on X in real time, saying, "Without me, Trump would
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have lost the election." And such ingratitude. He's probably correct. Trump later threatened to cut Elon's
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government contracts and subsidies subsidies to which Elon replied in light of the president's statement about
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cancellation of my government contracts. SpaceX will be begin decommissioning its
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Dragon spacecraft immediately. This is what NASA uses to do everything right now. Um it's just it's just ugliness.
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And then of course he threw in a pedophile thing around um around Epstein saying Trump was in the Epstein files.
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That's why they didn't release them. It's that's just in the hour it
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happened. Um Trump also had no qualms about referencing Elon's black eye in the Oval Office last week. Let's listen.
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You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval desk. And uh even
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with the black eye, I said, "Do you want a little makeup? We'll get you a little
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makeup." But he said, "No, I don't think so." Which is interesting and very nice. He wants to
00:02:31
be who he is. So you could make that statement, too, I guess. Look, Elon and I had a great
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relationship. Uh, I don't know if we will anymore. Don't know if he will.
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This is like such a great breakup. I'll note I've been talking about this
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breakup for a while now. I knew this day was coming and how it would go down. I did. Let's listen to what I said back in
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the fall. It's like two like desperate people desperate for attention sponges
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fighting with each other. This is Highlander to me. There can be only one. I think they're going to have such a
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falling out. It's going to be delicious to watch when it comes. All right. It's
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delicious. Scott, it was just a week ago these two were doing this lovely sendoff
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in the Oval Office, but it was weird. For sure. Um, what do you make of how ugly it got and so fast? I mean, as hard
00:03:14
as you are. Um, that's something I haven't heard from a woman in 15 years.
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Yeah, I know. I had to do it. I have. It's clear. Just a couple more. These two toddlers continue to throw [ __ ] at
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each other. Elon posted he was, as I said, dropping a really big bomb that Trump is in the Epstein files. responded
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yes to a post about impeaching Trump and replacing with JD Vans. The girls are fighting is trending on X. I'm just
00:03:37
going to read a couple more tweets. This is like Kendrick versus Drake but with two drakes. Ashley Sinclair who just had
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Elon's baby, alleged baby. Hey real Donald Trump, let me know if you need any breakup advice. Kanye West weighed
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in saying, "Bro, please know we love you both so much. Thanks Kanye." There's a
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tweet making fun of David Saxs asking to be picked up at the White House because
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he's scared. Um, what do you what do you think's happened here, Scott? I mean,
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besides enjoyment for you and I and the rest of the world, I think this is a great example of what it means to not be
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a man. Grown men are supposed to be able to take blows and be the bigger man and
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walk away. I just think these are two [ __ ] manchildren. And it's it's just it's if it wasn't so
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sad, it'd be this funny. Or I guess it's just so beyond sad. It's funny. I was
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looking I was looking for some sort of insight here other than these are just two toddlers. Um you know, a drug addict
00:04:35
versus a malignant a malignant toddler. I I went to okay, who does the market think is going to win? And Donald Trump,
00:04:43
well, Donald Trump media closed down 8%. Tesla stock is down by 14%. Tesla's lost
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$150 billion in value today. But that might be because Tesla actually has a real business you can do some value to.
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But $150 billion in destruction and value. I mean essentially what Musk is doing is what every CEO is afraid to do.
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Musk doesn't every CEO in America has been afraid to show their true feelings
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and id for fear it would hurt shareholder value. Musk doesn't care. So he's willing to say accuse the president
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of being a pedophile and he loses $150 billion in value at Tesla. And then if you look at
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if you look at um Koshi and some of the things that investors or some of the things that's going on here um the
00:05:32
chance that the the uh the bill gets passed has gone down. Um there's uh I would say the
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biggest biggest uh will Trump and the EV tax grade odds spike from 74% to 80%. When will the Senate pass the
00:05:50
reconciliation bill? Odds that it will pass before July fell from 49 to 44%. So it feels like this chaos is not going to
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be good for the for the trending bill. Yeah, the most interesting thing I saw is that there's some talk that this
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might be the potential silver lining is it might shift Elon back to the middle. Two hours ago, Mus tweeted a poll that's
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gotten over 2 million votes. He asked, "Is it time to create a new political
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party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle and 80% of respondents have said yes?" But it
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really is sort of a the two arguably the two most powerful men in the world squaring off in the high school
00:06:28
cafeteria. What do you think? So, which one would I think Donald Look, Donald Trump is going to prevail because he's
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the president, right? Ultimately, that's right. But I think it's finished for
00:06:38
him. I think it's finished cuz Elon is willing to go Yeah. nuclear. He really
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is. He doesn't have a problem with which what you just said, interestingly enough, that that CEOs all want to say
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this to Trump, right? They want to stop being pushed around. If he's doing it,
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it will give permission to everybody else to start pushing back on Trump. I think Oh, I don't know. Because I think
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every CEO looks at a a 14% decline in the stock in one day and thinks I don't
00:07:07
control my board, I could get fired for this [ __ ] I mean, Tesla shed $150 billion in value. But I mean, that the
00:07:14
idea that you can if Elon's doing it, like especially ones that are, you know,
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look, Jaime Diamond's been critical. I think it'll give people permission to be
00:07:22
more critical of Trump and start to chip away at his power, you know, because I I
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I've always thought that he's in real trouble because of the trends in the
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polling and everything else and by 2026 it's finished for him. But now this sort
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of there's no telling what he I warned the Trump people this there's also no
00:07:40
telling what he could do, right? You just don't know where he's going. He's
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got means. He's got motive. He's angry. He's, as you know, a petty person. He's
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got, as you discussed, a problem with some drugs. Um, I think this guy could just go right
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off the rails and take Trump with him because he's so affiliated with Trump if
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you think about it. And he's absolutely right. He helped get he he was the critical part of getting Trump elected,
00:08:07
I think. Yeah, he may have he may have in fact got him elected. But the thing is, and you've been more right than
00:08:13
wrong on this, you predicted a while ago that this was going to be the mother of
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all breakups at some point, and it's happening. And now it seems obvious, but
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at the time people weren't predicting it, and you did predict it. But here's
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the thing. I think Trump has proven himself, we're in a slow burn towards an
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autocracy and autocrats will sick their department of justice on people and he's
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the president. And so if he wants to sick his DOJ on them, if he wants to fire up inspector generals to say, "I
00:08:43
have some real fears about his autonomous technology and we're auditing Tesla's tax returns. Oh, and by the way,
00:08:51
we we have evidence that he was carrying elicit drug." I mean, this guy isn't
00:08:57
beyond No, but now everything will be tainted, right? It's just it'll be so
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obvious to people what he's doing. And whether you like Elon or not, he still
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has a lot of fans too, right now. His numbers were declining be because of his affiliation with Trump, right? His
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numbers were going down and and his, you know, he had just lost a lot of because
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of the the the affiliation with Donald Trump. But if he's against Donald Trump,
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he'll get different fans, right? You could see it's almost, oddly enough, it
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is like a wrestling match, right? Um, and this is how Trump conducts everything. We're in the middle of a
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wrestling match with one of those idiot narratives that they have there, which is they're throwing blows. They're
00:09:40
causing entertainment. But in this case, I Elon can truly do a lot of damage to this man. And especially those who are
00:09:48
so affusive about him like Mike Johnson and others, right? He can pick them off one at a time. And Trump has to protect,
00:09:57
right? In some ways, Trump can't go nuclear on him in a similar way. Maybe he can. I think this is such a tough one
00:10:04
to call. And I think if if our biases are coming out here, I think what we're
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discovering is you hate Trump more than Musk and I hate Musk more than Trump. No, no, no. I just think he's
00:10:17
unexpected, right? And so he's a wild card. I don't I think he's Listen, I
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would do an interview with him in a five seconds to talk about this, but I think
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that he he is he's Trump is somewhat reliably corrupt the way he is. Trump, you never know what Elon's going to do.
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You just don't. But I I I read it as this is peak Musk cuz what I just keep coming back to, I think
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Musk lately looks like an out of [ __ ] control drug addict. I I all semblance of sense, reason, self-control seem to
00:10:53
have literally I just think the guy's totally come off the rails. But the really the one big takeaway here, Cara,
00:11:00
is it's just so obvious that women are just too emotional to hold this much power. That a woman is just too
00:11:07
emotional to be president. I mean, they menrate, they have hormones, they're
00:11:11
just too emotional. It is the first breakup of Pride Month. Um, what what does it mean for Doge
00:11:19
though? Like now what's going to happen to Doge? And those staffers, I think
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there's like 90 of them are they got to go. They got to get rid of them so they
00:11:25
don't do any because they're out. They're out because they're worried
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they're more Elon loyal and they're probably very scared. They're probably
00:11:30
in the midst of already trying to turn off their access. I think the Doge cuts will stick because I think Trump doesn't
00:11:36
care about you know what, nuclear stockpile inspectors, I don't care. US ID, I don't care. I don't I think that a
00:11:45
lot of those cuts will just stick and they will but yeah the Doge the Doge you know youth or children of the corn
00:11:52
they're absolutely out but I I personally so I I I saw when I saw Musk in that office with a black eye looking
00:12:03
around I thought he can't not be high long enough to go to the Oval Office and
00:12:10
have the whole world staring at him. So, I think this is just I I I saw this and I've been so wrong
00:12:19
about this. I've I've predict this over and over. I thought that that press
00:12:24
conference, that presser with Musk in the office was peak Musk. I'm like, I And you thought that was it? That was
00:12:29
the thing because Trump's now saying he threw him out. But go ahead. Well, I I
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just think the guy is the guy is a rabbid. He's like he he's to see drug
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addiction jump the sh like really go whatever it is parabolic make the jump to light speeded on in full display.
00:12:48
That's what I thought the story was. I mean these people start fighting with
00:12:52
everybody, right? I don't that's an onion headline. Elon Musk once again
00:12:57
gets along with nobody. You're right. Trump joins. We are we are now on the same list as Donald Trump, right, of
00:13:03
people Elon has picked fights with essentially, which is weird when you think about it. I got and I gotta I
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gotta be honest, I wouldn't say I was relieved, but I had several people reach
00:13:12
out to me, including friends who are lawyers, and go, I think, you know, do you have a [ __ ] ton of liability
00:13:17
insurance because I think your comments in the last day, make it very likely that someone uh from from US Universe
00:13:23
just decides to file a nuisance lawsuit against you. You said, "I hope you're
00:13:26
ready. It's coming." Yeah. Let's let's say what we're referencing. You gave an
00:13:30
incredible speech on um on Piers Morgan. Let's play that and then talk about it
00:13:36
quickly. I think his legacy is not going to be an EV or putting rockets into space. I think it's going to be
00:13:42
unnecessary death, disease, and disability of the world's most vulnerable. That is not what it means to
00:13:49
be an innovator. It's not what it means to be an American. It's not what it
00:13:52
means to be a man. All right. So, Scott, I mean, that was something. I was so proud of you. I have to say, I
00:13:58
appreciate that, Cara. Um, it's like that's my man. There you go. Um, there's
00:14:02
my my lady. There's my lady. There's there's my girl. You went way farther
00:14:07
than I go. I'll tell you that. I just look at everything, not everything, mostly everything through the lens right
00:14:11
now. I'm trying to raise two good men. I I'm not I'm barreling towards the end.
00:14:15
And I'm a healthy person. So, I think what is my purpose? My purpose is to raise two loving, patriotic men. And I
00:14:21
I'm constantly thinking about role models. The president and the world's
00:14:25
wealthiest man should be role models for young men. And the whole point of prosperity, if
00:14:30
you're the wealthiest man in the world, it's pretty simple. What does that mean?
00:14:33
Prosperity should translate to protection. And this guy right now, this drug addict who says his daughter is
00:14:40
dead to him on a podcast and has cut aid to the neediest people such that 1500 babies a day now are being born HIV
00:14:52
positive. Uh has two women concurrently suing him for sole custody of their child. This is exactly what it means to
00:14:57
not be a man. This is exactly what you are not supposed to do when you recognize the blessings of this type of
00:15:02
prosperity. And I think it's just shameful. I I think it does tremendous damage to the next generation of leaders
00:15:10
and tech leaders. All right. Let me ask you to to depraved is a big word. That's
00:15:14
I I was really struck by that word by the way. Um what happens now to his companies because he said he was going
00:15:20
to be focusing on Tesla, focusing on Starling. Now he'll have a very troubled
00:15:24
he's obviously not going to get all the gimmies that he got. Although he did get
00:15:27
the regulators off his back, but maybe not now. Maybe they'll be back on his
00:15:31
back. Um what if you were him? He obviously is out of control. That's very clear. But what would you do with each
00:15:39
of the what's going to happen to each of these companies? And and specifically, I
00:15:43
mean XAI, obviously Twitter. Can I just tell you I would now pay $8. Remember we
00:15:48
said there's no [ __ ] way. So be good for Twitter. I got to say it's probably
00:15:51
good for Twitter in a really sick way. But what um where do each of these businesses go given his like clear off
00:15:59
the rails situation? I mean, no good public no publicity is bad publicity. What? No. U first off, Trump could cut
00:16:08
off all subsidies to Tesla almost overnight. He could sick the DOJ on them. He could start a series of federal
00:16:14
investigations. You could lean on governments to say, "Do not if you engage in stling contracts or or
00:16:22
um uh award contracts, whatever it is, to Tesla, um I'm I'm going to be less
00:16:27
inclined to negotiate with you on tariffs." This is an autocrat. And the whole democracies are run on trust.
00:16:33
Autocracies are run on fear. And the way an autocracy evolves is you punish your
00:16:39
enemies severely. You normalize violence against them. you use the DOJ and the power of the White House and to hurt
00:16:47
that company and those individuals. I this is absolutely could be terrible for Tesla. It could even be worse for
00:16:54
Starlink because all of a sudden basically Trump could decide I don't give a [ __ ] about um communications
00:17:01
technology on the battlefield in Ukraine. I'm going to make it I'm going
00:17:04
to tell the joint chiefs and the department of defense that they need to seize Starlink and take control of it
00:17:10
because it's a security threat. Yeah. And what about uh for XAI? Oh, because
00:17:15
now he's going to be left out of all that. That that's like good day for Sam
00:17:18
Alman presumably. I think that in the short run, as you said, Twitter gets a lot
00:17:24
more attention. Everyone's going to be tuning into what what he's saying. But
00:17:28
when you when you Trump is going to basically decide I need to beat this guy publicly
00:17:36
now that they've gone to war with each other and Trump has nuclear weapons literally. Not that he's going to use
00:17:44
them but he has the Department of Justice and he's not afraid to um abuse the law and habius corpus to go after
00:17:52
people. I mean, I love the idea of ICE agents taking Elon Musk to South Africa, and I don't think that's going to
00:17:59
happen, but it could. That was Bannon's. That was Steve Bannon's thing. Yeah.
00:18:02
Well, you couldn't Trump is now Trump is now an autocrat. He's now shown no
00:18:09
fidelity to the law or due process. He's going after individuals. He's he's he's
00:18:15
normalizing violence. I I don't I wouldn't put him past him. I wouldn't I
00:18:18
would imagine he's already in a war room with his his attorney general Steven
00:18:23
Miller Steven Miller that I would love if I could be anywhere like a little fly it would be with between Steven and
00:18:29
Katie says Katie Miller works for Elon right now the secretary of commerce and just be saying come up with a list of 10
00:18:36
things to [ __ ] kick this guy in the nut so hard he doesn't know what happened. H I don't know, Scott. I'm I
00:18:43
got to say I think you're on You believe team You believe you're betting on I'm
00:18:46
not team Elon because I think he's it's going to end badly for him. I think he's
00:18:50
Howard Hughes. I'm sorry. I do. But this is not good. Is likable. Yeah, I know
00:18:55
that's true. Um I think it's going to This is bad for This is bad for both of
00:19:00
them. Bad. They look bad. Look, this is this is when Iraq is in a war against Iran. You're you're hoping the bullets
00:19:08
win. This is, look, you're right. This makes them both look just childish and stupid.
00:19:14
But if we're talking about who is exposed to greater risk here, President Trump has the CIA. I get
00:19:22
it. But I think he's now he's now absolutely going to lose control of Congress. Absolutely. No question. Now,
00:19:28
what's the Democrats going to do? Just sit back and watch, I suspect, for a minute. just like just so today I
00:19:35
addressed the Democratic young young young caucus which is people under the age of 140 actually it's under the age
00:19:43
of 50 a really exciting meeting I got to meet Representative Crockett and some other people and I was saying they asked
00:19:49
me for a bunch of ideas and I said right away you need to come up with an alternative tax bill that positions you
00:19:54
as the adults in the room and I came up with a bunch of ideas. I immediately reached out to the person who organizes
00:19:59
this caucus and I said, "I I draw the comment based on what's happened today.
00:20:04
Do abso fuckingutely nothing. Do not say a word. Do not do anything. You do not get in the way of your enemy shooting
00:20:13
themselves in the foot." I'm like, "Let the let this control the news cycle.
00:20:17
Don't do anything. Don't say anything. Don't do anything. Let the entire media
00:20:23
world focus on this fight, which they will." And it is. This is a distraction,
00:20:26
but what a fantastic. Anyway, we're having a good day here over at Pivot. Oh
00:20:30
my god. Oh my god. Let's just liberate. Literally, we shouldn't be like this,
00:20:36
but we do. We're Oh my god. This is What is this? Our super. Usually, usually in
00:20:40
a half hour from now, we have a half bottle drink of Jack and a condom hanging out of my ass. This is about to
00:20:44
be a good good time, Cara. Oh my god. This is about to be a good good time. Yep. Anyway, call me Elon. I'm here for
00:20:53
you. I'm here for you. I'm a shoulder to cry on. SpaceX. So good. Happy to do an
00:20:58
interview. So good. I was going to watch Friends and Neighbors tomorrow. No way.
00:21:02
I'm watching this. Anyway, uh Scott, let's go on a quick break. There's a lot
00:21:06
more to get to, but before we do, I just want to remind our lovely listeners that
00:21:09
you can also watch us on YouTube. The link is in our show notes. If you're already watching, don't forget to like
00:21:14
and subscribe. Okay, Scott, when we come back, how Trump's grudges, and this is
00:21:18
the biggest one, are informing his latest executive orders. And Elon, there's an executive order coming your
00:21:23
way probably tomorrow. Scott, we're back. Perhaps in an attempt to steer the
00:21:28
conversation away from Elon Musk. President Trump issued a series of executive orders on Wednesday night.
00:21:33
This is how he governs by by fiat or tries to. These include a new travel ban that restricts the entry of people into
00:21:40
the US from more than a dozen countries, mostly from the Middle East and Africa.
00:21:45
An investigation into uh former President Joe Biden and his aids. Trump is having the White House counsel and
00:21:51
Attorney General Pambani examine whether some of President uh present President Biden's presidential actions were
00:21:57
legally invalid, claiming AIDS acted without his knowledge. Biden has called this ridiculous and false. An order
00:22:03
blocking Harvard's international students from entering the country. Harvard called this illegal, by the way.
00:22:09
Trump also called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio uh to begin revoking visas of current foreign students in the at
00:22:15
the university. I mean, he just can't stop. He He cannot stop these things. Um, and when it comes to tariffs,
00:22:22
President Trump is still perfecting the art of the deal with China's President
00:22:25
Xi. Trump posted on True Social early this week that she is quote, "very tough
00:22:30
and extremely hard to make a a deal with." Chinese state media reported on Thursday that the two leaders finally
00:22:36
had their long-awaited phone chat, a call initiated by Trump. This is the first known formal contact between the
00:22:42
two since Trump's inauguration. Trump has reportedly been obsessed with this
00:22:47
she call according to Politico, convinced he can hash things out. Um, China has leverage. It halted uh exports
00:22:54
of rare earth magnets in April as the trade war was escalating. This is really problematic. US and European automakers
00:23:01
uh say they're running out of these magnets which are needed for EV motors, windshield wipers, brake sensors, and
00:23:06
more. Some companies are considering shifting production to China to avoid export restrictions. Building electric
00:23:12
motors there or shipping US-made motors to China to install these madness. Of course, it's against the goal of
00:23:18
bringing uh manufacturing back to the US. The opposite might happen. So, talk a little bit about these these executive
00:23:24
orders first and then I think China's winning this. Oh god, Trump is so incompetent. I
00:23:30
can't even with with the Chinese. Um, but uh let's talk about these orders cuz
00:23:35
this is what he does when he feels out of control presumably. Yeah. I don't I I
00:23:40
I feel as if you have someone who walks up to a poker table, goes all in, and then negotiates and then folds before
00:23:47
anyone else responds. And I wonder if I I'm you know, I believe a lot of this
00:23:53
his his um policies on immigration are still his kind of number one policy. So I think he keeps saying let's push it
00:24:02
further and further because people seem to respond, you know, negatively, but it's still his kind of number one most
00:24:09
approved approach. And these images of ICE rounding up people are shocking, but I think there's a certain element of his
00:24:17
his base that actually thinks finally we're getting serious about this. Uh I I
00:24:22
agree with you. I think China holds all the cards here because while the tariffs
00:24:27
they've done math but what they haven't calculated was what does the math
00:24:31
actually mean on the other side of the equation and that is while we can probably heard ch the Chinese economy
00:24:36
more than ours China is an export economy it doesn't have the same level of internal consumption that we have
00:24:42
only 17% of our GDP is based on exports so we're actually quite a self-sufficient society despite all the
00:24:49
calls that you know we need to reshore everything we're actually more self-sufficient
00:24:53
across energy even manufacturing than people believe the but what what they failed to take into account is our pain
00:25:02
thresholds and that is unless you're going to so for example let's look at
00:25:06
Europe Europe is ringing its hands over what to do with Ukraine I mean they they
00:25:11
they're supportive of the Ukrainian army uh they've given money they've actually
00:25:15
given more money than us but they would never I don't think they would consider
00:25:19
putting a boot on the ground meanwhile Putin continues to call up more people despite coming up on a million young men
00:25:26
either killed or wounded. I mean, so when you're calculating the calculus, you would think, well, okay, the EU has
00:25:34
a $19 trillion economy. The Russian economy is 2 trillion. It has triple the population. We should be able to kick
00:25:40
their ass in a war. But they're not taking into account the pain thresholds of the respective parties. And that's
00:25:47
what I think we're missing or Trump is missing with respect to negotiating with
00:25:50
she. She doesn't She's not afraid to have to put three, five, 10 million
00:25:56
Chinese out of work. He's not afraid. They're We let our thoroughbreds run. We
00:26:02
are so obsessed with the stock market and any hit to prosperity. We're worried
00:26:05
that Americans are going to revolt. She's not afraid to put companies out of
00:26:10
business, even if it means a decline or a massive loss in capital. So, I think he's vastly
00:26:16
underestimated. I The bottom line is I just don't think she scares this easily.
00:26:21
And I think they're having a lot of productive conversations with nations and trade agreements that they didn't
00:26:26
think were possible just a hundred days ago. So I agree with you. I think she has all the cards here. He does. I mean,
00:26:31
Trump is so badly playing this. And one of the these orders, and I know you have
00:26:35
talked about them as a a distraction, whether it's the Biden one or the travel
00:26:39
bans or the students blocking Harvard's international students entering the country, they still create all kinds of
00:26:46
havoc in terms of whatever it happens. like even if ultimately they get pushed back, you have to spend time getting a
00:26:52
lawyer, you have to spend time doing the fight, you have to spend time. So, I don't think they're just a distraction.
00:26:58
They're meant to to, you know, they're like flashbombs, you know, like you're
00:27:02
you can't see for a minute. And they do have real world impact. And that's the
00:27:07
point of them is to do that even if they get overturned cuz maybe 20 of them, they do 20 and 17 get overturned, but
00:27:15
three don't, right? And that's what they're doing here. Um, I do think it
00:27:19
matters that they're creating a situation putting Harvard on its back heel almost constantly. Even if in the
00:27:25
end Harvard will win, they'll they'll win with a lot of damage. Um, same thing
00:27:30
with all these other things. And again, as linking to China, it gives China an advantage. It gives China gives all our
00:27:36
enemies an advantage for us to be both petty and bullying when we don't have
00:27:42
the cards, right? It just doesn't. We just don't have the cards here. you're
00:27:46
playing poker, I suppose. Um, but I think they have, especially with the things they have like magnets,
00:27:52
manufacturing, everything else. This is what companies will do. They will do what it takes to create economic benefit
00:27:59
for themselves. And if that means uh shifting to production in China, that's
00:28:04
exactly what they'll do. So, the opposite of what Trump wanted. Well, to be fair, I think Trump's initial
00:28:09
instincts around a real trade asymmetry with China was was correct. there the the IP flow into China is one way. They
00:28:18
take Tesla and uh Apple technology and upskilling and then they don't let it
00:28:23
leave and there's no they they let their media companies into the US but they
00:28:28
don't let ours in. So the IP flow is one way. There's a trade. There's real valid
00:28:33
concerns. But to go to the Norm McDonald joke, the late comedian, he said he had
00:28:38
this great bid on I don't know if you are history buffs, but uh if you've
00:28:42
heard of this country called Germany, they decided twice last century to declare war on the world.
00:28:51
And quite frank at a very basic level that's why Hitler lost was he was absolutely blitzkrieg basically took
00:28:59
over France in two weeks conquered most of Europe in several months was threatening to take over Britain wanted
00:29:05
to negotiate with Chamberlain said I'll let you keep the empire I want Europe
00:29:09
then knows who knows what would have happened but his mistake was he decided to declare war on Russia and if you
00:29:18
wanted to isolate China and have really strong a really strong hand to negotiate
00:29:23
better terms on IP where they steal it and sell it back to us more inexpensively whatever it might be
00:29:29
wouldn't you want to sign up the EU and Latin America or would you declare war
00:29:34
on EU and Latin America at the same time thereby creating we were we were allies
00:29:42
with Russia because Germany was so aggressive he has turned our strongest allies into quite quite frankly
00:29:50
sympathetic to China. I had dinner I had dinner with the I had dinner with the CEO of Alibaba, a wonderful guy. He was
00:29:58
in Europe roaming around talking to European companies about them using the Baba cloud because for the first time AW
00:30:05
people are having concerns about using European companies are having concerns about using Azure or
00:30:11
AWS. So this is just the the worst thing the it is terrible to be fighting with your allies. But what's worse is to be
00:30:21
fighting without your allies. Yeah. Or also damaging the most the strongest parts of this country. Not just
00:30:28
attacking allies, attacking things in this country, whether it's Harvard or scientists. It's a constant attack on
00:30:36
people our strongest members right of of our country and what we can do. Immigrants who bring innovation.
00:30:42
universities who may have to have reform but not from the government. They should
00:30:46
not this way. Um you know there's this idea that I keep thinking about is a lot
00:30:51
of the stuff Trump is talking about like the the problem with trade with China or
00:30:56
too much wokeness or whatever it just pick whatever you want. Everyone I know is like could could agree with some of
00:31:03
the direction but every single person including a lot of Trump supporters are like yeah but not this. It's like you're
00:31:09
seeing so many interviews with Trump people like I didn't think he'd you know
00:31:12
this this is sort of the leopard ate my face idea. Um, but like not like this, not this, not this. And it just is it's
00:31:20
overkill. And the executive orders are the the expression of that. These crazy [ __ ] executive. He looks like such a
00:31:26
chump by doing these. But at the same time, you know, even though he accuses Elon of being sort of the toddler. I
00:31:32
think that's what they're doing. He's the toddler. He's the actual toddler.
00:31:36
Elon's just one of the toddlers running around the White House. But this is what
00:31:40
he's doing. Just making a mess. And then Yeah. to no strategic value. Just to go to
00:31:48
cosplay Henry Kissinger here and I won't even say Marco Rubio, but a real secretary of state in terms of rail
00:31:55
politic. You know, they're going after Harvard under the oposis and this is there's never been a flag this false of
00:32:02
anti-semitism. And I believe, for example, if you really cared about, say, I won't even
00:32:08
call it anti-semitism, but say you cared about the war in the Middle East, the the the the Israeli Gaza conflict, what
00:32:14
whatever you want to call it. I don't believe the key is Israel or Hamas. I believe the key is Qatar. I think if you
00:32:23
wanted those hostages released and you wanted some path to uh uh sustainable peace, you would put massive pressure on
00:32:31
Qatar who has been funding the tunnels and the bombs and providing safe haven for the senior leader leadership of
00:32:40
Hamas. I believe that's the key. And let me ask you this. Do you think do you
00:32:44
think Trump is really going to bring about pressure and is really concerned uh with a country that he just accepted
00:32:52
a $400 million plane from? So, and then the notion that they they give a [ __ ] about anti-semitism at Harvard. There
00:33:01
have been three very scary anti-semitic attacks. Two young, lovely, engaged people who were working at the embassy
00:33:07
were shot down and murdered. Governor Shapiro, who his house, someone tried to burn down his house um who was blatantly
00:33:17
anti-semitic. And there was an attack in Boulder, Colorado, where an Egyptian man
00:33:21
used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to attack a group u participating in a solidarity walk for
00:33:27
the hostages in Gaza. Has the president referenced any of those things? No. No. But quote unquote, he needs to go after
00:33:35
anti-semitism at these universities. It's all nonsense. It's all absolutely
00:33:39
And we've discussed the we've discussed the just the economics here. And just
00:33:44
think about it as an export. The export of education, letting foreign students into our universities is a bigger
00:33:49
business for us than us selling our movies and TV shows overseas. So this is all I it's just such um I I'm
00:33:59
just trying to think how you could and there's a certain brilliance to this if
00:34:04
you thought how do I reduce our prosperity as elegantly and as efficiently as possible and get some for
00:34:10
myself and then be corrupt at the same time in some ways. I have to say I kind of like even though Elon's a heinous
00:34:17
piece of [ __ ] as you noticed um I can see possibly a penny dropping with him with this bill. I think it is totally
00:34:25
self-interested. At the same time he can do math, right? Like he can't he can't
00:34:31
even put up with this, right? Like he he's like no. Um, I mean know ultimately
00:34:38
a lot of business people in this country even if you're as unhinged as Elon are
00:34:43
are globalists, right? Like if you want to use that term, even though it's has
00:34:47
negative connotations, they they live in a global world, these our companies in the United States and Trump is
00:34:55
systematically ruining their chances across. Anyway, we have to go on a quick break. When we come back, the next name
00:35:01
on Trump's naughty list, Jerome Powell. Scott, we're back with more news.
00:35:05
President Trump is lashing out at Fed Chair Jerome Powell, urging him to cut interest rates following the release of
00:35:10
the ADP jobs reports. The report shows private payrolls ticking up by only 37,000 when the Dow Jones forecasted
00:35:17
110,000. The president posted on True Social, calling the Fed share too late, Powell, and unbelievable. Trump and
00:35:23
Powell met at the White House last week, but the conversation was uh was reportedly confrontational. You think he
00:35:30
wanted to push him out? I he may try to do that. I don't think he's allowed
00:35:34
again again create chaos, try to do something that's potentially illegal, but who cares? How do you imagine this
00:35:41
is going to end? He's going to try to push him out or that maybe he can't
00:35:44
sustain the energy to do so and he'll move on to his next ridiculous executive
00:35:48
order. Yeah, I don't think he can. I don't think Chairman Pal Chair Pal stared America in the face. He stared uh
00:35:56
senators on the right side and on the left side. everyone from Elizabeth Warren to Ted Cruz who were calling for
00:36:02
interest rate cuts and said no inflation inflation is is the enemy here and we are going to fight inflation and he
00:36:10
tamped down inflation by raising interest rates at the greatest escalation over a 15month period in
00:36:15
history and there was huge he does not get nearly the credit he deserves for the for the unfolding crisis that never
00:36:23
unfolded because he took a leadership position. The OECD has cut its growth forecast for the US from 3.2% to 1.6.
00:36:32
They have cut that in half. And these numbers sound small, but when you go from 3.2% to 1.6 on a 27 trillion
00:36:40
economy, you're talking about a loss of growth of $400 billion in business. That
00:36:45
is real cabbage. And they cited it was very simple. it's insecurity over tariffs and global trade and a and um a
00:36:54
weakened or uncertain immigration policy. So we have growth coming down and they're also predicting that
00:37:00
inflation is beginning to spike. That is really if you want to see I don't even
00:37:07
like to use the word impeach because that's when people accuse uh the left fairly of politicizing certain things
00:37:13
that shouldn't be politicized. But if you could imagine a scenario where Trump was impeached, I don't think
00:37:19
it would be corruption, I would think if all of a sudden, and there's a scenario
00:37:24
here where inflation goes rampant, absolutely rampant. And PAL is just not going to participate in that. And and
00:37:32
you're already seeing an uptick in inflation. You're seeing some job destruction, although I don't know if
00:37:37
that's at the hands of AI. I think it's too early to tell what's going on. If
00:37:41
you look at the market right now, to be fair, and I've been surprised by this,
00:37:45
the market is only about 3% off of all-time highs. It's had one of its best Mays in the last several years. Now, a
00:37:51
few things are going on. One, either the economy has decided or the market has decided, you know, Trump's policies are
00:37:59
not that bad. Maybe maybe they're not as bad as everybody says, or people have
00:38:05
decided he's not serious. None of this is going to hold. the courts are going
00:38:09
to swap slap all of this away. It's all a giant [ __ ] and distraction and he
00:38:13
always chickens out. Or they've said, you know what, at the end of the day, the headline news around the [ __ ] going
00:38:18
on at a government level isn't as important as we think. That the American economy is so incredible, it just kind
00:38:25
of grinds on. People are using learning how to use AI. They're still going to
00:38:30
the grocery store. They're still taking vacations. Companies are still innovating. They're still selling.
00:38:35
People are buying. People are still hiring. Because if you look at the economic data and you look at the market
00:38:40
right now, you can cherrypick pieces of data that guys like me who are catastrophists like to call on, but I've
00:38:48
actually been shocked at how resilient the economy is right now. But chairman pal is not going to be muscled around by
00:38:53
anybody. Not going to be muscled around. No, he's not. He's Trump might try it
00:38:58
when he get if he gets desperate enough. We'll see. I mean, he he can only put
00:39:01
out so many fires. He he does have to settle with Musk and hope that he calms down because if he's fighting with this
00:39:07
person, this person, this person, this person, it's really going to start to
00:39:10
mount as chaos, you know, sort of a chaos monkey. Um, the California State Senate is looking into Paramount's
00:39:17
reported settlement offer to President Trump over his lawsuit alleging mental anguish from the editing of a 60 Minutes
00:39:22
interview uh with Kla Harris. Um, Paramount report. Oh my god. Anyway, whatever. They can
00:39:31
try it. Paramount reportedly offered Trump a $15 million settlement, which the president did not think was enough.
00:39:36
California Democrats expressed concern that the offer, which comes as the company hopes for a merger approval from
00:39:41
the administration, raises bribery questions. A letter sent to former news uh CBS News officials also mentions
00:39:48
concern about the implications for journalism and integrity of corporate governance. Former 60 Minutes EP and the
00:39:53
former CEO of CBS News have invited to testify voluntary. They left after not agreeing with Sher Redstone about what
00:40:01
she was doing. Um, uh, it's interesting, she's in a real jam. Um, uh, as a quick
00:40:07
note, just another media company is in a real jam. Over at Warner Brothers Discovery, shareholders rejected a pay
00:40:13
package for CEO David Zazoff that would have given him a 4% raise, upping his pay to $51.9 million. Warner Brothers
00:40:20
Discovery has seen its revenue decline 10% in the last year, and his stock is quite off from when the merger happened.
00:40:26
But talk a little bit about this case cuz I think this is really cuz they are in a bind because if they do this
00:40:32
settlement they're going to get bribery allegations eventually. I mean the whole
00:40:35
thing and and of course the Trump administration the coin op Trump administration would like some vague for
00:40:42
for whatever in whatever way it happens to be for approving this. um they've
00:40:47
completely corrupted the process even you know the whole process of of of merger approval and they have willing um
00:40:54
supplicants at the FDC um and the FCC to do this. Well, I first off regarding Trump's claimed anguish and mental
00:41:04
health struggles, I don't think that's anything to joke about. And my advice
00:41:06
for him is the way I approach mental health is the same way I approach sex and that is I always come first.
00:41:15
He's back. Take that. Take that, Mr. Wonderful. Why didn't you tell that joke
00:41:19
on Fierce Market? What What do you think of this? Is a really interesting problem
00:41:23
for this company. This perfectly embodies the the fulcrum or the tension that is happening across corporate
00:41:30
America right now. And that is the easiest thing to do is to stay out of his crosshairs and not be the subject of
00:41:37
some crazy punitive uh one-off tariff that takes your stock down. And your shareholders and your
00:41:45
board say, "Boss, couldn't you just kept quiet or stayed out of his way?" And
00:41:49
Sherry is sitting on a melting ice cube. She was worth 20 billion two years ago.
00:41:53
Last year she was worth 10 billion. Now she's worth four billion. And if she
00:41:57
doesn't sell this thing to some billionaire who wants to go to the Academy Awards soon, she's going to be
00:42:01
worth two billion. So her attitude is fine, 60 Minutes. It's great to be a [ __ ] purist, but I don't want to be
00:42:08
the one that that turned that took my father's legacy and turned it from 20 billion into two to one. You know, she
00:42:17
just wants her money. So, paying this guy $10 million, uh, the idea of the lack of
00:42:23
integrity or fidelity to journalistic or first amendment clauses, she's like, you
00:42:28
know, well, it sucks to be a grown-up. Money is more important to me. That's
00:42:31
the same calculus that Bob Iger made. That's the same calculus that Paul Weiss
00:42:36
made when they decided to bend a knee and do pro bono work for Trump related causes. And unfortunately, the line of
00:42:46
people waiting to uh ignore the any fidelity to American values or the Constitution or the rights of free
00:42:53
speech, the line of people in the Fortune 500 that is willing um to enter that room. There is no line. No one's
00:43:01
done it. I can't think of anyone. I want to salute Harvard, President Garber, who
00:43:07
stood up and said, "No, Colombia tried to deal with him. Columbia's gotten a
00:43:11
lot of [ __ ] for it. But the reality is Colombia thought they could say, "Okay,
00:43:15
maybe we can make some uh consolations here and move on." And then they came
00:43:20
back with sort of this mind control and thought control and they've given up.
00:43:24
Harvard didn't even go there. Harvard saying no the reason we have so much money also Harvard has a lot of powerful
00:43:30
people but the list the the the list of the names of corporate CEOs who have just overtly explicitly stood up and
00:43:39
said no there is no one I mean maybe the guy at maybe the guy at Costco who talked about DEI but no one has stood up
00:43:48
and said what's going on here is anti-American and their their shareholder fiduciary ad kicks in and
00:43:56
goes, "Just cut him a check for 10 million and sell this bag of [ __ ] called
00:44:00
Paramount that's declining every [ __ ] day." Your thoughts? I think that that I
00:44:06
think she's doing untold damage to the to the brand. Whatever's left of it,
00:44:10
right? I I think it just she's literally selling the seed corn and I don't know
00:44:16
if she has a choice, but on the other end, she's going to get a bribery. Um eventually the Democrats will be back in
00:44:22
power and she will face that, right? And I don't think she's going to get out of
00:44:25
this. I think she's in a jam of beyond jams. So whatever choice she makes is a
00:44:31
bad one. Like every single choice. And what's interesting is the new owners, if
00:44:35
they really think this is a good idea, I can't imagine um they're going to be
00:44:39
they're sort of they have a tainted fruit, right? They have a a poison fruit
00:44:44
here because all these reporters are going to be now more difficult than ever. You have a brand. Maybe that brand
00:44:50
should end. I don't know if 60 Minutes should end. It's that's up to their
00:44:53
owners. Um, but they certainly are trading away any kind of um, credibility. I just there's no good
00:45:00
answer here for these people. I mean, and you're right, this is it doesn't
00:45:04
matter really because these these these media companies are worth less and less every year unless they make significant
00:45:11
changes. Um, so I guess a new owner might try something fresh, the new owners with lots of money. Um, so any
00:45:18
way you get there is a good way. Um, but it definitely is is disappointing on every level. Um, and as to Warner
00:45:24
Brothers Discovery, it's just not, you know, he's making a lot of money and the
00:45:28
company's still struggling to figure out which way to go. I would assume a lot of
00:45:32
mergers here presumably, correct? I mean, I don't know. Oh, there's got to
00:45:36
be huge consolidation. And I said Warner Brothers board is the worst board in America. They've managed to destroy so
00:45:42
two-thirds of shareholder value. uh their debt just got downgraded to junk and yet they've the compensation
00:45:48
committee at this board has decided to pay David Zazov a third of a billion dollars. I mean that's just Well,
00:45:53
they're doing that because it's based on the cutting of the debt, right? Is that
00:45:56
correct? That's why I'm sure that's how they rationalized it. But if No, it is.
00:46:00
That's I mean, Bill Cohen wrote a good piece about Okay, but fine. And the tail
00:46:05
will wag the dog here. Uh if that's the case, they should fire the guy because
00:46:11
it just is an affront to shareholders to be taking uh to be paying someone a third of a billion dollars when
00:46:18
shareholders have lost twothirds of their value. I I don't care what your compensation package was. You either
00:46:24
say, "Boss, we need to revisit your compensation package or we're going to
00:46:27
have to make a change in leadership." and the but just going back to Sher Redstone I don't I and I'm not a lawyer
00:46:34
but I don't see how she can be found guilty of saying look the president wanted we settle cases out of court all
00:46:43
the time because we decide that they're a nuisance and it's worth it just to
00:46:47
move on with our business and that's what we did here. So I think some of this notion that it's a quote unquote
00:46:52
bribe is a little bit of left-wing posturing. I don't think there's a legal
00:46:56
case against her. CEOs CEOs pay off lawsuits all the time to just move on. But going back um Well, can I just make
00:47:06
a point on that? They're still going to come at her. They're going to still the
00:47:09
bribery thing, whether it sticks or not, they're going to go for it. When you say
00:47:12
they, who do you mean? Who the the California or the Democrats or whatever, I think she's not she's going to be in
00:47:18
litigation for a very long time. I think they'll move on to bigger fish to fry.
00:47:22
Really interesting. Okay. I mean, I don't What do you do you think there's
00:47:25
really a case here? They settle suits all the time. Uh, I guess this one's particularly ridiculous. Like, it's
00:47:31
particularly like, you know, they're all somewhat ridiculous, but I suspect the
00:47:35
ABC one there was probably emails. There was probably embarrassments. In this case, it's just ridiculous. And with the
00:47:41
with these executives quitting, it's just not a good look. The whole thing is
00:47:45
it's just it brings down a brand unnecessarily. And I get they have to make weird contortions because of Trump,
00:47:51
but they're looking particularly bad. and the way they're behaving. Um, it
00:47:55
seems but if you look at all the points of light here or the path to an autotocracy or fascism or a kleptocracy,
00:48:02
pick your favorite, you know, oppressive form of government. It's try and put a
00:48:07
chill on the press right now. That's clear. And then the most recent one, let's let's try and normalize political
00:48:13
violence against our adversaries. I don't know if you saw most recently, but
00:48:16
Trump is talking about pardoning pardoning the people who planned plotted the kidnap kidnapping of Governor
00:48:21
Whitmer. And let's just remind people these quote unquote people he who he says were railroaded, they had a they
00:48:30
they set up a shooting room to practice the extraction. They had maps of the bridge to figure out how to sequester
00:48:37
her from her um security detail. So what is what how do you move to an autotocracy? You a use political power
00:48:47
to uh enrich yourself. You reward your enemies. Uh you punish your enemies unfairly. You refuse you normalize
00:48:54
violence against your political enemies and you create a chill across free press. I mean other than him standing up
00:49:01
and dressing like Putin. I mean, what is it we want before people are just going
00:49:07
to come out and say, "Okay, this guy uh really is uh, you know, an an autocrat
00:49:14
slash, you know, embracing very fascist ideals." Um, by the way, just back to
00:49:19
mental health, I found out that I don't know if you knew this, but I've been
00:49:22
participating over the last 30 years in this study on the relationship between sex and mental health. And I'm so
00:49:29
depressed, Cara, I found out that I've been part of the control group. On that note, she's not coming out good
00:49:37
looking good in this thing. Think about Paramount though. You know what defines America other than other than the
00:49:42
world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is the fact that the
00:49:46
three central figures in the Paramount deal are Sher Redstone, Edgar Brmpman, and David Ellison. What do they all have
00:49:53
in common? They're all the children of billionaires. The only people propping
00:49:57
up media right now are billionaire kids who want an excuse to hang out in LA, drive Porsches, and bang actresses, I
00:50:05
guess. Well, whatever. Which, by the way, I'm down for. If I had billions of
00:50:08
dollars, that's what I'd be doing, perhaps. Anyway, we'll see. I have to
00:50:12
tell you. Well, Mission Impossible is doing well. I don't know what to say. Anyway, good job. It all comes back to
00:50:19
to Mission Impossible. Um, if you although Lilo and Stitch is doing better, um, if you've got a question of
00:50:24
your own that you like answered, send it our way. Go to nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for
00:50:29
the show or call 85551 pivot and listen up. We're going to be doing another call-in show soon. Submit your questions
00:50:35
and let us know uh you'd like to talk to what you'd like to talk to us about live
00:50:40
and the producers will be in touch. We like those shows. We think our listeners are so smart. Um, all right, Scott, one
00:50:46
more uh quick break. We'll be back for predictions. Okay, Scott, let's hear a
00:50:51
prediction. Okay, so my prediction is sort of a boring one, but Trump is feeling his oats around the macho steel
00:50:58
industry. He's he threatened to take tariffs from 25% to 50%. And as a result, um you've seen a surge in the
00:51:06
stock prices of our few remaining um steel manufacturers. Cleveland Cliffs jumped 22% which for a boring
00:51:14
manufacturing stock is enormous. Uh, Steel Dynamics jumped 13%, new core up 12%, VANX steel, ETX rose more uh, than
00:51:25
3%. And just that alone, there are few prosperity killers like a steel tariff. Because here's the thing, this is an
00:51:36
unimportant small industry. This is not a big business. It's not an important
00:51:40
business. And we can easily import steel from Mexico and Canada. We don't even
00:51:45
have to have the security risk of importing it in from China and importing it in from Japan which is a hugely
00:51:51
important ally of which our ships that we're worried about building actually
00:51:55
defend Japan. But we've decided this is super important and but what it will do
00:52:01
while actually supporting very few employees or growing the business a great deal. What it will do is raise the
00:52:07
cost of housing and cars dramatically. And by virtue of the fact of these companies that are sleepy companies,
00:52:14
when you see their stock price accelerate, it's based on the following. That these companies are going to be
00:52:18
able to charge us prices now that the tariffs are going from 25 to 50%. And folks, who do you think is going to pay
00:52:26
for that increase in stock price, consumers buying cars, consumers buying housing? So my prediction is as happened
00:52:35
with the taco trade coined by Financial Times journalist Robert Armstrong, you are going to see Trump back down on the
00:52:42
steel tariffs when he starts to recognize and gets calls from the many more people than the small union or the
00:52:49
small number of employees benefiting from the increase in these tariffs and the huge number of consumers, automobile
00:52:58
and and homebuilders that are going to get punished radically by he will back off the tariffs and we will see the
00:53:05
stocks of these companies return to their pre-tariff prices. In some my prediction is Cleveland Cliffs and Steel
00:53:12
Dynamics give up all the gains as evidenced by what has taken place with the taco trade thus far uh in 2025.
00:53:20
Well, we'll turn our attentions then also to that was a snoozer, wasn't it?
00:53:24
That's a snoozer. I was a snoozer. Why don't you yell at Piers Morgan again? A
00:53:28
snoozer. You used up all your juice on that one. That's what you did. That's
00:53:31
what I'm out. You're done. You're done. Can I call you an Uber? I'm going to
00:53:35
sleep. Why don't you go steel trade is depravity? There you go. Say depravity.
00:53:40
Yell depravity one more time for me. No, I won't. I can't. Sorry, Cara. I'm not
00:53:43
your I'm not your Fifi the dancing poodle here to entertain you. You eating your ice oysters on the bay talking
00:53:50
injecting jellyfish semen into your blood so you can look 61 again. I will not be a part of your circus of hell.
00:53:56
Okay. Elsewhere in the Cara and Scott universe, this week on Prop G Markets, you spoke to Robert Armstrong, the US
00:54:03
financial commentator for the Financial Times, the person who coined Trump's
00:54:07
favorite phrase, taco trade, which is Trump always chickens out. Let's listen
00:54:10
to a clip. The best thing about the president's tariff policy is the chickening out. Hooray for chickening
00:54:20
out. I'm all for it and I hope that it may continue forever. So the idea that
00:54:26
I've made this stupid gag and I might actually at the margin make the president less likely to chicken out is
00:54:34
a very negative unintended consequence I wish if possible to wash my hands off of
00:54:41
that's funny chickening out. That's such a good word chicken. Um okay that's the
00:54:47
show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next
00:54:53
week. Scott, read us out. Today's show is produced by Larara Neon, Zoe Marcus,
00:54:57
Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie Rad entry this episode. Thanks also to Jarro, Miss Aaro, and Dan Shalon. Nash
00:55:04
Kerwa as Vox Media's executive producer of podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on
00:55:07
your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can
00:55:12
subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com/pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech
00:55:18
and business. Cara, have a good weekend. I'm rooting for the bullets.

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most chaotic
  • 80
    Most talked-about
  • 75
    Most dramatic
  • 75
    Most unpredictable

Episode Highlights

  • Elon and Trump Breakup
    The bromance between Trump and Elon Musk has officially ended in a public feud.
    “This is like Housewives of New York but times 20 on steroids.”
    @ 00m 54s
    June 06, 2025
  • Musk's Bold Claims
    Elon Musk accuses Trump of being in the Epstein files, escalating their conflict.
    “Elon started posting on X in real time, saying, 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election.'”
    @ 01m 32s
    June 06, 2025
  • Impact on Tesla
    Musk's public feud with Trump leads to a significant drop in Tesla's stock value.
    “Tesla's lost $150 billion in value today.”
    @ 04m 49s
    June 06, 2025
  • Political Shift
    Musk's controversial statements may shift him back to the political center, according to a recent poll.
    “Is it time to create a new political party in America?”
    @ 06m 11s
    June 06, 2025
  • Autocracy and Fear
    Discussion on how Trump's actions could threaten Musk's companies amidst their feud.
    “Autocracies are run on fear.”
    @ 16m 33s
    June 06, 2025
  • China Holds All the Cards
    Discussion on how China's economic leverage impacts U.S. trade negotiations.
    “I think China holds all the cards here.”
    @ 24m 22s
    June 06, 2025
  • Trump's Executive Orders
    President Trump issues a series of controversial executive orders, creating chaos and distraction.
    “These crazy [ __ ] executive orders are the expression of overkill.”
    @ 31m 22s
    June 06, 2025
  • The Economic Impact of Immigration
    The export of education through foreign students is a major economic driver for the U.S.
    “The export of education is a bigger business for us than selling movies overseas.”
    @ 33m 46s
    June 06, 2025
  • Trump's Impeachment Scenario
    Exploring the implications of a potential Trump impeachment and its impact on the economy.
    “I don’t think it would be corruption.”
    @ 37m 18s
    June 06, 2025
  • Paramount's Settlement Offer
    Paramount reportedly offered Trump a $15 million settlement, raising bribery concerns.
    “The president did not think it was enough.”
    @ 39m 33s
    June 06, 2025
  • Media Companies in Crisis
    Warner Brothers Discovery faces shareholder backlash over executive compensation amid declining revenue.
    “Shareholders rejected a pay package for CEO David Zazov.”
    @ 40m 11s
    June 06, 2025
  • Political Violence Normalization
    Trump discusses pardoning those involved in the kidnapping plot against Governor Whitmer.
    “Let's just remind people... they had maps of the bridge.”
    @ 48m 24s
    June 06, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • It’s going to be delicious to watch when it comes.
    Elon & Trump Fight! The Breakup of the Summer | Pivot
  • This is the first breakup of Pride Month.
    Elon & Trump Fight! The Breakup of the Summer | Pivot
  • Trump is so incompetent. I can't even with the Chinese.
    Elon & Trump Fight! The Breakup of the Summer | Pivot
  • It's all nonsense. It's all absolutely nonsense.
    Elon & Trump Fight! The Breakup of the Summer | Pivot
  • Money is more important to me.
    Elon & Trump Fight! The Breakup of the Summer | Pivot
  • I’ve been part of the control group.
    Elon & Trump Fight! The Breakup of the Summer | Pivot

Key Moments

  • Public Feud01:32
  • China's Leverage24:22
  • Immigration Debate30:44
  • Trump's Chaos35:36
  • Economic Predictions36:54
  • Political Tension37:13
  • Media Crisis40:11
  • Political Violence48:24

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown