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They were the world's most powerful bromance. Until a bitter row online. What does Musk and Trump falling out mean for US politics and beyond? And what next for Musk and Trump?
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00:00I'm a big fan of Elon.
00:04Elon gave me tremendous endorsement.
00:07It was a political melding of egos verging on romance.
00:11Take over, Elon, yes.
00:13Donald Trump and Elon Musk were always an odd couple.
00:17I think they admired each other's egos and the chutzpah.
00:21It was always a bit of a case of strange bedfellows,
00:25but it did seem to work.
00:26This is what victory feels like.
00:30Until it didn't.
00:32Now the Trump-Busk-loving has imploded.
00:35I don't believe you can put two wealthy, narcissistic old men in a room
00:40and expect everything to go smoothly.
00:42I'm not just MAGA. I'm gothic MAGA.
00:45President Trump's not afraid to punch back if someone punches him first.
00:49Elon and I had a great relationship.
00:52This spectacular bust-up played out in the public playground of social media.
00:57Yes!
00:57This is a high level of emotion between two extraordinary men who have a phenomenal amount of power.
01:07It's a kind of a high school rivalry there.
01:10Wild allegations and veiled threats leveled against each other.
01:15For Elon Musk to zero in on the Epstein file was really going right to the rawest nerve he could have touched.
01:22Elon just grabbed that because he was having a tantrum.
01:25But why has everything turned so sour?
01:28President Trump's empowered a guy with more power than any American citizen's ever been empowered.
01:34Behind the scenes there were these bitter disagreements.
01:37I don't think Elon Musk truly has conservative values.
01:42I think he saw an opportunity presented to himself to align with Donald Trump.
01:47Is there a way back to the White House for Elon Musk?
01:50There's a history with Donald Trump where people prove useful to him and then inevitably they get tossed overboard.
01:58And what does this fallout mean for the future of America?
02:02He's an unpredictable personality.
02:04I think he's highly unlikely to go silent when it comes to elections in America.
02:11We've got to wait and see how this runs.
02:13I love Donald Trump as much as any straight man can love another man.
02:27Yes, a bit crass and a bit cringy, but that is what Elon Musk said about Trump back in February.
02:33Now the world's richest man and the world's most powerful have fallen out in a spectacular and public fashion.
02:41Many would say they saw it coming.
02:43This is not the end of Doge, but really the beginning.
02:46I mean, there's a sense that Trump is such a big personality that there's really not enough room for another big personality.
02:52There was always a risk that you have two alpha male, two big egos, two very successful characters that are in many ways provocative, unorthodox.
03:03Yeah, that was potentially a bad mix.
03:06And I think many of us, it wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when.
03:12The working relationship was wound up on the 13th of May.
03:16Musk, who had been serving in Trump's administration, left the role with a textbook Oval Office send-off.
03:23Despite sporting a black eye, Musk said was from his five-year-old son, everyone was all smiles.
03:28Mr. Mr. Kost, what do you think would be easier, colonizing Marx or making the government official?
03:36There was this very harmonious celebratory send-off with Elon standing next to the president, the president lavishing him with praise.
03:46They had a really nice Oval Office send-off for Elon.
03:50He's going back to the private sector.
03:52You know, he got the key to the ceremonial key to the White House.
03:56That was all very, you know, diplomatic by the president.
03:59And what was interesting is we learned very soon afterwards that behind the scenes, there were these bitter disagreements.
04:06A few days later, those behind-the-scenes disagreements spilled into public view, leading to breathless hyperbole from the media.
04:15Meltdown.
04:16The Elon Musk and Donald Trump alliance has gone up in flames.
04:20I want him to stop.
04:21I've had it.
04:23This is like, it's like, I don't want to see my parents fighting.
04:26Look, Elon and I had a great relationship.
04:29I don't know if we're well anymore.
04:33In a blizzard of social media posts, things got catty.
04:37Musk called out Trump's apparent ingratitude and said that he was the deciding factor in the president's victory.
04:43So there.
04:45I think during the campaign, Trump needed Elon Musk.
04:48He gave him a lot of money at a time that was extremely important and crucial.
04:53It's hard to say whether Trump would have won without that money, but, you know, $250 million during a campaign is significant.
05:02So he needed that money.
05:05Trump needed Elon's money during the campaign.
05:08Does he need him now?
05:09No.
05:10He doesn't need him anymore.
05:12Both Elon Musk and President Trump like to use hyperbole.
05:16And I think that's fine, as long as people understand that and don't take it literally.
05:20But, you know, Elon had a point.
05:23He was a massive contributor to the campaign.
05:27But I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that he wouldn't have won without me.
05:33Then the jives and insults turned into threats.
05:37Donald Trump suggested the easiest way to save billions in government spending was to bin Musk's government contracts.
05:43Musk has a lot of contracts through SpaceX, hundreds of millions of dollars.
05:51He also has the possibility of getting very important electric vehicle waivers.
05:57So the, you know, dollar value to Elon Musk of the federal government is very large.
06:03It's hundreds of millions of dollars.
06:04He's got a lot of money.
06:07He gets a lot of subsidy.
06:09So we'll take a look at that.
06:10Only if it's fair.
06:11Only if it's fair for him and for the country.
06:14I would certainly think about it.
06:16Yeah.
06:16But it has to be fair.
06:17Look, it's very concerning, the personalization of politics.
06:21And 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.
06:38That is, that is an unhealthy place for, for a democracy to operate.
06:43Musk went nuclear, suggesting that Donald Trump's name appears in the so-called Epstein files.
06:49It's government documents about the disgraced pedophile financier.
06:55Donald Trump, you know, for years was a social friend of Jeffrey Epstein.
07:00He's, of course, denied any of, you know, the wrongful conduct that Epstein was involved in.
07:06However, 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.
07:15So for Elon Musk to zero in on that was really going right to the rawest nerve he could have touched.
07:23People say things when they're angry and they were doing it on social media in a very public form.
07:30I wish that maybe that meeting was held behind closed doors.
07:33Musk deleted the post on X shortly after, but he wasn't done with his jibes at the president.
07:40He indirectly called for Trump's impeachment and said the president's trade tariffs would lead to a recession.
07:46He's one of the most competitive people I've ever known.
07:49I am, too.
07:50I chose never to compete with Elon.
07:52I just stay away from it.
07:54I only like to compete when I'm pretty sure I'll win.
07:57And Elon, I doubt he even thinks about winning, right?
08:00I think he just knows he's going to win.
08:02That's how confident he is.
08:04How did things turn so bitter so quickly?
08:08And exactly why did these two fall out?
08:11Apparently, there were three men in the relationship.
08:13I'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.
08:22His name is Jared Isaacman, and he was Elon Musk's friend and choice to run NASA.
08:28He almost had the job until Trump decided he didn't want him anymore.
08:33He had a record of having contributed to Democratic candidates.
08:38And Trump basically objected to that on the grounds that if he had contributed to Democrats,
08:43you could not trust his loyalty going forward.
08:47According to reporting in The New York Times, just moments before that rather soppy send-off for Musk in the Oval Office,
08:54the one with the golden key,
08:55Trump had been handed a dossier detailing all the contributions made by Jared Isaacman to the Democratic Party.
09:03Now, once the cameras had left,
09:04Trump then turned on Musk and confronted him with this, declaring that Isaacman would no longer be leading the NASA corporation.
09:13Musk was furious, left in a huff and let rip on social media.
09:18Remember, NASA, of course, would be a major customer for Elon's space business.
09:45So it would make sense that Musk would want to have someone he supports and endorses in that position at NASA.
09:52It wasn't just NASA.
09:54The two men also fell out over Trump's tariffs and his new tax bill, officially called the Big Beautiful Bill.
10:01The simplest way to describe it is it's a tax and spending bill.
10:06And what it does is reduce taxes or keep taxes low and then reduces spending.
10:11But in aggregate, if you look at the bill, it's estimated to increase America's debt by two, between two and five trillion.
10:20If you take Musk at his word, he is deeply offended by this tax cutting bill, which he thinks will explode the deficit.
10:29Musk publicly aired his views on the bill just days after he left the White House in this revealing CBS interview.
10:36I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the Doge team is doing.
10:49Not that Trump agreed, of course.
10:51I am right about the great, big, beautiful bill.
10:55Since the fiery exchanges on social media, Trump's approval ratings have taken another hit.
11:01As for Musk, he's back on X, sheepishly for once, saying,
11:08I regret some of my posts about President Trump last week.
11:11They went too far.
11:13But has the damage already been done?
11:15And is this Musk trying to get back into Trump's good books to rekindle a relationship that was transformative for American politics?
11:31So how did the bromance between Trump and Musk really come about?
11:48Who really is the billionaire who is now persona non grata in the White House?
11:52He is still the world's richest man.
11:54He owns his own social media platform with 220 million of his own followers.
11:59He set up and ran a brand new government department, and he had the ear of the President of the United States.
12:08So what were his ambitions really?
12:10It's going to be very exciting.
12:12As the President said, we're going to have a golden age.
12:15He joined the MAGA movement at a crucial moment.
12:17He definitely helped Donald Trump get elected and gave him about $250 million to help him with his presidential campaign.
12:26That quarter of a billion dollars was the single biggest donation of the entire election.
12:32One Musk now claims ensured Trump's victory.
12:36I don't think so, said Trump.
12:38He is impressive.
12:39Honestly, he is just like...
12:43Who did you say?
12:45Elon Musk!
12:46Oh, let me tell you, we have a new star.
12:50A star is born, Elon.
12:55Come here, Elon.
12:57Did you see his rocket yesterday?
12:59It was captured.
13:01And so it seems with Trump's heart, this was far more than just transaction.
13:06Thank you, Mr. President.
13:08They truly looked like brothers from another mother.
13:11There'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.
13:20It was always a bit of a case of strange bedfellows, but it did seem to work until it didn't.
13:29After the election, Musk even moved into a cottage at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's private Florida club.
13:36Why can't you see it, why can't you see it, why can't you see it, why can't you see it, why can't you see it, why can't you see it, why can't you see it, why can't you see it.
13:47Elon Musk was constantly having dinner with Trump, helping with senior cabinet officials who Trump was considering hiring.
13:55He has been pretty open about showing up at Donald Trump's meetings, whether those are meetings with foreign leaders like President Zelensky.
14:04You know, he showed up on that call, or meetings with other business leaders.
14:10For some, Elon Musk's influence on Donald Trump was immediately palpable.
14:16On Musk's advice, Trump set up a new department with Musk at the helm.
14:20At the suggestion of Elon Musk, I will create a Government Efficiency Commission task with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms.
14:36We need to do it.
14:37Can't go on the way we are now.
14:39Elon 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.
14:55His remit was to slash the federal budget by getting rid of hundreds of government agencies and their staff.
15:01The point is not to be cruel or have people not be able to pay their mortgage or anything.
15:05It's just that we just have too many people in the government sector and that they could be more productive elsewhere.
15:11He wielded his axe swiftly.
15:14The International Aid Department was closed, amongst other cost-cutting measures.
15:19We'll remember you as we announce billions of dollars of extra waste, fraud and abuse.
15:25Just as an example, Doge cancelled, $101 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education.
15:34One man with experience of working hand-in-hand with Trump is his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon.
15:41Is Chris asking the questions or that's when I know the guy I'll scream at.
15:45He's a convicted felon with views considered beyond the pale by many.
15:50Speaking earlier this year, he saw Musk's power as unprecedented and unpalatable.
15:56President Trump's empowered a guy with more power than any outside-of-government advisor, consultant, individual, American citizens ever been empowered.
16:06That is a massive mandate. It's never been done.
16:09There were fears that Musk's access to US government data were threats to national security.
16:18Vladimir Putin calls you outstanding. What do you call him, sir?
16:21He's accused of having regular contact with Vladimir Putin, though Musk says he's only spoken to him once.
16:27The body language was as awkward as his business links to China.
16:44His supply chain for Tesla is in China.
16:48I 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.
17:01Musk's dual role as global businessman and government insider raised red flags for many, with some assuming that he had ulterior motives.
17:19I 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.
17:39So there was, I think, a melding of both.
17:41But could his ambitions have been genuine?
17:51Did he really think that government needed a dramatic overhaul and that he was the man to do it?
17:57Elon's the smartest person I've ever met, literally.
18:00He simply doesn't conceive of failure.
18:03He has that level of just absolute confidence in these gigantic endeavors that he takes on.
18:11But many were more skeptical of Musk's foray into U.S. politics, and they wondered, what are his ulterior motives?
18:19You would think that someone who spends that much money electing a president would want something in return.
18:24That's just how American politics have always been with these large donors.
18:28There's always an end goal.
18:31His superpower is his relentlessness and his drive.
18:33He's obviously incredibly smart as an engineer, but also in the understanding how government contracts work.
18:42Is he out for himself?
18:43Sure, as every entrepreneur is at the end of the day.
18:47Compounding the suspicion that Musk was just following the money are his seemingly fickle political leanings.
18:53He backed Obama, who was an advocate of commercial spaceflight.
18:58He backed Biden until Tesla was snubbed by the White House Electrical Vehicle Summit.
19:04This has led some to say that the billionaire heartlessly curries favor with those who might benefit him commercially.
19:11I don't think Elon Musk truly has conservative values.
19:14I 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.
19:23I don't believe that money is at all important to Elon, only as a tool for doing the things he wants to do.
19:31That's something I think most people don't understand about him.
19:34You don't see him wearing expensive jewelry.
19:37You don't even see him wearing good clothes.
19:39Talking to Musk in person, he's just a fun guy.
19:42He's down to earth.
19:43You wouldn't think that this is the guy responsible for SpaceX and Tesla and Neuralink.
19:50If a life of riches doesn't motivate Elon Musk, then what does?
19:55For some who've known him for decades, there are three issues in particular that Musk believes he alone can fix.
20:03The first time I met Elon, which was on 24 years ago, he had three goals.
20:09Designer of SpaceX.
20:10To make human species multi-planetary.
20:17To get humanity off its addiction to fossil fuels.
20:20We wanted to produce something that was better than any gasoline car.
20:23And then the third one was to prevent tyrants from controlling free speech.
20:28He wants to be seen as someone who is a hero for humanity.
20:32With Twitter and his purchase of that company, you know, he gave himself this mission of free speech.
20:38And arguably, it was purchasing Twitter in 2022 that saw the tech billionaire transition from rocket scientist to political player.
20:53For Elon Musk, buying Twitter at 44 billion U.S. dollars, massively over the odds, was a calamitous business decision.
21:06But maybe this wasn't about making money.
21:09Maybe this was about power and influence, about grabbing our attention.
21:14He felt like free speech had become less important on the platform as Twitter would censor people sometimes.
21:23Conservatives had their accounts limited or taken down or silenced.
21:28There was all of this terrible, terrible censorship happening.
21:31Twitter bosses had removed Donald Trump after the January the 6th insurrection and other accounts that they saw as spreading misinformation.
21:43But once Musk got his hands on Twitter, he quickly reinstated Trump and others, including far-right influencers and people accused of racism.
21:53Twitter was rebranded as X.
21:55His name is Elon Musk. He saved free speech.
21:59I think Elon Musk purchased Twitter because he saw an opportunity to influence the election.
22:08Blue Ticks verifying accounts were removed. Content moderators were sacked.
22:14He's got the most followers on the platform. He's tweeting non-stop every day, almost manically.
22:22Musk's behaviour is to post a headline, which may say something outrageous, and just say, wow.
22:31Or terrible.
22:34Or huge, if true.
22:37As if somehow that's validating it.
22:39Some of what he's tweeted, I profoundly disagree with, and think is, you know, potentially outrageous.
22:47But the whole point about free speech is that it's not free unless someone is offended.
22:53Free speech is the bedrock of democracy.
22:56If people don't know what's going on, if they don't know the truth, how can you make an informed vote?
23:04You must have free speech in order to have democracy.
23:09But far from being a bastion of free speech, Musk stands accused of manipulating the algorithm to favour right-wing commentators,
23:17and even his own posts, something that Musk and X deny.
23:22There's clear evidence that the algorithm has been changed so that his voice is amplified as a result.
23:31Twitter in its original form had no algorithm to it.
23:34All the people you were following, you would just see what they'd recently said.
23:40Now, it's just his master's voice. It's just what Elon Musk wants you to hear.
23:44He prioritizes his own opinions over everyone else's, and people who disagree with him are abused on his platform.
23:55So that's not free speech.
23:58Anyone saying that Elon Musk's posts are popular because of the X algorithm should probably just admit
24:03that Elon's X posts are popular because he is among the most famous people in the world.
24:10He's not a free speech absolutist. I'm banned on Twitter.
24:13He's anything but a free speech absolutist. That's the easiest part of the hypocrisy that's out there.
24:21He likes to masquerade as some sort of maverick, you know, free speech warrior.
24:27The goal is to have a service that is as broadly inclusive as possible,
24:32where ideally most of America is on it and talking.
24:36I really don't go there anymore because it's just filled with racism and anti-Semitism.
24:42People are literally monetizing their hate speech on Twitter now.
24:47There's no kind of guardrails anymore, so there's so much misinformation on it.
24:53We're seeing so much more misogyny.
24:56I think Elon Musk wants power, and he wants to use that power to create a society that he deems acceptable.
25:06For some, Musk's use of X is simply to push his own image of how society needs to change.
25:14He posts and talks incessantly about what he calls the woke mind virus.
25:19He believes that diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI, aimed at helping minorities into the workplace, is holding the West back.
25:31I think Musk is truly worried that if diversity and inclusion efforts are not stopped,
25:38that is a way for America to lose its influence and its economic power.
25:44I've 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.
25:52He views it as an existential crisis, that wokeness and progressivism are changing the world.
25:59He's talked about shifting demographics, and he wants to put an end to that.
26:06And now, some of his views are U.S. government policy.
26:10As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.
26:22For Elon Musk, woke is a label that he applies to anything that he simply disagrees with.
26:29You know, he's spending more time on X than ever, sometimes tweeting hundreds of times a day.
26:36And one of the subjects of Musk's musings on X, politics overseas.
26:43And yes, he's already had Britain in his sights.
26:46The dramatic breakup between Musk and Trump was messy.
27:00It was public, and it was conducted on social media platforms they both own.
27:05But it wasn't the first time that Trump had fallen out with someone who'd flown too close to his particular son.
27:11Nor was it the first time this year that Musk had attacked another world leader.
27:15Elon Musk had begun 2025 using his Platform X to fire barbs at Keir Starmer.
27:27Now he's out of favour with Trump.
27:29Could his interest in British politics go further than potentially defamatory posts?
27:34I think Musk has an interest in the mother country.
27:38I think he has an understanding of the Anglosphere that means that he cares about the UK.
27:43And of course his granny was a scouser.
27:46His whole stick is he's against woke culture.
27:50And I think for him, Keir Starmer, who afterwards is a human rights lawyer and is putting up taxes,
27:55because that's the sort of person that he loves to hate politically.
28:01His interest in Britain seemed to start not long after the Labour Party came to power.
28:07During last year's riots, he posted that Britain was heading for civil war.
28:12He's also claimed that the perpetrators were being locked up solely for their social media posts.
28:18In Britain, they're... I kid you not. How can this be real?
28:24They are releasing convicted pedophiles from prison in order to put people in prison for Facebook posts.
28:30He also shared, then deleted, a conspiracy theory
28:33that suggested the Prime Minister was setting up detainment camps on the Falkland Islands.
28:38Elon Musk circulates information which is untrue and tries to distort what's going on.
28:47And he has this huge platform. He's got over 200 million followers.
28:53People say he only seems to get about four hours sleep.
28:56Is this his way of relaxing?
29:00Perhaps most controversially, he called for the release of far-right activist Tommy Robinson,
29:05who at the time was in prison for contempt of court.
29:09I think what he wants to do is cause chaos and disruption.
29:14I think he's doing it for sport.
29:17At the end of the day, he's not accountable to anyone.
29:20He doesn't sit in any House of Parliament.
29:23He's not a senator. Nobody has ever cast a single vote for Elon Musk.
29:28It's perfectly legitimate for Elon Musk, or for anyone else,
29:31to offer an opinion about British politics.
29:34But ultimately, British voters will determine Keir Starmer's fate, not Elon Musk.
29:41But if his influence in American politics declines,
29:45could Elon Musk shift his attention more seriously to matters on this side of the Atlantic?
29:51Last December, rumours emerged that he was interested in donating to one party in particular.
30:00Elon Musk, Nigel Farage, and Nick Candy, Nigel Farage's treasurer,
30:04had a fruitful conversation of Mar-a-Lago.
30:07There was a lot of speculation about whether or not Elon Musk would support the Reform Party financially.
30:13We know Elon Musk wants to give you millions. Are you looking at ways to try and get that money into your coffers?
30:18We don't know anything about Elon Musk, other than he's supportive of our position.
30:23If he offered you loads of money, would you try and take it?
30:25If people offer us money legally, we will take it.
30:30As Donald Trump is now finding out, things move very quickly in Musk's fickle world.
30:35It wasn't long before Musk turned on Farage after the Reform Leader said that Tommy Robinson doesn't belong in his party.
30:46Musk called for Farage to be replaced as leader.
30:50He has a whole range of opinions, some of which I agree with very strongly,
30:55and others of which I'm more reticent about.
30:57I never wanted Tommy Robinson to join UK.
31:00I don't want him to join Reform UK, and he won't be.
31:03Unlike Trump, Nigel Farage played down the rift.
31:09And we know that in the world of Musk and Trump,
31:11characters can come in and out of favour on either side of breakfast.
31:16You know, next week he could be best buddies with Nigel.
31:19It's a very unstable, fickle world you're dealing with.
31:25There's no question that if Musk decided to bring his full resources to bear
31:30in a country like the UK, he could have a huge influence.
31:35If he were, for example, to give £100 million to reform UK, Nigel Farage's party,
31:41he could turn reform into a fairly big threat overnight.
31:44But what about other countries?
31:49We've already seen Musk intervene across the world.
31:53He's been a visceral critic of Australia's centre-left government
31:57and lent his support to populists in places like Argentina.
32:04Musk's backing can bring a huge amount of attention.
32:06His support for the German far-right party Alternative for Deutschland caused real consternation.
32:14He even starred as big brother at one of their campaign rallies.
32:19Let's go!
32:19It was striking that Elon Musk openly endorsed that party,
32:28which in Germany is essentially under a kind of pariah status.
32:32Clearly there are elements of the party which are essentially neo-Nazi.
32:36They're essentially old-time fascists.
32:39He has certainly given them a level of prominence they have never seen before.
32:43You know, he is the world-richest man.
32:46That kind of stamp of approval may go a long way with some people.
32:50It's good to be proud of German culture, German values,
32:55and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything.
33:04I thought the timing of that intervention was really interesting
33:06because it was just a few days before the Holocaust Memorial Day
33:10to basically say, just forget about all of that and move on.
33:14I thought that was absolutely extraordinary.
33:18You know, I think there's like, frankly, too much of a focus on past guilt
33:22and we need to move beyond that.
33:25People, you know, children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents
33:29or even let alone their parents, their great-grandparents.
33:32If you're telling people to forget about that,
33:35particularly a party that has engaged with some sympathies to neo-Nazis,
33:41I think that leads us down a dangerous path.
33:44My heart goes out to you.
33:47He's an unpredictable personality.
33:50In some ways, when it comes to his political interventions,
33:53he's even more unpredictable than President Trump.
33:57Nobody fully understands why.
33:59What does he gain?
34:00And I'm not entirely sure that Elon Musk himself
34:03probably understands what he gains and what he loses.
34:07Elon has the two tactical nuclear weapons of modern politics.
34:12Remember, you have a guy that can write a $250 million check,
34:16a quarter of a billion dollars, and it doesn't change his lifestyle.
34:19And he has an incredibly powerful social media platform.
34:23Those two combined, my understanding, the way I look at European politics,
34:28I don't think there's a centrist or center-left government
34:31that could withstand if he came at it full bore
34:34and backed one of the populist nationalist parties.
34:38It seems unlikely that Musk's falling out with Donald Trump
34:41will see him quietly fade into the background.
34:45He wants to exert more influence for his own business interests.
34:48But at the same time, he has sincerely held beliefs
34:52about the political ideologies in some countries not serving their own people.
34:59And so he is wanting Trump-like leaders in countries around the world.
35:04He's using his platform to dictate what other countries should do
35:10to try and galvanize the populace,
35:14to overturn their own elected governments.
35:18I mean, that's highly subversive.
35:21It's highly anarchic.
35:23But it's all in the cause of capitalism.
35:29It's all hysteria.
35:31It's all hysteria.
35:33He has given us truly a global town square
35:36where we can all disagree agreeably
35:38and through that disagreement can get closer to truth.
35:42The issue with this new oligarchy
35:44that we see, this tech bro oligarchy,
35:46is that rules don't really matter to them.
35:50These guys are so big.
35:51They are more powerful than presidents.
35:54They have more wealth than some nation-states.
35:57That is really scary.
35:59That is dead, dead scary.
36:01No one signed up for this.
36:03The most effective thing we can do
36:05is to not use their social platforms.
36:08But already that's impossible, isn't it?
36:12They've got us.
36:13It's too late.
36:15But is it too late for Musk's relationship with Donald Trump?
36:18The question now is whether there's any chance of a reconciliation.
36:22Yes, Musk has got the golden key,
36:25but will Trump change the locks forever?
36:33Oh, that's beautiful.
36:40In March, the White House drive
36:43was turned into something like a Tesla showroom.
36:47Who else but this guy would design this
36:50and everybody on the road is looking at it?
36:52Donald Trump even bought his own red model.
36:55It symbolised the president's apparent closeness with Elon Musk.
36:59But to many, it was a relationship
37:02that was always likely to end in acrimony.
37:06Trump has now hinted that he could flog the car.
37:09Brand new, barely driven, sole owner,
37:12it sits in a far-flung corner of the White House car park.
37:16I don't think that you can put
37:18two wealthy, narcissistic old men in a room
37:20and expect everything to go smoothly.
37:22One way of looking at it is
37:25it lasted longer than some people thought.
37:27I mean, some people predicted
37:28that this would last a matter of weeks
37:30or a couple of months.
37:31And in fact, they really stretched it out
37:33over six or seven months
37:35if you count the pre-election period.
37:37So I would say that they did okay
37:39in kind of Trump terms.
37:42You're witnessing
37:43the dawn
37:45of the golden age
37:47of America.
37:48That's what it's going to be.
37:50We're bringing it back.
37:50But from the beginning
37:53of the new administration,
37:55the warning signs were flashing red.
37:58Just two days after the inauguration,
38:01Musk publicly criticized
38:03one of the president's flagship announcements.
38:06A billion-dollar AI infrastructure project.
38:10Together, these world-leading technology giants
38:12are announcing the formation of Stargate.
38:16So put that name down in your books.
38:19Musk posted on X
38:21that the firm backing the plans
38:23just didn't have the cash.
38:28But at that stage,
38:29Trump seemed understanding of his criticism.
38:32Mr. President,
38:33does it bother you that Elon Musk
38:35criticized a deal that you made publicly
38:37that he said that he tweeted that?
38:39No, it doesn't.
38:39He hates one of the people in the deal.
38:41It's not helpful to bring a vendetta
38:45from Silicon Valley
38:47into the Roosevelt Room of the West Wing.
38:49You've got to be a team player.
38:50If you have a problem,
38:52go to the president personally,
38:54talk about it,
38:55and remember,
38:55you do serve at his pleasure.
38:57People in the deal are very,
38:59very smart people.
39:00But Elon,
39:01one of the people,
39:02he happens to hate,
39:03but I have certain hatreds of people too.
39:05It was just one of a number
39:08of reported clashes
39:09between the MAGA base
39:11and Elon Musk.
39:13But once the president
39:14announced his tariffs on China,
39:17problems between Trump
39:18and his first buddy
39:20were widely predicted.
39:22The fundamental tension,
39:24I think,
39:24in this relationship
39:25is all about China.
39:27Tesla has a lot of plants,
39:29a lot of manufacturing in China.
39:31This is something that I think
39:32can only be done in China.
39:34But there's no question
39:35that if Trump had stuck long term
39:38with large tariffs against China,
39:41that would have posed
39:42all kinds of problems for Tesla,
39:44which has a huge amount
39:45of production in China,
39:46relies on China for parts.
39:48So I do think that long term,
39:51Elon Musk would have probably
39:53found tariffs to be
39:54a bigger and bigger problem.
39:57When you have personalities
39:58that big and that determined,
40:01you know,
40:01there is the potential,
40:02not just for a difference
40:03of opinion or a major,
40:04issue,
40:04but for that difference
40:05of opinion to become explosive.
40:07Oh, yeah,
40:08there's definitely plots.
40:09There's always plotting in D.C.
40:10There's a lot of support for him
40:12and then a lot of people
40:12who feel really betrayed.
40:16From Donald Trump's perspective,
40:18is the biggest betrayal
40:20still to come?
40:22As the feud with Musk
40:24played out online,
40:25the Tesla CEO
40:26floated the ultimate infidelity,
40:28the idea of starting
40:30the idea of starting a new political party.
40:33He even shared a potential name,
40:35the America Party.
40:37I think he's highly unlikely
40:38to go silent
40:39when it comes to elections
40:41in America,
40:41but he's going to be weighing it up.
40:43He's certainly threatened
40:44to support Democratic candidates.
40:47I'm not saying that Musk
40:48couldn't shake things up
40:49and he couldn't bring
40:50a lot of money to bear,
40:52but to really set up a party
40:54that appeals broadly enough
40:56to amass
40:56a kind of a majority
40:58in the Electoral College
40:59is a very,
41:00very hard task
41:01for any third party
41:02in the U.S. system.
41:03I've said that
41:05myself a few times.
41:06You know,
41:06when you're really frustrated
41:07with the traditional parties,
41:10the important thing
41:11to keep in mind here
41:11is that
41:12an Elon Musk type
41:15or a President Trump type,
41:17they can be disruptive.
41:19You know,
41:19that's their nature.
41:22Many are wondering, though,
41:23if the sun has already set
41:25on this big,
41:26beautiful bromance.
41:30Donald Trump
41:31has a long history
41:32of reconciling
41:33with even his harshest critics,
41:35as long as they kiss his ring.
41:38After all,
41:39J.D. Vance once wondered
41:40whether Trump
41:40would be an American Hitler.
41:42Now he's his vice president.
41:46The court of President Trump
41:47is fluid.
41:48I've been known
41:49to be out on occasions,
41:50right?
41:50And other days, I'm in.
41:52We're going to win some,
41:52we're going to lose some,
41:53but directionally,
41:54I couldn't feel more comfortable.
41:56Trump does have this capacity
41:58for, you know,
41:59letting bygones be bygones.
42:01So I wouldn't rule out
42:02that the two of them
42:03find some kind
42:04of common ground.
42:06Well, thank you very much.
42:07It's an honor
42:08to have President Zelensky
42:09of Ukraine.
42:11I come back
42:13to the Oval Office.
42:14Donald Trump
42:14and Zelensky.
42:15I mean,
42:16horrific,
42:18humiliating exchange.
42:19You're in no position
42:21to dictate
42:22what we're going to feel.
42:24We're going to feel very good.
42:25You will feel influenced.
42:26We're going to feel
42:27very good
42:28and very strong.
42:29You will feel influenced.
42:30You're right now
42:30not in a very good position.
42:32And how long was it
42:33until their meeting
42:34at the Vatican?
42:36This is a,
42:37this,
42:37President Trump
42:38certainly has the ability
42:40to turn
42:42and twist
42:43and twerk
42:43when it's in his interest
42:45to do so.
42:47Set us free!
42:48Right now,
42:52there are bigger issues
42:53for President Trump
42:54after he sent
42:55the National Guard
42:56to Los Angeles
42:57in response to protests
42:58over immigration raids.
43:00On this topic,
43:01at least,
43:02Elon Musk appears
43:03to back Donald Trump.
43:05Call it Makeup X.
43:08I'm starting to see
43:09a lot of reconciliation
43:10with him retweeting
43:12some of the comments
43:13from both President Trump
43:14and Vice President
43:15J.D. Vance
43:16specifically about
43:18the L.A. riots
43:18so I think
43:20they're already
43:20in a de-escalation
43:22to say the least.
43:25Elon Musk now admits
43:26that he regrets
43:27some of his posts
43:28about President Trump.
43:31And if they rekindle
43:32their relationship,
43:33there's one shared goal
43:34in particular
43:35that appeals to them both
43:36out of this world.
43:38And we will pursue
43:39our manifest destiny
43:40into the stars
43:41launching American astronauts
43:43to plant the stars
43:45and stripes
43:46on the planet Mars.
43:48everything is about Mars
44:01with Elon.
44:02It always has been
44:03and it always will be.
44:05Trump cares
44:06about landing on Mars.
44:09Trump wants to be
44:09a historic figure
44:10like how JFK
44:11was associated
44:12with the space program
44:13in the 1960s
44:14helping land Americans
44:16on the moon.
44:17They are completely aligned
44:18on this topic.
44:20Who wouldn't want
44:20to be known
44:21as the president
44:21that got humans to Mars?
44:23And who am I going to rely on?
44:24I'm going to rely on
44:25my first buddy,
44:26Elon Musk.
44:27Well, as far as I'm concerned,
44:27the sooner Musk goes to Mars,
44:29the better.
44:30That would be great.
44:31Two billionaires
44:33with monumental egos
44:35squabbling online
44:36and trading insights.
44:37Well, that certainly provided
44:38quite a lot of entertainment.
44:40But beyond the spectacle,
44:42what is the fallout?
44:44What does it mean
44:44for Trump's signature
44:45big, beautiful budget bill?
44:48What about the future of Doge?
44:49What about Musk's
44:50business interests?
44:52Could Musk become a thorn
44:53in Trump's side?
44:54And ultimately,
44:56this question.
44:57What has more clout?
44:59Presidential power
45:00or billionaire money?
45:04The greatest capitalist
45:06in the history
45:08of the United States of America,
45:11Elon Musk!
45:12If Elon Musk
45:13could rule the world,
45:14I think he would.
45:15An oligarchy
45:16is taking shape in America.
45:18And that's terrifying.
45:20Take over, Elon.
45:21Yes, take over.
45:22Is Elon
45:23the nicest person
45:24in the world?
45:25No.
45:25Is Elon
45:26the evil person
45:28that some portray him as?
45:29Absolutely not.
45:30President Trump's
45:31not afraid to punch back
45:32if someone punches him first.
45:34So, you know,
45:34I think that
45:35we should have expected that.
45:37Ultimately,
45:38the president
45:38is more powerful
45:39than the richest
45:40person in the world.
45:42There's something
45:43bigger going on here.
45:44It's about power.
45:45It's about influence.
45:47Trump has four years.
45:48He has term limits.
45:49Whatever damage
45:50Trump does
45:51to democracy,
45:52we could recover from.
45:55Whatever damage
45:56Musk does
45:58to how we think,
46:00we may not recover from.
46:03He's not ever
46:04going to just go back
46:05to the engineering department
46:07at SpaceX.
46:09He's now had a taste
46:10of power
46:10and a taste of politics,
46:11and he sees
46:12he can have an influence.
46:13We're going to find out
46:15who wins this.
46:16a half a dozen
46:45Transcription by CastingWords
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