Musk Moves Back Into Trump Orbit

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00:00It's created a whole new conversation here in Washington about Elon, the political operative,

00:05remembering, of course, he had gone back to Tesla. He was done with politics following Doge and was

00:10going to focus on the business at hand. He's been spending a lot more time with Donald Trump

00:15recently and is again appearing with the Secretary of War today, making us consider

00:22the on-again, off-again relationship between Elon Musk and the administration.

00:26Elon, because he's not very busy, has agreed to head that task force. Be interesting. If he has the

00:36time, he'll be a good one to do it. President Trump has seated the presidency to Elon Musk. No, no,

00:45that's not happening. But Elon's done an amazing job. Elon can't do and won't do anything without

00:54our approval. And we'll give him the approval where appropriate. But there's a conflict that

01:00we won't let him get near it. But he does have a good natural instinct.

01:04I expect to continue to provide advice whenever the president would like advice.

01:09I hope so.

01:09I mean, yeah, it's I expect to remain a friend and an advisor. And certainly if there's anything

01:19the president wants me to do, I'm at the president's office. I was very surprised. You saw the words he

01:24had for me, the words. And he hasn't said anything about me that's bad. I'd rather have him criticize

01:30me than the bill because the bill is incredible.

01:33That was so long ago, Kayleigh Lyons was sitting next to me. But of course, they slowly got back

01:43together. And now they're, in fact, working together again, by way of the defense secretary.

01:51And maybe even more speaking on Air Force One last night, the president going even further to say that

01:55he may call on Elon Musk to deploy Starlink in Iran to help anti-government protesters there.

02:05This is where we start with our political panel, the reemergence of one of the most significant

02:10political operatives in the last campaign. Bloomberg politics contributor Jeanne Shanzano is with us,

02:16democracy visiting fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center, alongside Republican strategist

02:21Lonnie Chen, fellow in American policy, public policy studies at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

02:27It's great to have both of you with us here. Jeanne, we went through a lot in the life and times of

02:32Trump and Musk. Is he back?

02:36He is. This is actually, I understand, Joe, the first time he's appearing publicly on stage with a senior

02:42member of the administration. So you remember the old song, The Boys Are Back in Town? That has been

02:47ringing through my head all day. It's truly they are reunited. And I think the poor American party that

02:54he was talking about starting may have seen it's the death knell of that. But, you know, the Pentagon

03:00announced that he was going to be talking about how he can improve the manufacturing base in the defense

03:06sector and about how the bureaucracy of the Pentagon has really gotten in the way of that. And I am so

03:13interested to hear that because, of course, what are the details there? This is on the heels of the

03:18president asking for $1.5 trillion of 50 percent range in the defense budget for a department that

03:25has never, never been able to pass a really simple audit. So, you know, what are the specifics there?

03:36And the reality is, is that he's right. It is a disaster over there, particularly the procurement

03:43process. So I'm hoping that the defense secretary or war secretary is going to be speaking about how

03:49he is going to improve that. Well, that's right, Lonnie. It's an address on how Pentagon bureaucracy

03:56is holding back the nation and hurting firms like SpaceX. So is Elon Musk maybe not back in the

04:06administration, but back in the family? Well, I don't know that he ever left the family,

04:11to be honest with you. I mean, I think that he's someone who whose influence extends. I mean,

04:17he was characterized as a political operative. I think his influence and his impact goes well

04:21beyond any operative would ever have. I mean, this is someone who brings a lot of economic success,

04:27clearly someone who President Trump respects from the perspective of having been an economic success

04:32story. And I think it's interesting, the topic of the conversation that the secretary is going to

04:38approach today in Texas has more to do with the continuing expansion in a lot of ways of the

04:44American defense industrial base and the ways in which America is going to try and be a leader,

04:50not just in technology necessary for for kinetic warfare, but also potentially for

04:56the warfare of the 21st century, technological warfare, etc. And I think we're going to see

05:02some of that conversation happening in Texas and over the next several months. So this is an interesting

05:08move, not so much because of Elon Musk's reemergence, in my mind, as it is because it does signal,

05:15I think, where the Defense Department or War Department is going to be directing its attention

05:21over the next several months and years in terms of procurement, in terms of where the defense

05:27industrial base is headed.

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