The heated standoff between Elon Musk and President Trump may be cooling, and it seems the protests in Los Angeles are actually playing a part in all of this. Musk appeared to wholeheartedly support the Trump administration's stance on what they're doing in Los Angeles. He added American flags to a post from Vice President J.
D. Vance about how the president will not tolerate rioting and violence. And then a response to a clip that shows Trump wishing Musk very well.
The tech mogul posted. Yes, a heart emoji. Heart emoji.
Oh, it was just last week that Musk was calling for President Trump to be impeached. Musk also dropped what he called the really big bomb, posting without evidence that Donald Trump's name appeared in documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. Posts that over the weekend were deleted.
Joining us now is CNN contributor Kara Swisher, host of On and Pivot podcast. She has covered Elon Musk extensively. Kara, why do you think these two, or at least Musk, seems to be publicly softening his tone?
Do you think there's more to that behind the scenes? Sure. Has.
His businesses are at risk and deep risk. Trump could do enormous damage to Tesla. That's already not just Tesla, but all his businesses, Starlink and others.
I, he's realized, you know, after he had his incident, I guess I don't know what it is, his bender or whatever you want to call it. He can't do this because Trump could cause him great pain. whether it's investigations or contracts or other things, especially as his own businesses are struggling.
even if even though Tesla shares went up, the fundamentals are really bad and it's got it got downgraded. certain people have left the company and people are doing the robotics thing. He's got this launch of robo taxis that probably is not going to be as big as promised.
So he really needs to stay on Donald Trump's good side. Yeah. And then, Trump was, of course, asked about Starlink yesterday.
And, you know, he just kept very, he played very nice about it. I do wonder, does this go both ways? I mean, is, is Trump is the Trump administration reliant on Starlink?
And also the fact that, you know, Elon Musk has markets with other countries, of course, as well. How does that play here? Well, they are reliant the you as the US government is quite reliant on not just Starlink but the, the rocket stuff that they need to have to bring these satellites or to the International Space Station, etc.
. So he does have leverage here. It's not like it's just anybody leaving the white House.
He's got money, he's got means and everything else. But the fact the matter is Trump wasn't too nice, if you noticed, he's like, yeah. When they asked about the drug issues, he's like, I don't know.
He could have said, no, absolutely not. He said, I don't know. I don't think so.
I wish him well. That's what you might say to an accident. Not really interested in coming back.
so that's why Musk has been so thirsty on Twitter. complimenting Donald Trump. It's somewhat comical to watch him do it at be.
So, you know, obsequious to Donald Trump. But he also believes those things, too. So it's probably easy in that regard.
Well, soon after the falling out went public, I heard you say on CNN that you thought that, Trump used Musk and that there has to be some, some level of at least awareness within the Trump administration of what Musk is capable of it, because, as you put it, he has money and means in the way that other folks that Trump in your eyes has used before, right? What do you think Musk might. Yeah, I, I he could do a lot of things.
I mean, he definitely is the only choice when it comes to rockets right now. Of course, the Trump administration has been pushing for other competitors, which is probably smart in any case, whether it's Elon Musk or anybody else. you know, he could he has money, he could start making trouble.
He could, you know, he may have another incident. But like especially over tariffs he's very anti tariff. I don't know if you can hold it in on, on the deficit stuff if this bill passes.
he could quietly call senators. He could do all kinds of manner of things. So they've got to keep him sort of at least in a box.
and somewhat happy, I guess. And he certainly has to keep this sort of mutually assured destruction in this case. Donald Trump definitely has the upper hand, but Musk is not without his power.
and so he's trying to wedge his way back in there. I don't think he's going to get back in largely that Epstein thing. Even if he took it down, everybody saw it.
and then saying that, that he, that Trump owed his presidency to, to Musk, that's probably a No-No with Donald Trump. So I don't I think they'll keep him close, but not, you know, I'll keep him close. I don't think he's an enemy, but he's certainly not the friend he was since this friendship, really intensified.
You've been saying, just wait. you've been saying that all along. Kara.
And I wonder how you think history is going to be looking at this episode and this friendship. Well, it's very unprecedented. The idea of the world's richest man staying at the Lincoln Bedroom a lot and having an office and, you know, at the white House.
Crazy. It's it's incredible. I mean, like the big, oligarchs of old would love to have that kind of access.
That said, Musk made him a nuisance, made himself a nuisance. He, he alienated lots of cabinet members, including the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Vincent, and also Marco Rubio and others. And then I think ultimately behind the scenes, my guess would be Susie Wiles probably had a lot to do with this.
I'm sure she was not a fan of of his high jinks and the trouble that he could bring. But again, you have to keep him somewhat satisfied, because he could mouth off on any number of things and cause problems for the Trump I. I wonder what he'll do if the tariffs continue.
He really he's really quite adamant anti-terror if and even when he was inside the tent he was calling Peter Navarro a moron on Twitter. I don't know if he can control himself on things like that. And I agree with him on that one quickly.
Kara, do you think he's serious about starting a third party? You know, I just think he just was trying to be a little threatening, I guess. You know, I suspect the problem is Musk overestimates his political capital.
Right? Compared to Trump. And Trump understands political capital.
And when he lost in Wisconsin, it was a big tell is that he didn't have any money. It wasn't enough. And he's certainly not charming, politically speaking.
And so, you know, Trump has a lot of political power, whether you like him or not. He has. He does.
And he understands that. and so in that regard, you know, maybe he could start it. But I don't I don't think Musk has a small constituency, politically speaking.
And, he certainly has fans and but he also has a lot of detractors. And so, you know, I suspect he's probably just doing that as a threat, possibly some terrorist threats, an empty threat as far as I can. Kara, I always appreciate your point of view.
Thanks for joining us. Thank you.
