PivotTrump’s Military Parade Backfires as 'No Kings' Protesters Hit the Streets
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
135 min read · 27,245 words- 0:00 – 5:20
Intro
- KSKara Swisher
This was a bust of a parade. It just was.
- SGScott Galloway
I gotta be honest, I enjoyed it because it was just so sad for the President. (mellow music)
- KSKara Swisher
Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher from France.
- SGScott Galloway
And I'm Scott Galloway, and this episode is presented by IBM. How are you doing? I was worried about you this weekend.
- KSKara Swisher
What?
- SGScott Galloway
Are you doing all right?
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. Why, why? Why are you worried about me?
- SGScott Galloway
I don't know, a lot of stuff. Although good news-
- KSKara Swisher
What?
- SGScott Galloway
Uh, some compensation when I get worried about you.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
You know there's this amazing new antidepressant targeted at lesbians.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, really? Oh, no. What is it?
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, no.
- SGScott Galloway
No, it's ... I'm sure you've heard of it. It's called Tricoxigan.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh.
- SGScott Galloway
Try cocks again. (laughs) Word is, word is, it works for about a day.
- KSKara Swisher
Uh-huh.
- SGScott Galloway
And then continued usage makes you worse than you were previously. (laughs)
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, God. Where do they come up with these be-
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, it's good.
- KSKara Swisher
That's not good.
- SGScott Galloway
Should I get her Tricoxigan?
- KSKara Swisher
No.
- SGScott Galloway
I have been waiting-
- KSKara Swisher
No.
- SGScott Galloway
... all weekend to say this joke. (laughs)
- KSKara Swisher
You know, many ... First of all, it's a terrible joke, and many lesbians have never tried that, just so you know. I have, but-
- SGScott Galloway
Really?
- 5:20 – 16:28
Minnesota Lawmaker Shootings
- KSKara Swisher
and Iran. But first, I mean, this story is, you know, dominated the headlines this weekend. A Minnesota man has been charged after the murder of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses. The Democratic lawmakers were shot early Saturday morning in their homes. Officials are also considering federal charges against the suspect, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, um, who wore a weird mask and pretended he was a cop. Um, Senator s- State Representative Melissa Hortman, who so- it's incredible, and her husband were killed. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife were seriously injured. Authorities, uh, found a list in Boelter's car naming around s- uh, 70 potential targets, including Democratic politicians and abortion providers. A 2020 state report lists Boelter as having no party preference, but his roommate says he voted for Trump and was a strong supporter. Elon Musk had his own thoughts, as usual, inserting himself-... grotesquely into the proceedings of this writing. He said, "The far left is mur-"
- SGScott Galloway
What did he call the Marxists? Is that right?
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, the Marxists. That was Mike Lee from Utah, who's also a heinous piece of shit. He said, "The far left is murderously violent," in response to an X post about the shootings and other attacks. He's absolutely wrong, this guy. Uh-
- SGScott Galloway
I'm sorry, Democratic state senators-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
... are murdered and, and-
- KSKara Swisher
Murdered-
- SGScott Galloway
... Democrats are murderers?
- KSKara Swisher
... by someone who is very clearly, uh, disturbed and also, uh, Trump supporter. Uh, I wanna, uh, discuss these s- shootings, the implications, but first let's listen to Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who both of us know, talk about her friend who she had dinner with the night before she died, Representative Melissa Hortman, on Meet the Press.
- GUGuest
We started out together in politics, moms with young kids. And somehow, she was able to balance getting to know every door knock, every house in her district, uh, while, uh, raising two children. Girl Scout leader, she was, uh, she taught Sunday school, and maybe all that juggling made it easier for her as she worked her way up in the legislature and became this extraordinary Speaker of the House, ushering in everything from, uh, free school lunch to working with the governor and other leaders, um, to do some landmark legislation on paid family leave, to this year, working with her Republican counterpart when we pretty much had a tied legislature to get the budget done. That's Melissa Hortman, my friend. And when you think about political violence and the statistics of political violence, you've got to realize the people who are behind it.
- KSKara Swisher
Anyway, uh, she's, uh, has been, is, she's been quite broken up about it, obviously. Um, violent threats against members of Congress, uh, hit an record high last year. I've been, I've been told this by very well-known people, Con- congressional people that they've gotten a huge amount of death threats this year, Democratic ones, for the second year in a row according to Capitol Police. There have been other recent incidents. In the last few months, there was a killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in DC, an arson attack on, uh, Governor Josh Shapiro's home. We saw, obviously, the two Trump assassination attempts last year. Um, uh, one got very close. Um, what do you think about this rhetoric? And will it get worse? I mean, I'm, I, I, I, I don't know what to say. People are in their homes. It's easy to find people. Um, the, a lot of the people who are state senators and local politicians do not have the protection that, uh, US, uh, national people have. But even those people are pretty exposed. Um, what, what has to happen here? Uh, Pam Bondi, thank God, made the appropriate response and so did Trump, although light, I would say. Um, so what, what do you, uh, what do you make of what's happening here? You've talked about this. Uh, you know, you were talking about civil war obviously recently. But this is something that, I guess, is not a surprise and yet is horrifying at the same time.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah. Well, look, they, uh ... uh, there's no getting around it, it's a tragedy for the families, senseless death, senseless murder. I thought Senator Klobuchar was very, uh, statesperson like in her comments. Um, I thought Governor Walz did his best to address the situation in a, in a, in, in the correct tone. If you think about ... I was, uh, I was thinking about climate change, and that is we've created a context or atmospherics such that we might have mass migrations, super fires, terrible weather events that hurt the economy, hurt the poorest. And the two big puffs of carbon into the air that created these atmospherics were the industrialization of China and the consumerization of the car, specifically Americans moving to the suburbs and the embrace of the car. And I think we've created an atmosphere for a lot of political violence and the two puffs of carbon into the air, if you will. I do think social media, uh, which has a profit motive around pitting us against each other, has just created an atmosphere where we're convinced the enemy is within. And then polarization at the hands of income inequality, people are just generally angry, you know, when they wake up and they feel like they've worked hard and they have medical debt and then social media convinces them that their enemy is their neighbor. And so I, I ... Uh, like, what can be done, this is a multi-pronged problem. This talks about access to guns. This talks about mental health. This talks about, you know, the strain of, of, uh, lack of job prospects. This, uh, obviously political, political violence. What you hope you get from our leaders is thoughts around bold solutions that, that decarbonize the atmosphere as opposed to trying to take advantage of the moment and start issuing blame on the other side, because there's been political violence against both parties. But I ... Other than saying we all have an obligation to try and take the temperature down, I do think it's time probably for some sort of - and you've been talking about this for a while - legislation around hate speech that says you, you ... This rhetoric, this tone, when you call someone, when your first reaction is to call these people Marxist-
- KSKara Swisher
Right.
- SGScott Galloway
... that's not helping. (laughs)
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
That's not-
- KSKara Swisher
It's also inaccurate. So-
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
... not helping-
- SGScott Galloway
Uh, uh-
- KSKara Swisher
... is also inaccurate, but go ahead.
- SGScott Galloway
So I, I, you know, I don't, uh, uh, I'll finish where I started. My, y- your heart goes out to the families of these people who were murdered, and then you hear about this guy's background. And I, uh, he's a murderer, and I, I trust and hope he's brought to justice. But you, you know, the whole thing is just awful. The whole thing, it just puts ... it leaves you with a pit in your stomach.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. He sounds like someone who's been drifting. But although not your typical profile of sort of these sort of loner, angry people. He has five kids, um, very religious, which is no, no thing against him. Um, tried to do, tried to make it, like, we sort of pretend being a cop and his business apparently didn't get off the ground, and he was working at a funeral home. He was collecting eyeballs for, um, operations for people. He had a series of sort of jobs, and he was living in Minneapolis or in his, near, uh, Minneapolis and he lived, his family lived in rural, uh, Minnesota, um, but was living with a room- this is why this roommate knew him, uh, so well. But, like, struggling, struggling of someone who's struggling obviously become more and more religious, um, and had, uh, had, had become born again, which is nothing to do with this, but, uh, he just, he got sort of, um-... very politicized a- around his religion and abortion specifically. Um, and just, uh, this is someone you wouldn't necessarily think of cracking, right? That would do... It reminds me a little bit of the Luigi Mangione thing too, who seemed to be in a, it... That's what it reminded me. I was like, "Why did this guy..."
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, but that kid was high school valedictorian. I mean, that was really strange.
- KSKara Swisher
That was really strange, but he was angry-
- SGScott Galloway
He was, he was a valedictorian of his high school.
- KSKara Swisher
... and he was, he had a back pain, and he had-
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
... all kinds of things. Again, no excuse, zero explanation. Like, you can sort of start to see how this pieces together. But what set him off to say this... I mean, it looks like he was gonna target some of these No Kings rallies. It looks like... What's, what got him? Was it mental illness? Was it, um, uh, you know, there... Just what was it, you know, that he was cosplaying a cop and had to do this? And, um, you know, and this woman sounds wonderful, like, did-
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- 16:28 – 28:23
Trump’s Military Parade and No Kings Protests
- KSKara Swisher
uh, speaking of weirdnesses, being in Washington this weekend for this military parade was odd, I have to say. Um, this town was empty. It really was. He had his birthday military parade, uh, Trump did, um, which e- event included over 6,000 soldiers and 100 tanks, reportedly far less than the expected 200,000 attendees. I would be surprised if there were 100,000 there. Um, it was, it was a ghost town. It was really interesting. The parade was sponsored by several brands with close ties to the president, including Palantir and Coinbase, meaning pay per play. Um, the whole thing was overshadowed by over five million people attending over 2,000 No Kings protests around the country, which looked like a lot of fun. Um, uh, let's read off some of the fun signs people had. They seemed largely peaceful, I think, and quite, um, festive almost, and also determined, which was interesting. I don't know if it makes a difference, but, "If a dictator throws a military parade and no one watches it, did it really happen? Off with his toupee. If Kamala were president, we'd be at brunch. Donny the quicker fucker-upper." (laughs) "We're all on the couch now. We're all the couch now. You sucked in Home Alone 2." (laughs) There were tons, and one was, um, a picture of Melania Trump dressed in The Handmaid's Tale of, of Taco, which I thought was very funny. Um, I, I... Here's the one thing. There was a piece by Max Boot that got a little negative attention, I think. It was about the military looked good, looked like they, they... You know, we should honor these people that serve. But doing it at the behest of Trump and making it a pathetic kind of parade was... You know, there was some really interesting revolutionary stuff. It's the 250th anniversary of the Army, which was, you know, founded to, f- by, at the beginning of our country at the same time. And so, um, they do deserve, you know, attention and being treated with respect and everything else. Um, there were all kinds of sort of conspiracy theories all over the place, including that they were marching, they weren't marching correctly as a, as a protest, which was odd. I just don't think there were a lot of people there. I don't know if people, people might have cheered if there were a lot of people, but it was, it was-... empty as cr- as could be, um, which was just interesting. I thought, I thought there'd be more people there. Anyway, your thoughts?
- SGScott Galloway
I think it's like when, uh, I've heard of friends getting a b- a bar or bat mitzvah late in life, and, like, no one, everyone shows up and pretends this isn't strange. I, I just... Or, you know, they get a christ- uh, uh, it, or my favorite that I've never been to which says I'm banging my assistant, um, a, a recommitment ceremony. Those are my favorite. Um, I, uh, li- I gotta be honest. I enjoy, I, I thought it was so fucking hil- I just enjoyed reveling in how stupid and lame this thing was. And there's no way he didn't know it. I turned on the TV just to see some footage, and actually I thought to myself, "You know, actually, it looks pretty cool." And then I realized I was watching the Mexican Independence Day parade. (laughs)
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, wow.
- SGScott Galloway
Like, I lo- I love... When I was in San Francisco, which is the most liberal city in the world, the, the whole place loved Fleet Week.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And F-15s used to buzz-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, Fleet Week is fun.
- SGScott Galloway
... like planes.
- KSKara Swisher
Fleet Week is fun.
- SGScott Galloway
And you go, and you kinda just look up and regardless of your political affiliation you think-
- KSKara Swisher
The Blue Angels, yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, you think, "Wow, it's pretty cool to be American, and I like the fact that-"
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
"... if anyone fucks with us, they gotta deal with these guys."
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
I, uh, there's a lot of ways-
- KSKara Swisher
Fleet Week is fun in San Francisco. You're right. It really is.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah. And it, and it's great, and it's a showoff of military-
- KSKara Swisher
It's beautiful.
- SGScott Galloway
... hardware.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
But doing a, you know, the whole thing, I go- you know, I gotta be honest. I enjoyed it 'cause it was just so sad for-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
... the president.
- KSKara Swisher
The Russian state, um, the Russian state media was laughing at Trump's parade. (laughs) They're like, "They don't know how to throw a..." They do. The Soviets know. My favorite was the, the No Kings ones looked really fun. I didn't go to any, but, um, they looked really fun, especially the smaller cities. They looked like-
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
... kinda festive and everything. There was tons-
- SGScott Galloway
Agreed.
- KSKara Swisher
... and tons and tons of them. It was-
- SGScott Galloway
Really well done.
- 28:23 – 39:56
Iran-Israel Conflict Escalates
- KSKara Swisher
built for business. IBM. Scott, we're back. President Trump is urging Israel and Iran to make peace, saying the two countries should make a deal and will make a deal. The long-standing conflict between the two countries escalated late last week with Israel's surprise attack on Iran, although Trump signaled it pretty clearly. The attack targeted Iranian nuclear and military facilities, killing top generals and nuclear scientists. Iran retaliated and missile strikes from both sides have continued for four straight days, rising civilian casualties. The White House is denying any US involvement in Israel's actions, though Trump reportedly nixed the plan to kill Iran's leader over the weekend. He's also warning that Iran will face the full strength and might of United- US Armed Forces if the US is attacked in any way. Ah, god, this feels like Gulf, the Gulf again. I don't know what ... What have you, what have you been thinking over the past few days and what do you think about his role in all this? A lot of people feel that it w- it was, uh, you know, stopping these Iranian, um, centrifuges from spinning up was a very good idea. At the same time, Trump seems, uh, way past his depth, and there's a fight within MAGA over, over this. Marjorie Taylor Greene, uh, and others don't think we should be there at all, so it's also, I mean, politically problematic for him.
- SGScott Galloway
Uh, well, I would say I think a lot about this. Um, I think the Ukrainian Army and the IDF are doing the dirty, dangerous work, uh, for the West. Uh, I think, I think if the presidency and leadership is around capital allocation and I think there's few things that have shown a greater return than backing, um, the Ukrainian Army and also the intelligence and military support of the IDF. They're ... America has four quote/unquote enemies, or perceived enemies: China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. I would argue China's actually not an enemy. They're a competitor, and if a competitor's doing really well and getting in striking distance of America, America tends to think of them as an enemy, which I think is a little bit unfair but that's another talk show. But three of the four have a nuclear weapon, and I just don't think there's any getting around it. I, I think the West, uh, the US and especially Israel, our closest ally in the Gulf, and in my view the only ally we can count on (laughs) given it's a democracy and shares our values if shit gets real over there, we are just better off if Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. And the Atomic International Agency just last week issued a statement and its 35-... member nations, many of whom are not pro-Israel, saying that Iran was barreling towards a nuclear weapon and had engaged in massive deception, and that Biden had tried really hard through diplomacy to, to, to take them back or get them to step back from the, uh, the development of a nuclear bomb. I think Trump trashing the agreement in '17 probably didn't help. But it was clear, despite the bluster and Trump thinking as a deal maker, they were barreling towards a nuclear bomb. And Israel, in what again is (laughs) what will go down as this re- remarkable military operation, took out what is the equivalent of the Joint Chiefs Staff, the head of the Army, killed them all within minutes of each other, and then because, essentially, the Iranian air defenses have been totally obliterated, Israel not only controls the skies, but what became clear here, they control the ground. And that is, the Mossad has so deeply penetrated the intelligence arm of the IRGC that everyone is vulnerable. And just as interesting as who they killed is who they didn't kill. They didn't take out any political leadership, but this is essentially, in my view, taken back Iran a year, two years, hopefully three years from nuclear capabilities or nuclear bomb capabilities, which I just think it's hard to argue that that's a bad thing. Now, having said that, having said that, war in the Middle East rarely turns out as you had hoped. (laughs) It's just, uh, I mean, there is, there is a real risk here anytime there is war in the Middle East. This wasn't a military operation. I do think these two nations are at war right now. I also want to acknowledge that there is a legitimate concern that this is a wag-the-tail situation where Netanyahu, similar to Trump, is running to stay out of prison, and unfortunately, and this is tragic, if we had better leadership in the White House and a president who didn't see his ability to get reelected based on a war footing, that Trump wouldn't be taking planes from Qatar. He'd be putting pressure on Qatar to put pressure on Hamas and that Netanyahu would be more sincere about trying to end the ongoing, uh, let's be honest, death and destruction in Gaza. So this is, uh, I mean, this is a complicated situation, but if you look at the IDF, they took more terrorists off our most wanted list in six weeks than we had done in 20 years, and Iran not having a nuclear bomb? I just fail to see how that is anything good, anything but good, anything but good for the West. So quite frankly, again, I'll, I'll finish where I started. I believe the IDF and the Ukrainian Army are doing the West's dirty and dangerous work and should be celebrated for it.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm. Well, that may be, but now what happens? And I think it's really interesting that there is a real shift in the MAGA coalition in terms of America first, and of course, Trump said, "America first is whatever I say it is 'cause I invented it," which he didn't, of course. Um, but it, it's a re- it's a question of what now and how do you stop it? Like, I think a lot of people I admire, um, who I pay attention to are like, "Okay, it's the right thing to do, but you don't know the right way to stop it," right? How, how, because they're in their fourth day of heavy strikes and the attacks are not going down, they're going up, right? And this is obviously a volatile area open to any kind of, like... Continued fighting in the Mideast is something that cannot happen, and I think it's, um, you know, especially with Net- it's in Netanyahu's interest. Um, I think Netanyahu has other ideas b- besides peace, right? He doesn't want peace.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
And so-
- SGScott Galloway
That's a legitimate concern.
- KSKara Swisher
So this is like, I, I get that you want to take out these generals. I get that you want to take this. The fact that we managed to get him not to kill the, the main leader is something, I guess. Um, but it's, it just seems like any number of bad things could happen here, and that's the-
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, no-
- KSKara Swisher
... that is-
- SGScott Galloway
No doubt.
- KSKara Swisher
And Trump is not the president you want in this situation, right?
- SGScott Galloway
Agreed.
- KSKara Swisher
He may, I mean, you may agree with him, but boy is he nuts, and so I think that's m- the, the problem we have here, and a lot of, you know, a lot of the smart thinkers are like, "Good, but," "Good, but" kind of thing.
- SGScott Galloway
Sure. This is a bad decision between bad decisions, but you-
- KSKara Swisher
Right.
- SGScott Galloway
... you described it. It distills down to one fulcrum or one decision, and that is the risk-
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
... of going to war against Iran-
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
... is a real risk.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
There, there's gonna be unintended consequences here. The, the calculus is the following: Are those risks outweighed by the risks of Iran being closer to a nuclear weapon?
- KSKara Swisher
Right, right.
- SGScott Galloway
And I would argue that the former risks are the ones worth taking, and I do believe that, unlike a lot of people in the Republican Party and some on the far left, I do believe there is a bad peace and I believe there are good wars.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
And uh, uh, it was clear a lot of non-partisan agencies were saying that Iran was engaged in deception and moving closer and closer to a nuclear weapon.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
And while their air defenses were down, they have been pretty... You know, there really hasn't been a lot of civilian casualties in Iran, so I think what they're saying is, "Okay, if you continue to have a clock in the middle of Tehran that's counting down to our destruction and saying what the equivalent of saying 'amen' in the US is 'death to Israel'" is a common, common phrase at the end of every sentence, "'... then we are going to take preemptive action against you." And what, what I don't know, what is interesting here is whether or not Israel said to the US, "We're doing this. We feel (laughs) that this is too big a risk to ignore," or a- or they were totally coordinated with the US who was claiming... They were supposed to have talks today, and whether it was a coordinated head fake and the US engaged in it, 'cause without US, at least, cooperation, the Israeli Air Force is flying F- you know, F-15s and I think it's F-35s, they can't even repair them if the US were to decide to not support, support Israel. So some level of cooperation...... is probably, uh, taking place here, especially around propaganda, around, uh, I- Iran was caught totally flat-footed. They thought they were about to head into negotiations on Sunday.
- KSKara Swisher
But they made their point, right? And so one-
- SGScott Galloway
I'm sorry, who's made their point?
- 39:56 – 56:17
Defense Department Reviews SpaceX Contracts
- KSKara Swisher
contracts and the fallout of the Trump-Elon feud. Scott, we're back with an update on the girls who are fighting. I don't care if you're mad I say that. It's funny. By which I mean Donald and Elon. Um, the White House directed the Defense Department and NASA to gather d- details on billions in contracts with SpaceX. M- and they should. This is a good thing. You shouldn't have one person running things. The Pentagon is reportedly thinking about scaling back SpaceX involvement in the Golden Dome, which is this protective shield whatever-the-heck thing. Meanwhile, President Trump said he was amazed Elon ever endorsed him. Let's listen to a clip, which literally does sound like a breakup.
- GUGuest
Now I know why Elon doesn't like me so much. Which he does actually, he does, and he never had a problem. You know, it's very interesting. This w- this is not something new. This has been there from day one, Speaker, right? We're gonna abolish the EV mandate. And Elon still endorsed me because honestly, he never ever spoke to me about that. And I used to say, "I'm amazed that he's endorsing me because that can't be good for him. I'm abolishing the EV mandate." And I once asked him about it, "You never talked to me about that." He said, "Well, as long as it's happening to everybody, I'll be able to compete." It was a very interesting answer. I thought it was a very honest answer, to be honest with you.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, so strange, these two, honestly. They should just fucking get, stop. I mean, I don't know what to say. Um, w- we'll see. W- I mean, obviously Elon's, mm, under threat by Trump. Who knows if he'll ever carry through? Um, I, I think th- one of the things I've always thought is, you know, even when Elon got contracts from Lockheed and, and others, I thought that was a good thing because of competition and better, cheaper things and this and that. So they'd certainly have, uh, an, uh, an upper hand here and shouldn't. There should be lots of competitive bidding on this stuff, as competitive as it can be 'cause it's the government. Um, but it was, uh, it's just some st- it's such a strange relationship. I think Trump's past him. I do think Trump's past him, but I don't know about what you think. He keeps trying to kiss up to, uh, Elon keeps trying to kiss up to Trump. I think this is kind of over.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, uh, what is it, Occam's, Occam's razor, the, the obvious answer is usually the right one. I, I think it's pretty obvious what's happened here and that is Elon got the president elected, or at least played a major role in his election, and as a result, believes he should have input, you know, was comfortable usurping congressional power and the power of the person making not even administrative suggestions around cutting costs or trying to root out, you know, waste and fraud, but making political decisions that we should cut off USAID, which supposedly, or reportedly, according to the, to Boston University, is already responsible for 300,000 incremental deaths. He was comfortable doing that and then felt that he should have input around the picks around the IRS, the CIA, NASA, and people in the White House got sick of an unelected co-president. Uh, Elon got very angry.... and started, and then, to his quarter of a billion followers, accused the president of being a sex criminal. Didn't bother him before when he was allowed to be in the White House in his Hot Topic outfit with a black eye. But when he got basically kind of shoved out of the White House, decided that the president was a pedophile. And then, what hasn't been reported but I believe will be reported 'cause it seems fairly obvious to me, is somebody, whether it was Speaker Johnson or a go-between, I don't know, Peter Thiel, I don't know who the kind of emissary, there's always a go-between, called Trump and said, "Okay." I'm sorry, called Musk and said, "Okay, I don't think you realize who you're fucking with." This is what he could do in about 30 to 90 days. Cancel every contract, every subsidy across SpaceX and Tesla respectively, which would take the value of SpaceX from 300 billion to about 100 and probably put Tesla out of business. He could threaten to deport you. He could start looking in, he could sick the IRS on you. He could rehire and triple the number of inspectors generals who are trying to put in safety standards around your y- your autonomous driving, and then Tesla goes from being worth 900 billion to being worth 50 billion. I mean, they, he could do that in about 90 days, and somebody communicated that to Musk, and Musk realized, "Oh, maybe I went too far." And that was his next tweet. He didn't all of a sudden in a fit of sobriety coming down from Kay decided that he had lost control of his id. Somebody called him and said, "Listen, bitch, uh, this, you've fucked with the wrong cowboy. Whether you like this cowboy or not, he's got the biggest badge in town and he can literally put you out of business and deport you." Uh, somebody made that call because that's the truth. The President of the United States-
- KSKara Swisher
Though, though-
- SGScott Galloway
Sorry?
- KSKara Swisher
... he's, let me just say though.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
So, so far on his Twitter-
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
... he was sort of supporting them on the protests and stuff. But that's out of the news right now, right? All the, all those protests. What is interesting is all he's doing is Tesla things and things self-aggrandizing how good he is, and people complimenting him on Twitter. And then every now and then, he's put up these "No kings" "No gods or kings, only men. No gods or kings, only men," which I thought was-
- SGScott Galloway
What do you mean? He's acting like a drug addict.
- KSKara Swisher
I know, but I was like-
- SGScott Galloway
(laughs)
- KSKara Swisher
... "What's he doing?" 'Cause he's not, just say it, like s- it is-
- SGScott Galloway
We, we keep looking for-
- KSKara Swisher
Uh, yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
We keep looking for reason and rational behavior here.
- KSKara Swisher
Why is he putting those up? He shouldn't put those up.
- SGScott Galloway
Kara, he's a fucking drug addict.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, okay. All right.
- SGScott Galloway
(laughs)
- KSKara Swisher
But I'm like, he can't help himself, right? I mean, most of it is like, uh, isn't the future with Elon Musk are rockets and cool cars, and uh, like he, he just has all this complimentary stuff up, which is sad. But at the same, like, can you imagine? "I'm so great. Look how people think I'm great." But I, it'll be in-
- SGScott Galloway
Uh, did that call happen?
- KSKara Swisher
I think Trump is gonna just put him, put baby in the corner and keep him in the fucking corner.
- SGScott Galloway
He already has.
- KSKara Swisher
But keep him in the corner.
- SGScott Galloway
Somebody, somebody called Musk and said, "Okay, uh, Elon, are, are you relatively non-high right now? Call me when you have 10 or 15 minutes where you feel like relatively not out of your fucking head, and I'm just gonna break down what the President, this President, who is corrupt and willing to avoid the courts or bypass the courts... This guy will deport you, Elon. This guy will, this guy will, (laughs) this guy will cut off all subsidies the next day to you. How are you gonna explain that to your shareholders?"
- KSKara Swisher
The thing is he's not gonna do better with the Democrats either. It's just like (laughs) no.
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, no, the, he would because the Democrats-
- 56:17 – 1:05:15
Wins and Fails
- KSKara Swisher
um, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails. Okay Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. Why don't you... I can go first or you can go first.
- SGScott Galloway
You go first.
- KSKara Swisher
Um, I, I'm gonna do something happier for my win, um, which is, besides, we've talked about the, the No Kings, I thought that was a total win and everything else, but I'm gonna say something silly. Lilo and Stitch, I see why it's making a ba-zillion dollars at the box office.
- SGScott Galloway
(laughs) You s- you saw that?
- KSKara Swisher
I saw it and I loved it.
- SGScott Galloway
Did you take Clara or-
- KSKara Swisher
I took Clara and Saul and-
- SGScott Galloway
And Saul?
- KSKara Swisher
... Amanda and I went and the popcorn was flowing and everything else. It was completely charming. What a charming-
- SGScott Galloway
Mm-hmm.
- KSKara Swisher
... charming, wonderful cast. Um, story it was diverse and in what great way. It was, it was just heartfelt. It was m- m- great to look at and I know, I can, I was first like, "How is it making so much money?" 'Cause I didn't like the cartoon version. I didn't-
- SGScott Galloway
It's huge.
- KSKara Swisher
It is.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
I didn't, I d- I never liked it of all the many movies I watched with my kids, my older kids. But this is, it's a huge movie. Um, it's a great movie. It's totally worth your time and, uh, I enjoyed it, every bit of it. It's utterly charming and the mai- two main characters, the s- two sisters, and the side characters were all great too, but are, are wonderful. Just w- I didn't, I didn't know either of them and they were both wonderful and what a great job, Disney. Good job, even though you shouldn't have fucking paid Trump that money also. Um, but great movie. Um, and, um, my fail, uh, it has to be the, the, the, figure out a way to join together in the, in the lessons of this No Kings, um, to protect people 'cause I, I am so disturbed by how many people have told me, who are public servants, that they're terrified. Um, and they, and they should be, as evidenced by what's happened. It w- some guy gets it in his head to be angry and take it out on people. It's just, there's, I don't quite know how to prevent that and it's really, um, it's scary. It's a very scary thing for people who are, who are outspoken. And so, I would, uh, I just, I, I'm not sure there's a s- solution to that except, you know, that I don't, just to bring it down, the temperature. Um, and it's very hard when there's a president who loves raising the temperature almost continually into a fever that creates all kinds of, um, bad impulses on all sides. Um, but, although I do, I blame most, uh, a lot of this on the polarization of social media and, um, and gerrymandering and, and Trumpism in many ways 'cause it's so, it's always dunking, constantly dunking and it's gotten the rest of us dragged along into its ugly wake. Anyway, that's my fail.
- SGScott Galloway
So you know what my favorite line from, uh, Lilo and Stitch was?
- KSKara Swisher
What?
- SGScott Galloway
"It's can, not gone."
- KSKara Swisher
(laughs)
- SGScott Galloway
(laughs)
- KSKara Swisher
It's gone. Please-
- SGScott Galloway
It is not gone.
- KSKara Swisher
... write in, everybody-
- SGScott Galloway
It's can.
- KSKara Swisher
... write in-
- SGScott Galloway
It's can.
- KSKara Swisher
It's not can.
- SGScott Galloway
It's can.
- KSKara Swisher
It's not, but gone.
- SGScott Galloway
Look in my hotel room, look at yours.
Episode duration: 1:05:15
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