How Elon Backlash is Creating Problems for Tesla | Pivot
Kara Swisher (host), Scott Galloway (host), Narrator, Guest commentator (guest), Professor G Pod guest (guest)
In this episode of Pivot, featuring Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, How Elon Backlash is Creating Problems for Tesla | Pivot explores elon’s Doge Gambit Backfires, Tesla Brand And DC Politics Collide Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway dissect the emerging backlash against Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration’s Doge efficiency initiative and how it’s damaging both public trust and Tesla’s brand. They argue Doge is less about patriotism and more about clearing regulatory hurdles for Musk’s businesses, while simultaneously gutting essential government services and protections. The hosts also examine Jeff Bezos’s controversial ideological reset of the Washington Post opinion section, Tesla’s sales slump amid growing consumer disgust with Musk, and NVIDIA’s outsized role in propping up markets during the AI boom. They close by debating golden visas for the ultra-wealthy and predicting that the Doge experiment will quietly fade once it starts costing Musk real money, especially via Starlink contracts.
Elon’s Doge Gambit Backfires, Tesla Brand And DC Politics Collide
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway dissect the emerging backlash against Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration’s Doge efficiency initiative and how it’s damaging both public trust and Tesla’s brand. They argue Doge is less about patriotism and more about clearing regulatory hurdles for Musk’s businesses, while simultaneously gutting essential government services and protections. The hosts also examine Jeff Bezos’s controversial ideological reset of the Washington Post opinion section, Tesla’s sales slump amid growing consumer disgust with Musk, and NVIDIA’s outsized role in propping up markets during the AI boom. They close by debating golden visas for the ultra-wealthy and predicting that the Doge experiment will quietly fade once it starts costing Musk real money, especially via Starlink contracts.
Key Takeaways
Musk’s Doge project is viewed as a profit-driven regulatory smash-and-grab, not patriotic reform.
Swisher and Galloway argue Musk’s real goal is to clear away regulators who threaten his ambitions in autonomous vehicles, space launches, and telecom, while dressing the effort up as government efficiency and innovation.
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Public sentiment sharply distinguishes between liking “efficiency” and liking Elon Musk.
Focus groups in key swing states show voters generally like the idea of cutting waste, but describe Musk as “weird,” “selfish,” “radical,” and “scary,” suggesting his personal brand is a liability even among some Trump voters.
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Tesla’s brand is now materially suffering from Musk’s politics and behavior.
Tesla sales are down significantly in Europe and in parts of the U. ...
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Bezos’s Washington Post shift turns an ailing paper into an explicit billionaire propaganda asset.
By mandating opinion coverage be bounded by “personal liberties and free markets” and excluding opposing views, Bezos is seen as copying the Wall Street Journal poorly and alienating the Post’s core talent and readership, accelerating a talent exodus to rival outlets.
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The tech/billionaire elite increasingly treat law as a one-way shield, not a shared constraint.
Quoting Cory Doctorow’s framing, Galloway and Swisher argue the in‑crowd (billionaires, tech founders) see themselves as protected by the law but not bound by it, while everyone else is bound by law but not protected by it—visible in subsidies, tax policy, and regulatory capture.
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AI may become an industry where consumers capture most of the value, not shareholders.
Drawing analogies to airlines and PCs, Galloway suggests that despite NVIDIA’s huge earnings, commoditized models and competition could limit durable moats in AI, pushing him to rotate away from richly valued U. ...
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Golden visas and Trump’s ‘Gold Card’ show how wealth can buy rights and sanctuary.
They note many countries already sell residency or citizenship, but a $5M U. ...
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Notable Quotes
“They believe there’s an in and an out crowd… The in crowd are protected by the law but not bound by it. The out crowd are bound by it but not protected by it.”
— Scott Galloway (citing Cory Doctorow’s framing)
“He wants a billionaire propaganda arm. If Musk can use X as a cudgel, Bezos can use the Washington Post as a cudgel.”
— Kara Swisher
“You should stay out of politics as a general rule for brands. I think we’re just getting started on how much this is going to hurt Tesla.”
— Scott Galloway
“Swing voters like the idea of efficiency. They hate Elon Musk.”
— Kara Swisher
“I think Doge is going to be over and done by the end of the year… Once he sees he’s actually losing money doing this, he’ll fade away.”
— Scott Galloway
Questions Answered in This Episode
If voters like government “efficiency” but strongly dislike Musk personally, how should Democrats and Republicans recalibrate their messaging around Doge and tech-industry reform?
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway dissect the emerging backlash against Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration’s Doge efficiency initiative and how it’s damaging both public trust and Tesla’s brand. ...
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At what point does a founder’s personal behavior justify consumers and investors walking away from an otherwise strong product, and are we crossing that line with Tesla?
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Does Bezos’s ideological reorientation of the Washington Post mark a broader turning point where major legacy news brands become openly partisan tools of billionaire owners?
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Could the AI boom realistically follow the PC/airline pattern where most value accrues to users and the broader economy rather than to a few dominant companies, and what would that mean for investors and regulators?
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How should democracies handle golden-visa programs that attract mobile capital but risk becoming havens for tax dodgers and politically exposed or corrupt elites?
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Transcript Preview
I don't want to hear about your erections. Can you move along, please? (instrumental music) Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
And I'm Scott Galloway.
Scott, how you doing? I finally finished my move. I moved.
Oh, congratulations.
Oh, Scott, it's like, ugh. I feel, like, so in need of not moving anymore, ever again.
Well, the good news is that probably won't happen. The next-
(laughs)
... the next move, you won't even be aware it's happening. You'll-
(laughs)
... you'll-
To-
... you'll have some-
... to the grave.
... you'll have... No.
Yeah.
No, no, no, no, no.
Oh.
You're not that old. You'll have some Filipino nurse saying-
Uh-huh.
... "It's okay, Ms., Ms. Swisher. Just follow me," and you'll be, like-
(laughs)
... "Where's, where's, you know, where's Grandpa?"
Uh-huh.
You'll, you'll just, will be so out of it, you won't even notice it.
Yeah, yeah. Grandpa, I'm a lesbian. Grandpa.
You'll, you'll literally... It'll be like watching a senator stroll around the halls-
I know.
... of, of the rotunda.
Oh, Jesus, those senators. Oh, well, I, I gotta tell you, Scott. Being in Wa... Like, right now, we're like, "Okay, now we're in Washington," and, like, we're like, "Should we leave Washington?" Because it's just so heinous. Although, we never see these people, so I guess who cares, right? Who cares?
I, I am... This is the dark side of me. I hate to admit this. I'd kinda welcome a measles outbreak in DC right now. I, I just think that... I think this surrender clown and his cabinet of, uh, the best friends measles ever had. I mean, at what point... And of course, it hits, uh, a small community in Lubbock. I mean, at what point does, do these literally head-up-your-ass, cruel, weird decisions come back to DC that... I saw this, this statement. I think it was from Cory Doctorow, and it just perfectly summarized. I really have a difficult time encapsulating what I think is going on, or the kind of gestalt of this elite class of tech bros and their, their representatives in Washington, the vice president and the president, and he summarized it perfectly. He said that they believe there's an in and an out crowd, and if you read, if you read Alex Karp's new book, it's basically engineers and innovators are the in crowd, and everybody else is the out crowd. And that essentially the theory is, and I think it's a philosopher, I forget which theory, is that with the in crowd, they are bound by the law, but not protected. Excuse me. With the in crowd, they are protected by the law, but not bound by it. And the out crowd is bound by it, but not protected by it.
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