Interview: The Man Who Asked the Question That Kicked Off The Trump vs. Musk Feud - White House Correspondent Jon Decker

The Man Who Asked the Question That Kicked Off The Trump vs. Musk Feud - White House Correspondent Jon Decker

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:20):
It all started like this yesterday, Elon.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Musk and your big beautiful Phil what's your reaction to that?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Do you think it in any way hurts passage in
the Senate, which is, of course what is your seeking?
Took on a life of its own after that, an
eight minute answer that ended up resulting in Elon Musk
going full gap band on Donald Trump, our own White
House correspondent John Decker, of course, the person who asked

(00:48):
that question.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
But John, you've done it this time.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Yeah. I did not anticipate the kind of tit for
chat that took place yesterday. That's being high in terms
of President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk going after each
other on social media and otherwise. But to me, I
was talking about it. I knew I was going to
be in the Oval Office yesterday. I knew that I
was going to ask that question if someone didn't beat

(01:13):
me to it, And for whatever reason, that was actually
my second question that I asked the President. The first
one was about his call with President she For whatever reason,
no one had asked asked the question that I think
was on so many people's minds. Why haven't you responded
in any way to the criticism that has been leveled
against your legislation, the Big Beautiful Bill by Elon Musk,

(01:34):
who's been in your camp since the Republican National Convention.
They've been tight with each other. He's been at the
White House for Cabinet meetings, he's traveled with him to
the Middle East Tomorrow Lago, and now that relationship has
completely severed.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
It was a remarkable series of events. I mean, it
was eight minutes approximately that he took to answer your question,
traveling down all kinds of windy roads pertaining to Elon,
a lot of which Elon immediately took exception to. And
then you saw the escalation of things from there leading

(02:10):
up to Elon's post. And there are several things that
obviously were sitting just below the surface. Now that it's
gone to this particular place, you know, you take a
look at the Epstein file situation, you would think this
would put that much more emphasis on getting that information
out there as quickly as possible. Of course, you have

(02:32):
the other questions surrounding Elon, which is as recently as
last week, and this would have been after he would
have theoretically come by this information. He was still saying
nice things about Trump, had his kid around him all that.
It's kind of hard to was he just going to
be like hunky Dory with this information in hand in
theory if things had been on the level with the president.
So what do you make of this? And from your perspective, John,

(02:55):
what where do we go from here?

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well, that's really interesting, you know. I was there was
a second event in the White House yesterday that I
was permitted to attend, and that was when the President
in the afternoon met with leaders from the Fraternal Order
of Police nationwide. He did not take any questions at
that event, But that was an opportunity to respond to
the president to some of the things that Elon Musk

(03:19):
had been posting on social media. He did not take
that opportunity. So to me, I don't you know, the
president is not one to let things just lie, you know,
there's going to be some sort of response. And the
President alluded to canceling contracts that Elon Musk's various companies
have with the federal government, and those are substantial contracts.

(03:41):
I know yesterday that Tesla stock lost fourteen percent of
its value and that means tens of billions of dollars
lost as it relates to what it's worth is on
the capital market. So this is not over by any
stretch of the imagination. It didn't end ye yesterday. And

(04:01):
the more important thing is as it relates to President Trump,
he wants passage of the big beautiful bill, and you
know he needs to keep his eye on the ball.
That should be the focus of the president, not this
sideshow between the President and Elon Musk.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, okay, And this is a good point.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
And so in a way, maybe Elon did Trump a
favor here. He had gained so much favor in GP
circles and with a lot of Trump supporters that he
might have had the influence to be able to kill
it as it currently sits, and maybe to get more
of what he wants the point where he went full
nuclear against Trump. Now you might wonder if it gives

(04:41):
the political leeway to Republicans to kind of get back
to doing what they were doing, because Elon kind of
made himself that person, and especially with Trump supporters, the
bond with Trump and his supporters is much greater than
the affinity that had grown for Elon.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
What do you think, Well, I think that that's an
excellent point that you raised, Brian. You know, before what
took place yesterday, you know, I always thought that, you know,
that gave cover to those deficit hawks who are in
the Senate, who are Republicans who might be opposed to
the President's legislation. That's before the blow up yesterday. Now

(05:20):
it may be framed as are are you with me
or are you with Elon? And I think that for
any member who's interested in their political future, whether it's
as a US Senator or higher office beyond that, you
have to put your lot with President Trump. He's got
a lot of power and can certainly put his thumb

(05:42):
on the scales if there is a competitive primary on
the Republican side. So maybe yesterday, to your point, Brian,
changed the dynamic in terms of where we see various
senators who may have been on the fence in terms
of supporting this legislation.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
John, You've had an incredible career. You've covered every president
since Bill Clinton. I don't know that you've ever made
the kind of news that you made yesterday.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Look it's one of many times actually over the past
thirty years where where things like that have blown up.
I think yesterday was remarkable. When I came out of
the Oval office after the President's meeting with the German Chancellor,
I knew that this was going to be big, that's
for sure. You know. I can recall on the first

(06:27):
term asking the President why he doesn't fire James Tomy.
That made, you know, a lot of news. And you know,
we spoke to each other back then, but this this
was pretty big. And you know, as I said to
you at the being again of our beginning of our conversation,
I don't think it's over just yet. We'll walk away
and see what happens for.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Were hearing there's a scheduled phone call today. We'll see
what goes on there. I don't know how you walk
back just kidding about the Epstein file thing. So I John,
I appreciate it as always incredible work. Look forward to
talking to you soon.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Thanks a lot Brian, have a good day and a
good weekend. We'll talk real soon. Abai