January 2, 2025 • 28 mins
Over the holiday break, Elon Musk was busy making news on X, furiously posting his way into a multipronged fight with ultra-right wing MAGA luminaries Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon about immigration visas. But over the past 24 hours, two other stories arguably overshadowed the civil war in Trumpland: a deadly Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas and some surprisingly bad sales numbers from Tesla. David Papadopoulos is joined by Max Chafkin and Dana Hull to break down the news.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, Jlon muskis now the richest person on the planet.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
More than half the satellites in space are owned and
controlled by one.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Man, starting his own artificial intelligence company.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Well, he's a legitimate super genius.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
I mean legitimate.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
He says.
Speaker 5 (00:27):
He's always voted for Democrats, but this year it will
be different.
Speaker 6 (00:30):
He'll vote Republican.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
There is a reason the US government is so reliant
on him. Elon Musk is a scam artist and he's
done nothing.
Speaker 6 (00:39):
Anything he does he is fascinating the people.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Welcome to elan Ak, Bloomberg's weekly podcast about Elon Musk, Thursday,
January second. I'm your host, David Papadoppolis. We are coming
to you today because there has been so much news
in the Musk universe that we decided it couldn't wait
until Tuesday. Let's begin with the most grave news. Yesterday
in Las Vegas, a cyber truck seemingly packed with explosives
(01:13):
detonated outside of a Trump Hotel property. Then this morning,
surprising Tesla sales numbers came out and they sent the
stock sharply downward. But before all of this, there was
a disturbance in the MAGA world, a spat over a
certain kind of American work visa I brought Elon Musk
to the brink of a cage match with Trump acolytes
(01:34):
like Steve Bannon and Laura Lumer. Expletives were exchanged, ex
accounts were demonetized, and Trump himself had the weigh in,
which oddly hasn't really stopped the fighting. So to discuss
all this, I'm joined by our regulars, Max Chafkin and
Dana Hallt.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Max and Dana. Happy twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Happy New Year, David, Happy New Year, Dana.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Great to be here.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Okay, So now we're recording around noon.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
New York time, and this is a fluid story. New
developments keep emerging. But Dana Hella, at this point, what
exactly do we know about the cyber truck that exploded
outside that Trump property.
Speaker 7 (02:18):
So the latest is that a man packed this cyber
truck with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters and was
driving up and down in Las Vegas and then parked
the car in front of this Trump hotel and then
the car exploded and he died in the process, and
other people were injured. Thankfully, no one severely injured, and
(02:38):
the FBI is kind of widening its probe to see
if there are any potential links between this incident and
the horrible attack that happened in New Orleans also on
New Year's Day. Elon Musk has kind of jumped in
and is working very closely with the authorities. And the
thing to remember about Tesla vehicles is that Tesla has
a lot of data about the vehicles where they like,
(03:00):
for where they were charged, for example, So Tesla can
go back and see this guy's route from Colorado to
Las Vegas and they will know where which superchargers he use.
So I think my sense is that Tesla's working very
closely with the Las Vegas authorities. And you know, Musk
has kind of made the most of this moment, you know,
arguing that the damage would have been much worse, that
(03:21):
the cyber truck is so strong that it contained the
blast and helped save lives, and you know, the cyber
truck is kind of this tank from the future, and
so in some ways, like you know, they are kind
I mean, I don't want to go so far as
to say that Musk is using this as a marketing scheme,
but he is kind of making the most of the
fact that only the driver of the truck died in
(03:44):
this whole event.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I mean, Musk is doing what he always does, which
is take whatever is going on in the news and
comment on it. You know, He's he sort of has
this instinctive ability to like pick up on what the
big story is. This is, you know, unfortunately along with
the attack in New Orleans. It's a big story, and
he is, as Dana said, like kind of commenting on
some of this stuff in what I think most people
(04:07):
see a sort of poor taste, like sort of again
promoting the cyber truck as like the best deterrent to
this kind of attack because it's so strong and powerful,
which maybe is getting a little ahead of the story,
although it is, Hey, it's great that you know, nobody
was seriously hurt in Las Vegas, so.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Max, it doesn't theme like a random thing that this truck,
this cyber truck was used outside of Trump property, given
the strong link between the two men at this point.
But we do not actually know that at this point,
at this point, that it was chosen on purpose.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Correct, No, we don't, and we don't really know anything
about this attack. And I mean, that's that's you know,
beyond what's been reported and basically what Dana has has outlined.
Of course, you know, Elon Musk he has become a visible,
you know, sign of the new administration, and this cyber
truck is the probably the most you know visible of
(05:07):
the cars, like it sort of looks the most distinctive
by design, so it's it's not hard to imagine that
that there was some sort of connection here. He's also
been complaining about media reporting, essentially using this as like
another you know case in his very extensive, you know
file against the media, claiming that because some news outlets
(05:30):
put cyber truck in the headline of this car bombing attack,
that was somehow evidence of unfairness or or that you know,
they're trying to imply that there was something wrong with
the cyber truck, which is again I think that's part
of the reason he was sort of going out of
his way to like talk up the I guess like
bomb smothering capabilities of this vehicle.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
I suppose it's germane or seen as Germane, because the
cyber truck, as you're saying, is a symbol of Tassel
and Elon Musk and and that is a Trump property.
And I guess just people are just trying, you know,
reading a link between the two. I would suppose that's
why it's remaining in the head line.
Speaker 7 (06:04):
To Max's point, Tesla crashes and fires always get headlines,
whereas like, you know, like there are car crashes every
day and we and you don't hear about them. And
so Elon's point is that this is media clickbait, just
using Tesla as an egregious reason. You know that the
New Orleans attack wasn't you know, Ford pickup truck used
(06:26):
in you know, New Orleans attack. I mean, we don't care.
Like so, I think that Tesla does have a beef
to grind, which is that, you know, like their vehicles
are always in the headline whenever there's an accident, whenever
there's a fire, whenever someone dies in a car, and
we don't see that with other vehicles so much.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
That's interesting.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
But is that a reaction to Pethla It felf the
branded THELF or is that fear of the electric battery
in general?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
It's both. It's both. It's both.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
Lithium ion batteries when they catch on fire, tend to
burn for a very long time, and so like the NTSP,
it has always been very interested in.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Lithium ion battery fires.
Speaker 7 (07:03):
Tesla has the most electric cars on the road, so
you know, just just by virtue of their market size,
you're going to hear more about those accidents. And then
similarly with autopilot, there have been several crashes involving autopilot
that NITZA has also looked at. So it's like this
never ending loop where because regulatory agencies are interested in
these crashes, they make headlines. But then also because the
(07:26):
headlines get traffic, a lot of news organizations do focus
on the crashes and the name and model and make
of the car when they don't in other instances with
other automakers, and that's been an issue that Tesla has
been really pissed off about for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
That said, the.
Speaker 7 (07:40):
Fact that it was a cyber truck and Trump tower,
it's like it's very newsy.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
You've got some keywords there.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Yeah, yeah, well we will.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
I'm sure come back to this next week as as
new developments.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Warrant.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Now, Dana, you are actually on vacation today, but you're
so dedicated to the story and to the news including
didn't miss.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
An emergency episode.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Couldn't miss an emergency episode, and we thank you for that,
as do our listeners. Now, there was also this morning
there were fourth quarter sales.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
They came out.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
It looks like the fourth quarter numbers were kind of good,
but overall, indeed we have had a drop year over year.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Give us a little bit of the detail there.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, so Tesla had a record quarter.
Speaker 7 (08:33):
They delivered like four hundred and ninety five thousand plus cars,
but like they missed. It was the first year over
year decline in like over a decade. So you know,
Tesla had warned investors earlier this year that they were
in between two growth waves, and we're seeing that, like, yeah,
they're not growing. I mean, this is and this is
a big problem for Tesla because their lineup is very
(08:54):
old and their newest model is the cyber Truck. But
the cyber Truck they don't even break out how many
cars they sold. It's still like lumped in with the
S and the X under other models, which is like
less than five percent of their sales. So they are
not growing and they don't have another car coming in
their lineup. I mean, at some point we'll probably see
(09:14):
the model why refresh, And they've hinted at like a
sort of cheaper car, but everyone thinks that that's just
going to be like a de contented three or y like, So.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
The lineup is old.
Speaker 7 (09:24):
Elon is bored of making cars, as I've said before,
and like the future of the company is really about
the robotaxi and autonomy and AI and kind of pivoting
away from big volume and toward you know, this robotaxi idea.
But you know, you're just this is just it's a
big deal for Tesla. This is the first year in
like a decade that they've not shown growth.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
Now, Max, if I were to give you two statements,
you know the part of the year, I think you
would have told me I was crazy at the start
of last year. Statement number one, Tesla's sales growth will
sputter so badly, worse than the company thought, worse than
(10:07):
analysts on Wall Street thought, so badly that it actually
posted decline in sales for the first time. As Dana
said in a decade one. Two, the stock will slump
early in the year and then absolutely skyrocket some two
at one point to smash record high.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
No, I mean You're right, it's it's kind of crazy.
I mean, on the other hand, what you had, what
you left out of that story is the election of
Donald Trump and the way that that has kind of
impacted the stock price. You have a lot of people
making some sort of Trump trade. We've talked about this
a lot where doesn't feel based in any kind of reality.
It feels like a vibes thing or whatever. And you're
(10:50):
sort of seeing the limits of that, or the beginnings
of the limits of that, we don't know. So you
have two things going on. One is that, as Dana said,
Tesla's you know sort of car business has been sort
of stagnating and stagnating, you know, still very large, but
not growing in the way that Elon Musk, you know,
just going back till not too long ago, I was
talking about we're going to see, you know, roughly fifty
(11:10):
percent growth every year as far as I can see.
So you have this kind of stagnating car business where
he where Elon Musk, despite the cyber truck, despite efforts
to kind of refresh the Model three and you know
eventually other models, it hasn't it isn't appealing enough to
customers keep up these growth rates. And then you have
(11:31):
the question of what Elon musk support is doing with
car buyers. Dan and I have been writing about this
and talking about this for a long time. But the
possibility that having this kind of trolling, you know, magnified,
you know, constantly waiting into every single crisis he can
find on Twitter, that that could be turning some people off,
(11:52):
and I suspect it is. Although it's it's very hard
to know how much that's affecting people, Mack, can.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
I ask you it is indeed difficult to know exactly
how much. But we're going to keep driving at that
question over the course of the year.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
But let me ask you this question.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Safe to say that right now, Tesla and the Broader
muth Empire is the most politicized major company in the
country right now.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, I can't imagine another's Trump Trump Inc.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Or whatever.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Maybe the only other one.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I mean, my pillow or something.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Okay, but is my pillow I'm not sure Max, is
my pillow qualifies a major US company? I guess it
depends on how we define major.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
Because my next question then would be this, like in
recent history, can we think of any example of a
company of its size one of the largest companies in
this country that.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Is so affiliated with a certain president and a certain party.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I mean, there's an obvious one, which is you know,
News Corporation slash twenty first Century Fox. You know Rupert
Murdoch his media pile.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Okay, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Where where he has at times, you know, and and
that that empire has been sort of divided up, and
you know, the movie studio is no longer part of
the company. But you know where where where Rupert mroc
is very closely allied with one political party and nonetheless
has managed to have a successful, kind of growing company.
And and so that and I think that sort of
(13:22):
works when you're talking about something like X, where where
we've sort of seen X actually in some in some
ways thrive under Musk's ownership, and of course in some
way stagnate. But when you're talking about car company, Yeah,
that that's where it's it's much harder to think of
a parallel.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Well, I guess, I guess the the issue is that
they're indeed under that model pursued by Murdoch. There were
enough eyeballs and ears from the conservative from Conservative America
to make that go. Are there enough as you're saying, though,
Max uh drivers conservative drives to make it go uh
(14:02):
for for mosque, And.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, I think there was a there was hope. I
think when Elon among sort of like Tesla bulls, and
people were trying to see a strategy behind you know,
Elon Musk shift to the right rather than that than
just like he is ideologically the right, he's expressing his views,
you know, via his money, or that there was some
kind of larger strategy here. The thought was, Okay, maybe
he's trying to get sort of people in red states
(14:28):
who have not hitherto embraced electric vehicles to embrace them.
And I think that kind of made sense as a
thought because again, Musk's main customer base has not been
you know, among people in rural areas, people were Trump voters.
But we're just not seeing I don't think we're seeing
yet that that kind of shift, like like the cyber truck,
(14:49):
as Dana has said, has not taken off in the
way that I think Elon Musk hoped, and like some
of that I think has to do with the difficulty
in manufacturing it. They haven't been able prices maybe as
you know, much as they would have liked, and as
a result, you have this very expensive luxury vehicle, but
also just because that's not what a lot of consumers want,
(15:10):
and Musk has sort of pivoted the company away from
his own customer base.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
But Dan, I just wanted to go back to you.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
I mean that point I was raising with Max about
how much the sales for Tesla have sputtered and how much.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
The stock is up.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
Even though the stock has given up some of those
gains over the last week or so and it's a
down again on this.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Sales report, it still just strikes.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Me, though, that you have a very very large gap
right now between expectations of what those Trump ties can
deliver for the company and what the reality on the
ground is for this company.
Speaker 7 (15:53):
Yeah, but I think, I mean, I'll just say this,
the reality on the ground is still that Tesla is
the market leader when it comes to selling ev.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
In the United States.
Speaker 7 (16:01):
Tesla is still in a really good position. And the
other thing to notice about their release today is that
they have a line in there about their energy storage products.
And I keep saying this over and over again, great,
great quarter, Like they have installed a lot of their
batteries and you know, the future is AI.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
There's going to be enormous electricity demands.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
Energy storage is a key way that utilities are going
to be able to give us more electricity. And like
Elon has said over and over again that like the
growth and energy storage is going to eclipse that of
the car business. And so I just would really try
to encourage everyone to expand their understanding of Tesla. It
is not just a car company. It is a battery
company that makes cars and makes standalone energy storage products.
(16:44):
And in twenty twenty five, you're just going to see
them really focus on storage because it's just key to
the whole future of AI and these enormous electricity demands
that the United States has. And so you know, Elon
has said that like the company is in between two
growth waves. So on the one hand, like you would
think that the fact that they have year year sales
decline would be this atrocious thing for the stock, But
(17:06):
look at the stock today. I mean it's down a
little bit, It's not like it's not like down ten percent,
Like it just doesn't move on fundamentals.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
It moves on vibes.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
And like the vibe is that like inauguration is in
nineteen days, and like, I'm sure Elon will be there,
and like I wouldn't be surprised if like Trump rolls
through the inauguration in the cyber truck. You know, like
we're just gonna see some crazy things going forward.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
We need to talk about one more thing in our
emergency pod here and Max as usual on such subjects.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
I know absolutely nothing.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Because I was on vacation for a while and I
was trying to tune out as best I can. But
I do understand that there's been a disturbance in the
Elon magaverse.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Tell me all about it.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well, you just use those two turns kind of almost
as synonymous Elon magaversus, as if they're won. But what
we learned over the Christmas holiday is that they very
much aren't. And if you're thinking about kind of threats
to Elon Musk and Elon Musk's empire from the left,
you know, because people who don't like Donald Trump are mad,
(18:18):
and you know they're they're gonna buy a Hyundai instead
of a Tesla, you need to also start thinking about
threats to Musk and his empire from the right. So
what happened is that Laura Lumer who's a kind of
a far right activist. She's sort of been around Maga
world for almost a decade. Has you know, immigration is
a big issue for her. She's been banned on Twitter.
(18:38):
She's one of the people that Elon Musk brought back.
She posted a message on x criticizing one of Trump's
kind of like tech adjacent appointees. This guy, Swiram Krishnan,
who is a venture capitalist, was part of the kind
of Elon Musk kitchen cabinet during the Twitter you know,
when he took over Twitter, and she based said that, like,
(19:01):
this is a career leftist who and is part of
this tech takeover of Trump World. Now that's that's not
entirely true. Chrishnan isn't isn't really a career leftist, but
but she was kind of right that you've you've had
a bunch of these sort of Elon adjacent figures with
very few connections to to the magavers who are now
(19:24):
in positions of influence. And this kicked off an enormous
Twitter war between Musk and Laura Lumer and Steve Bannon
and a bunch of other figures on the on the
kind of far right, the kind of kind of og
magas over this person who they see as a as
a pretender. And so that's where we are today. They're
still fighting and.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
Is this person has is Trump uh wavered at all
in the nomination of this person?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
No Trump, And in fact Trump has kind of in
various ways posted some signs of agreement with Musk. He
he called up reporter from the New York Post and
mentioned his support over the H one B visa program,
which is which was which kind of became the core
of the argument.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Max remind us ver a second, what exactly the H
one B visa is?
Speaker 4 (20:11):
All right?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
So, the H one B visa is a way that
tech companies and other companies bring in skilled workers on
a temporary basis from outside of the US. It's a
temporary visa program. It's really popular among tech companies. Facebook, Google,
and Tesla make a lot of use of this. Elon
(20:33):
Musk is a big fan. And this became kind of
like the focal point of the disagreement because in the
past Donald Trump had been like a big critic of
H one B visas. Elon Musk is apparently a big fan,
and he kind of went nuclear in defense of this thing.
You know, basically just going just doing what he does,
which is like post a lot of inflammatory stuff, essentially
(20:57):
calling anyone who posed him you know, some slur you know.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Should I read it?
Speaker 7 (21:02):
Should I read out the read out the tweet?
Speaker 4 (21:05):
You better do it, Dan, hate us with it? Dan?
Speaker 7 (21:08):
Okay, this is Elon's tweet from over the holidays. The
reason I'm in America, along with so many critical people
who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that
made America strong is because of h one. B take
a big step back and yourself in the face. I
will go to war on this issue.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The likes of which you cannot imagine.
Speaker 7 (21:26):
So yeah, I mean he put a stake in the
ground and that that's like a real rift with the
original MAGA people who are all like America first, we
don't we want no immigration whatsoever.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
So I want to understand this here, I'm to take
a well it's not me, but if I were to
you push you take a big state back, big step back,
and then you yourself.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
In the face, Yes, world's richest man.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
Well but okay, so you know you Max earlier, you
said Bannon jumped into the fray coming to the support
of Laura Lumer.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
I think we have some tape from him. Let's listen
to it. Now.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
This is central to how they gut it the middle
class in this country. And we haven't fought these battles
over years and years and years to allow American citizens
of every race, ethnicity, religion be gutted by the sociopathic
overlords in Silicon Valley. So no, David Sachs and Vivek
(22:19):
Ramaswami and Elon musk nor your complete collapse and you're thinking, oh, we're.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Just trying to reform it. We're just trying to have
a conversation. We're on it from it.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
No, there's no reformation, no reform. We want it gone.
We demand that it's gone, and we're going to fight
for this and not just gone. I've got another alternative.
We want reparations for the tech workers that you stole
their lives.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
I mean, this sounds pretty sporty. I suspect this is
going to be a storyline throughout twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I don't know that H one B specifically is the storyline,
despite Bennet's promise, right, But I think what this is
is one of many issues where they are going to
be big device. I mean, the thing that's going on
here is Elon Musk and Donald Trump are like not
natural allies, and yet Elon Musk has extremely close access,
(23:11):
you know, to the President elect, and like those two
things are creating problems with people who also want influence
and access and do not necessarily favor policies that you know,
tech companies favor.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
So we could be talking we're.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Talking about you know, H one B, which is a
thing that tech companies like that Elon Musk likes. We
could be talking about crypto rules or AI rules or
Elon Musk's defense contracts. And what's so interesting about this
dispute to me anyway, is that Bannon and Lumer and
some of these other folks are actually keying in to
this kind of like larger question.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
One of the one of the tweets during this back
and forth uh with Laura Lumer, she called Elon Musk
a stage five clinger.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Helped me out, helped me out, Max. What's the stage five?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I think the implication is he's spending too much time
at mar A Lago and so and and so, like,
you know, it's like they've gotten a few zingers and
they've they've pointed out a few things that are sort
of you know, obviously true, like Elon Musk does not
see one to eye with the kind of traditional magabase
in so many ways. So like this is I don't
know if H one B is the thing, but this
(24:16):
is going to be a thing for sure.
Speaker 7 (24:18):
Yeah, And they see him as like a Johnny cum Litley.
I mean, the people that were with you know, Trump
early on and during his first campaign, like they don't
really like the fact that like Musk and like the
Silicon Valley guys are now interlopers in the in their scene.
And so there's this like sort of old guard new
guard like battle for power, like Lumer got kicked off
the campaign trail and where it whereas like Elon was
(24:40):
like campaigning for Trump, you know, both at Butler and
at Madison Square Garden and so so it's just you know,
the battle for proximity and access, but also like who's
the real og. I mean, I think that people that
were with Trump from early on are really resentful of
these guys and their and their power.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Now.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
I think these are This is related to the other
two stories we just talked about, Like Elon Musk has
made a choice when he endorsed Donald Trump, and when
he went all in on the on doing so, and
you know, giving you know, hundreds of billions of dollars,
becoming his biggest donor, putting the Maga hat on, and
like we are seeing kind of with all three of
(25:19):
these stories, some of the consequences of that choice, like
the cyber truck now is has become a symbol of Trump,
who is a controvers controversial symbol. We're seeing potentially left
wing buyers not want to buy Tesla's and now on
the right we're seeing buyers like it. In a way,
Elon Musk is, he's never been more powerful. He's at
the arm of the future president of the United States.
(25:41):
Tesla Stock, as you said, is way way the heck up.
On the other hand, he really feels like he's in
an ever smaller political box where you have the left
on one side and the kind of far right on
the other.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
Yeah. So, I mean it is a great point that
you know, this gamble he's made on Trump has worked
out in me anyways spectacularly well so far. But it
absolutely is simultaneously an incredible blessing for him and also
a curse that brings its risks and its potential downsides. Mac,
(26:14):
Can I give you a small assignment before we get
back on next week?
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Can I?
Speaker 5 (26:21):
Can I ask you to try to walk, you know,
work through and understand the mechanics of that that taking
a big step back and.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Then putting yourself in the face and then report back to.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
Okay, I'll come equips with white boys.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Mac.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
The mail keeps coming in, uh to elon incot Bloomberg
dot end.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
That's right, I've been really enjoying. Are we going to
read those now? We're gonna wait till We're not going to.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Read them now.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
This is just a teas to say that they keep
coming in, keep sending them in thoughts, ideas, things you love,
things you hate, bumper sticker ideas, feud ideas and so
on and so forth. And we will dig into the mailbox,
uh next week, or I should say we will dig
into the mail bag. We're calling it a mail bag
or a mail box.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
What's the email address?
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Again? The mail bag?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
What is it you want to ink at? Bloomberg dot net.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Danna, thank you so much for joining us. Now go
enjoy the rest of your day off.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
I will thank you.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
This episode was produced by Stacey Wong. Anna Masarrakas is
our editor and Rayhan Harmanski our senior editor. The idea
for this very show also came from Rayhan. Blake Maples
handles engineering, and David Purcell fact checks. Our supervising producer
is Magnus Hendrickson.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
The Elon Inc.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Theme is written and performed by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Sugiera.
Brendan Francis Nunham is our executive producer, and Stage Bauman
is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. A big thanks as
always to our supporters Joel Weber and Bradstone. I'm David Papadopolis.
If you have a minute, rate and review our show,
it'll help other listeners find us.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
See you next week.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, Jlon muskis now the richest person on the planet.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
More than half the satellites in space are owned and
controlled by one.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Man, starting his own artificial intelligence company.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Well, he's a legitimate super genius.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
I mean legitimate.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
He says.
Speaker 5 (00:27):
He's always voted for Democrats, but this year it will
be different.
Speaker 6 (00:30):
He'll vote Republican.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
There is a reason the US government is so reliant
on him. Elon Musk is a scam artist and he's
done nothing.
Speaker 6 (00:39):
Anything he does he is fascinating the people.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Welcome to elan Ak, Bloomberg's weekly podcast about Elon Musk, Thursday,
January second. I'm your host, David Papadoppolis. We are coming
to you today because there has been so much news
in the Musk universe that we decided it couldn't wait
until Tuesday. Let's begin with the most grave news. Yesterday
in Las Vegas, a cyber truck seemingly packed with explosives
(01:13):
detonated outside of a Trump Hotel property. Then this morning,
surprising Tesla sales numbers came out and they sent the
stock sharply downward. But before all of this, there was
a disturbance in the MAGA world, a spat over a
certain kind of American work visa I brought Elon Musk
to the brink of a cage match with Trump acolytes
(01:34):
like Steve Bannon and Laura Lumer. Expletives were exchanged, ex
accounts were demonetized, and Trump himself had the weigh in,
which oddly hasn't really stopped the fighting. So to discuss
all this, I'm joined by our regulars, Max Chafkin and
Dana Hallt.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Max and Dana. Happy twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Happy New Year, David, Happy New Year, Dana.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Great to be here.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Okay, So now we're recording around noon.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
New York time, and this is a fluid story. New
developments keep emerging. But Dana Hella, at this point, what
exactly do we know about the cyber truck that exploded
outside that Trump property.
Speaker 7 (02:18):
So the latest is that a man packed this cyber
truck with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters and was
driving up and down in Las Vegas and then parked
the car in front of this Trump hotel and then
the car exploded and he died in the process, and
other people were injured. Thankfully, no one severely injured, and
(02:38):
the FBI is kind of widening its probe to see
if there are any potential links between this incident and
the horrible attack that happened in New Orleans also on
New Year's Day. Elon Musk has kind of jumped in
and is working very closely with the authorities. And the
thing to remember about Tesla vehicles is that Tesla has
a lot of data about the vehicles where they like,
(03:00):
for where they were charged, for example, So Tesla can
go back and see this guy's route from Colorado to
Las Vegas and they will know where which superchargers he use.
So I think my sense is that Tesla's working very
closely with the Las Vegas authorities. And you know, Musk
has kind of made the most of this moment, you know,
arguing that the damage would have been much worse, that
(03:21):
the cyber truck is so strong that it contained the
blast and helped save lives, and you know, the cyber
truck is kind of this tank from the future, and
so in some ways, like you know, they are kind
I mean, I don't want to go so far as
to say that Musk is using this as a marketing scheme,
but he is kind of making the most of the
fact that only the driver of the truck died in
(03:44):
this whole event.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I mean, Musk is doing what he always does, which
is take whatever is going on in the news and
comment on it. You know, He's he sort of has
this instinctive ability to like pick up on what the
big story is. This is, you know, unfortunately along with
the attack in New Orleans. It's a big story, and
he is, as Dana said, like kind of commenting on
some of this stuff in what I think most people
(04:07):
see a sort of poor taste, like sort of again
promoting the cyber truck as like the best deterrent to
this kind of attack because it's so strong and powerful,
which maybe is getting a little ahead of the story,
although it is, Hey, it's great that you know, nobody
was seriously hurt in Las Vegas, so.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Max, it doesn't theme like a random thing that this truck,
this cyber truck was used outside of Trump property, given
the strong link between the two men at this point.
But we do not actually know that at this point,
at this point, that it was chosen on purpose.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Correct, No, we don't, and we don't really know anything
about this attack. And I mean, that's that's you know,
beyond what's been reported and basically what Dana has has outlined.
Of course, you know, Elon Musk he has become a visible,
you know, sign of the new administration, and this cyber
truck is the probably the most you know visible of
(05:07):
the cars, like it sort of looks the most distinctive
by design, so it's it's not hard to imagine that
that there was some sort of connection here. He's also
been complaining about media reporting, essentially using this as like
another you know case in his very extensive, you know
file against the media, claiming that because some news outlets
(05:30):
put cyber truck in the headline of this car bombing attack,
that was somehow evidence of unfairness or or that you know,
they're trying to imply that there was something wrong with
the cyber truck, which is again I think that's part
of the reason he was sort of going out of
his way to like talk up the I guess like
bomb smothering capabilities of this vehicle.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
I suppose it's germane or seen as Germane, because the
cyber truck, as you're saying, is a symbol of Tassel
and Elon Musk and and that is a Trump property.
And I guess just people are just trying, you know,
reading a link between the two. I would suppose that's
why it's remaining in the head line.
Speaker 7 (06:04):
To Max's point, Tesla crashes and fires always get headlines,
whereas like, you know, like there are car crashes every
day and we and you don't hear about them. And
so Elon's point is that this is media clickbait, just
using Tesla as an egregious reason. You know that the
New Orleans attack wasn't you know, Ford pickup truck used
(06:26):
in you know, New Orleans attack. I mean, we don't care.
Like so, I think that Tesla does have a beef
to grind, which is that, you know, like their vehicles
are always in the headline whenever there's an accident, whenever
there's a fire, whenever someone dies in a car, and
we don't see that with other vehicles so much.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
That's interesting.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
But is that a reaction to Pethla It felf the
branded THELF or is that fear of the electric battery
in general?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
It's both. It's both. It's both.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
Lithium ion batteries when they catch on fire, tend to
burn for a very long time, and so like the NTSP,
it has always been very interested in.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Lithium ion battery fires.
Speaker 7 (07:03):
Tesla has the most electric cars on the road, so
you know, just just by virtue of their market size,
you're going to hear more about those accidents. And then
similarly with autopilot, there have been several crashes involving autopilot
that NITZA has also looked at. So it's like this
never ending loop where because regulatory agencies are interested in
these crashes, they make headlines. But then also because the
(07:26):
headlines get traffic, a lot of news organizations do focus
on the crashes and the name and model and make
of the car when they don't in other instances with
other automakers, and that's been an issue that Tesla has
been really pissed off about for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
That said, the.
Speaker 7 (07:40):
Fact that it was a cyber truck and Trump tower,
it's like it's very newsy.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
You've got some keywords there.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Yeah, yeah, well we will.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
I'm sure come back to this next week as as
new developments.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Warrant.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Now, Dana, you are actually on vacation today, but you're
so dedicated to the story and to the news including
didn't miss.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
An emergency episode.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Couldn't miss an emergency episode, and we thank you for that,
as do our listeners. Now, there was also this morning
there were fourth quarter sales.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
They came out.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
It looks like the fourth quarter numbers were kind of good,
but overall, indeed we have had a drop year over year.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Give us a little bit of the detail there.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, so Tesla had a record quarter.
Speaker 7 (08:33):
They delivered like four hundred and ninety five thousand plus cars,
but like they missed. It was the first year over
year decline in like over a decade. So you know,
Tesla had warned investors earlier this year that they were
in between two growth waves, and we're seeing that, like, yeah,
they're not growing. I mean, this is and this is
a big problem for Tesla because their lineup is very
(08:54):
old and their newest model is the cyber Truck. But
the cyber Truck they don't even break out how many
cars they sold. It's still like lumped in with the
S and the X under other models, which is like
less than five percent of their sales. So they are
not growing and they don't have another car coming in
their lineup. I mean, at some point we'll probably see
(09:14):
the model why refresh, And they've hinted at like a
sort of cheaper car, but everyone thinks that that's just
going to be like a de contented three or y like, So.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
The lineup is old.
Speaker 7 (09:24):
Elon is bored of making cars, as I've said before,
and like the future of the company is really about
the robotaxi and autonomy and AI and kind of pivoting
away from big volume and toward you know, this robotaxi idea.
But you know, you're just this is just it's a
big deal for Tesla. This is the first year in
like a decade that they've not shown growth.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
Now, Max, if I were to give you two statements,
you know the part of the year, I think you
would have told me I was crazy at the start
of last year. Statement number one, Tesla's sales growth will
sputter so badly, worse than the company thought, worse than
(10:07):
analysts on Wall Street thought, so badly that it actually
posted decline in sales for the first time. As Dana
said in a decade one. Two, the stock will slump
early in the year and then absolutely skyrocket some two
at one point to smash record high.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
No, I mean You're right, it's it's kind of crazy.
I mean, on the other hand, what you had, what
you left out of that story is the election of
Donald Trump and the way that that has kind of
impacted the stock price. You have a lot of people
making some sort of Trump trade. We've talked about this
a lot where doesn't feel based in any kind of reality.
It feels like a vibes thing or whatever. And you're
(10:50):
sort of seeing the limits of that, or the beginnings
of the limits of that, we don't know. So you
have two things going on. One is that, as Dana said,
Tesla's you know sort of car business has been sort
of stagnating and stagnating, you know, still very large, but
not growing in the way that Elon Musk, you know,
just going back till not too long ago, I was
talking about we're going to see, you know, roughly fifty
(11:10):
percent growth every year as far as I can see.
So you have this kind of stagnating car business where
he where Elon Musk, despite the cyber truck, despite efforts
to kind of refresh the Model three and you know
eventually other models, it hasn't it isn't appealing enough to
customers keep up these growth rates. And then you have
(11:31):
the question of what Elon musk support is doing with
car buyers. Dan and I have been writing about this
and talking about this for a long time. But the
possibility that having this kind of trolling, you know, magnified,
you know, constantly waiting into every single crisis he can
find on Twitter, that that could be turning some people off,
(11:52):
and I suspect it is. Although it's it's very hard
to know how much that's affecting people, Mack, can.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
I ask you it is indeed difficult to know exactly
how much. But we're going to keep driving at that
question over the course of the year.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
But let me ask you this question.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Safe to say that right now, Tesla and the Broader
muth Empire is the most politicized major company in the
country right now.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, I can't imagine another's Trump Trump Inc.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Or whatever.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Maybe the only other one.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I mean, my pillow or something.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Okay, but is my pillow I'm not sure Max, is
my pillow qualifies a major US company? I guess it
depends on how we define major.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
Because my next question then would be this, like in
recent history, can we think of any example of a
company of its size one of the largest companies in
this country that.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Is so affiliated with a certain president and a certain party.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I mean, there's an obvious one, which is you know,
News Corporation slash twenty first Century Fox. You know Rupert
Murdoch his media pile.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Okay, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Where where he has at times, you know, and and
that that empire has been sort of divided up, and
you know, the movie studio is no longer part of
the company. But you know where where where Rupert mroc
is very closely allied with one political party and nonetheless
has managed to have a successful, kind of growing company.
And and so that and I think that sort of
(13:22):
works when you're talking about something like X, where where
we've sort of seen X actually in some in some
ways thrive under Musk's ownership, and of course in some
way stagnate. But when you're talking about car company, Yeah,
that that's where it's it's much harder to think of
a parallel.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Well, I guess, I guess the the issue is that
they're indeed under that model pursued by Murdoch. There were
enough eyeballs and ears from the conservative from Conservative America
to make that go. Are there enough as you're saying, though,
Max uh drivers conservative drives to make it go uh
(14:02):
for for mosque, And.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, I think there was a there was hope. I
think when Elon among sort of like Tesla bulls, and
people were trying to see a strategy behind you know,
Elon Musk shift to the right rather than that than
just like he is ideologically the right, he's expressing his views,
you know, via his money, or that there was some
kind of larger strategy here. The thought was, Okay, maybe
he's trying to get sort of people in red states
(14:28):
who have not hitherto embraced electric vehicles to embrace them.
And I think that kind of made sense as a
thought because again, Musk's main customer base has not been
you know, among people in rural areas, people were Trump voters.
But we're just not seeing I don't think we're seeing
yet that that kind of shift, like like the cyber truck,
(14:49):
as Dana has said, has not taken off in the
way that I think Elon Musk hoped, and like some
of that I think has to do with the difficulty
in manufacturing it. They haven't been able prices maybe as
you know, much as they would have liked, and as
a result, you have this very expensive luxury vehicle, but
also just because that's not what a lot of consumers want,
(15:10):
and Musk has sort of pivoted the company away from
his own customer base.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
But Dan, I just wanted to go back to you.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
I mean that point I was raising with Max about
how much the sales for Tesla have sputtered and how much.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
The stock is up.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
Even though the stock has given up some of those
gains over the last week or so and it's a
down again on this.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Sales report, it still just strikes.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Me, though, that you have a very very large gap
right now between expectations of what those Trump ties can
deliver for the company and what the reality on the
ground is for this company.
Speaker 7 (15:53):
Yeah, but I think, I mean, I'll just say this,
the reality on the ground is still that Tesla is
the market leader when it comes to selling ev.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
In the United States.
Speaker 7 (16:01):
Tesla is still in a really good position. And the
other thing to notice about their release today is that
they have a line in there about their energy storage products.
And I keep saying this over and over again, great,
great quarter, Like they have installed a lot of their
batteries and you know, the future is AI.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
There's going to be enormous electricity demands.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
Energy storage is a key way that utilities are going
to be able to give us more electricity. And like
Elon has said over and over again that like the
growth and energy storage is going to eclipse that of
the car business. And so I just would really try
to encourage everyone to expand their understanding of Tesla. It
is not just a car company. It is a battery
company that makes cars and makes standalone energy storage products.
(16:44):
And in twenty twenty five, you're just going to see
them really focus on storage because it's just key to
the whole future of AI and these enormous electricity demands
that the United States has. And so you know, Elon
has said that like the company is in between two
growth waves. So on the one hand, like you would
think that the fact that they have year year sales
decline would be this atrocious thing for the stock, But
(17:06):
look at the stock today. I mean it's down a
little bit, It's not like it's not like down ten percent,
Like it just doesn't move on fundamentals.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
It moves on vibes.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
And like the vibe is that like inauguration is in
nineteen days, and like, I'm sure Elon will be there,
and like I wouldn't be surprised if like Trump rolls
through the inauguration in the cyber truck. You know, like
we're just gonna see some crazy things going forward.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
We need to talk about one more thing in our
emergency pod here and Max as usual on such subjects.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
I know absolutely nothing.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Because I was on vacation for a while and I
was trying to tune out as best I can. But
I do understand that there's been a disturbance in the
Elon magaverse.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Tell me all about it.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well, you just use those two turns kind of almost
as synonymous Elon magaversus, as if they're won. But what
we learned over the Christmas holiday is that they very
much aren't. And if you're thinking about kind of threats
to Elon Musk and Elon Musk's empire from the left,
you know, because people who don't like Donald Trump are mad,
(18:18):
and you know they're they're gonna buy a Hyundai instead
of a Tesla, you need to also start thinking about
threats to Musk and his empire from the right. So
what happened is that Laura Lumer who's a kind of
a far right activist. She's sort of been around Maga
world for almost a decade. Has you know, immigration is
a big issue for her. She's been banned on Twitter.
(18:38):
She's one of the people that Elon Musk brought back.
She posted a message on x criticizing one of Trump's
kind of like tech adjacent appointees. This guy, Swiram Krishnan,
who is a venture capitalist, was part of the kind
of Elon Musk kitchen cabinet during the Twitter you know,
when he took over Twitter, and she based said that, like,
(19:01):
this is a career leftist who and is part of
this tech takeover of Trump World. Now that's that's not
entirely true. Chrishnan isn't isn't really a career leftist, but
but she was kind of right that you've you've had
a bunch of these sort of Elon adjacent figures with
very few connections to to the magavers who are now
(19:24):
in positions of influence. And this kicked off an enormous
Twitter war between Musk and Laura Lumer and Steve Bannon
and a bunch of other figures on the on the
kind of far right, the kind of kind of og
magas over this person who they see as a as
a pretender. And so that's where we are today. They're
still fighting and.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
Is this person has is Trump uh wavered at all
in the nomination of this person?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
No Trump, And in fact Trump has kind of in
various ways posted some signs of agreement with Musk. He
he called up reporter from the New York Post and
mentioned his support over the H one B visa program,
which is which was which kind of became the core
of the argument.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Max remind us ver a second, what exactly the H
one B visa is?
Speaker 4 (20:11):
All right?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
So, the H one B visa is a way that
tech companies and other companies bring in skilled workers on
a temporary basis from outside of the US. It's a
temporary visa program. It's really popular among tech companies. Facebook, Google,
and Tesla make a lot of use of this. Elon
(20:33):
Musk is a big fan. And this became kind of
like the focal point of the disagreement because in the
past Donald Trump had been like a big critic of
H one B visas. Elon Musk is apparently a big fan,
and he kind of went nuclear in defense of this thing.
You know, basically just going just doing what he does,
which is like post a lot of inflammatory stuff, essentially
(20:57):
calling anyone who posed him you know, some slur you know.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Should I read it?
Speaker 7 (21:02):
Should I read out the read out the tweet?
Speaker 4 (21:05):
You better do it, Dan, hate us with it? Dan?
Speaker 7 (21:08):
Okay, this is Elon's tweet from over the holidays. The
reason I'm in America, along with so many critical people
who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that
made America strong is because of h one. B take
a big step back and yourself in the face. I
will go to war on this issue.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The likes of which you cannot imagine.
Speaker 7 (21:26):
So yeah, I mean he put a stake in the
ground and that that's like a real rift with the
original MAGA people who are all like America first, we
don't we want no immigration whatsoever.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
So I want to understand this here, I'm to take
a well it's not me, but if I were to
you push you take a big state back, big step back,
and then you yourself.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
In the face, Yes, world's richest man.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
Well but okay, so you know you Max earlier, you
said Bannon jumped into the fray coming to the support
of Laura Lumer.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
I think we have some tape from him. Let's listen
to it. Now.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
This is central to how they gut it the middle
class in this country. And we haven't fought these battles
over years and years and years to allow American citizens
of every race, ethnicity, religion be gutted by the sociopathic
overlords in Silicon Valley. So no, David Sachs and Vivek
(22:19):
Ramaswami and Elon musk nor your complete collapse and you're thinking, oh, we're.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Just trying to reform it. We're just trying to have
a conversation. We're on it from it.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
No, there's no reformation, no reform. We want it gone.
We demand that it's gone, and we're going to fight
for this and not just gone. I've got another alternative.
We want reparations for the tech workers that you stole
their lives.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
I mean, this sounds pretty sporty. I suspect this is
going to be a storyline throughout twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I don't know that H one B specifically is the storyline,
despite Bennet's promise, right, But I think what this is
is one of many issues where they are going to
be big device. I mean, the thing that's going on
here is Elon Musk and Donald Trump are like not
natural allies, and yet Elon Musk has extremely close access,
(23:11):
you know, to the President elect, and like those two
things are creating problems with people who also want influence
and access and do not necessarily favor policies that you know,
tech companies favor.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
So we could be talking we're.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Talking about you know, H one B, which is a
thing that tech companies like that Elon Musk likes. We
could be talking about crypto rules or AI rules or
Elon Musk's defense contracts. And what's so interesting about this
dispute to me anyway, is that Bannon and Lumer and
some of these other folks are actually keying in to
this kind of like larger question.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
One of the one of the tweets during this back
and forth uh with Laura Lumer, she called Elon Musk
a stage five clinger.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Helped me out, helped me out, Max. What's the stage five?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I think the implication is he's spending too much time
at mar A Lago and so and and so, like,
you know, it's like they've gotten a few zingers and
they've they've pointed out a few things that are sort
of you know, obviously true, like Elon Musk does not
see one to eye with the kind of traditional magabase
in so many ways. So like this is I don't
know if H one B is the thing, but this
(24:16):
is going to be a thing for sure.
Speaker 7 (24:18):
Yeah, And they see him as like a Johnny cum Litley.
I mean, the people that were with you know, Trump
early on and during his first campaign, like they don't
really like the fact that like Musk and like the
Silicon Valley guys are now interlopers in the in their scene.
And so there's this like sort of old guard new
guard like battle for power, like Lumer got kicked off
the campaign trail and where it whereas like Elon was
(24:40):
like campaigning for Trump, you know, both at Butler and
at Madison Square Garden and so so it's just you know,
the battle for proximity and access, but also like who's
the real og. I mean, I think that people that
were with Trump from early on are really resentful of
these guys and their and their power.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Now.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
I think these are This is related to the other
two stories we just talked about, Like Elon Musk has
made a choice when he endorsed Donald Trump, and when
he went all in on the on doing so, and
you know, giving you know, hundreds of billions of dollars,
becoming his biggest donor, putting the Maga hat on, and
like we are seeing kind of with all three of
(25:19):
these stories, some of the consequences of that choice, like
the cyber truck now is has become a symbol of Trump,
who is a controvers controversial symbol. We're seeing potentially left
wing buyers not want to buy Tesla's and now on
the right we're seeing buyers like it. In a way,
Elon Musk is, he's never been more powerful. He's at
the arm of the future president of the United States.
(25:41):
Tesla Stock, as you said, is way way the heck up.
On the other hand, he really feels like he's in
an ever smaller political box where you have the left
on one side and the kind of far right on
the other.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
Yeah. So, I mean it is a great point that
you know, this gamble he's made on Trump has worked
out in me anyways spectacularly well so far. But it
absolutely is simultaneously an incredible blessing for him and also
a curse that brings its risks and its potential downsides. Mac,
(26:14):
Can I give you a small assignment before we get
back on next week?
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Can I?
Speaker 5 (26:21):
Can I ask you to try to walk, you know,
work through and understand the mechanics of that that taking
a big step back and.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Then putting yourself in the face and then report back to.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
Okay, I'll come equips with white boys.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Mac.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
The mail keeps coming in, uh to elon incot Bloomberg
dot end.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
That's right, I've been really enjoying. Are we going to
read those now? We're gonna wait till We're not going to.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Read them now.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
This is just a teas to say that they keep
coming in, keep sending them in thoughts, ideas, things you love,
things you hate, bumper sticker ideas, feud ideas and so
on and so forth. And we will dig into the mailbox,
uh next week, or I should say we will dig
into the mail bag. We're calling it a mail bag
or a mail box.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
What's the email address?
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Again? The mail bag?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
What is it you want to ink at? Bloomberg dot net.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Danna, thank you so much for joining us. Now go
enjoy the rest of your day off.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
I will thank you.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
This episode was produced by Stacey Wong. Anna Masarrakas is
our editor and Rayhan Harmanski our senior editor. The idea
for this very show also came from Rayhan. Blake Maples
handles engineering, and David Purcell fact checks. Our supervising producer
is Magnus Hendrickson.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
The Elon Inc.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Theme is written and performed by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Sugiera.
Brendan Francis Nunham is our executive producer, and Stage Bauman
is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. A big thanks as
always to our supporters Joel Weber and Bradstone. I'm David Papadopolis.
If you have a minute, rate and review our show,
it'll help other listeners find us.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
See you next week.
Host
David Papadopoulos
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