October 29, 2024 • 29 mins
This has been a huge week for Elon Musk: First, the Tesla stock rally, in reaction to a good earnings report, made him billions of dollars richer (at least on paper). Then, Musk continued his full-throated campaign for Donald Trump with a marquee appearance at Madison Square Garden, leading chants of “USA!” to adoring fans amid a rally that featured the most racially inflammatory language yet of the Republican’s campaign.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
So, ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor to introduce
the co founder with me of the Department of Government Efficiency,
Doge Madison Square Garden. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up
(00:34):
for the greatest capitalists in their history of the United
States of America. Elon Musk.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, Joron Musk gives now the richest person on the planet.
More than half the satellites in space are owned and
controlled by one man.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Well, he's a legitimate super genius.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
I mean legitimate.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
He says.
Speaker 6 (00:59):
He's always voted for Democrats, but this year it will
be different.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
He'll vote Republican.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
There is a reason the US government is so reliant
on him. Alon Musk is a scam artist and he's
done nothing.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Anything he does, he's fascinating people.
Speaker 6 (01:22):
Welcome to Delon, Inc.
Speaker 7 (01:23):
Bloomberg's weekly podcast about Elon Musk. It's Tuesday, October twenty ninth.
I'm your host, David Popodopolis. What a week for Elon.
After Tesla reported strong earnings on Wednesday, the stock is
on a tear, cementing musk status once again as the.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
World's richest person.
Speaker 7 (01:43):
And then on Sunday, Musk got top billing at Donald
Trump's big and very controversial rally at Madison Square Garden,
receiving standing ovations from a sold out crowd that just
couldn't get enough of him. Right now, it sort of
does like, you know, maybe he really is the greatest
capitalist in the history of the United States. But the
(02:06):
challenges ahead for both Musk the CEO and Musk the
political operator are great test lasts to deliver all, or
at least much of what Musk is promising, and then
Trump has to win that election one week from today.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
To go through all this and try to figure out
what lies ahead.
Speaker 7 (02:24):
I'm here in the studio with Esha Day, stocks reporter
for US here in New York, Ky Esha Hey, and
BusinessWeek editor reporter and my main man, Max Chafkin.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Max, how you doing?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Hi, David? How's it going?
Speaker 7 (02:36):
And a little later we'll also be mean our good
friend Ace reporter Dana Hall, who's out in Pittsburgh where
she's hanging with the Musk political team, and the run.
Speaker 6 (02:44):
Up to the vote.
Speaker 7 (02:45):
Esha, we start with earnings and with you. Last week
Max and I were just chilling in London, living the
good life. When all this went down and these numbers
came out and the holy smokes, were they good from
the third quarter. But man, I still got to say,
in a million years, if you had told me the
way the numbers came out, I would not have come
(03:08):
up with a one day twenty two percent stock rally.
It was order unbridled euphoria. Why, I think.
Speaker 8 (03:17):
The reaction that you just described here, David is exactly
the reaction that the market had right like this is
like an eight hundred billion dollar market capitalization company. It
doesn't just rally twenty twenty two person on a day
unless investors are completely surprised. They were definitely caught off guard,
And if you look at the numbers like it kind
(03:37):
of makes sense why right Wall Street analysts were expecting
a third quarter profit to fall about ten percent from
the previous year quarter, Tesler came in with a nine
percent jump, and then on the call, Iron Mask said
that he expects twenty twenty five vehicle sales that's unit
(03:58):
sales of cars to rise to twenty to thirty percent
from twenty twenty four levels.
Speaker 9 (04:04):
So regarding the vehicle business, we are still on track
to deliver more affordable models starting in the first half
of twenty twenty five. You know, this is I think
probably people are wanting to go watchould the sum for
vehicle fagal sales growth next year. At the risk of
(04:26):
to take a better.
Speaker 10 (04:27):
Risk here, I do want to give some some rough estimate,
which is I think twenty to thirty percent vehicle growth
next year. You know, notwithstanding negative external events.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
That's an ambitious target. Sounds very optimistic.
Speaker 8 (04:41):
But I mean the company's CEO is coming out and
seeing that on the earning skull, so investors took it,
took his word, and the stock jumped.
Speaker 7 (04:49):
I get max, how he's forecasting vehicle sales growth next
year twenty to thirty percent.
Speaker 6 (04:55):
But what in the data of late indicate that they.
Speaker 7 (05:00):
Are going to actually get to twenty to thirty percent
vehicle sales growth.
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Make sure they're nowhere near.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
That, right, I mean, like Esh is saying, I think
it's very ambitious. I mean, there are a few there
are some positive signs, like cybertruck cyber truck sales have
maybe been in a profit a little bit better than
then they looked when we were at our kind of
lowest point in terms of seeing the cyber truck.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Electric vehicle sales.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
In general look like they're picking up a little bit,
and that that market may not be quite.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
As squinting squinting.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
But I think the thing we've learned, right is that
this the group of investors that is bought into Tesla,
is going along with Elon Musk, Right.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
They're gonna they're gonna pay him as much as he wants.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
They're gonna, remember we were really there were like about
six months ago investors were like, well, if they're not
going to make a twenty five thousand dollars affordable car,
my stock is worthless.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
I am out.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
They have all basically evolved to Elon's view, which is
the opposite of that view, which is that they don't
need to make this car.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
It's only going to be a ROBOTAXI.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
The fact that there's no clear path to getting these
robotaxis on the road doesn't seem to bother anybody. The
investors who are in Tesla believe in Elon and like
it's a self selecting group, and he's giving this guidance
that we're talking about is unusual, right, I believe it's
unusual anyway for this company.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
So him, you know, going out there.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Putting out numbers that he expects to hit, even if
they're very optimistic, is seen as a good sign.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Esha.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
Where did the stronger than expected profit growth come from?
It didn't really so much actually come from vehicle sales.
It came from other things.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That's a great question.
Speaker 8 (06:33):
Yes, because if you look at revenue, revenue actually missed
estimates slightly. So revenue, I think the for the quarter
grew around seven point eight person or something around that.
That area of Alice, we're looking for a growth of
around eight person year over years, So revenue missed. So
so you know what exactly happened? Well, regulatory credits.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
So that is remind us what regulatory.
Speaker 8 (06:56):
Throws sure, So that is a government given credits to
automakers that make cars that are low emission or zero emission,
as is in Tesla's case, And because Sessler only makes
electric cars so all zero emissions, it gets a lot
of credits in a way. Yes, so it then can
turn around and sell those credits to other automakers who
(07:18):
do not make as many as the government requires or
the regulation requires.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So that is a really strong source of Okay, so.
Speaker 7 (07:25):
I got a jump in that revenue and what about
the massive hay roll cuts that he enacted.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So I do want to get into that as well.
Speaker 8 (07:34):
So yeah, okay, so it's hundred The regularity credits is
the biggest boost to the profit, but it's also a
lot of good cost cuts that Mask did. We are
not fully sure because the company has not laid out
very clearly where exactly the.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Cuts come from.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
I've spoken to quite a few Wall Street analysts who
are also wondering about trying to figure out where exactly
the cuts came from. But yes, it was a mix
of the big jump thirty eight percent jump versus estimates
in that regulatory wow.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Okay, And just to underline the point that ESH is making,
so like the regulatory credits are more valuable because other
automakers are not selling electric cars right and like so
you've been hearing for more than a year about slowdowns
in the EV market about you know, GM and Ford
and other automakers essentially like either struggling to hit targets
(08:25):
that they set or dialing back.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Like that all.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Helps Tesla's business because then those automakers need to buy
more of these regulatory credits.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
It makes what Tesla has more valuable that's interesting.
Speaker 7 (08:35):
So it effectively means that Tesla Max has a natural
head against the slowing EV broader EV market because as
the broader EV market slows and the traditional car makers
sell more combustion engine vehicles, they get a boost in
regulatory Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yes, people kind of have brought up the fact that
it's very strange that Elon Musk is is an enthusiastic
support of Donald Trump, who's going around essentially dissing electric
cars on the stump, And it's like, why would Elon
must do that? And the reason is that they have
a dominant position right now, and like that dominant position
is valuable.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
And like maybe it would be.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
More valuable if the EV market were like twice as
big as it is today, But because of these regulatory
credits and because people still buy electric cars, even if
it's not in the crazy numbers that some futurists would
have predicted a decade ago, it's still valuable.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
Absolutely.
Speaker 7 (09:24):
So, Asha, we heard about great sales growth in automobile
sales growth for next year, and that's part of what
got us the stock pop. What else was Musk spinning
in terms of what the future was going to hold,
Like talk cyber cab to me.
Speaker 8 (09:40):
Sure, So there was not a lot of new details
that came out, at least in the earnings call about
the cyber cab or the Robotaxi, whatever you may call it.
That kind of disappointment already was fast. I mean, if
you were a Tesla investor, you're coming into the earnings call,
you have already bathed in the disappointment from the robotaxy
and the cyber cab announcement that happened earlier in the month,
(10:00):
which was on October tenth, so thirteen days later when
the earnings happened, that is kind of you know done.
People are looking for signs on what is happening to
the core business because the focus kind of came back there.
Speaker 6 (10:12):
And the core business being the EV business.
Speaker 8 (10:15):
Yes, where the biggest concern in the past over the
past year was that EV demand is slowing. And I
think Wall Street, what Wall Street took away from this
result was that maybe the worst is past Tesla and
the whole EV industry.
Speaker 7 (10:30):
Yeah, and I think you know, Esha, that basically what
it comes down to here is, you know, can the
core business, the EV business, throw off enough cash right
now between the EV business the regulatory credits and maybe
I guess whatever they're getting out of the energy business,
can they throw off enough cash to fund his grand
(10:50):
tech vision of the future, you know, the robotaxi optimists,
et cetera. And as of right now at least, the
market is giving that a resounding yes, yes and yes.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yes absolutely.
Speaker 8 (11:02):
I mean, while we saw this boost of results, I
think that make no mistake. Though. The reason why Tesla
is such a vehumit when it comes to market value
is because people believe this will be the company, or
Elon Musk will be the person who will solve the
self driving car problem. That is sort of the corner
store on which this eight fifty billion dollar company rests, right.
Speaker 7 (11:26):
Eight fifty billion soon according to us, to go to
thirty trillion, which, by the way, Max makes me feel
like if Musk and dial up a thirty trillion dollar company,
you and me, Man, we gotta be able to come
up something one thirtieth that good, right, one thirtieth that
could gets us a one trillion dollar company.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Captured just one thirtieth of the vibes, I think we
will be rich.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
All right, We're gonna move on to the big show
at Madison Square Garden. Esha, don't go away though, because
we're gonna we need you to chime in and help
Max out here.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
So, Max, you were there on Sunday Listen. I was
there the entire Elon and crew. You were the only
one who didn't come to this. Dana was sitting next
to me at Madison Square Garden. Our editor Rayhon was
online with Magnus.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Our producer. We were all there. I do I don't know,
but you know you missed out. This was the this
was the event.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
Can I also say you guys didn't invite me?
Speaker 4 (12:24):
That's fair.
Speaker 7 (12:25):
It seems like everybody else syncd Upesha, did you get
an invite?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I did not. I'm a going to time in.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
So obviously we're a week from election day form President
Trump is you know, essentially trying it was trying to
create a huge media moment.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
This is Sunday Night. Ratings obviously are high.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
People are at home, and you really had a who's
who of the magaverse in Madison Square Garden, all of
Trump's big surrogates and a handful of others who were
sort of celebrities or pseudo celebrities and of course Elon
Musk was a big part of that. Elon had near
top billing. He was the last person to speak before
(13:04):
Milania Trump, who spoke immediately before Donald Trump. He spoke
way after jd Vance, you know, when more people are watching.
He had had a central position at this rally. And
you know, I have to say, there's a lot to
say about this experience, the experience of going to a
Trump rally. I think Elon's performance on stage was improved
from Butler way improved.
Speaker 7 (13:24):
I mean I didn't I didn't watch much of it,
but what I saw, yeah, he has settled down here.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
It seemed like a couple of things that were changed.
One is they they did not.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
Have him told the stage, They told him no jumping.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
He was not on stage as long.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
And they also gave him this kind of cool video
which you played earlier, with some loud music, and there
was you know, they were showing the rocket, you know,
the rocket landing into the mech.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Zilla or whatever it was called.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
And I have to say, like there were a lot
of people in Madison Square, Mass Square Garden was full,
you know, full of very enthusiastic Trump supportes, and Elon
kept coming up over in a while again as kind
of an example of like what they want.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
He's he is like the poster boy of what like
what the.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Trump, what Trump wants people to see when they think
of like what Trump is all about? And he has
just he has totally embraced that. And then you know,
when you think of like who got the best response
in the arena, it was the younger folks. It was
the veg Ramaswami, Tucker Carlson. I'm including RFK even though
he's not a young man, but he's sort of a
(14:29):
newcomer in terms of having this level of support.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
And then it was elon Estra.
Speaker 7 (14:34):
Did you watch any of this?
Speaker 6 (14:36):
I did not.
Speaker 7 (14:37):
Okay, that makes two of us, all right, Max. So
that's where he was placed. That was the vibe around him.
What did mister Musk say once he had the mic
in his hand?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
What he said again, very short remarks, a lot of
hooting and hollering and cheering. Mostly he flexed, he he screamed,
He presented his hat, his his quote dark maga had
he actually had a new font which you called dark
Gothic maga.
Speaker 9 (15:05):
That's I'm saying.
Speaker 10 (15:07):
I'm not just maga, I'm dark Gothic.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Maga, and he told people to vote.
Speaker 9 (15:15):
This is a real battle. This is a real election battle.
Speaker 10 (15:18):
So you need to.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Get friends and family to vote. Make sure they vote.
Vote early. This is important. We're gonna be putting up
a scorecard. Okay, an early vote scorecard, state by state,
county by county. What is the scorecard? Vote early vote.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Now, I mean, what is becoming increasingly apparent if you're
following what Elan's doing, is like that is where he's engaged.
He's engaged in the process of trying to find and
drum up voters. The other thing that I noticed just
being in this rally, and if you've been reading the
coverage of this rally, you'll know that there was a
(15:58):
stand up comedian who's who started things off with a
series of racist jokes, and it was very uncomfortable being
in the arena. Even even many of the audience did
not seem to be super into it. But that tone,
which I would say is sort of like an edge
lord four chan boundary pushing tone, continued throughout the event.
(16:19):
There were other speakers who made racist cracks. There were
lots and lots of f bombs, lots of profanity.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
The vibe.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Essentially, it reminded me of Elon's Twitter feed, and I
really think there's been this thing where the kind of
tone that Elon has adopted has converged with where trump
Ism is today. I think that's a shift for both
of them, a shift for Trump and also a shift
for Eelung.
Speaker 7 (16:44):
Yeah, and to this day, the Trump campaign is trying
to contain the damage from some of that, and it's
not entirely clear at the end of the day whether
that event will be a net positive or a net
negative for the campaig in its final days, because they
are certainly in scramble mode. We have tape of Trump
(17:05):
speaking about Elon. Let's listen to it now.
Speaker 6 (17:07):
I say, you're You're a genius. You are a genious.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
You are right. He is special. He is special, and
you know what he wants more than.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Anything else for our country to be really well run, solidly, run,
to be run democratically, all the things that everybody in
this room wants.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
And I mean, honestly, he left that pad and he went.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
To Pennsylvania to campaign.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
Can you believe it? Now? He's amazing and he's a
great guy too. He really is.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Got to remember him.
Speaker 7 (17:39):
You know, as we were saying earlier, it's hard not
to think that that some of this current euphoria in
the that's seen in the Tesla stock price is tied
up in this whole you know, elon embrace of Trump,
because the two of them are are just getting closer
and closer with the passing of each and every day.
Speaker 8 (18:00):
Yeah, that's an interesting way to think about what's going
on behind or in the minds of Tesla investors. Right,
I'll put this out there. Esla scheys were down yesterday.
They are also down today last I checked. I'm not
in front of the terminal, right now.
Speaker 7 (18:14):
You should always have the terminal in front of you.
Don't admit to that here on air in front of
millions of listeners, But okay, go.
Speaker 8 (18:21):
On, And I feel like, you know, when this is
a very hard election for investors, just because you know,
it's so tight. Though we're seeing signs of Trump really
getting ahead of Harris. In betting markets, poles are still
pretty tight. A lot of big investors I talk to,
institutional investors I talk to, they largely look at the polls.
They do not have that much faith in the betting market.
(18:42):
And when it comes to Tesla, which has like this
election can impact Tesla.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
In two big ways. One is the IRA, the.
Speaker 8 (18:49):
Inflation Reduction Act, the act that was you know, put
in place by the Bidary administration and something that Trump
has said he would fully reverse if he wins the election. Right,
that is going to be bad for Tesla. On the
other hand, as you know, everything that Max was talking
about this this this is very obvious advantage. So for
(19:11):
the lack of a better word, that would be there
if the CEO is really close with the president again,
if Trump wins the election.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So Tesla investors.
Speaker 8 (19:19):
Are finding it very hard to kind of make sense
of this push and pull, and that I think is
a big reason why we're not seeing much of an
impact of the election or everything that Musk is doing
with Trump on the Tesla Tesla stock.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I mean, yeah, if Trump has a bad day right
from now until election day, it's sort of a reasonable
assumption to think that Tesla may have a bad day
because because they are linked.
Speaker 7 (19:46):
So if I want to know the current state of
the race and over the next five six days, I'm
simply going to follow the Tesla stock price.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
I mean, I think you might want to keep an
eye on the polls as well.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
But sure, let's let's give that a shot, David, and
see how we well, you know, one week from today, Hey,
we'll have probably some sense.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
We'll have a sense indeed, you know, on the betting markets.
So I will just say again, though, Esha, I actually
I think that's right. I mean, I think the danger
with those betting markets is that they are super I
liquid and you get a bit of a tail wagging
the dog's sort of phenomenon where I think people infer
an awful lot in broad a financial markets from what
a handful of investors are putting down on the outcome.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
Of this race. I will say this about musk Max.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
It's really as we've watched him go from a political
to okay, he was a Democrat for a while sort
of and then okay, then became you know, coming out
of the pandemic more right laning, and then started this
embrace of Trump, and it's just grown and grown and grown.
Hell Man, if this election we're two months from now
(20:48):
and not in the week, he would wind up being
one of the candidates on the ballot.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I hope everyone is listening to the Citizen Elon podcast
where we talk about all about this.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
But thank you David.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
But the you know, Tim Walls the other day said,
you know JDV is not the running mate, it's it's
Elon Musk.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
And I think, well, you saw that on Sunday, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
I mean Advance was like sort of you know, just
shunted off to the side.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
He was very you know, practically ignored in this event.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
And even in Trump's remarks, he had a lot more
to say about Elon Musk and he did about Jade Vance,
I do think, you know. And and going to this
rally for me really hammered at home. I'd never been
to a Trump rally before. These are cultural events as
much as they are political events. You know, people who
are there, it's like it's like going to a rock concert,
(21:31):
you know, all the way down to the merch and
Trump exerts a cultural gravity on everybody who's around him.
And so I think that there, it's going to create
a lot of it's going to create unpredictability for TESLA
in the in the months to come, whether or not
Trump wins, because because now Elon is going to be
very closely tied to this extremely controversial and like kind
(21:55):
of borderline unpopular figure. I mean, he's obviously very popular
among a core group of Republicans, but not necessarily broadly popular.
And so I think that presents opportunities for Elon Musk. Obviously,
as we've discussed, if Trump can kind of you know,
legalize robotaxes or something, but it also creates lots and
lots of risks for this company.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
As we heard Trump say earlier, Musk is back in Pennsylvania,
and so too is our very own Dana Hull. And
let's give her a ring and see what she's finding.
We have Dana beaming in from Pittsburgh. Hey, Dana, Hey,
So Dana, you were at MSG on Sunday. Give us
(22:37):
really briefly your impressions on that, and then we'll and
then we want to hear what you've seen so far
in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Yeah, well that's before Garden was really quite spectacle. And
you know, Max and I were sitting there together and
I said, what I really did was just the top
billing that got I mean, he introduced Millennia, Milania, introduced
Donald Trump. I mean, Musk was like the speak a
way up higher on the totem pole than Jadie Dance was.
And I thought that that would really strike and then
(23:06):
you know, there was a lot of mention of Pennsylvania.
So I see a Pitsburg and here I am, and
I literally just got here Monday night. But it's been
super interesting talking to voters and watching the ads that
ran during the Steelers game, and just seeing how much
billionaires are part of like the Democratic messaging, I don't
let a billionaire buy your vote. And I talked to
(23:27):
one gentleman who said that anytime he seeds Testel, now
you know, Testa cars have like a Tea emblem on
the back, because that now he thinks put the T
stands for Trump, not Tesslas.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
That is interesting though about the ads, and there's long
been a sense on this show that to the point
you're raising, that that Musk is driving, because he's such
a polarizing figure out, he's driving potential voters away from Trump.
And that's certainly that the way the Democrats want to
tag Trump as a body with the world's richest person.
(24:00):
But Dan, are there any signs or any indication that
he also, given his star power, he could be luring
in lots and lots of young male voters for Trump.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
Yeah, I think that that's that's definitely the play. Like,
if you look at what must Pack is doing, they
are really targeting young men. Both tend to be voters.
These men tend to be really like hard physically to
kind of flip. But if you look at all the
way that the Pack is kind of pyper targeting there
at that that is their demographic.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
You know, it's not necessarily flipping voters, right, It's it's
it's getting voters who wouldn't otherwise, who are very conservative
or that the Pack believes are very conservative and getting
them to vote.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
And I mean that's hard.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
That's that's something that like has been kind of like
the Democratic strategy with young voters for pretty much as
long as I've been alive, and it doesn't always work. Voters,
as Dana saying, like young voters tend not to vote.
And you have a lot of challenges here in Pennsylvania
and with Elon's Pack, which is that you and primarily
paid canvassers people who are not necessarily like true believers.
(25:04):
So it'll be really interesting, you know, both as the
test of where the politics are, but also as a
test of like how good is Elon Musk at this?
Like at the organizing thing, which is something we've never
seen him do well.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
And that's an interesting point, and Dana, I'm guessing that
today you'll you'll get a bit better of a sense
for that, and you will report back with more later.
But there is also this growing chatter out there that
the vaunted Musk you know, technical team, technical prowess, the
group that brought you Tesla, that brought you SpaceX, will.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Indeed make a.
Speaker 7 (25:37):
Difference in Pennsylvania and in a race where we could
be talking about two five, ten, thirty thousand votes, you know,
may make or break this race.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Yeah, no, that's one hundred good tru because critically, remember
Republicans that not I typically voted early, intended to be
election day voter. And you've seen you know, data very
recently that Republicans really the gap counter voter registration and month,
you know, day after day, hour after hours, kind of
tweeting relentlessly, like urging people to vote, you know, at
(26:08):
Manister Garden telling people to drag your friends to vote.
He's building a list of registered voters that his pack
can then contact and text at call and like do motivation.
And that's you know, I mean lots of people are
going to find a position if they might win a
million dollars and has given these million dollar checks out
(26:29):
to several people, including a couple of people here in
the Pitsburg area.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (26:33):
So now, Max, we we talked about those million dollar
checks last week, and I believe there's been an update
or two in the last few days.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
No, well, yeah, local district attorney. I think it's a
Philadelphia district attorney issuing a bunch of officials in lots
of jurisdictions essentially.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Say this is illegal. It sure looks illegal.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
Of course, the DOJ also send them.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
A letter, Yeah, a letter warning that it was or
might be illegal. I mean this is you know, if
you followed Elon Musk's career, you know that this is
kind of a pattern, right. I mean, the you know
for twenty offer in twenty eighteen was also not kosher,
and he did it anyway and managed to skate. So
it seems like that's the strategy here. One thing I
(27:17):
just want to add to what Danna said. Of all
the speakers we saw at Madison Square, Guard Dan and
I were sitting together and it was really surreal experience.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
But Elon was the one who was.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Most engaged in the actual specifics of organizing, like most
of the other speakers were basically doing TV hits, like
in front of a big crowd using the backdrop. It
was a media event eon As Dana said, like he
was saying bring your friends to vote, he was talking
about early voting numbers. He is definitely and this is
why it's so interesting. He is definitely engaged in community organizing.
(27:51):
You know, that sort of activity that is so often
mocked by capitalists.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
That's what he's doing.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
He's trying to bring the same entrepreneurial energy to bear
on voting. And you know, I think we really have
no idea what it's going to look like. And that's
why I'm so interested to see what Dana comes back
with from Pittsburgh.
Speaker 7 (28:09):
So, Dan, we're going to let you go, and indeed
a week from today, if not earlier, we'll hear more
from what you found there in Pennsylvania. That's good talk soon,
max Esha, thanks.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
For joining, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 8 (28:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (28:31):
This episode was produced by Stacy Wang, Anna Maserakas and
Rayhan Harmancier are senior editors. The idea for this very
show also came from Rayhunt Blake Maples handles engineering and
Emma Sanchez fact checks. Our supervising producers Magnus Henrickson. The
elon Ing theme is written and performed by Takea Yasuzawa
and Alex Sugiira. Brendan Francis Newnam is our executive producer,
(28:54):
and Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. A
big thanks to our supporters Joel Weber and Brett Stone.
I'm David Papadopolis. If you have a minute, rate and
review our show, it'll help other listeners find us.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
See you next week.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
So, ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor to introduce
the co founder with me of the Department of Government Efficiency,
Doge Madison Square Garden. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up
(00:34):
for the greatest capitalists in their history of the United
States of America. Elon Musk.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, Joron Musk gives now the richest person on the planet.
More than half the satellites in space are owned and
controlled by one man.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Well, he's a legitimate super genius.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
I mean legitimate.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
He says.
Speaker 6 (00:59):
He's always voted for Democrats, but this year it will
be different.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
He'll vote Republican.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
There is a reason the US government is so reliant
on him. Alon Musk is a scam artist and he's
done nothing.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Anything he does, he's fascinating people.
Speaker 6 (01:22):
Welcome to Delon, Inc.
Speaker 7 (01:23):
Bloomberg's weekly podcast about Elon Musk. It's Tuesday, October twenty ninth.
I'm your host, David Popodopolis. What a week for Elon.
After Tesla reported strong earnings on Wednesday, the stock is
on a tear, cementing musk status once again as the.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
World's richest person.
Speaker 7 (01:43):
And then on Sunday, Musk got top billing at Donald
Trump's big and very controversial rally at Madison Square Garden,
receiving standing ovations from a sold out crowd that just
couldn't get enough of him. Right now, it sort of
does like, you know, maybe he really is the greatest
capitalist in the history of the United States. But the
(02:06):
challenges ahead for both Musk the CEO and Musk the
political operator are great test lasts to deliver all, or
at least much of what Musk is promising, and then
Trump has to win that election one week from today.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
To go through all this and try to figure out
what lies ahead.
Speaker 7 (02:24):
I'm here in the studio with Esha Day, stocks reporter
for US here in New York, Ky Esha Hey, and
BusinessWeek editor reporter and my main man, Max Chafkin.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Max, how you doing?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Hi, David? How's it going?
Speaker 7 (02:36):
And a little later we'll also be mean our good
friend Ace reporter Dana Hall, who's out in Pittsburgh where
she's hanging with the Musk political team, and the run.
Speaker 6 (02:44):
Up to the vote.
Speaker 7 (02:45):
Esha, we start with earnings and with you. Last week
Max and I were just chilling in London, living the
good life. When all this went down and these numbers
came out and the holy smokes, were they good from
the third quarter. But man, I still got to say,
in a million years, if you had told me the
way the numbers came out, I would not have come
(03:08):
up with a one day twenty two percent stock rally.
It was order unbridled euphoria. Why, I think.
Speaker 8 (03:17):
The reaction that you just described here, David is exactly
the reaction that the market had right like this is
like an eight hundred billion dollar market capitalization company. It
doesn't just rally twenty twenty two person on a day
unless investors are completely surprised. They were definitely caught off guard,
And if you look at the numbers like it kind
(03:37):
of makes sense why right Wall Street analysts were expecting
a third quarter profit to fall about ten percent from
the previous year quarter, Tesler came in with a nine
percent jump, and then on the call, Iron Mask said
that he expects twenty twenty five vehicle sales that's unit
(03:58):
sales of cars to rise to twenty to thirty percent
from twenty twenty four levels.
Speaker 9 (04:04):
So regarding the vehicle business, we are still on track
to deliver more affordable models starting in the first half
of twenty twenty five. You know, this is I think
probably people are wanting to go watchould the sum for
vehicle fagal sales growth next year. At the risk of
(04:26):
to take a better.
Speaker 10 (04:27):
Risk here, I do want to give some some rough estimate,
which is I think twenty to thirty percent vehicle growth
next year. You know, notwithstanding negative external events.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
That's an ambitious target. Sounds very optimistic.
Speaker 8 (04:41):
But I mean the company's CEO is coming out and
seeing that on the earning skull, so investors took it,
took his word, and the stock jumped.
Speaker 7 (04:49):
I get max, how he's forecasting vehicle sales growth next
year twenty to thirty percent.
Speaker 6 (04:55):
But what in the data of late indicate that they.
Speaker 7 (05:00):
Are going to actually get to twenty to thirty percent
vehicle sales growth.
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Make sure they're nowhere near.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
That, right, I mean, like Esh is saying, I think
it's very ambitious. I mean, there are a few there
are some positive signs, like cybertruck cyber truck sales have
maybe been in a profit a little bit better than
then they looked when we were at our kind of
lowest point in terms of seeing the cyber truck.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Electric vehicle sales.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
In general look like they're picking up a little bit,
and that that market may not be quite.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
As squinting squinting.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
But I think the thing we've learned, right is that
this the group of investors that is bought into Tesla,
is going along with Elon Musk, Right.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
They're gonna they're gonna pay him as much as he wants.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
They're gonna, remember we were really there were like about
six months ago investors were like, well, if they're not
going to make a twenty five thousand dollars affordable car,
my stock is worthless.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
I am out.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
They have all basically evolved to Elon's view, which is
the opposite of that view, which is that they don't
need to make this car.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
It's only going to be a ROBOTAXI.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
The fact that there's no clear path to getting these
robotaxis on the road doesn't seem to bother anybody. The
investors who are in Tesla believe in Elon and like
it's a self selecting group, and he's giving this guidance
that we're talking about is unusual, right, I believe it's
unusual anyway for this company.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
So him, you know, going out there.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Putting out numbers that he expects to hit, even if
they're very optimistic, is seen as a good sign.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Esha.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
Where did the stronger than expected profit growth come from?
It didn't really so much actually come from vehicle sales.
It came from other things.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That's a great question.
Speaker 8 (06:33):
Yes, because if you look at revenue, revenue actually missed
estimates slightly. So revenue, I think the for the quarter
grew around seven point eight person or something around that.
That area of Alice, we're looking for a growth of
around eight person year over years, So revenue missed. So
so you know what exactly happened? Well, regulatory credits.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
So that is remind us what regulatory.
Speaker 8 (06:56):
Throws sure, So that is a government given credits to
automakers that make cars that are low emission or zero emission,
as is in Tesla's case, And because Sessler only makes
electric cars so all zero emissions, it gets a lot
of credits in a way. Yes, so it then can
turn around and sell those credits to other automakers who
(07:18):
do not make as many as the government requires or
the regulation requires.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So that is a really strong source of Okay, so.
Speaker 7 (07:25):
I got a jump in that revenue and what about
the massive hay roll cuts that he enacted.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So I do want to get into that as well.
Speaker 8 (07:34):
So yeah, okay, so it's hundred The regularity credits is
the biggest boost to the profit, but it's also a
lot of good cost cuts that Mask did. We are
not fully sure because the company has not laid out
very clearly where exactly the.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Cuts come from.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
I've spoken to quite a few Wall Street analysts who
are also wondering about trying to figure out where exactly
the cuts came from. But yes, it was a mix
of the big jump thirty eight percent jump versus estimates
in that regulatory wow.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Okay, And just to underline the point that ESH is making,
so like the regulatory credits are more valuable because other
automakers are not selling electric cars right and like so
you've been hearing for more than a year about slowdowns
in the EV market about you know, GM and Ford
and other automakers essentially like either struggling to hit targets
(08:25):
that they set or dialing back.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Like that all.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Helps Tesla's business because then those automakers need to buy
more of these regulatory credits.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
It makes what Tesla has more valuable that's interesting.
Speaker 7 (08:35):
So it effectively means that Tesla Max has a natural
head against the slowing EV broader EV market because as
the broader EV market slows and the traditional car makers
sell more combustion engine vehicles, they get a boost in
regulatory Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yes, people kind of have brought up the fact that
it's very strange that Elon Musk is is an enthusiastic
support of Donald Trump, who's going around essentially dissing electric
cars on the stump, And it's like, why would Elon
must do that? And the reason is that they have
a dominant position right now, and like that dominant position
is valuable.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
And like maybe it would be.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
More valuable if the EV market were like twice as
big as it is today, But because of these regulatory
credits and because people still buy electric cars, even if
it's not in the crazy numbers that some futurists would
have predicted a decade ago, it's still valuable.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
Absolutely.
Speaker 7 (09:24):
So, Asha, we heard about great sales growth in automobile
sales growth for next year, and that's part of what
got us the stock pop. What else was Musk spinning
in terms of what the future was going to hold,
Like talk cyber cab to me.
Speaker 8 (09:40):
Sure, So there was not a lot of new details
that came out, at least in the earnings call about
the cyber cab or the Robotaxi, whatever you may call it.
That kind of disappointment already was fast. I mean, if
you were a Tesla investor, you're coming into the earnings call,
you have already bathed in the disappointment from the robotaxy
and the cyber cab announcement that happened earlier in the month,
(10:00):
which was on October tenth, so thirteen days later when
the earnings happened, that is kind of you know done.
People are looking for signs on what is happening to
the core business because the focus kind of came back there.
Speaker 6 (10:12):
And the core business being the EV business.
Speaker 8 (10:15):
Yes, where the biggest concern in the past over the
past year was that EV demand is slowing. And I
think Wall Street, what Wall Street took away from this
result was that maybe the worst is past Tesla and
the whole EV industry.
Speaker 7 (10:30):
Yeah, and I think you know, Esha, that basically what
it comes down to here is, you know, can the
core business, the EV business, throw off enough cash right
now between the EV business the regulatory credits and maybe
I guess whatever they're getting out of the energy business,
can they throw off enough cash to fund his grand
(10:50):
tech vision of the future, you know, the robotaxi optimists,
et cetera. And as of right now at least, the
market is giving that a resounding yes, yes and yes.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yes absolutely.
Speaker 8 (11:02):
I mean, while we saw this boost of results, I
think that make no mistake. Though. The reason why Tesla
is such a vehumit when it comes to market value
is because people believe this will be the company, or
Elon Musk will be the person who will solve the
self driving car problem. That is sort of the corner
store on which this eight fifty billion dollar company rests, right.
Speaker 7 (11:26):
Eight fifty billion soon according to us, to go to
thirty trillion, which, by the way, Max makes me feel
like if Musk and dial up a thirty trillion dollar company,
you and me, Man, we gotta be able to come
up something one thirtieth that good, right, one thirtieth that
could gets us a one trillion dollar company.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Captured just one thirtieth of the vibes, I think we
will be rich.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
All right, We're gonna move on to the big show
at Madison Square Garden. Esha, don't go away though, because
we're gonna we need you to chime in and help
Max out here.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
So, Max, you were there on Sunday Listen. I was
there the entire Elon and crew. You were the only
one who didn't come to this. Dana was sitting next
to me at Madison Square Garden. Our editor Rayhon was
online with Magnus.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Our producer. We were all there. I do I don't know,
but you know you missed out. This was the this
was the event.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
Can I also say you guys didn't invite me?
Speaker 4 (12:24):
That's fair.
Speaker 7 (12:25):
It seems like everybody else syncd Upesha, did you get
an invite?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I did not. I'm a going to time in.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
So obviously we're a week from election day form President
Trump is you know, essentially trying it was trying to
create a huge media moment.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
This is Sunday Night. Ratings obviously are high.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
People are at home, and you really had a who's
who of the magaverse in Madison Square Garden, all of
Trump's big surrogates and a handful of others who were
sort of celebrities or pseudo celebrities and of course Elon
Musk was a big part of that. Elon had near
top billing. He was the last person to speak before
(13:04):
Milania Trump, who spoke immediately before Donald Trump. He spoke
way after jd Vance, you know, when more people are watching.
He had had a central position at this rally. And
you know, I have to say, there's a lot to
say about this experience, the experience of going to a
Trump rally. I think Elon's performance on stage was improved
from Butler way improved.
Speaker 7 (13:24):
I mean I didn't I didn't watch much of it,
but what I saw, yeah, he has settled down here.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
It seemed like a couple of things that were changed.
One is they they did not.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
Have him told the stage, They told him no jumping.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
He was not on stage as long.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
And they also gave him this kind of cool video
which you played earlier, with some loud music, and there
was you know, they were showing the rocket, you know,
the rocket landing into the mech.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Zilla or whatever it was called.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
And I have to say, like there were a lot
of people in Madison Square, Mass Square Garden was full,
you know, full of very enthusiastic Trump supportes, and Elon
kept coming up over in a while again as kind
of an example of like what they want.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
He's he is like the poster boy of what like
what the.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Trump, what Trump wants people to see when they think
of like what Trump is all about? And he has
just he has totally embraced that. And then you know,
when you think of like who got the best response
in the arena, it was the younger folks. It was
the veg Ramaswami, Tucker Carlson. I'm including RFK even though
he's not a young man, but he's sort of a
(14:29):
newcomer in terms of having this level of support.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
And then it was elon Estra.
Speaker 7 (14:34):
Did you watch any of this?
Speaker 6 (14:36):
I did not.
Speaker 7 (14:37):
Okay, that makes two of us, all right, Max. So
that's where he was placed. That was the vibe around him.
What did mister Musk say once he had the mic
in his hand?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
What he said again, very short remarks, a lot of
hooting and hollering and cheering. Mostly he flexed, he he screamed,
He presented his hat, his his quote dark maga had
he actually had a new font which you called dark
Gothic maga.
Speaker 9 (15:05):
That's I'm saying.
Speaker 10 (15:07):
I'm not just maga, I'm dark Gothic.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Maga, and he told people to vote.
Speaker 9 (15:15):
This is a real battle. This is a real election battle.
Speaker 10 (15:18):
So you need to.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Get friends and family to vote. Make sure they vote.
Vote early. This is important. We're gonna be putting up
a scorecard. Okay, an early vote scorecard, state by state,
county by county. What is the scorecard? Vote early vote.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Now, I mean, what is becoming increasingly apparent if you're
following what Elan's doing, is like that is where he's engaged.
He's engaged in the process of trying to find and
drum up voters. The other thing that I noticed just
being in this rally, and if you've been reading the
coverage of this rally, you'll know that there was a
(15:58):
stand up comedian who's who started things off with a
series of racist jokes, and it was very uncomfortable being
in the arena. Even even many of the audience did
not seem to be super into it. But that tone,
which I would say is sort of like an edge
lord four chan boundary pushing tone, continued throughout the event.
(16:19):
There were other speakers who made racist cracks. There were
lots and lots of f bombs, lots of profanity.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
The vibe.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Essentially, it reminded me of Elon's Twitter feed, and I
really think there's been this thing where the kind of
tone that Elon has adopted has converged with where trump
Ism is today. I think that's a shift for both
of them, a shift for Trump and also a shift
for Eelung.
Speaker 7 (16:44):
Yeah, and to this day, the Trump campaign is trying
to contain the damage from some of that, and it's
not entirely clear at the end of the day whether
that event will be a net positive or a net
negative for the campaig in its final days, because they
are certainly in scramble mode. We have tape of Trump
(17:05):
speaking about Elon. Let's listen to it now.
Speaker 6 (17:07):
I say, you're You're a genius. You are a genious.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
You are right. He is special. He is special, and
you know what he wants more than.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Anything else for our country to be really well run, solidly, run,
to be run democratically, all the things that everybody in
this room wants.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
And I mean, honestly, he left that pad and he went.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
To Pennsylvania to campaign.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
Can you believe it? Now? He's amazing and he's a
great guy too. He really is.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Got to remember him.
Speaker 7 (17:39):
You know, as we were saying earlier, it's hard not
to think that that some of this current euphoria in
the that's seen in the Tesla stock price is tied
up in this whole you know, elon embrace of Trump,
because the two of them are are just getting closer
and closer with the passing of each and every day.
Speaker 8 (18:00):
Yeah, that's an interesting way to think about what's going
on behind or in the minds of Tesla investors. Right,
I'll put this out there. Esla scheys were down yesterday.
They are also down today last I checked. I'm not
in front of the terminal, right now.
Speaker 7 (18:14):
You should always have the terminal in front of you.
Don't admit to that here on air in front of
millions of listeners, But okay, go.
Speaker 8 (18:21):
On, And I feel like, you know, when this is
a very hard election for investors, just because you know,
it's so tight. Though we're seeing signs of Trump really
getting ahead of Harris. In betting markets, poles are still
pretty tight. A lot of big investors I talk to,
institutional investors I talk to, they largely look at the polls.
They do not have that much faith in the betting market.
(18:42):
And when it comes to Tesla, which has like this
election can impact Tesla.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
In two big ways. One is the IRA, the.
Speaker 8 (18:49):
Inflation Reduction Act, the act that was you know, put
in place by the Bidary administration and something that Trump
has said he would fully reverse if he wins the election. Right,
that is going to be bad for Tesla. On the
other hand, as you know, everything that Max was talking
about this this this is very obvious advantage. So for
(19:11):
the lack of a better word, that would be there
if the CEO is really close with the president again,
if Trump wins the election.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So Tesla investors.
Speaker 8 (19:19):
Are finding it very hard to kind of make sense
of this push and pull, and that I think is
a big reason why we're not seeing much of an
impact of the election or everything that Musk is doing
with Trump on the Tesla Tesla stock.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I mean, yeah, if Trump has a bad day right
from now until election day, it's sort of a reasonable
assumption to think that Tesla may have a bad day
because because they are linked.
Speaker 7 (19:46):
So if I want to know the current state of
the race and over the next five six days, I'm
simply going to follow the Tesla stock price.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
I mean, I think you might want to keep an
eye on the polls as well.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
But sure, let's let's give that a shot, David, and
see how we well, you know, one week from today, Hey,
we'll have probably some sense.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
We'll have a sense indeed, you know, on the betting markets.
So I will just say again, though, Esha, I actually
I think that's right. I mean, I think the danger
with those betting markets is that they are super I
liquid and you get a bit of a tail wagging
the dog's sort of phenomenon where I think people infer
an awful lot in broad a financial markets from what
a handful of investors are putting down on the outcome.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
Of this race. I will say this about musk Max.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
It's really as we've watched him go from a political
to okay, he was a Democrat for a while sort
of and then okay, then became you know, coming out
of the pandemic more right laning, and then started this
embrace of Trump, and it's just grown and grown and grown.
Hell Man, if this election we're two months from now
(20:48):
and not in the week, he would wind up being
one of the candidates on the ballot.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I hope everyone is listening to the Citizen Elon podcast
where we talk about all about this.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
But thank you David.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
But the you know, Tim Walls the other day said,
you know JDV is not the running mate, it's it's
Elon Musk.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
And I think, well, you saw that on Sunday, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
I mean Advance was like sort of you know, just
shunted off to the side.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
He was very you know, practically ignored in this event.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
And even in Trump's remarks, he had a lot more
to say about Elon Musk and he did about Jade Vance,
I do think, you know. And and going to this
rally for me really hammered at home. I'd never been
to a Trump rally before. These are cultural events as
much as they are political events. You know, people who
are there, it's like it's like going to a rock concert,
(21:31):
you know, all the way down to the merch and
Trump exerts a cultural gravity on everybody who's around him.
And so I think that there, it's going to create
a lot of it's going to create unpredictability for TESLA
in the in the months to come, whether or not
Trump wins, because because now Elon is going to be
very closely tied to this extremely controversial and like kind
(21:55):
of borderline unpopular figure. I mean, he's obviously very popular
among a core group of Republicans, but not necessarily broadly popular.
And so I think that presents opportunities for Elon Musk. Obviously,
as we've discussed, if Trump can kind of you know,
legalize robotaxes or something, but it also creates lots and
lots of risks for this company.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
As we heard Trump say earlier, Musk is back in Pennsylvania,
and so too is our very own Dana Hull. And
let's give her a ring and see what she's finding.
We have Dana beaming in from Pittsburgh. Hey, Dana, Hey,
So Dana, you were at MSG on Sunday. Give us
(22:37):
really briefly your impressions on that, and then we'll and
then we want to hear what you've seen so far
in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Yeah, well that's before Garden was really quite spectacle. And
you know, Max and I were sitting there together and
I said, what I really did was just the top
billing that got I mean, he introduced Millennia, Milania, introduced
Donald Trump. I mean, Musk was like the speak a
way up higher on the totem pole than Jadie Dance was.
And I thought that that would really strike and then
(23:06):
you know, there was a lot of mention of Pennsylvania.
So I see a Pitsburg and here I am, and
I literally just got here Monday night. But it's been
super interesting talking to voters and watching the ads that
ran during the Steelers game, and just seeing how much
billionaires are part of like the Democratic messaging, I don't
let a billionaire buy your vote. And I talked to
(23:27):
one gentleman who said that anytime he seeds Testel, now
you know, Testa cars have like a Tea emblem on
the back, because that now he thinks put the T
stands for Trump, not Tesslas.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
That is interesting though about the ads, and there's long
been a sense on this show that to the point
you're raising, that that Musk is driving, because he's such
a polarizing figure out, he's driving potential voters away from Trump.
And that's certainly that the way the Democrats want to
tag Trump as a body with the world's richest person.
(24:00):
But Dan, are there any signs or any indication that
he also, given his star power, he could be luring
in lots and lots of young male voters for Trump.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
Yeah, I think that that's that's definitely the play. Like,
if you look at what must Pack is doing, they
are really targeting young men. Both tend to be voters.
These men tend to be really like hard physically to
kind of flip. But if you look at all the
way that the Pack is kind of pyper targeting there
at that that is their demographic.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
You know, it's not necessarily flipping voters, right, It's it's
it's getting voters who wouldn't otherwise, who are very conservative
or that the Pack believes are very conservative and getting
them to vote.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
And I mean that's hard.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
That's that's something that like has been kind of like
the Democratic strategy with young voters for pretty much as
long as I've been alive, and it doesn't always work. Voters,
as Dana saying, like young voters tend not to vote.
And you have a lot of challenges here in Pennsylvania
and with Elon's Pack, which is that you and primarily
paid canvassers people who are not necessarily like true believers.
(25:04):
So it'll be really interesting, you know, both as the
test of where the politics are, but also as a
test of like how good is Elon Musk at this?
Like at the organizing thing, which is something we've never
seen him do well.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
And that's an interesting point, and Dana, I'm guessing that
today you'll you'll get a bit better of a sense
for that, and you will report back with more later.
But there is also this growing chatter out there that
the vaunted Musk you know, technical team, technical prowess, the
group that brought you Tesla, that brought you SpaceX, will.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Indeed make a.
Speaker 7 (25:37):
Difference in Pennsylvania and in a race where we could
be talking about two five, ten, thirty thousand votes, you know,
may make or break this race.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Yeah, no, that's one hundred good tru because critically, remember
Republicans that not I typically voted early, intended to be
election day voter. And you've seen you know, data very
recently that Republicans really the gap counter voter registration and month,
you know, day after day, hour after hours, kind of
tweeting relentlessly, like urging people to vote, you know, at
(26:08):
Manister Garden telling people to drag your friends to vote.
He's building a list of registered voters that his pack
can then contact and text at call and like do motivation.
And that's you know, I mean lots of people are
going to find a position if they might win a
million dollars and has given these million dollar checks out
(26:29):
to several people, including a couple of people here in
the Pitsburg area.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (26:33):
So now, Max, we we talked about those million dollar
checks last week, and I believe there's been an update
or two in the last few days.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
No, well, yeah, local district attorney. I think it's a
Philadelphia district attorney issuing a bunch of officials in lots
of jurisdictions essentially.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Say this is illegal. It sure looks illegal.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
Of course, the DOJ also send them.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
A letter, Yeah, a letter warning that it was or
might be illegal. I mean this is you know, if
you followed Elon Musk's career, you know that this is
kind of a pattern, right. I mean, the you know
for twenty offer in twenty eighteen was also not kosher,
and he did it anyway and managed to skate. So
it seems like that's the strategy here. One thing I
(27:17):
just want to add to what Danna said. Of all
the speakers we saw at Madison Square, Guard Dan and
I were sitting together and it was really surreal experience.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
But Elon was the one who was.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Most engaged in the actual specifics of organizing, like most
of the other speakers were basically doing TV hits, like
in front of a big crowd using the backdrop. It
was a media event eon As Dana said, like he
was saying bring your friends to vote, he was talking
about early voting numbers. He is definitely and this is
why it's so interesting. He is definitely engaged in community organizing.
(27:51):
You know, that sort of activity that is so often
mocked by capitalists.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
That's what he's doing.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
He's trying to bring the same entrepreneurial energy to bear
on voting. And you know, I think we really have
no idea what it's going to look like. And that's
why I'm so interested to see what Dana comes back
with from Pittsburgh.
Speaker 7 (28:09):
So, Dan, we're going to let you go, and indeed
a week from today, if not earlier, we'll hear more
from what you found there in Pennsylvania. That's good talk soon,
max Esha, thanks.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
For joining, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 8 (28:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (28:31):
This episode was produced by Stacy Wang, Anna Maserakas and
Rayhan Harmancier are senior editors. The idea for this very
show also came from Rayhunt Blake Maples handles engineering and
Emma Sanchez fact checks. Our supervising producers Magnus Henrickson. The
elon Ing theme is written and performed by Takea Yasuzawa
and Alex Sugiira. Brendan Francis Newnam is our executive producer,
(28:54):
and Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. A
big thanks to our supporters Joel Weber and Brett Stone.
I'm David Papadopolis. If you have a minute, rate and
review our show, it'll help other listeners find us.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
See you next week.
Host
David Papadopoulos
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