WEBVTT - Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Elon and Trump 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:10.879 Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.919 Well, Elon Musk gives now the richest person on the planet. 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.120 More than half the satellites in space are owned and 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.040 controlled by one man. 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:25.560 Well, he's a legitimate super genius. I mean legitimate. 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.400 He says he's always voted for Democrats, but this year 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:30.200 it will be different. He'll vote Republican. 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:32.879 There is a reason the US government is still reliant 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:35.520 on him. Elon Musk is a scam artist and he's 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:36.920 done nothing. 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:40.519 Anything he does, he's fascinating people. 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.360 Welcome to elan Ing, Bloomberg's weekly podcast about Elon Musk. 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:58.880 It's June fourth. I'm your host, David Papadopolis. This week, 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.200 with the US still reeling from Donald Trump's felony conviction, 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:07.319 we have politics on the brain, particularly the strange on again, 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:10.720 off again alliance that has been brewing between Musk and Trump. 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:13.959 There's been new reporting from US at Bloomberg and from 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.200 the Wall Street Journal about their meetings, plus news that 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.320 X will be hosting town hall events for Trump and 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:24.399 separately for RFK Junior. Before we dig into all that, though, 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.399 we'll do a rundown on some developments in Elon's seemingly 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.120 never ending legal troubles. To break down the latest on 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.200 a pair of X related lawsuits, were joined by BusinessWeek 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:40.720 senior writer and mister all around guy Clarksfield South High 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.080 School two thousand, Max. 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.920 Chafkins close, Thank you, great to be here, David, What 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:46.960 I get wrong? 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.800 Clarksfield, Clarkstown, Everyone knows that. 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:55.200 And Kurt Wagner, author of Battle for the Bird and 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.360 a reporter for US covering social platforms at Bloomberg. 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.000 Kurt, David, how are you? 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:01.720 Thank you? Thank you. 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.600 Later on, we're going to be joined by Bloomberg national 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:11.200 political correspondent Nancy Cook. But let's get right into this 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:16.800 suddenly seeming maze of lawsuits in legal troubles that Musk 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:20.080 is in again, Kurt, So bring us up to speed 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:22.080 a little bit here, because it's been coming on the 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.079 legal front fast and. 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:24.800 Furious of late. 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:30.200 Yeah, there's probably a dozen or more legal disputes that 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.360 Elon and X are dealing with right now, but the 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:37.120 most prominent one is this SEC investigation into whether he 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:41.840 violated laws by purchasing the Twitter stock in the way 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:44.000 that he did back in early twenty twenty two. So 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:45.520 to remind folks. 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:46.720 Prior to the takeover you meet. 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.960 That's right before he actually acquired the company, he was 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.760 building a position in Twitter starting in late January of 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.160 twenty twenty two. The public didn't learn about that position, 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:01.080 that that stake that he'd acquired and to two months later, 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.320 and in those two months, Elon acquired more than nine 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:08.120 percent of Twitter stock without ever publicly disclosing this. Now, 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.400 the SEC's rules state that once you cross this five 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.960 percent ownership threshold, you're supposed to file paperwork. It then 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.920 becomes public everyone knows. Okay, Elon Musk is, you know, 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.959 a major shareholder in Twitter because he did not do that. Now, 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.560 the accusation is, did he keep the price of Twitter 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.919 stock artificially low so that he was able to buy 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:30.760 more of it at a lower price? Right because the 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.080 minute he says, hey, I'm buying Twitter stock, the price 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.560 just shoots up. So the longer he delays that, the 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:36.800 better deal he gets. 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:38.560 Just like when he says he's buying doge coin and 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:44.200 the price shoots up. Now, that's what the SEC is 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:48.760 looking into. And now there has also been a separate 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:53.320 lawsuit from investors more or less around the exact same issue. 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:55.040 Is that right, it is the same issue. 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.560 Yeah, and this is the wrote down the Oklahoma Firefighter's 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.880 pension and retirement system them, So basically the pension fund 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:04.880 for firefighters in Oklahoma are saying, hey, wait a minute, 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:09.000 we own stock in Twitter. They actually, I believe sold 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.400 stock in Twitter during this period. And their complaint is 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:15.360 because they didn't know that Elon was buying these shares, 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.240 they sold that at a lower price than they could have. Right, 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.400 And so this lawsuit's really interesting. They just issued an 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.440 updated version of the lawsuit last week which had all 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.960 kinds of juicy details about Elon and his business manager, 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:29.200 Jared Birchall. 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.080 And give us a couple of the best details. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:36.719 The biggest accusation in this lawsuit is that Elon was 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:40.560 ignoring advice from his bankers at Morgan Stanley to get 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.800 outside counsel as to when he should divulge these you know, 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.920 these sale or these purchases excuse me of Twitter stock. Right, 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.760 so Morgan Stanley's helping him out. We have all these 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.440 emails that are Morgan Stanley bankers saying, just want to 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:55.880 be sure we're approaching the five percent threshold. Okay, we 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.000 just crossed the five percent threshold, Like are you going 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.120 to disclose this? Are you getting outside legal advice on 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:06.880 what to do here? And Jared Birchall basically responds, yes, yes, yes, 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.000 we're you know, don't worry about it. We're getting advice 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.080 all this stuff. And the lawsuit claims that was all false, 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.359 that they were not speaking with outside counsel, they were 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.680 simply ignoring all of these warnings and essentially, you know, 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.080 blowing past the stop sign that the sec had put 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.440 up for them. And you know, it's a pretty damning 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:26.520 accusation in my opinion. 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:28.479 Yeah, I mean that's the interesting thing here to me, Max, 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.520 because going back a long long time in this country, 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.200 the rule is pretty simple, like if you go above 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.560 that threshold and stake in a company, thou shall declare 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:38.160 your position. 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:40.560 I mean, there are few things that are sort of 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.320 fundamental to like Elon Musk's character. Like one is that 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:45.920 he really likes to be funny, he likes to crack jokes. 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:49.080 Another is like he really cares about sustainable transportation. And 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:51.160 like the third I'd say is that he does not 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:56.599 respect securities laws. He has a long history of kind 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:01.080 of make of sort of ignoring or sidestepping or skirting 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:07.000 the line ever so carefully around basic SEC laws, rules 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.839 and norms, which has led to essentially like a long 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.080 running dispute with the SEC. 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.760 And he does that because he just find he finds 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.800 them absurd, not where not worth his time. 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:20.320 I think, though, yeah, I think it's those two things 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.400 his whole attitude. Obviously it's not his fundamental nature, but 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.320 he does really believe that like you should reduce these 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:29.600 rules that like that the way you get to it 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:32.080 comes up over and over again in that Isaacson book. 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.040 You know anything, anything that's not physics is a suggestion, 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:37.680 not a requirement, right, And I think for him, you know, 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.480 all these SEC rules are just like these like ticki 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.800 tac bs, things that he views as more or less optional, 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.440 and that has that has led to a you know, 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:51.320 a year's long dispute with the SEC where we're honestly 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.640 like Musk, although he's settled at various times and he's 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:56.520 lost some judge, you know, he's basically gotten the better 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.279 of the SEC. He's he's more or less continued to 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.200 behave the way he has always behaved, which is to 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:06.320 you know, basically ignore many many securities laws, or at 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.360 least seem to ignore many securities laws. I should say 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.240 Elon Musk has in all of these cases denied wrongdoing. 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:13.760 He constantly trash talks them. 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:13.840 No. 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.120 Absolutely, Now the he's gonna have to give a deposition 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:21.040 in front of the SEC for five hours. They set 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:24.360 a five pretty precise five hours. Why five hours, Max? 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.239 Everyone gets hungry after that out. 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:26.280 Of the. 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:29.040 I don't know. 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:31.080 I mean, I assume they just ask for a big 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.160 chunk of time and five hours, I don't know. 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:36.239 It's like, sounds like a full day right now. Max. 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.720 While all this Twitter stuff in these Twitter lawsuits and 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:44.360 the SEC deposition were come up, another totally unrelated to Twitter, 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:46.480 another lawsuit dropped out of the blue. 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:47.520 Tell us about this one. 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:51.640 Yeah, so this is a lawsuit from investors in Tesla. 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:53.040 The accusation here. 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.280 If you look back in twenty twenty two, Tesla's stock 0:07:56.320 --> 0:08:00.280 price fell a lot during that year, and the company 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:04.200 went from having a very positive outlook with Elon Musk 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:07.000 in October of twenty twenty two is saying essentially there's 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:09.400 demand as far as I can see, you know, no 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.440 demand issues. And then at the very end of the 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.600 year or sorry, early January, Tesla has this very bad 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.360 quarter the stock drops. You know, that was essentially a 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:22.320 low point for Elon Musk. He sold a bunch of stock, 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:24.800 I think a little over seven billion dollars worth of 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:29.040 Tesla's stock in December. And the allegation is from this 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.360 from these investors, that he had knowledge of how bad 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:34.320 the quarter was going to be and that he was 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.520 trading on that knowledge. Now, this kind of case happens 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.880 a lot when you have big swings in the stock price. 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:44.920 And also we should say Musk was selling a lot 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.760 because he was buying Twitter. I mean, the acquisition had 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:49.520 already closed at that point, but a lot of the 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:52.800 share sales earlier in the year were I think related 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.719 to like getting some cash for the Twitter acquisition. I 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:58.840 don't think Musk has responded to this. Must said he 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:03.760 needed dry powder, you know, he needed cash. That said, Like, 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.480 over the course of that year, Musk made several statements 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.040 that were like I'm done selling stock. He kept sort 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.240 of promising that he was done selling stock and then 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.640 selling some more stock. So you can sort of understand 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:19.000 why investors are upset about it and why they might 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:21.480 have a case. Now again, like these cases I think 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.800 tend to be hard to prove so we'll see, Kurt. 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.559 There is just in general, though, a long litany of 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:32.040 lawsuits backed up going you know, going back months and 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:34.920 months against Twitter since he took over. 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.720 Now a huge list. Yeah, you know, we talked about 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:39.080 the two. 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:41.160 Do you have an Do we have a number more 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:42.600 or less? Let's see. 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:44.440 I tried to write them down. I would say over 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.520 a dozen that I'm aware of. We talked about the 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.480 two related to his stock purchases. I briefly mentioned this 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:56.400 arbitration case to actually is like thousands of arbitration cases. 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:58.720 I believe there's more than two thousand employees that are 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.280 sort of signed up with this one lawyer for a 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.320 mass arbitration. But I think they may have to do 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:07.199 them all individually, which means you know, thousands of those. 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.640 There's a National Labor Relations Board case where they fired 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:13.679 an employee at X who's now suing him. You may 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.679 recall that the C suite at Twitter was due more 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.880 than one hundred million dollars in golden parachutes when Elon 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.960 took over and fired them, which he withheld. So the 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.800 C suite at Twitter's suing him. And then lastly, tons 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:32.280 of vendors, right, so a private Jet Company Law, a 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:34.880 law firm that did work for him. A lot of 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.320 the places where they just stopped paying rent at Twitter's offices, 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.079 those people are all coming to collect as well. So 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:44.240 it's been a steady stream. The line to sue Elon 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:46.120 is out the door and around the block. 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:46.880 At this point. 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.240 Trump has a track record allegedly of not paying people, 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:53.640 so similar pattern here for Musk. 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:57.240 Yeah, I think it's very similar, and I mean it's 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.360 there are a lot of aggressive business people who kind 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:02.559 of do this in one way or another, and I 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.280 do think it's part of why, you know, we saw 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:10.400 after Trump was convicted in New York, Musk, you know, 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.160 sent out a flurry of replies essentially in support of 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:15.320 Donald Trump. And I think part of that is just, 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:18.880 you know, general he's now basically an anti Biden. The 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:20.520 fact of Trump support. A part of this is just 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:22.840 kind of political signaling. But I think part of it 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:27.079 is like he genuinely believes that it is dangerous and 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.360 he may worry in fact personally because he, like President 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:34.160 Trump formed. President Trump has tangled with with the government 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.760 and there are DOJ investigations and so on. And when 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:41.840 you see, you know, a successful business person being prosecuted. 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:44.720 I think that affects people, and it can affet people 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:45.520 on an emotional level. 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.199 All right, now we're gonna bring in our national political correspondent, 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:58.199 Nancy Cook to talk about the on again, off again 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.440 Trump and Musk relationship. 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:03.320 Nancy, Hello, thanks for having me. 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:06.679 Okay, Nancy, So, if the on again, off again relationship 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:11.000 is on again, what exactly does on look like? 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.560 So on looks like at this point, Well, it looks 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:18.520 pretty on, I have to be honest. You know, Trump 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.240 and Elon sort of had this relationship where they would 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.560 fight with each other. But really the Trump campaign for 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.439 the last several months has been on the hunt for donors. 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.720 They really want to close the fundraising gap between the 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:34.400 former president and President Biden, and so he has been 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.120 having a lot of meetings and breakfasts with rich people. 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.000 That's just the easiest way to put it. And so 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.360 in March in Palm Beach, he had a meeting with 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:47.240 a bunch of wealthy people at this donor's house in 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.079 Palm Beach and Trump went there. It was a brunch 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:52.960 and Elon Musk was there, and that's when they first 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.560 sort of started to speak again. I would say, behind 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.040 the scenes, which was what was happening during then, is 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:02.440 that Vivic Ramas, who as you remember, ran for president 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:06.040 in the Republican primary, had really started to broker this 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:07.199 truce between. 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:07.520 The two of them. 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.160 Why why vivec Well, so Vivic is really auditioning to 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.800 be a vice president if Trump wins, or a cabinet member. 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.520 He is sucking up to Trump twenty four to seven. 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.840 He's going on TV, he's going to campaign events with Trump, 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.079 and so one key way to curry favor with the 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:25.959 Trump people at this point is to bring them rich 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.000 people who are donors. And so Vivic really brokeer this 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:30.359 cold war truce. 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.920 Between these because he knows Elon as well. 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.680 He does know Elon as well. You know, Elon had 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:41.319 expressed admiration and some support for Vivic during the Republican primary. 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.800 They had their own relationship, and so Vivic tried to 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.560 sort of then steer that support around to Trump. 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:52.480 Okay, so they find themselves in this same launch and 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:59.920 they spoke directly then, and they begun speaking more frequently since, Yeah. 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:02.280 They were at this donor breakfast with a bunch of 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.040 donors or a handful of them, and then after that 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.760 they really started talking directly more to one another. And 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.480 so Trump loves to just call people on the phone. 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.120 He is, you know, old school that way. He likes 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:16.640 to you know, likes to pick up the phone. He's 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:18.719 never liked to email or text. He doesn't like to 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.400 leave a paper trail. So he has this whole informal 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:23.960 kitchen cabinet of people who he calls on the phone, 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.920 you know, rich people, economic people, TV hosts, Fox News people, 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:31.480 and he'll ask them their opinion on who he should 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:33.880 pick for vice president, or what they think of inflation 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.080 or you know, did they see that hit on CNN 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.320 last night? And so Elon has sort of joined this 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.600 list of people who Trump calls now and my reporting 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:45.680 shows that they do speak to one another directly with 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:46.960 some frequency now. 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:51.440 Now, Nancy apparently among other things they've been talking about, 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:57.120 Donald and Elon are our crypto that Elon has been 0:14:57.800 --> 0:14:59.440 giving Trump advice on crypto. 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:00.520 Tell us a little about that. 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.240 So the term campaign has started to think more about 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.120 crypto policy. I think in a bid to appeal to 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.440 younger voters, particularly young male voters, they're really going after 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:16.200 that demographic, and so they have really turned to you know, 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.840 silicon Valley and tech people much more for advice on this, 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.680 and so they have asked Elon about it. Also, they've 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:24.920 asked just a bunch of Silicon Valley people who with 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:27.520 ties to Elon about it as well. And so it's 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.680 sort of this like little orbit where they're not just 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:32.440 reaching out to him about it, but they're also reaching 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:33.760 out to a bunch of his friends. And then his 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:35.680 friends are like, oh, you should talk to Elon about it. 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.480 He's smart, and so I feel like I was told 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.080 that just sort of keeps reinforcing his influence. 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.720 Now now Max, I think Mosk has denied having discussed it. 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:48.600 Yeah, we should also say, like there's the possibility of 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:52.880 like a crypto voter demographic. But I think another possible explanation, 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:54.760 and one that I would credit a little bit more, 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.120 is the idea that there's a lot of money in 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:01.680 crypto to spend the election. You know, there's this massive 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:04.960 political Action committee, you know, more than one hundred million dollars. 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.520 You have a bunch of big name venture capitalists pouring 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.840 money into politics right now because of they want to 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.760 influence crypto regulations. You also have a bunch of you know, 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.520 kind of prominent crypto figures who have like suddenly become 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.240 like big time maga people. So it feels like part 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.520 of what's happening anyways, like the Trump campaign has figured 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.680 out that crypto is a way to appeal to Silicon 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:31.600 Valley types, and not just Elon Musk, but you know, 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:33.880 David Sachs and a lot of these other guys, like 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.720 a lot of big name vcs have crypto investments. 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.600 Okay, And when we spoke about politics some last week, 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:44.440 the sense was from mister Chafkin and others was that 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:50.480 must still hadn't cut Trump a check. Does that remain 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:51.920 the case as we understand it. 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.440 As far as I know, we have not seen the 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:59.120 Federal Election Commission report filing yet, which is what the 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.000 Trump campaign has file with the federal government, which is 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.360 basically like a verified list of donations. But I do 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:07.680 think that if he did cut a check, the Trump 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:09.880 people would be so excited that we would know about 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:12.080 it at this point. And you have to remember that 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.480 the DeSantis campaign also were very confident that they would 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:19.000 get a check edit that never arrived. And so I'm 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:21.000 not really holding my breath as to whether or not 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:23.919 Elon becomes a donor but even if he is a 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:26.960 supporter and sort of in the Trump orbit and giving advice, 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.480 I think that's a pretty significant political development. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.040 Yeah, I totally agree with that. You know, remember a 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.520 lot of people talk about Peter Teel and Trump. Teal 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:39.679 actually gave that his million dollar check pretty late in 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.639 the cycle and spoke at the Republican National Convention in 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.800 twenty sixteen, you know, before he donated any money or 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:46.879 any significant money. 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.200 You can imagine the same thing happening here, right. 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.680 Like Elon Musk, for all all the ways he's like controversial, 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:59.240 he is a famous, rich and successful businessman, and Donald 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.320 Trump respects. Donald Trump supporters respect that like he brings 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:08.480 even in his extremely red pilled ship posting persona, he 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:12.400 brings a level of respectability to you know, the Trump 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:15.480 campaign that is very valuable. Not only that, but he 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.080 has the potential to bring in other donors. You know, 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:20.680 the there are all these other rich guys who really 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:23.320 care about Elon Musk. Just one thing I'm keeping an 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.040 eye on later this week. You know, David Sachs I 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:28.320 mentioned him earlier. He's a good friend of Elon Musk. 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.120 I think he's probably the person in Silicon Valley, who 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:34.800 has Elon's ear in the most sustained way, is having 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.879 a big fundraiser, you know, up to five hundred thousand 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.280 dollars per couple. That's the highest tier in San Francisco. 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:44.199 We don't know who's going to be there, but it 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.639 is possible that Elon Musk will show up and so 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:48.440 like this, you know, by the end of the week, 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.840 we may have some serious developments. 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.080 He also may just post about it, which seems you know, 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:54.879 i'd say a. 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:56.200 New Sun and Kurt. 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:01.160 The way Musk has X tacking it's it's public posture 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:05.120 has to be also has to square a bit with 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:07.359 and get them more aligned with the Trump camp. 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:11.800 Now I think so, I mean, I think donation aside 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:15.560 what Elon's doing with X and the opportunities that he's 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.280 providing Trump, you know, with this upcoming town hall that 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:21.600 they're going to do with everything that Elon usually says 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.000 about Biden and pushing back on Biden's agenda, like that's 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:28.119 more valuable, I would imagine, honestly than you know, some 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:29.920 check that he's going to write to him anyway, because 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:34.199 Elon's out here the setting the stage for Donald Trump 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.240 and this town hall is going to be a huge 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:40.320 moment only because it'll be you know, one, Elon's going 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:42.359 to make sure that everybody on the service, you know, 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.760 basically sees it. And two, it's kind of a return 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.520 of sorts for Donald Trump to this platform that he 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:52.480 really rode for four years as president. And so that 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.119 moment is going to be so, in my opinion, so 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.720 big for President Trump that you know, I don't think 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.480 the donation. I think that's a secondary thing, to be 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:01.960 honest with. 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:04.080 You, Curtin, Yeah, tell us a little bit more about 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:06.280 those planned X town halls. 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:12.040 Yeah, so X is going to broadcast essentially a live 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.280 town hall, one with Donald Trump and one with Robert F. 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:18.639 Kennedy Junior. And these are separate town halls, but you 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:22.919 know they'll be part of this new X video strategy 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:24.760 that they're trying to lean into this idea of like 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.960 live newsy video, and they're partnering with News Nation, which 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:31.639 is a TV network, to do this. But you know, 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:33.840 I think the big thing here is, and I kind 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:36.159 of alluded to this, this would be a return of 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.639 sorts for Donald Trump to X. Right, he was so 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:43.720 prevalent on what was then Twitter for years. He got banned. 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.720 You'll remember in the days after the January sixth, right, 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.240 and he's only tweeted one time, one time since then, 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.919 and that was his mugshot when he was booked in 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:58.479 I believe, Georgia several months ago. And so you know, 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:00.920