President elect Donald Trump, making his first public remarks in Phoenix and nearly sending the government into a shutdown. Earlier today, Trump spoke about several hot button issues, including taking back the Panama Canal, renaming America's tallest mountain and his border and immigration policy plans that would start on his first day back in office. One of my first day back in the Oval Office, I will sign a historic slate of executive orders to close our border to illegal aliens and stop the invasion of our country. And on that same day, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than that of President Dwight D Eisenhower.
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| Trump reacts to critics saying Elon Musk is in charge | blogsrabbi |
- The incoming president also giving his take on his relationship with Elon Musk and address a persistent talking point among Democrats that Musk is acting and will act as a shadow president. The new one is President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk.
- No, no, that's not happening. But, Elon, Elon's done an amazing job. Isn't it nice to have smart people that we can rely on? No, he's not going to be president. That I can tell you.
- And I'm safe. You know why he can't be? He wasn't born in this country. Haha. For more, we're joined by Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky and Katie Frost, Republican strategist and former executive director for the Georgia Freedom Caucus. Good to see both of you.
- I do want to get to immigration in just a moment, but let's start there, where the president elect kind of dropped off talking about Elon Musk. Katie, I just want to get your reaction to his take there on on what's being said about Musk.
Trump
Well, it's great to see both you ladies again. You know, this is, of course, the latest talking point we're seeing coming out of the Democratic Party, which is highly ironic considering the Wall Street Journal report that dropped this week, talking about how President Biden has been struggling to do the job since very early in his presidency.
So apparently now it's a key point of concern for Democrats, the idea that there might be someone other than the elected president trying to call shots, when that's exactly what's been happening for the last four years. I would love to know who's been the shadow president of our country for the last four years. And, Julie, I just want to get your thoughts on it as well. Well, it sounds like this is getting a little bit to Trump, right? Anybody who decides to elevate themselves, to even pretend to be on par with Trump, Trump eventually gets rid of. And so I don't give this bromance much time. Katie, the difference is Elon Musk, who's not elected to anything, was not appointed to anything. through through a confirmation process is basically calling the shots and was calling the shots. Last week, he came out first to scuttle this bipartisan deal that led to a tremendous amount of chaos. And you have the speaker of the House himself acknowledging that he was continuously talking to Elon Musk throughout this whole process.
Trump reacts to critics saying
Who is Elon Musk but an unelected billionaire who has his own interests with his budget and who obviously, as a result of those interests, decided to scuttle a deal that would somehow, shock all stocks, impact his business in China, among other things. And so, look, this is Trump reminding people and reminding Musk, I think that he's paying attention.
So very clearly this is getting to Trump. And I'm glad I'm going to sit back because I keep saying, drink my martini and watch this chaos unfold, because this is what the Republicans asked for and they're getting it. Yeah, I guess, Katie, I do.
I am curious what you think about Julie's point there that Trump felt the need to talk about this. I mean, he's known for being for for paying attention about what's being said. He he watches news, he reads, you know, he's he's paying attention to kind of what's out there in the ether.
And clearly this was something he felt like he needed to address. When he knows we're talking about it here, it's clearly become a talking point that the Democrats are trying to push. So he's preemptively going to address it. That's the exact same thing Speaker Johnson did with his gaggle with reporters after the bill was passed in Congress.
Trump reacts to critics saying Elon Musk is in charge blogsrabbi
This is something people are asking questions, so they're going to preemptively answer that. But I would go back to, you know, Julie, you said that no one elected Elon Musk, no one elected. The white House staff that have been running the show on President Biden has been asleep at the wheel essentially for the last four years. So, I mean, you can talk about now, apparently, the influence of billionaires is a concern. it isn't a concern for George Soros with a lot of money to electing people across the country.
It isn't a concern when Mark Zuckerberg wanted to get involved in elections. It wasn't a concern when Jack Dorsey owned Twitter. Apparently, now that it's Exxon, somebody on Musk, it is a concern. So there's definitely seems to be a double standard at play here the next time, Katie, the next time that, George Soros or her Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey picks up the phone and tanks a bipartisan negotiated bill, you let me know. That's never happened. George Soros has never, to my knowledge, picked up the phone and called then Speaker Nancy Pelosi and said, this is what you have to do.
Elon Musk is in charge | blogsrabbi
Nobody's even alleged that he's done that. This is quite different. This is an unelected billionaire who is literally calling the shots and telling Republicans what they're going to vote for and what they're not going to vote for, and they acquiesce. They actually acquiesce to him. And so that's the part to me that makes no sense. Nobody elected Elon Musk.
He came out first, tanked this bill, then Trump belatedly jumped in as a MeToo kind of you know, me, I also agree with this, but this was Elon Musk's mess that he made. And that's something that the speaker of the House acknowledged. You have members of Congress literally acknowledging they're consulting with Elon Musk before making decisions.
That's nothing that we've ever seen before, at least in my lifetime. well, one person's call. Go ahead. I'll say one person calling the shots is another person's call to action. Elon Musk put out the word, and the people responded and melted the phone lines.
Elon Musk
And like, if Taylor Swift had put out a tweet and the Swifties had melted the Capitol switchboard, which they crashed Ticketmaster, I have no doubt that the Swifties could crash the Capitol switchboard.
We probably wouldn't be having the same kind of conversation. We'd be like, look at democracy in action. Look, people are motivated. This is exciting. So I would say it's not Elon Musk and it's not even what he's doing. It's the results people don't like. They didn't like that a, quote, bipartisan bill that was really just a giveaway. Santa Claus had come to Washington and everybody was getting what they wanted.
That got tank. And that's what people are upset about. It is interesting, though he is. When you let me know when Taylor Swift does that, Katy, you let me know when Taylor Swift decides to call to action about specific legislation that we could have that conversation. Elon Musk has jumped on phone calls with, foreign leaders as well, which is which is interesting.
And then I would like to talk more about that. But unfortunately, we are out of time. Julia Roginsky and Katie Frost, we appreciate both of you. Thanks so much.
