Summary

In a Fox News interview, Elon Musk and Sean Hannity repeatedly talked over Donald Trump, sidelining him in a discussion about government efficiency.

Musk dominated the conversation, warning of national bankruptcy and presenting himself as a savior.

Hannity largely directed questions to Musk, while Trump struggled to interject.

The awkward exchange fueled speculation about Musk’s influence, with some questioning who is really in charge.

  • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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    24 hours ago

    Just goes to show, Trump is not the cause of the disease, he’s a symptom. Trump could be Luigied tomorrow and the problems with the Republican party wouldn’t disappear. They are completely owned by billionaires.

  • Cold_Brew_Enema@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Honestly where the fuck is JD Vance? Isn’t he the vice president? Musk is always next to Trump, I haven’t seen Vance one time

    • Juice@midwest.social
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      1 day ago

      Laying low so as not to take as much heat for all this as Musk, so that when Trump is done Vance can be boosted as a more moderate alternative to Trump and Musk’s extreme measures, even though Vance would be just as bad, if not worse. But if they can keep heat off him in this cycle, it will be better especially when things reach the breaking point and people want heads (but still want to vote republican.)

      • RamenJunkie@midwest.social
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        1 day ago

        Vance would be worse. He is an actual politician and a believer in the Project 2025 bull shit. Trump probably would not have even run if he had not been staring down 100 barrels of jail time.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          I don’t doubt the notion that 2016 Trump ran as a grift and wasn’t really hoping or expecting to win, but 2020 and 2024 Trump had tasted power and definitely wanted it back, in addition to staring down 100 barrels of jail time.

      • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        It’s weird how a person so seemingly unimportant hasn’t been converted into a scarecrow, made to vouch for key positions in their plan, etc. This man is either sleaky enough to avoid much of responsibility for what happens or everyone in the HQ forgot about him. His position doesn’t mean much power in the US, but it’s really interesting that he doesn’t get much coverage as a legally second in chief and seemingly abstain from everything while, before Musk got the wheel I thought he would play a key role in advocating for everythng techbros are up for.

        • Juice@midwest.social
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          1 day ago

          There are actually powerful interests that like Vance, maybe more than Trump. Vance is a long term prospect for the moment, I think. Trumps admin likes to stir shit up over here, while building power and planning long term over there. I think historically Trump himself was a barrier to this kind of planning, but it seems like he’s gotten with the program this time around.

          I doubt we’ve seen the last of Vance, in all the worst ways imaginable.

      • jaybone@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        This is an interesting take. I always figured if it got to the point where Vance was their number 1 guy, he wouldn’t have the cult leader charisma to keep MAGA together and it would all fall apart. Wishful thinking I suppose. But maybe that’s why they are installing musk to begin with.

        • Juice@midwest.social
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          22 hours ago

          He is very unlikeable, but for a lot of people the cruelty a politician is capable of is a big part of the appeal. Won’t make him popular with the masses necessarily, but we can be tricked.

          But yeah bringing out Vance early in such a high profile way will probably have the effect of making him look better down the road when the stakes are higher. All that couch-fucker stuff, his history of pro choice comments, they knew it would come out so its better to get it out now than later, when he’s already become part of the “establishment” of the right. No halfway career conscious editor is going to publish old news like that. And then a little more consent is purchased, not as the result of some widespread conspiracy but as the result of a system of incentives and disincentives that generate the kind of irrational self interest that is the only discernable political project of any kind on the right, maybe in the american political system as a whole, though I’m sure that would be taking the point too far.

    • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Trump was being honest when he said Vance didn’t matter and wasn’t going to do anything in office anyway.

    • RamenJunkie@midwest.social
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      1 day ago

      Hell, where the fuck is Trump?

      Granted, I am absolutely not seeking him out, but it felt like he was everywhere in his first term with his stupid idiot rambling speeches.

      But this round it’s all DOGE and Musk and maybe, something more vague about what the “Trump Administration” is doing, but it feels like Trump isn’t even around.

      Hell, the other day I was wondering if he had died of a heart attack or something but they were just keeping the body locked up and pretending he was alive while Musk destroys the country.

      • theneverfox@pawb.social
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        20 hours ago

        Oh, he’s everywhere… He’s been giving almost daily speeches or interviews. This week he went to the Daytona 500, gave an unhinged speech full of Russian talking points about Ukraine, grimaced through a very weird pair interview with president Musk where he kissed Musk’s ass through gritted teeth, went golfing, and did a press event about how only he can interpret the law now. Today he said he’s going to fort Knox to “make sure the gold is there”

        He’s on the camera so much so that it’s obvious he’s a puppet at this point - he doesn’t have the unaccounted for time to be getting briefs and making day to day decisions. They put him at the kiddie table and are keeping him occupied with events

        If you’re not seeing it, it’s probably censorship. They’re having trouble editing together coherent sound bites, it seems like he’s regressing. He keeps talking about real estate - he’s going to make Gaza a resort, he’s talking about what they can rebuild in Ukraine, he’s talking about how he needs Musk because contractors give him a mock up and then get caught up in securing financing or something…

    • Gerudo@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      He’s pulling a Pence. Be close enough to reap the benefits but far enough to not go down with the ship.

    • samus12345@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      JD Vance’s job is to not overshadow Trump. Trump doesn’t seem to mind if Musk does, though.

  • zephorah@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    Trump is waxing and waning. The man is 80 and looking quite unhealthy. When geriatrics start to wax and wane there are recognizable patterns but it can vary a bit by personality. Biden and Trump are the same in that respect.

    What waxing and waning means is you can have a perfectly normal exchange with Biden on day 1 and on day 2 get the debate performance and on day 3 get perfectly normal again. Inertia and habit carries people a lot further and longer than you think, depending on what they spent most of their lives doing. It’s not uncommon to have career domination in this inertia.

    I suspect Trump will look much more odd and awkward than Biden going forward.

    High odds it’s one reason Elon is with him and the interview isn’t solo, so Elon can be a handler of sorts and talk over him rather than having Trumps Biden moments on full, singular focus. One of the other reasons, ofc, is to maintain this idea that they are the same person in power, to keep that tight association going.

    My personal theory with zero hard evidence to back it is that Trump does his disengagement thing when his internal pacemaker with defibrillator zaps him. And that he’d be dead already without it.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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      I like that defibrillator theory, though usually I’ve seen patients react with pain when it goes off. Maybe the disengagement is him going into v-tach and his blood pressure tanking before it pops him.

      As for Musk covering for the dementia, I doubt it. If you look at Trump’s transcripts over the years, he’s had a propensity for dementia soup when he speaks for a while now, but his supporters just dismiss it, hear what they want, and say it’s fake news. I don’t see why they’d suddenly be worried about it now. No, this is Musk just plain old taking the driver’s seat.

      • athairmor@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        People with dementia have increasing difficulty following conversations, especially with multiple people, as the dementia gets worse.

        It could be that Trump just can’t follow the conversation well. They’re not covering so much as Trump can’t handle so many people talking.

  • IHeartBadCode@fedia.io
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    1 day ago

    Man, I never knew that the price to make Trump your bitch was so low.

    Like the public could just GoFundMe $400M and have him as a public servant once again.

    • zephorah@lemm.ee
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      Except he has this thing where he acts like the unseen person in high school who was just noticed by the popular crowd when people he perceived as important or popular notice him: Elon, Saudi Arabian princes, Putin, etc

      We The People hold no such sway.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      I don’t think it’s just the money. He is deeply insecure, and I think that, in many ways, he actually craves the approval of what he sees as “the popular kids” (in his mind, the wealthiest man in the world is the #1 popular kid. Like the homecoming king in an 80s movie)

    • samus12345@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      No, unless an individual controls the money, it would just be added to Trump’s pile and nobody else would get anything out of it.

    • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Careful, using fancy Latin words might get you labeled as one of those “intellectuals,” or an “illegal” from Latin America.

    • kibiz0r@midwest.social
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      24 hours ago

      “Did you see that high-scoring basketball game last night? The referee gave out so many points, he had to declare bankruptcy!”

  • Gork@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    When the fallout happens between Trump and Musk, Trump may find it difficult to get rid of him since he has handed so much power to Musk (via write access to government databases).

    There will come a point where he literally won’t be able to get rid of him once control of the law enforcement arm goes to Musk.

  • Substance_P@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Transcribed as…

    Leader of the free world: -“Right” -“Europe” -“Europe” -“There could be nothing bigger. There’s nothing —” -“That’s peanuts compared to what we’re talking about,” -“Including his ships. Including his ships going up.” -“Sean, you’re a… ”

    Hannity: *dismissively - “This is important,” *continues to talk to Musk.

    *Trump utterly humiliated rambles under his breath.

    Who is the alpha here? What a joke not to mention Elon’s talking points are 100% contradictory.

    • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      He’s a senile geriatric, he has no clue what decade it is, let alone what the fuck is being talked about. He was told to sit there and shut up so he wouldn’t ramble or say some stupid nazi shit and let the big boys talk. So he did, and we get to see who the real boss is.

    • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Pretty sure she’s already cucked him more than once, and at least once with him in the room. Hell, he probably serves her up like an hors-d’oeuvre and his daughter like dessert.