Lawrence: If Elon Musk is 'off the rails' as Trump says, how far from the rails is Donald Trump?

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

NBC News

Policy, Msnbc, Politics, President, Washington, Congress, Government, Senate, News

4.4 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tonight on The Last Word: Donald Trump backs down again on tariffs. Also, a toy company appeals to the Supreme Court over Trump tariffs. And Texas floods kill at least 104 people. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rick Woldenberg, and Tom Llamas join Lawrence O’Donnell.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, Donald Trump proved once again today, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he does not know what he is doing.
0:09.5	Donald Trump proved that in more than one way today, including his response to a question in the aftermath, the tragic aftermath of the horrible flooding in Texas, where the death count is now
0:24.8	at 104 with the possibility of going higher, 28 of the victims were children sleeping at a summer
0:31.6	camp on the banks of the river. After declaring a federal disaster area in the flood zone in Texas, which then activates a full response by FEMA, the federal emergency management agency, Donald Trump, was asked, are you still planning to phase out FEMA?
0:50.1	To which Donald Trump said, well, FEMA is something we can talk about later, but right now,
0:58.4	they're busy working. So we'll leave it at that. Right now, they're busy working.
1:07.5	How could they possibly be busy working if, as Donald Trump and Elon Musk believed, back when they were pretending to be friends, that FEMA is a complete waste of money and should be disbanded?
1:20.4	Only someone who doesn't know what he's doing could say, let's get rid of FEMA.
1:25.9	There's a reason no other president has ever suggested that, because every other president
1:30.1	always knew that FEMA was busy working somewhere, because FEMA's work goes on long after
1:36.2	the disaster is in the news, and that work always overlaps with new FEMA jobs that come along
1:42.6	when other very predictable disasters take place,
1:46.4	like hurricanes during hurricane season, or horrible massive flooding in a place in Texas,
1:53.5	known as Flash Flood Alley.
1:57.9	That's the area, or that deadly flood occurred.
2:01.5	It is predictable that horrible flooding will occur in such a place.
2:07.6	And it is a long-established government function to create as strong and early warning system as possible for predictable disasters like hurricanes and blizzards and floods and fire in dry,
2:20.7	high wind areas.
2:21.7	Earthquakes are completely unpredictable.
2:23.7	So you never know when FEMA is going to be rushed to the site of a deadly earthquake.
2:29.0	But Donald Trump wanted to get rid of FEMA and now refuses to say if he wants to get rid of FEMA, because now they're busy
2:38.8	working. Those are the words of someone who does not know what he's doing as president of the
	...

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