Never Ever Getting Back Together? The Trump/Elon Breakup

On with Kara Swisher

New York Magazine

News Commentary, News, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After reportedly speaking to President Trump on the phone, Elon Musk took to Twitter, on Wednesday, to say he regrets “some” of his tweets about President Trump — but that doesn’t mean all is forgiven. As the dust settles on last week’s cross-platform showdown, the long-term consequences from the breakup of the world’s richest man and its most powerful one are just beginning to emerge. So, Kara gathered a panel of four expert guests to unpack how the feud ignited, who holds the most leverage, why a ceasefire took place, if it’ll last, and what it all means for the future of tech, politics and power. Henry Blodget is the co-founder and former CEO of and editor-in-chief of Business Insider. Before that, he was a tech analyst on Walls Stree. You can find him on Substack at Regenerator. Kirsten Grind is an investigative business reporter at The New York Times, the author of two books, and the winner of more than a dozen national awards. Kristen Soltis Anderson is a pollster, contributing Opinion writer for The New York Times, author, and co-founder of Echelon Insights. Rick Wilson is a former Republican political strategist and ad-make. He is a co-founder of the Lincoln Project and you can find him on Substack or listen to his podcast The Enemies List. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's on.
0:02.0	Hi, everyone from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
0:16.0	This is On with Kara Swisher and I'm Kara Swisher.
0:19.0	President Donald Trump and first buddy Elon Musk's alliance
0:23.4	imploded last week. And although cooler heads have prevailed for now, the fallout from their
0:28.5	split will reverberate through DC and Silicon Valley for years to come. As the dust settles,
0:33.7	I wanted to assess why it happened and what comes next. So I brought together four very
0:38.3	sharp minds to help us make sense of it all. Henry Blodgett, Kirsten Grine, Kristen Soltes Anderson,
0:44.3	and Rick Wilson. Henry Blodgett is the co-founder and former CEO and editor-in-chief of Business Insider.
0:50.5	Before that, he was a tech analyst on Wall Street, and you can find his writing on Substack at Regenerator.
0:57.1	Kirsten Grind is an investigative business reporter at the New York Times, an author of two books,
1:01.8	and winner of more than a dozen national awards. Her recent reporting on Elon Musk's recreational
1:07.5	drug use has been revelatory and impactful. Kristen Soltes Anderson is a pollster,
1:13.7	contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, author, and co-founder of Eschelon Insights.
1:18.6	We were both co-panelists on the Chris Wallace Show on CNN, and she has always had great incisive,
1:23.8	data-driven analysis. Rick Wilson is a former Republican political strategist ad maker and political
1:29.5	commentator. He's the co-founder of the Lincoln Project and you can find him on Substack or listen
1:34.1	to his podcast, The Enemy's List. Now that the news cycle has moved on from this spat, it's
1:39.2	important to take a moment to analyze what Trump and Musk's falling out reveals about the GOP,
1:44.9	the electorate, the blurred lines between tech and Musk's falling out reveals about the GOP, the electorate,
1:50.2	the blurred lines between tech and politics, and the two men themselves. So stick around. Hey, everyone. Quick update. We taped this episode on Tuesday morning before Elon Musk tweeted, quote,
2:08.6	I regressed some of my posts about president at real Donald Trump last week. They went too far.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New York Magazine, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of New York Magazine and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.