Mike Murphy
Appearances
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
He's got this perceived image as smart business genius, right? When the truth is, if he took his inheritance and he put it in an index fund, he'd be a lot richer. It's the relentless stupidity of Donald Trump that is the real tell. Though, you know, he built a television career on primetime and a cardboard set pretending to be a business tycoon, hiring and firing Gilbert Gottfried.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
And in the world of perceptions, reality, pop culture, wow, he really knows how to straighten things out. No, he doesn't.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
I mean, this was the hard, but it's the easiest one because it's the least binding. It's the least binding and there's the least details. Right. It's the wish list.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
It's directions. It's an aspirational budget. And when do they get to the Senate, by the way, with the old dragons? They're going to be, hey, wait a minute. I think in their easiest place, the House, by one vote, they got their easiest thing done by one vote. Still something. I would have probably bet against it, but not a lot of money too. So I would have lost a bet with your husband.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
But it only gets harder from here. I heard a savvy former Ways and Means Republican lobbyist, the tax writing committee, in the House saying, well, now they got to decide between slashing Medicaid, which we've never been able to do because all the Pauls are afraid of it, or slashing the SALT tax they want to give back that he's promised, or making him eat his words on tax cuts.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
It's going to be fun to watch. They're putting their hands into two disposals simultaneously.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
And they're doing top lines that are incredibly hard. Even if you squeezed all the waste out of Medicaid, you probably can't get there. Right. You know, the real, the reality of it, it's like the old Dennis Miller joke about judges. There ought to be three verdicts now because crimes are so horrible, guilty, innocent, and you're shitting me.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
And that's what this budget is, you know, or this budget framework, this non-binding aspiration. So, yeah, there's gravity in politics. It takes a while. And that's the point Carville was making in The New York Times today.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
And I'm like three quarters where he is, which is, you know, there's nothing wrong Democrats in the short term with retreating into the step and let them over advance and starve over time. Because I think in the whole price eggs department, that could be what happens. You ought to loudly peck at them.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Well, my view is you can kind of do both. Tactically, you ought to gnaw on them every day, but don't do it at haughty, Democrat...
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
npr language oh you know what they did today they laid off 100 baby food inspectors at agriculture what you know bumper stickers that people understand and peck away at him but fundamentally knowing you don't have any power letting him run wild for a while since you really don't have any option and you know let him dig the hole that he is digging i mean name an american politician that went crazy on medicaid cuts and survived
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
you know, name a governor. So Carville's doing the old general Zukov thing, retreat into Russia and wait for winter. And I think that is true and going to happen anyway, but I'm, I'm forced sniping all the way there, you know,
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Yeah, in bumper stickers, people understand. People fired Biden and by extension Kamala because he thought he was a crazy old man who turned out couldn't run the economy. Well, guess what? Over time, Trump is a crazy old man who can't run the economy either. I mean, today he tried to announce he had another scary tariff. Tariffs are economic poison.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
They hurt his voters more than anybody, which is, of course, the sick irony of it all. So let Trump screw himself up because you can't really stop his power right now and snipe all the way in people language that they understand.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Most of the economists would make exactly that argument. But it's back to the Trump paradigm. Terrorists are on the street popular because they sound smart. Well, why we got all that... you know, Canadian steel coming in here. Well, here's what actually happens. You put a 25% tariff on Canadian steel.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Let's pretend you didn't go into politics to save America and you're running a Chevy plant, okay, in Oakland County, Michigan. Well, you're buying a lot of steel. Now it costs 25% more. So you pick up the phone and call up U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh and said, hey, I need 50,000 tons of rolled steel. The Canadian stuff costs 25% more. Well, what does U.S. Steel say? Well, our shit costs 25% more.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
We just raised prices. That's what steel now costs, smart guy. And by the way, because Chrysler is on the other line and Volkswagen from Tennessee, we don't have enough steel to fit to the men. So we're going to bump it up another 10%. You want your steel? You want to close your plant, smart guy. And it cascades. But on the street, it's like, yeah, screw them. USA number one.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Yeah, no, look, he, he is very fluent in the complicated language of moron, which many politicians don't speak. Well, they think they're getting in trouble for it. So he feels like an authentic brush of fresh air because he gets there and he does his drunk uncle thing. You know what else I don't like? Limousines. I'm getting rid of all the limousines. J.D., lose the limos.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
One third of Republicans, indulge me for 20 seconds of car shit. One third of Republicans think the United States is the world's largest producer of automobiles. Another third thinks we're number two to Japan. Neither are true. China's number one. We're number four. So, you know, this USA number one thing, Trump will say, we're going to build beautiful, new, beautiful steel plants. Fabulous.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
The best you ever seen. Takes eight to 10 years. Good luck with the permitting. So this whole tariff thing is anthrax for the economy. It's just going to be a mess.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Yeah, at least publicly they're not. I think privately there's a lot. I mean, I had no idea after 40 years running campaigns for a lot of senators and congressmen and all the rest that free haircuts in the U.S. Senate were so damn seductive. Because we're not asking these guys to land on Anzio Beach for crying out loud. But boy, oh boy, they all line up.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
I had a conversation with one of my guys back in the day saying, you know, this guy's a clown and from a red state. And the senator said, oh, yeah, the other day, you know, we had to get the military aid to help him find Pakistan on a map. You know, he thought it was next to Mexico. It's really, really pretty bad. And I said, well, why don't you tell him to go to hell? And he said, I'd love it.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
My wife would speak to me again. I like to be on you spouting off on television about Trump all the time. I love it. But here's the problem. I spout off against Trump. I get a primary. I'm gone. A guy in an Uncle Sam suit is now in my job screwing up all the little stuff that I do to help Barneyville get the new whatever. And I said, fair enough. What if three of you did it?
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
And he said, call me when you get the other two. I'm in. And, you know, survival is the fundamental rule of politics, unfortunately, because it's hard to get there. So I think the Thunes of the world are hoping that they got bands calling them saying, don't worry, we're talking about all the crazy stuff, except, of course, Ukraine tariffs, you know, you know, war on Greenland.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
But they're just clinging to that hope that you'll get all his ya-ya's out and they'll be able to work some stuff out. But, you know, I don't see it.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
But it's getting to the point where the strongman can't. Okay, Superman, you keep saying you're going to lift up a locomotive and you keep delaying it. Carpal tunnel, but you aren't Superman, huh? He's putting himself in a corner. And by the way, if the Canadians got really pissed, the entire U.S. Midwest runs on Canadian oil. They could knock oil to eight bucks a gallon in Ohio in a week.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
We're squaring this place up. So it's good performative bullshit. And for his world that hates politics, hates Washington, hates the establishment, kind of hates reading, writing, and arithmetic, it plays great. So, yeah, they're hitting a lot of doubles at that. The thing is, this is a long game. And it's pretty hard. As you know, as president, you get a pretty easy first 100 days.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Yeah, done. Ten more fighter planes and declare victory. But you know what the number one applause line if you're a Canadian on the stump running for prime minister is? The old joke, how do you get 25 drunk Canadians out of a swimming pool? Hey, guys, please get out of the pool. I've worked up there, and I love Canada.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
But the great stump joke is, you know, after all, we settled the tough half of North America. And the crowd goes wild. They're pretty tough bastards under all the smiles and politeness. So I hope it doesn't escalate. And they don't want it to. It's not in their interest. But I think Trump, like everything, sees a stereotype of Canada.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Yeah, we did. If you go to evpolitics.org, we do all this polling. We showed among people who say they're seriously interested in buying an EV in the next year, it's about 20% of the largest definition of the new car market. Toyota, Ford, and Volkswagen, we tested one German, one American, one Asian, are all far more popular than Tesla. You know, among Harris voters, Elon's unfavorable is 76%.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Yeah, a little room to improve. That was a while ago. That was after the election. Now it's worse, I'm sure. I don't know how much worse it can go. Among Trump voters, he's 70 over 10. He's right up there with the other president. So it's hurting them. But, you know, again, Tesla's people say, why is Trump going after all the subsidies? It'll hurt Tesla. And it will a little bit in the short term.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
But Tesla's most lucrative business is selling credits to other car companies that make gas cars and need to buy offsets. So he's in the Tesla business, not the category of EV businesses. And I think Elon thinks the future is not making cars. Well, it's making self-driving cars and robots.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
And if you have a car that after you drive to work, you push a button and it drives away to go be a taxi all day and make money and come back and picks you up, instead of running for one hour every 24, it'll run for 10. If we utilize cars like that in this future, people imagine, we need a hell of a lot less cars.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
The problem is all that self-driving stuff that Elon has convinced Wall Street, and that's why he's valued like a tech company, not like a car company, that's coming. BYD, the big Chinese world-killing car company, just announced, yeah, we're going to give it away for a buck in every car. So there goes that five grand a car pure profit thing Wall Street was betting on for Elon.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
But then stuff starts counting. And if you deconstruct this, the guy was elected to fix the economy because people perceived, and that's all that counts in politics, that the economy was better when he was president for all his flaws than it was under Biden. It was old and crazy, inflation, blah, blah, blah. So... We'll see how it runs out.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
I'm in this because I'm from Detroit and the American auto industry, the American manufacturing auto industry, which is Volkswagen in Tennessee, Ford in Detroit, et cetera, et cetera, Mercedes. could go away in a decade. People don't understand how big this is. Really? Tell me more.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Well, the Chinese can, if we let them, they can import a great $30,000 electric or gas car in that is essentially equal or better to anything you can buy in the market now. The president of Ford is one of those visionary guys in this, Jim Farley. About eight months ago, went over to China and drove a Xiaomi SU7, catchy name. Very popular new car.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
And he loved it so much, he had it stuffed in a shipping container and shipped it to Detroit and drove it around Ford and let his executives drive it for six months. He doesn't want to give it up. It's the only one in the country on a temporary plate. The feds are probably going to seize it. And he said, if we can't make one of these in a few years, there's going to be no more Ford Motor Company.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
What does he like so much about it? Well, the software is really good. The cost of production, they design their cars to be cheaper to make, kind of like Tesla does. The battery tech is more advanced than what we have right now that we're catching up. And they pay their auto workers $10 an hour. So they're very competitive vehicles. The Mexican car market has been the canary in the coal mine.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Four years ago, China sold 40,000 cars in Mexico, gas and electric combined. This year, they're probably at half a million. Wow. They're eating the market there. They've already eaten it in Israel. They're in Europe. They're everywhere but here. And Trump thinks, well, we'll just have the American market. American market is only 10% of the world market.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
GM sells as many cars in Asia as they do in the United States. So if our guys can't compete worldwide where the trend is unstoppably and undoubtedly electric. you know, we're going to be British Leyland. The government will be propping up a couple of companies that will be minor players in the world. So this is a huge issue.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
The Biden stuff had typical bureaucratic ham-handedness in it, particularly the charging subsidies. But the loans to build new, extremely competitive high-tech factories like Ford, Sting, and by the way, these guys don't pay me. I do this for free. I'm the donor here because I care a lot about it. The new Rivian plant, 9,000 manufacturing jobs in Georgia.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Those loans to build those plants to compete are vital, and Trump should leave them alone. The other thing is the consumer subsidies. You want a great car, you can go get an electric car, basically $200 off a month in lease because Uncle Sam gives you $7,500. Now, I'm a Republican.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
I don't like subsidies, but there are 99 car companies in China, and only a couple of them make money because the government has said, we don't care about making money. Build factories and take over the world market. That's your job. So our guys and our allies in Germany or South Korea or Japan are competing against guys who don't have to make money.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
So we need subsidies now to muscle up and catch up our domestic stuff to make them world competitive. And to support our ally company, BMW makes more cars in their biggest plant in their entire systems in South Carolina. So this is a U.S., NATO, South Korea, Japan axis. And everybody's getting their lunch eaten, including Elon, by the way, his biggest plants in China.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
But in the short term, doing his card tricks and, hey, Elon, I want you to, the toll booths, get rid of them. Who wants to wait at a toll? Right, fellas? And they all clap like chimps. It's a good show. But the long game is the existential live or die in politics. And the long game, they're doing almost everything, in my view, wrong.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
He is and he isn't. He's only named the Germans. He's had an 80% sales drop there in Europe. But the Chinese own Elon. His largest plant is in China. And that government can decide tomorrow, it's now people's plant number five, Elon. They let him build it on a waiver. He did not have to do the joint venture stuff. They own the paper on him.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Yeah, he's innocent. We found out. It turned out we were wrong.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
No, it's heartbreaking. A lot of the Trump stuff hurts places that vote for Trump more than anything else. And we have a measles hotspot now, and it'll grow. And we got a guy I would rather try voodoo running HHS. It's disgusting. Our new FBI director, Kash Patel. Oh, God. How about his deputy, too? They got a radio blowhard who, you know, used to guard the president's dog.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
We have the only plainclothes national secret police of any superpower that are good guys, you know. You know, generally when you have the federal government has a plainclothes national secret police, you know, it's the trouble instrument. And we've gone to great pains since the Hoover era had some trouble. But that culture has been cleaned up. It's highly professional. It's really important.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
And I think the culture is so embedded there. It'll survive this, but we're going to pressure test it now. And it's a horrible insult to the rank and file professionals in that agency. So it's heartbreaking. Luckily, some of these guys are stupid and incompetent, which gets in the way of their venality. But it's terrible. Now, do I think I'll get hauled away in the middle of the night? No, no, no.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
yeah it was a good show it was crazy uncle not not confused and i guess i just think that is important right like that he's old he doesn't look he looked like you know he looked crazy not confused but he's got a plan and he's a barstool know-it-all so we all know we all know the coast guard they don't do anything real it's the navy to get rid of the coast guard cut the money and charge the canadians we're guarding their coast to a billion a day i like them half a million a day anybody writing this down
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
But the FBI is going to go into an internal turmoil there now, which is bad for them and bad for the country.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
That's right. Yeah. No, you can't run a police state with a shitty office. You know, come on. The enemies list board alone takes up eight square feet on the wall. It's like the thing where Trump ordered. I can't forget which lick spittle got it, but he wants $200 million ad campaign thanking him for the border. I'm like, where's Doge?
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
$200 million bonfire to have Trump, you know, doing political ads on the government payroll.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Well, I'm glad to know that he's breaking all the rules. I'm looking forward to the backwards cap. He's taking it to the streets. He's not the man. Yeah, you know, it's just... The problem, he is so transparent. That's where he gets in trouble. So, you know, I'm going to save America. I'm going to argue with MAGA guys to impress Democratic primary voters so I can run for president.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
But it's really about America. It's not about me. So, you know, it's like when he went down to Alabama and put up a billboard. I hate you rednecks, you know. Newsom for president. I mean, it's just... So that's the problem. I think it doesn't pass the, oh, it's like the gimmick where my campaign is not about politics. You know what our bumper sticker is? No bumper sticker, man.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
You know, and it reeks of that. That said, who knows? I think this was inspired by Buddha judge. Cause like, Hey, that Pete guy's a talker and he goes on Fox and does well. Yeah. I'll recreate that. And I'll argue with mega people on a podcast that I don't know, you know, I'm for podcasting. Hope it does well. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Yeah, yeah. We'll see how it goes. But try it. You know, pull them out, ridicule them. Again, while all the noise is going on. All the fundamentals that make or break presidents, the Trump guys are screwing up. So time compounds. And if the Dems can have a good off year, despite their stupidity, you see what the DTRIP leader put out that thing in National Journal?
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
A bunch of Democratic consultants sent it to me, frothing with rage. The new head of the DTRIP, and I apologize, I don't remember her name. She's a member from somewhere, a member of Congress. The lead of the story is, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. I'm very proud that 49% of our vendor money was, you know, minority. Oh, it was all identity. And we're going to double it this year.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
That's the way to win. You know? And I was like, Christ, they never learned.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
I've been disappointed. He, with his tools, he could have done more here and he's been very cautious. Yeah. You know, you can say Jerry Brown's crazy. He was a very dynamic governor here. That's true. Did a lot of stuff. Gavin has been kind of like, I better check the focus groups and when's the next flight to Concord, New Hampshire?
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Gavin's got skills, and if you're from California, you're from the future. Maybe they're looking for that, but you've got the Harris problem, which is the last California experiment, at least in the party, conventional wisdom didn't work. Buttigieg is always a superstar. Gretchen Whitmer is an election winner. I mean, there are some new gen Dems out there. You can get into Shapiro.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
I mean, there's a long list, and a big, bloody – Don't rig the calendar. Democratic primary would be great for the Dems. But, you know, don't rig the calendar.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
We have one made up. Our people in China make good hats when they're not making cars. All right. We'll see you, Mike Murphy. Good to be on, Timmy. Good to see you, pal. All right. Up next, Michael Fennel.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Well, that's always the subtext is, you know, I'm just playing here because I'm El Supremo. And of course, you know, in fact, you know what I like? I like the Charleston. Everybody dance. Dance for me right now. He's always a click away from that. So it's who he is. God help us.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Yeah, it's not good. I mean, I'm a right-winger. I'd like to see more classic conservative thinking on a lot more editorial pages. Post-editorial pages, though, actually, over the last 20 years have been pretty good. It has not been a left-wing wonderland as much as many other broadsheets, to the extent there are any left. So it's troubling. I can't figure out Bezos.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
I think I'm going to blame wife, too, because I had lunch with him when he bought the Post. Long story, but I'm sitting there having lunch with Bezos.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
No, it was me, him, and Carney. And so I had spoken at a CEO thing, and he was the host of it here in Los Angeles. And he walked up to me afterward and said, hey, you want to have lunch? I'm like, sorry, I don't have time. I'm seeing the Zap guy. No, of course I want to have lunch with Bezos. Tell me about Amazon. I'm a customer.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
So, and it was interesting, but he was total technocrat, very curious about what to do with the post. And I said, have some fun with Trump, put undercover, do the old Gloria Steinem thing, put two reporters undercover at his hotel for three months, write about it, you know, blah, blah, blah. And he was eating it all up. He wasn't really ideological. It wasn't anti-Trump, wasn't pro-Trump.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
It was how do I make a great newspaper? That is not the guy given these dictates. So I don't know what happened to him, but it's very depressing. I mean, the obvious theory is, oh, he's got business interests and all that. But these guys are often so rich. Who the president is not that material to the yacht fuel bill. Something else is going on. And it's sad. And yet another institution buckles.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
And then it's like radio, you know, my frequency and nothing else.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
It's just like Elon. He's the biggest corporate welfare profiteer in the world with a new libertarian super state. What propped up Tesla for years is selling credits to regular car makers to offset their emissions here and in Europe, billions and billions of pure profit. If it wasn't for those regs, Tesla might not have made it.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
right so it just kind of like feels like you're peeing on me and telling me it's raining you know it's one of those things so if i felt like this was authentic you could at least listen to it right and he had that when he stepped on the endorsement yeah you know that that kind of put him in the okay he's trying to put the fix in now you know there's a long history of guys buy papers and they get to be blowhards on the editorial page but
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
In this moment in time with an institution that's important but also is struggling, as opposed to is, it's really troubling.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Right. And everybody there of any renown or weight is looking for a new job. There aren't a lot of new jobs, but it's going to be a talent drain. I mean, I wrote Bezos a big fan letter yesterday because his antics have led my wife Tiff to give up using Amazon. which is the welcome development. I'm going to get killed for saying this. She's a listener. But it is going to hurt the business.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Yeah, just like Tesla's being murdered by Elon right now, both in Europe and the US.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
You know, in campaigns, you're always ranting about government waste because people think 30% of the money is wasted. And as you know well, perception is reality. Now, there is plenty of waste in government, some places more than others.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
But sending interns in and chimps with chainsaws to try to get to the payroll computer and screw everybody over with no plan, no, you know, if they had announced that Brad Smith, who's part of Doge, who I know, a very smart healthcare entrepreneur, hey, Brad, Elon is going to use his relationship to get behind you guys. Come up with a smart plan to fix Medicaid.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
The fraud in California Medicaid alone would make Tony Soprano feel guilty and like not want to be part of it. It's unbelievable. But instead, they're doing the intern core going into like USAID. One, it's no money. Two, soft power is really important. And three, it's full of CIA people. So, you know, on every level, it's stupid.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
I watched about 20 seconds on video before I started thinking about, I started thinking very bad thoughts. I mean, seeing Elon, that man child bouncing around in his Nazi tank commander outfit in the cabinet room of the United States, it just, it snapped me. So I couldn't take any more.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
They're laughing their asses off in China and Russia right now, by the this. It's so reckless and dumb. But publicly, people like the idea of some sharp pencil person coming in and shaking up, quote, government spending. The problem are these guys are incompetent. And even the Trump appointees who are not the bureaucratic operational hall of fame realize that he's screwing up agencies here.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
And so Doge is a good cause corrupted by arrogance, stupidity, and the lack of any plan at all. And politically it's going to come back and hurt them.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
There is, but I would like a modicum of intelligence on what to cut. Why don't you go where the money is, which is entitlements? Now, they're big and bloated for a reason. They have huge political support. That's what the Trump guys in this House budget, that's what they're going to spend the next 12 months discovering as we head to the midterm elections.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
Government is bloated because it form files function. People like bloated government. But yeah, there's a smart way to do it. And if they think they can use their head of steam to take the political heat for cuts, I'm all for it. But I want to plan. You know, I kind of want to put the cops where the crime is.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
It's like we're going to attack a crime way by sending the National Guard into Scarsdale, New York. Well, no. You know, there ought to be a little thinking to this. And there isn't. The only thinking is tactical. How do we screw the agencies? We get to the payroll department and we freeze the business. Elon's old trick. Just stop paying bills. Takes people eight years to sue you.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
They'll just go away and eat the invoice. That's what he did at Twitter.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
American farmers are paid to make food, which they're great at, to ship to starving kids. There's half a billion of it rotting in ships on docks within a short truck drive of starving people right now. And, you know, it's going to show up next week, if it hasn't already, the Chinese food. You know, the geopolitics of this.
The Bulwark Podcast
Mike Murphy: The Chinese Own Elon
No, no. It's part of the thing about he's cutting one of the dumbest things to cut, and he's not getting any real money for it. It's so scattershot. It's chimp with the chainsaw stuff. And geopolitically, soft power is important. And we had a time where we don't really want to be retreating in that world because we got powerful bad guys on the march. So, you know, this is the thing about Trump.