Tim Higgins
Appearances
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
I mean, let's talk about the Oval Office press conference. Except for the location and the visuals and having the president next to him, listening to it, it felt like it could have been one of the quarterly calls he does as the Tesla CEO. This is the Elon Musk that investors have known for a very long time, where he sells his vision for his companies and for his business ideas.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
The difference here is he was selling that vision for the government. This is the way he operates. He's not a bit player in the background. He wants to run things.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
One of the things about Musk is that most of his companies are startups. He's green shooting it. He's creating it the way he wants to go. But there are some examples of when he takes over and Twitter is the best in late 2022, shock and awe immediately taking over, getting rid of the top executives, then cleaning house, getting rid of eventually 80% of the employees, slashing expenses.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
And when you look at Doge, I see some similarities. Going through agency by agency, trying to figure out where the money is going specifically and looking for people that can get on board with the vision for government 2.0.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
Well, it's a different company. It is a totally different company. Even by name, it is now X. Right, it's not Twitter.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
The everything country. Look, Twitter, when he took it over, was a trouble coming. This is a company that hadn't been really financially successful in the previous 10 years. It needed a change, and he brought a change. Now, is it the right change, or is it a better business? That's to be determined. It's a work in progress.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
But even the most recent financial data that our colleagues at the Journal have uncovered would suggest it's doing better now than it was in those early days when he took it over.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
Well, you hit it on the head there. I mean, the biggest difference between Twitter and the government is he owned Twitter or he controlled Twitter. He doesn't control the government. You know, there are lots of stakeholders that have a say in everything, whether it's Congress, there's the judiciary that he gets to weigh in on some of this. His word is not the law like it might be at his companies.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
And that's one of the big differences, to say the least. It's also, as you kind of alluded to at the beginning of the show, it's unclear exactly how much power he has.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
I think we have to take him at his word. He is a kind of a guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve and his opinions on his feed. And he has been very vocal in the last few years that the government has just become a run amok, if you will, with too many regulations.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
I've heard him time and time again over the years talk about regulations being an impediment for business, in particular his experience at SpaceX and at Tesla. These are highly regulated industries he's playing in, and he has huge ambitions, whether it's Tesla, where he wants to bring out driverless cars, where this is a kind of a gray area of regulation.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
that it would be very helpful to have somebody in the White House and empower, kind of usher this technology in. He has pointed to things like the EPA that he feels like have been slowing him down. And these are huge issues in his mind, apparently so big of issues that he is willing to kind of get into government, personally roll up his sleeves and start weeding that garden, if you will.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
I mean, Elon Musk is a master marketer. One of the superpowers that he's had as an entrepreneur is selling his vision for the future of aerospace, the future of cars to customers, but more importantly, investors who have funded the development of those companies until they could get off the ground. It's been time and time again out there pushing the narrative of where things could be.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
And what I see him doing with Doge seems to be like straight from the playbook. He's creating the appearance of momentum. Even though it's not clear that these are actual victories, it is showing the world that he's doing stuff, right? He can point to whatever tweet or whatever day's victory and say, look what we're doing. There's corruption. There's fraud. Look at this misspending.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
This is why we're here. Hang on for the ride because we're going to get rid of all this stuff in the long run.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
He would like to get it down to the very core, and it gets to the first principles approach. This idea of just because we've done something the way we have in the past, this cliche thinking doesn't mean we should be doing it in the future. And you kind of get to the government, and there's not just generations, but centuries of why things have developed the way they are.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
And you go in and just blow it up, that's going to make a lot of heads hurt.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
You know, you kind of watch this relationship develop over the past months, and it seems to be that Musk is putting a lot of effort and a lot of attention into trying to nurture it in a way that it's almost like a company or a business of his or an idea.
The Journal.
Trump 2.0: The Musk-Trump Bromance
He clearly has ambitions for things that he wants to accomplish with the government and sees in the president a vessel, if you will, to get those things accomplished. Who needs who more?