Kara and Scott discuss Elon Musk's continued coup, and how Democrats are starting to push back. Then, President Trump shares his bizarre idea for the U.S. to take over Gaza, but is it just part of a larger plan to flood the zone, and distract from Elon's power grab? Plus, the latest earnings from Disney, Alphabet, and Spotify. Follow us on Instagram and Threads at @pivotpodcastofficial. Follow us on Bluesky at @pivotpod.bsky.social Follow us on TikTok at @pivotpodcast. Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or at nymag.com/pivot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts of the Pivot podcast?
Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
And I'm thinking of doing ketamine recreationally tonight. Why? Well, I used to have this incredible ability as a young man to disassociate. I was basically sleepwalking through life. I didn't care much about anything. I'm having trouble disassociating from all this bullshit.
Oh, yeah.
And so I think I'm going to a fashion week party tonight. I don't have my kids. I push my meetings back till 10 a.m. tomorrow. So that all spells ketamine for the dog tonight.
Really?
So I'm going to try it. Yeah. I don't even know how you take it, though. Do you know how you take it?
I don't, Scott.
That was a medically supervised ketamine trick.
Yes.
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Chapter 2: What are the latest developments in Elon Musk's political influence?
So let me answer that. That's called MDMA or X, and I took it a couple times in college, and I remember thinking to myself, I don't have an addictive personality, but I remember thinking, this is so good, I cannot do this again.
Well, then do that. Do that. Do that. Yeah, I don't know. You'll try to hug me. You'll call me and say loving things, which would be disturbing to me, but that's okay.
No, it makes me happy. It does make me fucking crazy.
I know, but there's a lot of hugs happening. I never took it. I never took it. There's hugs, right? There's a lot of hugging and dancing.
Do you know its initial use case? It was psychiatrists in couple therapy who wanted them to open up to each other.
Oh, interesting. I don't know. Never tried it. Never will. I'm high on life, Scott Galloway.
I hate it when people say that.
I know, I do too.
It's the least expressed. I don't need drugs. Well, I do because of people like you.
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Chapter 3: How are Democrats responding to Elon Musk's actions?
Well, I'm glad you're back and you need to stop taking red eyes.
Okay.
When you turn 70, such as yourself, you, as a gift to yourself, you need to stop doing red eyes. I don't do red eyes anymore.
Oh, really? I don't mind. It was a lay down bed. I slept. That's fine. That's fine.
Your sleep, your nutrition, your sleep, your nutrition, and your exercise are the three pillars. And you need to prioritize sleep. You don't sleep while I'm playing. I have no more red eyes for you.
You know, I'm wearing my aura ring and it tells me that I'm quite ready for the day. It's weird. I don't sleep.
You're rested and ready?
Yeah. I don't know why. I think it's lying to me. Anyway, we've got a lot to get to because I need to be rested and ready.
By the way, I have an aura ring and I just downloaded my data and it says one thing. Try ketamine tonight.
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Chapter 4: Is Trump's Gaza proposal a distraction from larger issues?
There are people being carried out in stretchers that are in hospitals because they don't have funding. And these programs and this funding, whether you agree with them or not, or think they should be subject to review, are a function of laws that were passed by three branches of government.
And they figured out a way to say, look over here at this helicopter crash, or it's DEI, or we have a plan to clear out Gaza. to distract you from the fact that we now have an insurrectionist or a coup being led by the world's wealthiest man. I think the Republicans are thinking, I can't believe they're letting us do this.
And as long as we're kind of in favor of this, and now they're in a position, when you hold a gun to someone's head, it changes the complexion of negotiation. It's no longer, oh, you need laws to do this. It's like, well, we might turn the payments back on for Head Start, but let's talk about it. Well, no, we're not going to discuss it. I don't think they're going gangster enough.
They probably just unmasked. because of their recklessness, the names and identities of CIA officers, which is an incredible act of treason and stupidity.
I think they did that on purpose, from what I understand. They wanted it. What Scott's referring to is they're sending emails, not in a way that's safe, to the White House. They wanted things like that.
So I want to know who are these young, highly intelligent, highly motivated people zealots following them into these buildings and shutting off payments to schools and Head Starts. I want to know their names.
Well, you know, they're trying to, the local officials are trying to make that official. The newly installed Trump are threatening people for naming their names, just so you know. But go ahead.
Oh, yeah, but they can unmask CIA officers who've put their lives in harm's way. to try and keep our Americans safe. I want to know who their names are. And I want to see Democratic governors saying, I'm going to do everything I can in my power to use the full faith and to the letter of the law to put you folks in prison. I think what you're doing is trespassing. I think this is a coup.
And be clear, just because the new insurrectionist who was elected, I don't believe this is legal. And I'm going to hold the people accountable who are trespassing and part of a coup accountable. To just sit back and say, this is horrible and this is unlawful, we need to go gangster here and say, look, we are not negotiating around this stuff. This is illegal. This is a coup.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of Elon Musk's latest actions for U.S. democracy?
I mean, at this point, I believe that nations need to come to the aid of America at this point. And to the extent that people feel frustrated or worried about America no longer being the shining beacon leading democracies all over the world or setting the tone, what Canada did was it, I think you need to be very Machiavellian strategic.
A province in Canada has canceled $100 million contract for Starlink. They've said, we're just not going to continue to fund the lead of a coup. I'd hit them where they're in their soft tissue.
And that is, if you think America plays and should continue to play a vital role in our democracy and be that shiny beacon on a hill, and you are using Starlink or your government is in negotiations around subsidies, whatever it might be for EVs or Tesla, I would make it clear
that you are not going to support an individual who's leading a coup in a nation that has, for the most part, been a really staunch ally. I'm now at the point where I can't call them Republicans.
I think they are both kind of surprised and giddy that they're getting away with this and also scared of crossing Elon for fear they'll be primaried by Twitter and his hundreds of millions of dollars, which he can do now, given the fact that we let one man amass $400 billion in power. And two, you know, they're surprised. And also, quite frankly, Cara, I think Senator Murphy's fantastic.
We come across as neutered and feckless at this point. We are like, well, look over here. Oh, I can't believe you would say it was DEI around a helicopter. You are exactly right. That is a sideshow.
May I say the media is doing the same things. These headlines in some of these papers, it's like innovative way to deal with government. I'm like, it's a coup. Stop saying this. And one thing I did have as a theme in my book was the juvenileization of men and the coddling of them and persistent sidelining of women in Silicon Valley and people of color or anybody that was different.
And this is a 30 years going of this idea that these people... have the right idea. And I found some stories that I wrote. One was called The Men and No Women of Facebook, and The Men and No Women of Boards. And one of the things that was interesting is I was able to put those headlines because I controlled my own media. You can't believe what a bunch of idiots. They have such disdain for people.
And the press is treating it like it's an equalized thing, and it's just not. I'm finding it so frustrating. I even, you know, I, you know, I'm on CNN and on Friday I was like, this is a hostile takeover. You need to treat it. Stop talking about DEI and the plane crash. You can talk, right? Stop. You need, this is what this is. It's a hostile takeover of government, probably illegal.
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Chapter 6: How is the media covering Elon Musk's activities?
Now they're saying get out of the Treasury. Who knows if he will because, again, liars, all of them. A federal judge did block the birthright citizenship order this week. But then Trump was busy signing executive orders outlining plans for a government-run sovereign wealth fund, which would potentially be used to buy TikTok. That's called state-run media.
The fund would also support other national endeavors like infrastructure projects. I, you know, I don't know what to say. I talk a little bit about the strategy as a marketing thing. I hate to say that, but this is, he's, and then we have a story in the New York times. It's like, well, it's good that he's shaking up the difficult problem in the Mideast. Maybe it will create fresh ideas.
Now I was sort of like, what? Like moving people against their 2 million people against their will to where they've lived their whole lives is a, fresh new idea, especially because Gaza is absolutely destroyed. Again, they destroyed it and now they've destroyed it, they can't go back, that kind of thing.
Well, okay. But before we even get to the notion that Egypt, I mean, look at the borders. Look at the Gaza border with its neighboring nations. No one wants to take these refugees, whatever you want to call it. I understand the argument. It is an interesting argument.
The notion that we're setting up a situation where nothing's really going to be different and eventually we're going to face the same problems in two, five, 10 years again, that's a powerful argument. The notion that we need to be creative and thoughtful, fine. This is not the time, if you go into the emergency room, okay, the term stop the bleeding originates from a very logical place.
And that is if you go into the emergency room with a gunshot or you've fallen and hit your head and you're hemorrhaging blood, they don't take your PSA. They don't talk about, they don't say check his or her cholesterol. They stop the bleeding. Everything else at this point is a worthy conversation that should be had by our elected representatives.
But if we let a coup be successful and change the complexion of the negotiation, whereas opposed to arguing over who is prosecuted here and under what laws and how do we immediately arrest this coup? such that we're not negotiating, well, will you give us 50 percent of the funding back for Head Start, dear person who wasn't elected to make these decisions? Focus on stop the bleeding.
The bleeding here, America is bleeding out. in a small building somewhere that has access, that is being remotely accessed by different locations, by a group of people under the cover of dark to stop payments based on programs that were passed by laws by our elected representatives. This is a coup and it's not a slow moving coup, it's a fast moving coup.
And everything else is an ER doctor saying, okay, they lost their leg and they're gonna be dead in three minutes if they continue to bleed out. Let's find out what their good and bad, let's figure out what their blood pressure. I mean, no, none of that's important at this point. Stop the bleeding. This is our focus.
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