MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell details Elon Musk’s escalating attacks on the Trump Republican budget bill while Donald Trump stays silent, “cowering in abject fear of Elon Musk,” as one Senate Republican admits “the plan to deal with Elon Musk is to simply lie about the bill.”
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00:00Elon Musk has not mentioned Donald Trump's name in his now nonstop attacks on the Trump budget bill,
00:08but Elon Musk is using his loud social media voice to urge Republicans to kill the bill in a steady stream of angry and bitter tweets.
00:19Elon Musk began his war against Donald Trump at 1.34 p.m. yesterday, saying in his most anguished Twitter voice,
00:28I just can't stand it anymore.
00:32And he called the Trump budget bill a disgusting abomination.
00:37And as of tonight, Donald Trump remains cowering in abject, silent fear of Elon Musk.
00:47The proof that Donald Trump is terrified tonight after the richest person in the world turned against him
00:53is that Donald Trump has remained absolutely silent about Elon Musk's attacks on the Trump budget bill and Donald Trump.
01:01Now, when is the last time someone with a loud public microphone called Donald Trump or something Donald Trump was doing
01:10a disgusting abomination without being immediately attacked by Donald Trump?
01:17Remember, Donald Trump has attacked Taylor Swift for nothing.
01:24Donald Trump attacked Bruce Springsteen for something Bruce Springsteen said at a concert on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
01:32And Donald Trump attacked Bruce Springsteen immediately.
01:37Donald Trump's rule of life, as he announced in the first book published in his name,
01:42which, of course, was ghostwritten for him, that whenever he is criticized or something he's doing is criticized,
01:49he always has to hit back harder.
01:51That's Donald Trump's rule.
01:53But Donald Trump dare not strike back against the richest person in the world.
02:00Maybe Elon Musk can push Donald Trump to that breaking point that Elon Musk himself reached yesterday
02:08at 1.34 p.m. when he screamed on Twitter,
02:12I just can't stand it anymore.
02:15Donald Trump might get there.
02:18But Donald Trump has never, ever taken longer to get there
02:22as he maintains his fearful silence about Elon Musk.
02:29Elon Musk continued his attacks on Donald Trump and Donald Trump's budget bill
02:33beginning in the middle of the night at 2.07 a.m.
02:37when Elon Musk said it more than defeats all the cost savings achieved
02:43by the Department of Government efficiency team at great personal cost and risk.
02:50Now, there is Elon Musk reminding us of his complete failure
02:54to cut trillions of dollars of federal spending that he claimed he was going to cut
02:59and then asking for our sympathy at how much it personally cost him
03:06in lost Tesla customers and dropping Tesla stock prices
03:12when America and the world turned against Elon Musk
03:16as he played the role of Donald Trump's executioner.
03:21The world turned against Elon Musk with Tesla sales dropping around the world
03:26while Elon Musk was deciding to take food away from starving babies,
03:32from starving children, from starving people of all ages
03:36who depend on famine relief from the United States Agency for International Development,
03:41which Elon Musk personally decided to destroy.
03:47And Elon Musk now wants us to feel sorry for him
03:51about the cost and the risk that he suffered while being Donald Trump's executioner.
04:00Seven minutes after that tweet, at 2.14 a.m., Elon Musk tweeted,
04:07this immense level of overspending will drive America into debt slavery.
04:12No, it won't.
04:14But it is more debt than the country has ever had.
04:16And 14 minutes after that, at 2.28 a.m., Elon Musk attacked Donald Trump and his budget bill again,
04:24saying interest payments already consume 25 percent of all government revenue.
04:29This is Elon Musk speaking.
04:31So, of course, that's not true.
04:33Interest on the debt is not that high.
04:35It's high, but not that high.
04:36Elon Musk then put down his Twitter machine for almost eight hours
04:40and then began attacking Donald Trump and his budget bill again just after noontime today.
04:46And then Donald Trump finally arose from his Twitter silence about Elon Musk attacking him.
04:57And at 1.59 p.m., just over 24 hours after Elon Musk launched his direct attack on Donald Trump,
05:05calling Donald Trump's budget bill a disgusting abomination and saying anyone who supported it should be turned out of office.
05:13Donald Trump bravely tweeted about Elon Musk without comment, simply by retweeting the old Elon.
05:23Elon from May 28th, seven days ago, when Elon Musk tweeted,
05:29As my scheduled time as a special government employee comes to an end,
05:34I would like to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.
05:39And then, in that same tweet, Elon Musk told this lie.
05:43The Department of Government efficiency mission will only strengthen over time
05:48as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.
05:51And that was only seven days ago that he was telling that lie.
05:55And now Elon Musk is telling you that his budget-cutting mission has not just completely collapsed.
06:03It has been completely overrun by the Trump budget bill,
06:08which the Congressional Budget Office said today will increase the national debt by $2.4 trillion.
06:15Now, imagine how deep Donald Trump's fear is
06:19that when he couldn't stand it anymore today
06:23and he had to tweet something about Elon Musk attacking him for 24 hours,
06:31Donald Trump's attack, the only thing Donald Trump dared to tweet,
06:37was an old Elon Musk tweet with no comment at all.
06:42And two minutes before Donald Trump tweeted that old Elon Musk tweet,
06:49Elon Musk tweeted a new one telling the Republicans they needed a new bill.
06:54And six minutes after Donald Trump's tweet, Elon Musk tweeted another new one,
07:01no one who actually reads the bill should be able to stomach it.
07:05That means you, Donald Trump.
07:07And then, 44 minutes later, at 2.50 p.m., Elon Musk tweeted,
07:13call your senator, call your congressman.
07:15Bankrupting America is not okay.
07:18Kill the bill.
07:21And it didn't take long for the childish mind of Elon Musk,
07:25seeing the words kill and bill so close together,
07:30to just turn that into a movie poster version in his next tweet,
07:35eight minutes later, using the title of the movie, Kill Bill.
07:41The Congressional Budget Office estimate of the impacts of the bill released today
07:46shows that close to 16 million people would lose health care coverage
07:50because of the Trump Republican budget bill.
07:54Republican Senator Joni Ernst's response to concerns about losing health care coverage
07:58at a town hall in Iowa was to say, quote,
08:01quote, we are all going to die, which she seemed to mean sort of maybe as a joke.
08:08But then instead of apologizing for what she said or any misunderstanding of what she intended
08:14when she said it, she decided to mock people who didn't like her response
08:20and insult those people by pretending that those people don't know
08:25that we're all going to die someday.
08:28Today, the Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said this.
08:33Donald Trump is just lying about the bill.
08:38Lying about the bill.
08:39Well, here's the we are all going to die act.
08:45It says nearly 14 million.
08:47It's 16 million.
08:48Getting closer to 16 million, according to CBO's numbers, we've been told.
08:5316 million people losing health insurance thanks to Republicans voting for Donald Trump's
08:58disgusting abomination.
09:01Mike Johnson, the perpetually in over his head guy who got the job of Speaker of the House
09:06when Kevin McCarthy was kicked out and no one else wanted the job is the kind of in over
09:11his head guy who's willing to tell you publicly who won't return his calls.
09:19Well, I'll tell you, I called Elon last night and he didn't answer it.
09:21But I hope to talk to him today.
09:23I mean, it's not, you know, it's very friendly and we can and we've laughed about our differences
09:28on policy before.
09:30I'm not upset about this.
09:32No, he's not upset about it.
09:34He doesn't look upset about it.
09:36Why should he be?
09:37He was a junior member of the House who got catapulted into the speakership from obscurity
09:43after a coup.
09:44He gets the biggest office in the Capitol.
09:47He gets a bigger paycheck than the other House members.
09:50He gets Secret Service protection.
09:52He's second in line for the presidency in the line of succession.
09:57Why would he be upset that Elon Musk is trying to destroy his disgusting abomination and won't
10:03return his calls?
10:04Mike Johnson's lucky to be there.
10:08So, of course, Mike Johnson's not upset about it.
10:12I'd love to talk to him this week and hope he calls him back today.
10:16I've talked to I talked to President Trump, you know, all the time, multiple times a day.
10:21Obviously, we've talked about this.
10:23He's as you know, he's not he's not.
10:26Elon did a 180 on that.
10:28Okay, so we got it.
10:29So Trump, easy to get on the phone several times a day.
10:33Musk won't return the call of the Speaker of the House.
10:37So there's the Speaker of the House wandering the halls of the Capitol, sounding like a high
10:42school kid on a tour saying he really hopes the richest person in the world calls him back
10:45today or someday.
10:46And here's what the richest person in the world did after Mike Johnson said that.
10:54Elon Musk took that video of Mike Johnson saying, I hope he calls me back today.
11:02And he put it in his tweet at 2.05 p.m. saying, no one who actually reads the bill should be
11:11able to stomach it, which means no one should be able to stomach what they heard Mike Johnson
11:19say in that video when he's hoping Elon Musk will call him back today.
11:24Congressional leadership has never looked more pathetic, more chaotic, more childish.
11:32Or more, to use Elon Musk's word, disgusting.
11:37If the Senate fails to pass the bill, then the Republicans will have to start all over
11:42again.
11:43And tonight, Senator Rand Paul has said he will vote against it, and he sounds like he means
11:48it.
11:48Senator Ron Johnson has yelled about the bill, sounding as if he will vote against it, but
11:54there's no reason to believe any of the rantings of Ron Johnson.
11:57Republican Senator Joshua Hawley says he won't vote for the bill with what he calls Medicaid
12:04benefit cuts.
12:05But he has said he will vote for work requirements being imposed on Medicaid, which will be used
12:13to kick people off Medicaid who are unable to find a job.
12:17That's one of the ways millions of people are going to lose their access to health insurance.
12:23Truck drivers at the Port of Los Angeles, for example, and other ports around the country
12:27who are losing their jobs now because of the Trump tariffs will not be able to turn to Medicaid.
12:34And Joshua Hawley will vote for that.
12:36Sounds like he's going to be fine with that.
12:40The only Republican senator willing to say publicly that he is ignoring Elon Musk is North Dakota's
12:47Kevin Kramer.
12:50If Elon was going to give me advice on how to get to the moon, I'd listen.
12:54You know, if he was going to give me advice on how to raise several billion dollars from
12:59other billionaires, I'd listen.
13:00But he doesn't govern, you know, and so to be honest, Elon just doesn't, he's not that
13:07big a factor.
13:08I know he's a glamorous sort of celebrity, but he's not a big factor.
13:11Kevin Kramer is in year one of a six-year Senate term, and that's always the year when
13:17senators are at their bravest.
13:19Senator John Thune of South Dakota, now the Republican majority leader of the Senate, said
13:23after a meeting at the White House with Donald Trump today, the plan to deal with Elon Musk
13:30is to simply lie about the bill.
13:35Why do you think Elon Musk is trying to film this bill?
13:37Well, I can't speak to, you know, his reasons other than what he stated, and I think that
13:42what he stated was that he thought it was something that would add to the deficit, and we believe
13:47the opposite.
13:48And that is like believing that the earth is flat, but Republicans are willing to publicly
13:53believe anything to deliver massive tax cuts to Donald Trump and his billionaire friends.
14:00John Thune is saying that Republicans are simply going to lie and say the Congressional
14:05Budget Office for the first time in history is wrong when they are telling us that legislation
14:10will increase the national debt.
14:12The Congressional Budget Office has never been wrong about the overall budget impact of legislation.
14:20They might not project exactly the right number, but when they say the legislation will reduce
14:28the deficit, it always does.
14:31And when they say the legislation will increase the deficit and the debt, it always does.
14:37And any slightly sharp high school math student could tell you that the Republican budget bill
14:44will dramatically increase the national debt.
14:48But Donald Trump has spent years leading up to this moment, years teaching Republicans just
14:57how much they can lie.
15:00And so it will be lying season about the national debt for Republicans with Elon Musk continuing
15:09his attacks on Donald Trump and what Elon Musk calls the disgusting abomination that is the Trump
15:17Republican budget bill.
15:19And there's John Thune admitting that it is such an indefensible abomination that they just have
15:29no choice except to lie about it.
15:39Ronald Trump, let's get the second shot.
15:45We're taking the 거 on the quarterback upside down.
15:50And there's heavy partners in America where theымian tax is rising.
15:53Facebook, the center issue.
15:54Yep.
15:55Yep.
15:56So just to continue to place, you can take the governor every month's paso around the
16:01new right now.
16:05What do you do with a congressional status?