- 6/6/2025
On "Forbes Newsroom," GOP strategist Brittany Martinez gave her take on the explosive feud between President Trump and Elon Musk.
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00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now
00:07is Republican strategist and executive director of Principles First, Brittany Martinez. Brittany,
00:12thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me back. I want to talk about the really ugly,
00:18really public dissolution of the relationship between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.
00:24The New York Post aptly described it as the big, beautiful breakup. We saw it spill out on social
00:30media. And this is really a 180 from where these two men were a week ago when they were in the White
00:37House for a farewell for Elon Musk. President Trump called him one of the greatest business leaders
00:42and innovators the world has ever produced. Elon Musk said he would remain a friend and advisor
00:47to the president. That seems to really not be the case anymore. What do you make of this really
00:52public, really ugly falling out? I'm not surprised. I think that anyone who's been paying attention
00:58would probably say the same thing to you. Maybe Raga is surprised by this. But I mean,
01:03you have two rich men who are, in my opinion, incredibly narcissistic and have big egos. So
01:09of course, they were going to bump heads. At some point, we also knew that coming out of the White
01:14House, there was tension there, especially with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. So this comes as no
01:19surprise to me. Is it maybe a little more dramatic than I was expecting? I mean, yes and no. It is
01:25Elon Musk. So we know he has quite a volatile personality. But yeah, yesterday was a very
01:30interesting day on Twitter X. And I'm sure it'll continue to be these next few weeks.
01:35So let's talk about some of those posts, because it went from talking about policy to getting
01:40into a really ugly place. Because Elon Musk, he hasn't fully been in lockstep with President Trump
01:47during the past couple of months. He said he didn't really like the tariffs. Then he said he
01:52didn't like the big, beautiful bill. Last week, he was annoyed that it would raise up the deficit.
01:57But then he really ratcheted up those criticisms. He said he said that Americans should call their
02:04lawmakers to make sure that this bill doesn't pass. He reposted posts calling Trump to be impeached.
02:12He said tariffs would cause a recession. And most personally, he said Elon Musk said that
02:17President Trump was named in the Epstein files. I mean, what do you make of just that bloodbath on
02:23Twitter slash X? Wild. Wild is the first word that comes to mind. And even the fact that the
02:31president himself had to post, I guess it was a truth social where he said, oh, you know, I'm not
02:36surprised that Elon has come after me. And and then it was the official White House press secretary,
02:41Caroline Leavitt, had to like post that as an official statement from the president himself.
02:46I mean, listen, is it funny to see what's going on on social media? Yes. Is it grab your popcorn time?
02:52Absolutely. But also it's an utter embarrassment. The United States of America, everyone is watching
02:57us at all times. But something like this, our adversaries are paying attention. This is really,
03:02really not OK. I wish that we had a president in office who was more mature and didn't succumb to
03:10these sort of childish endeavors and and, you know, slinging insults. And the same thing with
03:15Elon Musk, you know, richest man in the world doesn't mean that you have the composure in order
03:20to be professional in this sort of manner in this manner. And so I'm unsurprised. I think it's
03:27incredibly interesting, the things that he said, especially with Epstein files, the impeachment
03:32stuff. When I saw that one specifically, I was like, whoa, coming from someone who just a couple
03:37weeks ago, who was buddy buddies and the first buddy, you know, along with his son, just running
03:43around the White House. So this is unprecedented times for that sort of been what the times have
03:49been like under President Trump. And someone who donated $250 million to make sure President Trump
03:55got reelected, which he said such in he called President Trump essentially ungrateful. He said he
04:02didn't have any gratitude for that. He said that without him, President Trump wouldn't win. I mean,
04:08what do you make of that specifically when he's bringing up the money involved and he's saying,
04:12you know what, like, I'm hurt, I spent this amount of money.
04:17I mean, I would say I agree with Elon, he put hundreds of millions of dollars to support President
04:22Trump's campaign. Granted, we were in not the best place in the economy under President Biden,
04:27and it was going to be a continuation of that probably under Vice President Harris if she had
04:32won the nomination. So who knows what would have happened if Elon hadn't gotten involved. But it's
04:37really hard to say that someone who put hundreds of millions of dollars in a campaign didn't make
04:44any difference. Of course he did. And I think, you know, we saw even as as a few weeks ago, maybe a
04:50month ago when he was asked in some other interview, whether he'd continue to get involved in
04:54politics, he said probably not. And so I think he got a taste of what it's like, didn't like it,
04:59thought he would be welcomed with warmer, a warmer embrace and open arms. And a lot of people have
05:06sort of turned their back on Elon. And I don't think I don't think someone as accomplished as he is
05:13when it comes to innovation and technology, especially appreciates that. So I think he's over
05:18it. And I think he's going to continue lighting it all on fire.
05:24I mean, my next question would have to be who gets custody of Elon Musk now, because a lot of
05:30Republicans and Republican lawmakers I've talked to really liked Elon Musk. They thought he was a good
05:35outside perspective. They thought he was a brilliant business mind. And then you see President Trump,
05:41the standard bearer of the GOP right now, arguing with someone who they really thought was doing
05:45something good. I mean, how do you square that circle? And let's talk about Democrats,
05:51because Democrats really had a field day on social media yesterday over this making jokes,
05:56making memes. But Congressman Ro Khanna, who's a Democrat from California, who's had a friendship
06:02or at least a professional relationship with Elon Musk in the past, he said that Democrats should be
06:08reaching out to Elon Musk. Now they should be opening up a dialogue. They should be saying,
06:11hey, Elon Musk, you have more values aligned with the left than the right. Come join us. I mean,
06:18what do you make of this? Is Elon Musk a political pariah right now? Should people be grabbing him,
06:23trying to get him on their side? What do you think?
06:27I think people just want cold hard cash. And Elon has a lot of that he's willing to spend maybe,
06:33or that he's capable of spending. And I think Democrats are hoping that he can be their cash cow now.
06:38You know, if I was Elon, I'd say I really am going to stay out of this for a while. He's done some
06:43incredible things when it comes to space, and he should focus on that and, you know, green energy and
06:49doing those sorts of things that are really good for the environment and for the world and stay out
06:53of politics. But as far as Democrats, it doesn't surprise me. I mean, it's politics. And so what do we
06:59see with RFK Jr., right? He was a lifelong Democrat, and he's part of the Trump administration,
07:04even though he has absolutely no business, in my opinion, being the head of HHS, right? Because
07:09he's a vaccine denier and all of that kind of stuff. So as far as custody of Elon Musk,
07:18he also sent a tweet last night or sometime yesterday that said, well, think of it this way.
07:24Trump only has three and a half years left in office, and I have 40 years left on this earth.
07:29So I think he's made it very clear that people should probably stick by him if they want longevity
07:36in politics. I don't know if that's the right ploy here, but I don't know. Honestly,
07:43I'm just kind of speechless a little bit and baffled by this whole situation.
07:48Yeah. So, I mean, taking the personal just jabs aside, when you're looking at his real criticisms
07:55here, he's very critical of the big, beautiful bill because of that it'll raise the deficit by
08:01a couple trillion. And he thinks that all Americans should fire any politician who votes for this.
08:08But this really, it seemed like, opened the floodgates on social media for Republicans to
08:13bash this bill. I mean, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene came out and essentially said,
08:17hey, I didn't read that part. I would have voted no when it was talking about AI and state
08:22regulating it. Someone from the House Freedom Caucus who voted yes for it said, hey, like,
08:28I hope the Senate essentially does a lot of work. The Freedom Caucus tried raising all the alarm bells
08:33in the House. I mean, do you think that Elon Musk's criticisms and, you know, the tidal wave
08:38they seemingly caused, do you think that will have real impact in Senate talks when it comes to this
08:43bill? I do think that it could. And we have some pushback in the Senate that's probably greater
08:49than what we saw in the House. Senators have a little bit more cushion. They are in office for
08:55six-year terms as opposed to two-year terms. So when you're in the House, you're always running
08:58for a re-election, essentially, when senators might not have another election for another four years.
09:02So this big, beautiful bill, voters are going to forget about it by the time that they cast their
09:06ballot at the box in four years. But when it comes to pushback, I do think this sort of gives
09:13some Republicans a permission structure, those who are perhaps afraid to come out. And when we see
09:18someone like MTG, we know that she is quite the fan of President Trump. I think, again, I'll point
09:25back to my comments. I think that a lot of these people realize, oh, Elon Musk has a lot of money.
09:32He wants to get involved in races still potentially. I don't want to get him mad. I don't want him to put
09:38money into a campaign against me and have someone primary me. So I think it's not just out of the
09:44goodness of their hearts. I think that they're thinking long term strategically of what kind of
09:48incentives Elon can provide them in the future. And, you know, I don't think that's any sort of
09:53way to legislate. But for those who were like a little bit nervous, having Elon say this is going
09:58to cause a recession, combust the economy. It's too expensive. I mean, those are Republican talking
10:04points. And so, yeah, now maybe they'll actually pair it once because if this was a Dem bill,
10:09there's no way this would have passed with Republican support. And he was finding old from
10:14the archives, old comments from President Trump about the deficit, old comments from Speaker Johnson,
10:20and he was just resurfacing them. I mean, he was on fire yesterday on social media, but he mused this
10:27in a poll on X. He said, is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents
10:32the 80 percent in the middle? What do you make of that? And I mean, he is the richest man in the
10:38world. If anyone could create money wise, a new political party, I mean, it could be him.
10:44What do you make of him raising that question? I agree with you. I think if someone could actually
10:49make a movement in that way with money, it would be Elon Musk, whether he wants to
10:54stay out of it now because he tried it and he got a little burned or not. I guess we'll see over the
11:00next few months and years. But he's not wrong in that the majority of Americans really do live
11:06somewhere towards the middle when it comes to these policies are not incredibly conservative
11:11or incredibly liberal. And it's those voices in the party on the extreme right and left
11:16that frustrate Americans and, you know, wokeness, go woke, go broke. Right. And we see that within
11:22the MAGA faction of the Republican Party. And then we see that in the very liberal socialist
11:28angle of the Democrat Party. And so he's right. I think it's that middle ground is where bipartisanship
11:35happens, where bills get passed into law and where we're able to actually make progress.
11:41Is he going to do something about it? I don't know. But if there was someone positioned financially
11:46to do so, I do think Elon Musk could make a difference in this area.
11:50And I want to get your opinion on something President Trump posted in the riffraff yesterday.
11:56He said this, quote, The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions
12:01of dollars, is to terminate Elon's governmental subsidies and contracts. I was always surprised
12:05that Biden didn't do it. That sounds like a threat to me because there was Elon Musk going
12:12after this bill, going out of stuggler. President Trump talks about that. I mean, Republicans have
12:18long accused Democrats of weaponizing the government. Is this President Trump so publicly weaponizing
12:25the government? I mean, what's your take? Yeah. And then Elon Musk responded, well,
12:29then I'll get rid of my dragon program. I mean, I couldn't be clear to me that both of these men
12:35are essentially admitting to pay for play. That's what it is. It's that you do good work for me.
12:41You support me. You fund me. I'll continue to give you these government contracts worth billions of
12:46dollars. And like, oh, now you're against me and you're going to come out and not support me.
12:50Great. I'm going to pull that funding. And I do think that it was it's not unethical,
12:56at least towing the line that this special whatever special position to the president
13:02that Elon was, was also getting all of these billions of dollars for other work that he does
13:07separately, apart from the advising that he was doing during the administration. And the fact that
13:12this is happening right now, I think that should be very concerning to the to the American people,
13:19because we should have legislators and politicians in office who are doing good and aren't being
13:24unethical. But this I do think this is a weaponization of government. And I'm glad that
13:30they just outed themselves because that's what we've been saying. And they say, no, it's all been
13:34done by the book. And so professional, clearly not. And I'm glad that they said this, because now we can
13:39always point back to it that they admitted that themselves on social media of all places.
13:44I mean, to that point, it all unfurled on social media of all places. And if you're someone who's
13:51chronically online, if you live on X or Twitter, and you're just going on it, I mean, everyone was
13:57having a field day yesterday. But if you zoom out, I mean, what really are the optics here that the
14:02world's richest man, the most influential leader in the world are having a social media fight? What does
14:09that say to Americans? And then what does that say to our friends and enemies around the world?
14:15I think to Americans, it really signals that this is just a clown car and an absolute circus and that
14:22it has been. And all of the people who have been saying as much have been right. And, you know,
14:27you know, I've made this argument before and last year during the election, I think Democrats did a
14:33good job in saying Trump is weird. These golden, the golden toilet and the diapers at events and like
14:39saying this stuff like this is weird. And I think that was able to sort of kind of break through some
14:43of the public discourse because it's a lot easier to go with this is weird as opposed to he is a
14:48threat to democracy. If that's where you eventually want people to end up, there's like 20 steps to
14:52get there. But this is weird to then. Oh, this didn't seem right. It was unprofessional. Like
14:58that's how you get there. So when this is all happening and you see Elon and the president going
15:05after each other, I think it's an embarrassment, an absolute embarrassment. And I think that our
15:09allies are probably like, oh, kind of rolling their eyes and wishing that hadn't happened. And
15:14then our adversaries, they're thrilled. They're absolutely thrilled. Putin, China. Do you think
15:20that they're like, oh, poor Americans? No, they know that that's an opportunity to maybe one
15:25potentially do work with Elon Musk if him and Trump are on the outs now. But also that we are
15:32being very unprofessional in the way that we're handling things right now. And they're just paying
15:37attention. And that should also be a concern to the American people. Well, I mean, certainly we're
15:43keeping our eyes on how this dust up develops. And I hope that you and I can talk about it if it
15:48develops even further or what happens next. But I know you and I hopefully will have a lot of
15:54conversations ahead. Brittany Martinez, thanks again for coming on.
15:57Thank you for having me.
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