'Democrats Are Hoping' Elon Musk 'Can Be Their Cash Cow' As Tesla CEO Battles Trump_ GOP Strategist

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On "Forbes Newsroom," GOP strategist Brittany Martinez spoke about whether Elon Musk might align himself soon with Democrats.

Transcript

00:00on fire. I mean, my next question would have to be who gets custody of Elon Musk now, because

00:06a lot of Republicans and Republican lawmakers I've talked to really liked Elon Musk. They thought he

00:12was a good outside perspective. They thought he was a brilliant business mind. And then you see

00:17President Trump, the standard bearer of the GOP right now, arguing with someone who they really

00:22thought was doing something good. I mean, how do you square that circle? And let's talk about

00:28Democrats because Democrats really had a field day on social media yesterday over this, making jokes,

00:33making memes. But Congressman Ro Khanna, who's a Democrat from California, who's had a friendship

00:39or at least a professional relationship with Elon Musk in the past, he said that Democrats should

00:44be reaching out to Elon Musk now. They should be opening up a dialogue. They should be saying,

00:49hey, Elon Musk, you have more values aligned with the left than the right. Come join us. I mean,

00:55what do you make of this? Is Elon Musk a political pariah right now? Should people be grabbing him,

01:00trying to get him on their side? What do you think?

01:04I think people just want cold hard cash. And Elon has a lot of that he's willing to spend, maybe,

01:10or that he's capable of spending. And I think Democrats are hoping that he can be their cash cow

01:15now. You know, if I was Elon, I'd say I really am going to stay out of this for a while. He's done

01:20some incredible things when it comes to space. And he should focus on that. And, you know, green

01:25energy and doing those sorts of things that are really good for the environment and for the world

01:29and stay out of politics. But as far as Democrats, it doesn't surprise me. I mean, it's politics. And

01:35so what do we see with RFK Jr., right? He was a lifelong Democrat, and he's part of the Trump

01:40administration, even though he has absolutely no business, in my opinion, being the head of HHS,

01:46right? Because he has, he's a vaccine denier and all of that kind of stuff. So as far as custody of

01:54Elon Musk, he also sent a tweet last night, or sometime yesterday that said, well, think of it

02:00this way. Trump only has three and a half years left in office, and I have 40 years left on this

02:06earth. So I think he's made it very clear that people should probably stick by him if they want

02:12longevity in politics. I don't know if that's the right ploy here. But I, I don't know. Honestly,

02:20I'm just kind of speechless a little bit and baffled by this whole situation. Yeah, so I mean,

02:26taking the personal just jabs aside, when you're looking at his real criticisms here, he's very

02:33critical of the big, beautiful bill, because of that, it'll raise the deficit by a couple trillion.

02:39And he thinks that all Americans should fire any politician who votes for this. But this really,

02:45it seemed like opened the floodgates on social media for Republicans to bash this bill. I mean,

02:51Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene came out and essentially said, hey, I didn't read that part.

02:56I would have voted no when it was talking about AI and state regulating it. Someone from the House

03:01Freedom Caucus who voted yes for it said, hey, like, I hope the Senate essentially does a lot of work.

03:07The Freedom Caucus tried raising all the alarm bells in the House. I mean, do you think that

03:12Elon Musk's criticisms and you know, the tidal wave they seemingly caused? Do you think that will have

03:18real impact in Senate talks when it comes to this bill? I do think that it could and we have some

03:24pushback in the Senate that's probably greater than what we saw in the House. Senators have a little

03:29bit more cushion. They are in office for six year terms as opposed to two year terms. So when you're in

03:34the House, you're always running for a reelection, essentially, when senators might not have another

03:38election for another four years. So this big, beautiful bill, voters are going to forget about

03:42it by the time that they cast their ballot at the box in four years. But when it comes to pushback,

03:49I do think this sort of gives some Republicans a permission structure, those who are perhaps

03:53afraid to come out. And when we see someone like MTG, we know that she is quite the fan of

03:59President Trump. I think again, I'll point back to my comments. I think that a lot of these people

04:05realize, oh, Elon Musk, Elon Musk has a lot of money. He wants to get involved in races still

04:10potentially. I don't want to get him mad. I don't want him to put money into a campaign against me

04:17and have someone primary me. So I think it's not just out of the goodness of their hearts. I think

04:22that they're thinking long term strategically of what kind of incentives Elon can provide them in the

04:27future. And, you know, I don't think that's any sort of way to legislate. But for those who were

04:33like a little bit nervous, having Elon say this is going to cause a recession, come bust the economy,

04:38it's too expensive. I mean, those are Republican talking points. And so yeah, now maybe they'll

04:43actually pair it once because if this was a Dem bill, there's no way this would have passed with

04:47Republican support.

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