FULL INTERVIEW: Elon Musk CPAC 2025 Day One - 2/20/25
Questions on ElonsFAQ asked in this interview (12)
Transcript
0:08InterviewerMan, that is a big crowd, and they are not here for me. How you guys doing? Nice vibe this year, right after the best month we've ever had. Nice to see you all.
0:24InterviewerThanks for coming out. Good to see you. I'm not going to kill any more time. Let's bring out Elon Musk.
0:56Elon MuskHey, guys,
1:02InterviewerWe've got. We've got one more. We've got one more surprise. In case this wasn't enough, I'm gonna let Elon do it. Who else is here?
1:12Elon MuskWell, President. President Malay has a gift for me.
1:15InterviewerJavier Malay from Argentina. You guys know who that is, right? Why don't we bring him out?
1:23Elon MuskYeah.
1:47Elon MuskThis is the chainsaw for bureaucracy, Church.
2:04Elon MuskAll right. I love it.
2:05InterviewerMr. President, thank you so much.
2:07Elon MuskAll right. Thank you.
2:11InterviewerThank you, sir.
2:11Elon MuskGood to meet you. I love it.
2:13InterviewerWe love it. We love it.
2:17Elon MuskAll right.
2:21InterviewerThey told me to put this right here. They want it right here.
2:25Elon MuskAll right, great. A little stage prop.
2:33Elon MuskAll of you guys, Sue.
2:38Elon MuskThanks, guys.
2:39InterviewerHave a seat.
2:44InterviewerSo.
2:49InterviewerThat was something.
2:51Elon MuskI am become meme? Yeah, pretty much. I'm just. I'm living the meme. It's like there's living the dream and there's living the meme, and it's pretty much what's happening.
3:01InterviewerYou know, you're like. I think you're bigger.
3:04Elon MuskI mean, Doge started out as a meme. Think about it. And now it's real. Isn't that crazy?
3:12InterviewerIt is. It is crazy.
3:13Elon MuskBut it's cool.
3:14InterviewerLet me ask you this. A year ago, if someone had told you you'd be at CPAC and working with the president to absolutely shred the government, the swamp, whatever you want to call it.
3:26InterviewerWould you ever believe that?
3:28Elon MuskNo.
3:29InterviewerNo.
3:31Elon MuskMe neither. But it's cool. This is awesome. And I just want to say, you know, thanks for your support. I mean, guys are, you know, so. I mean, you know, we're trying to get.
3:49Elon MuskGet good things done, but also, like, you know, have a good time doing it and, you know, and have, like, a sense of humor, you know, so, like, like, I mean, the sort of.
4:02Elon MuskThe left wanted to make comedy illegal. You know, you can't make fun of anything. So there was like, comedy sucks. It's like nothing's funny. You can't make fun of anything.
4:10Elon MuskIt's like legalized comedy. Yeah, legalized comedy.
4:15InterviewerAnd we've. We've shifted the entire culture in just the last few months. The whole culture of this country has shifted dramatically just because of that election.
4:22Elon MuskYeah, exactly. You know, freedom of speech, having you Know, having fun again. It seems like we should. We should have a good time, you
4:32Interviewerknow, I mean, it's a great time. Everybody in this place is so excited and. Yeah, I haven't. I mean, when you talk to conservatives, everybody's happy.
4:40Elon MuskYeah.
4:41InterviewerAnd everybody feels this great sense of relief because we were going to help
4:44Elon Muskfor about four years.
4:44InterviewerIt really felt bad, especially toward the end. It felt really bad.
4:48Elon MuskYeah. And I thought. I thought we were sort of heading for a point of no return, really. Yeah. You know, and so that's why it was so essential that President Trump win the election and.
5:00Elon MuskAnd that there be a Republican majority in the House and Senate, which, thanks to you, that. That has been accomplished.
5:07InterviewerYeah. Yeah. I want to ask you one of the biggest questions I have for you is you've been, you know, politically, you weren't really on one side or the other for a long time.
5:15InterviewerYou're a businessman. A lot of people stay away from it. Now you're on a side and you've chosen to decide. You're sitting here in a maga hat. What's it, you know, how did that happen?
5:23InterviewerWhat was the moment like?
5:25Elon MuskYou know, dark gothic maggots.
5:26InterviewerThat's a good one. What was there a specific moment? Was there a moment that it all changed?
5:36Elon MuskYeah. When I realized it was a fool. But no, it was, I guess.
5:44InterviewerYeah.
5:44Elon MuskI mean, I'd say, like, I. Politically neutral for. For quite a while, you know, you know, leaning a little Democrat, you know.
5:54InterviewerHow do you go from this?
5:56Elon MuskYeah. No, no.
5:58InterviewerWell, did they go crazy?
6:00Elon MuskYeah, they did work. They did go crazy.
6:02InterviewerYeah, they went crazy.
6:03Elon MuskNo, I mean, the whole cancel culture and, you know, it's trying to stop freedom of speech and infringe upon, just in general infringe upon people's personal freedoms. You know, they just want state control.
6:20Elon MuskState control of what you say. They want to, you know, take away your guns. And the reason they want to take away your guns. So, like, there's nothing you do to oppose them.
6:31Elon MuskSo it's sort of like, you know, I just, like, we just need to restore the fundamental elements of what made America great, which is freedom and opportunity. Yeah.
6:44InterviewerWe're seeing a lot of these freedoms disappearing in the West. It's. It's not just about America. We're watching. We're all watching Europe and knowing that they're about fifty hundred years ahead of us.
6:51Elon MuskRight.
6:51InterviewerBecause they got an early start, and we're watching how they're devolving, and you're trying to save it from happening here.
6:57Elon MuskI Mean, in Europe, they put people in prison for memes.
7:01InterviewerYeah.
7:01Elon MuskYou know, I'm like, that's insane.
7:03InterviewerAnd they're collapsing. I mean, this society is. It's a collapsing society. It feels that way. It feels like France was nicer 50 years ago than it is today. Yeah.
7:12InterviewerI don't think you can question it.
7:14Elon MuskYeah. So. But, yeah, I mean, really. Thanks. Love you, too. I mean, I really. I really just wanted to do useful things, like, you know, basically build products, you know, provide products and services that are good and that.
7:40Elon MuskThat. I wasn't really, like, that interested in being political. It just, like, there was, at a certain point, no choice. Yeah. So. Yeah.
7:50InterviewerCan I ask you what. On the same side of that coin, what's it like from going neutral to being vilified, largely vilified, by the media?
8:00Elon MuskWhat? No, really?
8:03InterviewerI mean, you turn on some of these channels, brother.
8:06Elon MuskI mean, they don't.
8:07InterviewerThey're angry. Does it bother you at all?
8:12Elon MuskI mean, when they're chanting for my death? I suppose that's a little. Yeah. And then, like, the song's not even that good. And it's like. Like, you call that a death chant?
8:23Elon MuskThat's nothing. Please.
8:25InterviewerThey've been singing a lot lately.
8:26Elon MuskGood music.
8:27InterviewerThere's a lot of music lately.
8:28Elon MuskIt's not good music either. Yeah. Yeah.
8:31InterviewerI would say that they're, you know, watching. What you're doing with Doge is just. People love it. I mean, I've always looked at the government and I've always looked at the government.
8:42InterviewerI've seen this big machine that. And you just know that they waste because they don't care. Nobody could. There's more money coming. They don't care. You're cutting all this out.
8:50InterviewerEverybody in this country knows that the government is full of waste, fraud and abuse, and you're doing the work, and the Americans love it. Watching their reaction politically to this, I can't believe how bad they are at responding to this.
9:03InterviewerI don't know how you're going to sit there and scream and complain because they're cutting waste out of the government and try to win another election. How do you try to win on that?
9:13Elon MuskWell, at this point, I'm like, I'm not sure how much of the left is even real,
9:19Interviewerhow much was propped up by our money.
9:21Elon MuskYeah. Literally, you see these sort of fake rallies where there's, like, hardly any. Any people, and the media will, like, frame it and, like, you know, get all six people, you know, in the frame, but it's like nobody else Is there like just.
9:35Elon MuskIt doesn't have popular support. But, but, but there's, but, but then you, then you, you learn that like there's hundreds of billions of dollars going to these so called NGOs.
9:46Elon MuskYeah, that, that, that. And it's your tax dollars that are funding things that are fundamentally anti American
9:52Interviewerand they're propping up their narrative. Yes. A lot of that government money has been propping up a left that I don't think is as strong as they made it seem.
9:59Elon MuskIn fact, a massive amount of, of your tax dollars is going to legacy media companies. Yes. Directly from the, from, from the government.
10:07InterviewerThe government wants to take over media.
10:08Elon MuskYeah. It's terrible.
10:09InterviewerYeah. That's why we have X. Yeah. And that's, that's why you spent $44 billion. I mean there's a lot of money.
10:15Elon MuskI mean, more than it was probably
10:17Interviewerworth, but it had a, there was a message.
10:19Elon MuskFreedom is priceless prices.
10:21InterviewerYeah.
10:26InterviewerProbably one of the most important investments this country's ever seen. If you got to protect the First Amendment, it's not much more important than that.
10:34Elon MuskYeah, I got a lot of criticism and people said, well, that proves he's a huge idiot from a, you know, like, look, you know, he bought it for whatever, $44 billion and now it's worth like 8 cents.
10:45Elon MuskAnd it's not worth 8 cents. But you know, there's, but yeah, it was essentially to, you know, buy freedom of expression and.
11:02InterviewerYeah. Once that's gone, it's all over.
11:05Elon MuskYeah.
11:06InterviewerTyranny is really quick after that. Yeah.
11:08Elon MuskI mean, like, you know, all the sort of federal money going to media companies is what, what helps explain why the legacy media all says the same thing at the same time.
11:24InterviewerYeah.
11:24Elon MuskLike, isn't it like, it's like weird like you put them up where it's
11:27Interviewerlike, you know, like when they're mouthpieces for, for the state. For the state. Yes. And that's, that's what we've come to know.
11:35Elon MuskYeah.
11:35InterviewerScary.
11:35Elon MuskAnd I like that meme when they, where they. Because they're always saying like, threat to our democracies. That. Threat to. But if you just replaced democracy with bureaucracy, it makes a lot of sense.
11:47InterviewerMakes perfect sense. Yeah.
11:49Elon MuskBig threat to the bureaucracy.
11:51InterviewerThat's exactly right. Let's talk about, let's talk about these doge dividend checks that everybody's talking about this week. And I know you tweeted out that you're going to. Is everybody want like a $5,000 check in the mail?
12:00InterviewerIt sounds kind of Good. Right. And the best part about it would be knowing where it came from, that that's five grand that you sent them last year.
12:07Elon MuskTotally. It's money that's taken away from. From things that are destructive to the country, that. And from organizations that hate you to you. That's awesome.
12:16InterviewerDoes it seem. I mean, have you talked.
12:17Elon MuskI mean, that's like glorious. That's like the spoils of battle, you know, I like that.
12:24InterviewerIs there, Is there traction on that?
12:26Elon MuskYeah. Yeah. So, yeah, took the President. He's supportive of that. And so it sounds like, you know, that's something we're going to do.
12:35InterviewerYep.
12:36Elon MuskSo as we're finding savings, that's going to translate directly to reduction savings and attacks. So.
12:41InterviewerYeah, I mean, I think they fired 6,000 people at the IRS today, and I think Lutnick said last night that they're talking about shutting down the irs.
12:55Elon MuskAnd
12:58InterviewerI think it's fair. I think people should realize this is. I mean, the amount of money that we said we send Washington, like 5 or 6 trillion a year, that is such an ungodly amount of money.
13:07InterviewerI mean, what are they say, like a trillion seconds is like 30 years or something like that. I mean, that's how much we send them, and they seem to never have enough.
13:14InterviewerThere must be a lot you can cut.
13:16Elon MuskNo, absolutely. People ask me, what's the most surprising thing that you've encountered when you go to D.C. you know, when you're in D.C. and I said, well, the most surprising thing is the scale of the expenditures and actually how easy it is to just.
13:32Elon MuskWhen you add caring and competence where it was absent before, you can actually save billions of dollars sometimes in this. In an hour.
13:43InterviewerYeah.
13:43Elon MuskLike it's, it's wild.
13:46InterviewerAnd then they scoff at it and say, oh, a few billion here, there. I mean, the way they're talking about it, they, you can see they don't care.
13:52Elon MuskIt's.
13:53InterviewerIt's. So it's such little money compared to how much they're used to wasting. That's what's really scary. Yeah.
13:57Elon MuskNo, I mean, it's. Exactly. But obviously it's, it's. It just shows that they really lack empathy for the average taxpayer who's working hard, paying, paying taxes. And then, and then they say, oh, a million dollars doesn't matter.
14:09Elon MuskI'm like, I think it matters a lot, people, you know, so what are you talking about?
14:14InterviewerI'd like to have it. Let me ask you a question. I, you know, I know the President fairly well. Watched him survive two Assassination attempts. The second. Had the first one not happened, the second one would have gotten him.
14:27InterviewerYou know, it was very. Because without those extra guys, they would have never seen that gun poking through the fence at the golf course. I saw the crew that you like,
14:35Elon Muskmind blowing that this has happened. I mean, it just. And what, by the way, why do we still know nothing about that guy in Butler, what's going on? But Cash is going to get to the bottom of it.
14:46InterviewerYeah, there you go. Yeah, confirmed. Confirmed just a couple hours ago. But I saw that the security detail that you had come in is enormous.
14:59Elon MuskWell, I don't. Enormous. Maybe it should be bigger.
15:03InterviewerI think you could probably afford it. But I mean, how concerned are you about your safety? Dealing. I mean, it's. You are. You are a wanted man, Are you?
15:11InterviewerAre you?
15:12Elon MuskSo look, I'm open to ideas for improving security. I have to tell you, like, I don't actually have a death wish, I think, but. But, you know, it's not that easy.
15:26Elon MuskSo. Yeah, I mean, yeah, but. But I have like, I've had even like, people like President Bukele from El Salvador who. Who managed to put in prison, like, I don't know, a hundred thousand, like, murderous thugs.
15:38Elon MuskAnd he was like, he called me, he's like, I'm worried about your security. I'm like, you're. You're worried about my security? I'm like, what? Okay.
15:46InterviewerYou know, I mean. Yeah, talk about guts to do that down there. I mean, yeah, totally. And then survive. Like, I'm like.
15:52Elon MuskI was like, how did you put all those thugs in prison without dying? Because it seems like that would have been not easy, you know.
15:58InterviewerWell, there's a. The president has. One of his top attorneys is now investigating, I guess, Chuck Schumer for threats against scotus, a congressman on the Democrat side who's saying, you know, basically saying we're going to bring a war to you, like a fight to you.
16:11InterviewerI mean, the rhetoric. You guys are screwing with things that are not supposed to be messed with. With. And we're fighting a lot of people that really don't want that to happen.
16:20Elon MuskYeah, we're fighting the Matrix big time here. Yeah, but that's got to be done.
16:24InterviewerYeah.
16:25Elon MuskAnd are you.
16:27InterviewerIt certainly does. What's. What's going on with. Tell us about Fort Knox.
16:32Elon MuskYeah.
16:34InterviewerKentucky. It's a military base. It's a ton of gold. Tons and tons and tons.
16:38Elon Musk5,000 tons of gold or something are
16:41Interviewerthere in the ground in like this. I mean, it's a very secure Thing. We all want to see it, you know, I'd love to see it.
16:47Elon MuskLike, this is your gold, by the way. It's. It's the public's goal.
16:51InterviewerYou think it's not there?
16:52Elon MuskI don't know.
16:55InterviewerWe just want to see it.
16:56Elon MuskYeah, we want to go see it and just make sure, like, somebody did a spray paint, some lead or something, you know?
16:59InterviewerYeah.
17:01Elon MuskLike, is this real gold? Light up the bite the bar, you know, didn't. But I think, honestly, you know, part of this also is just like, you know, let's have some fun.
17:11Elon MuskAnd, you know, like. Like I said this. All this gold at Fort Knox. It's the public's gold. It's your gold. So, like, I think you have, like, a right to see it.
17:22InterviewerTake a tour, you know?
17:24Elon MuskYeah, I think we should have it. Do it. Do it. And then the president last night was like, that's how. I think he's in favor of it. That'd be cool.
17:31Elon MuskAnd then it should be like a live tour. Like, you can see what's going on. Open the door. Like, what's behind it. Well, in this, you know, I think I'd watch that.
17:40InterviewerOh, are you kidding?
17:41Elon MuskYeah.
17:42InterviewerI mean, what is. What is 5,000 tons of gold look like? How big is that? Is it. Is it the size of this?
17:48Elon MuskGot to be pretty big.
17:48InterviewerYou know, it's got to be a lot of.
17:50Elon MuskThere's some other stuff in there. Like, there's. Walk around, like, I don't know, maybe I got some other stuff in there.
17:54InterviewerAre you thinking about auditing the Federal Reserve as well? Which is obviously.
17:58Elon MuskYeah, sure.
17:59InterviewerRegular regulatory economy. I. I imagine you think the waste has got to be everywhere.
18:05Elon MuskYeah, no, waste. Waste is pretty much everywhere. People ask, how can you find waste in D.C. i'm like, look, it's like being in a room. And this target, the wall, the roofs, and the floor are all targets.
18:17Elon MuskSo it's like you're gonna close your eyes and go shoot in any direction. You can't miss, you know, so it's pretty wild. Like, you just push on things a little bit and you save billions of.
18:30Elon MuskOf dollars, like, just a little bit, you know? It's wild.
18:32InterviewerIt's scary, isn't it? It's.
18:33Elon MuskThat's why I say, like, it really is underrated where if you add caring and competence, how much things improve.
18:41InterviewerYeah.
18:42Elon MuskAnd. And, you know, and we. We just find so many totally crazy things, which, you know, we're. Obviously, we're sharing with the public. We post everything we learn, you know, Just.
18:52InterviewerYeah.
18:52Elon MuskYou know, so you can see it. You know, what do you. It's like, isn't it like. It's totally wild. Like, we did just. We just did like a check.
19:02Elon MuskThe database on Social Security, like, says, how many. A lot Americans alive Americans eligible for Social Security are there. And according to the database, it's over 400 million. And we're like, wait a second.
19:16InterviewerAnd how many are getting. Yeah.
19:19Elon MuskAnd then, like, we found, like, one person in there is like 366 years old. I'm like, what? They know, Ben.
19:26InterviewerYeah.
19:26Elon MuskYou know, America didn't exist before at that time. Like, so I. So, yeah, we were colonies, you know, maybe it's just me, but I think it's a red flag.
19:34Elon MuskI don't know.
19:36InterviewerBut are there indications that those that were checks going to those people or any of those people?
19:42Elon MuskWell, yes.
19:43InterviewerI guess the question right this. I mean, I get the Social Security Administration is dumb, but are they paying these people? Are they that dumb? I don't know.
19:51Elon MuskA bunch of money is going out from the Social Security Administration and in fact, from all entitlements programs.
19:56Interviewer76 billion in waste in, like seven years. That's 10 billion a year.
20:00Elon MuskWell, I think the fraudulent payments. The rough estimate from General Government Accountability offices is over $500 billion afford a year. 500 billion.
20:13InterviewerAnd how long the time per year? Per year On Social Security?
20:18Elon MuskNo, no, on all.
20:20InterviewerOn all government.
20:21Elon MuskOn all entitlements. All entitlements. Yeah.
20:23InterviewerYeah.
20:25Elon MuskIt sort of actually makes sense when you look at the thing from a top level and say, like, okay, the $7 trillion of spending by the government, what percentage do you think is fraudulent?
20:36Elon MuskOkay, exactly. Like a conservative estimate of the 7 trillion would be 10% conservative.
20:44InterviewerProbably a little higher than that. Yeah, exactly. Feels like a quarter out of every dollar. Right.
20:48Elon MuskBut if. If the fraud's only 10% of 7 trillion, you've got $700 billion of fraud. Yeah. And by the way, it's, like, really easy to take advantage of the federal government.
20:58Elon MuskVery easy.
20:59InterviewerLook at Covid.
21:00Elon MuskYes.
21:01InterviewerEverybody got rich during COVID I mean,
21:03Elon Musklook at all these years.
21:04InterviewerI mean, it's unbelievable.
21:08Elon MuskIt looks like in terms of COVID payments, there was something like $200 billion of COVID payment fraud taken by fraudsters out of the country.
21:18InterviewerOut of the country.
21:19Elon MuskThat's like. I think, listen, if there's going to be fraud, it should at least be domestic.
21:23InterviewerYeah.
21:24Elon MuskSo, you know, but they managed to get $200 billion out of the country. I'm like, what didn't we notice that?
21:34InterviewerLet me ask you, let's do immigration here for a second. You know, there's this move now that Trump's latest thing is that he cut, he's going to cut funding any kind of money that ends up in the hands of illegal immigrants.
21:47InterviewerSo if you're funding these sanctuary cities and states, that's how they thrive, Right? They're paying for these hotels. That's all federal money. If you got a hotel in your city, in New York, you got all these hotels full of migrants.
21:55InterviewerThat's not state money, that's the feds or covering that. He's going to cut all that. It's really hard to deport 15 million people. And it seems like the move now is, let's see if we, especially at the rate that we're going, it seems like the move now is let's make it so that they leave on their own.
22:09InterviewerIf there's no longer a dull system for them, if they can't get their hands on hotel rooms and money, they're going to go back, especially if there's no work.
22:16Elon MuskWell, I think it's really important for people to understand that the Biden administration sent any possible money that they could, they could, if there was money they could send to facilitate and amplify illegal immigration, they sent it.
22:33Elon MuskOkay. They took money from FEMA meant for helping Americans in distress and sent that money to luxury hotels for illegal immigrants in New York. That is a, an outrage.
22:48InterviewerYeah, they actually did that.
22:51Elon MuskAnd not only that, even after president signed an executive order saying it has to stop the fema, the sort of whatever deep state bureaucrats still pressed send on $80 million last week to go to the Roosevelt Hotel in New York and other places last week.
23:11Elon MuskAnd now they're mad that they got stopped and they're like trying to sue to have it be restored. It's like the gumption is you think
23:19Interviewerthey're creating a new voter class. Would you think that was the goal when they open up the borders for four years, create a new voter class, get them citizenship, get them in.
23:26InterviewerYeah.
23:26Elon MuskCards, vote A lot of these things, like you don't actually have to assume some grand conspiracy. You just need to look at basic incentives, benefits. So if the incentives fundamentally, if the probability that an illegal is going to vote Democrat at some point, whether it's, you know, cheating, but eventually they can become citizens.
23:48Elon MuskBut if the probability is like 80, 90%, just look at California, which is super majority Dem, and then the incentive is to maximize the number of illegals in the country.
23:59Elon MuskThat is why the Biden administration was pushing to get in as many illegals as possible and spend every dollar possible to get as many, because every one of them is a customer.
24:10Elon MuskEveryone is a. A voter.
24:11InterviewerYeah.
24:12Elon MuskSo the whole thing was a giant voter importation scam.
24:17InterviewerPretty obvious.
24:18Elon MuskVery obvious. And then moreover, then they. They actually created the CVP1 voter app thing where they were, which is like, where they could. They would literally fly people in.
24:29Elon MuskIt's not like, like at the point at which, you know, people being flown in at your expense, sending planes, building a wall.
24:37InterviewerDoesn't lie over them.
24:38Elon MuskBorder.
24:38InterviewerYeah.
24:38Elon MuskThey're literally flying him in.
24:39InterviewerNo other. No other country in the world would do something like this. Nobody is as stupid. Yeah.
24:44Elon MuskAnd then we found that it was like $100 million contract given to some guy in London, actually. Oddly enough.
24:52InterviewerYeah.
24:53Elon MuskFor the CVP1 app. So. So then. So they're flying illegals into the swing states.
25:01InterviewerYeah.
25:01Elon MuskAnd. And if you've got like a margin of victory of maybe 20,000 people and you fly 200,000 illegals into that state, it's not going to be a swing state for long.
25:13InterviewerChange the numbers eventually. Yeah. Maybe in four or eight years. You're talking about. It's a long game.
25:19Elon MuskIt's just a matter of time. So it might take like a year for an asylum seeker or something to
25:24Interviewerget on the, to get a green
25:25Elon Muskcard, then five years for the citizenship.
25:27InterviewerIt's.
25:27Elon MuskIt's. It's an investment that is guaranteed to pay off.
25:30InterviewerYeah.
25:31Elon MuskJust a question of when they all
25:32Interviewerremember who brought them in and who left them here.
25:33Elon MuskExactly.
25:34InterviewerExactly. I want to go back. I want to talk about big deal.
25:36Elon MuskLike, I think a lot of people don't quite appreciate that this was an actual real scam at scale to tilt the scales of democracy in America. Treason.
25:48InterviewerYeah. One more Biden question. I remember when, you know, when they would do the electric car stuff, they would always try to box you out even though you have the only electric car anybody wants.
25:58Elon MuskYeah.
25:59InterviewerYou said, I think this week that you think that Biden left these astronauts up in space because he didn't want to give you an opportunity to save them. Make NASA look bad, make the private sector look better, make you look good.
26:11InterviewerYou believe that?
26:13Elon MuskYeah, absolutely. So, of course I kind of agree.
26:19InterviewerWhy would he want to let you help them come down when you're supporting the President?
26:23Elon MuskThe Biden administration was attacking me next level. I mean, the Department of Justice or injustice under the Biden administration was. I mean, they were suing SpaceX. They were suing SpaceX for not hiring asylum seekers.
26:39Elon MuskAnd we're like, but it's actually illegal for us to hire asylum seekers because we're. Rocket technology is covered under ITAR rules, which means it's advanced weapons technology. And so we can only hire permanent residents or green or citizens.
26:56Elon MuskSo we're damned if we do, damned if we don't. We said like, so how can they sue us for not hiring asylum seekers when it's actually illegal for us to do so?
27:06Elon MuskBut nonetheless, there was a big Department of Justice or injustice case about this against SpaceX. So obviously it was an antagonistic situation. And those astronauts were supposed to be up there for eight days, and now they're up there for eight months.
27:20Elon MuskDoes that make any sense? And we obviously could have brought them back sooner, but they didn't want anyone who supported President Trump to look good. Basically. Yeah, that's the issue.
27:36InterviewerA lot of them are saying right now that the reason that you want to get into Social Security, that you want to get into all of these different, into treasury and things like that, is that you're looking for personal information and you're trying to make more money.
27:46InterviewerYeah, I, I've never met anybody as rich as you that cared less about money in my life. Every time I hear a story about you, you're sleeping on a couch of some other guy in a city that you could buy the entire thing.
27:58InterviewerYeah, I'm like, I don't think you care about money, do you?
28:00Elon MuskNo, actually, I, I. Mean, listen, like, if I, if I steal some Social Security, I can finally buy nice things. Yeah.
28:14InterviewerAnd on that same question, they're also talking about, you guys are going to end Social Security, you're going to end Medicare, you're going to end these things. I don't imagine that conversation has been had with the President.
28:25InterviewerAnd that's the plan.
28:26Elon MuskNo, in fact, the actions that we're taking with the support of the President and the support of the agencies is what will save Medicare, what will save Social Security.
28:41Elon MuskAnd because if the country goes insolvent, if all the money is just spent on paying interest on debt, there's no money left for anything. So that's the reason I'm doing this, is because I was looking at the big picture here, and it's like, man, our debt's getting out of control.
29:00Elon MuskThe interest payments, the interest on the national debt now exceeds the entire Defense Department budget, trillion a year in interest
29:08Interviewerjust to carry the money that we owe is a trillion a year.
29:11Elon MuskYes.
29:11InterviewerThat is unbelievable.
29:12Elon MuskAnd rising rapidly. So. So, like, I mean, a country is not different from a person. Country overspends, country goes bankrupt. Same with. Same as a person who overspends goes bankrupt.
29:22Elon MuskSo it's, it's not, like, optional to solve these things. It's essential.
29:28InterviewerSo we're going to go bankrupt.
29:30Elon MuskYes, we are.
29:33InterviewerA couple minutes left here. Russia. There's a huge push from this.
29:38Elon MuskOh, yeah. Yeah. People are like, sort of like, to end this. Say, like, yeah, you know, I, I'm a, I'm a bought asset of Putin.
29:45InterviewerYeah.
29:46Elon MuskI'm like, he can't afford me.
29:47InterviewerYeah, I think, I think you're worth more than Russia.
29:50Elon MuskThink about it.
29:56InterviewerSo you're trying to. Trying to end a war. It's all. Ending a war always means you have to compromise, you have to negotiate with an enemy or an adversary.
30:07InterviewerThat's just what it is. And right now, they are lambasting the president for trying a different method to war that they haven't been able to end for three and a half years or three years.
30:15InterviewerYeah, they, you know, they're saying Trump's blaming Zelensky for the invasion. How do you, how do you process all of the negativity toward him for trying to end this war?
30:25InterviewerWar?
30:27Elon MuskWell, first of all, I think we should have empathy for the people dying at the front lines. That's the most important thing. And people have been dying. You know, it's like, how many more years is this supposed to go on?
30:40Elon MuskYeah. And imagine if that was your son, your father, you know, what are they dying for? What exactly are they dying for? That line has. The line of engagement is barely moved for two years.
30:51Elon MuskYeah. This is how much people dead in trenches for what. And I'll tell you what, for what it's like, for the biggest graph machine that I've ever seen in my life.
31:01Elon MuskThat's for what. It's. It's unreal. Like, the amount of money that is being taken in graft and bribery is disgusting. And so what's actually happening is that those, you know, people, those poor guys are getting sent into a meat grinder for money.
31:22Elon MuskThat's what's actually going on and needs to stop.
31:26InterviewerAnd that's. I mean, that's. It seems. I mean, Trump is so pragmatic on this. He just, he's just looking at it and he's saying, it's Ukraine. It's not our country, it's not a NATO ally.
31:35InterviewerI just want to see people not dying. I want to see on both sides, I Mean, think about how many young, so many young men have died in Ukraine that the, the army is starting to age out, the military is aging out.
31:44InterviewerYou got 40 and 50 year old guys fighting in a war because there's nobody left that's not killed or maimed in their 20s. That's the reality of it. Think about how many people that is.
31:54InterviewerIf you're a humanitarian at all, you just got to end the war, like no matter what, just get it over with.
32:01Elon MuskYes. People, they need to stop dying and the growth machine's got to stop, you know, so. And I think people that don't, A lot of people out there don't realize, like the president has a lot of empathy.
32:13Elon MuskHe really cares, you know, he's a good, he's a good man.
32:17InterviewerSo I got one more for you. I've been fascinated by you for a very long time.
32:25Elon MuskThanks.
32:27InterviewerI've just, I just, I've never seen anybody that can, you know, do so many things at the same time. I mean, you got the rockets, you got the cars.
32:34InterviewerI've always wanted to ask you, what is it like inside your mind like this? Is it just a thousand miles an hour? I mean, are you.
32:41Elon MuskYeah.
32:41InterviewerIs it just not. I mean, does it ever stop? Do you sleep? How much do you sleep? What's paint us a picture of inside of the mind of a genius?
32:52Elon MuskLike, how do you do all this?
32:54InterviewerCan you answer that question? It's not an easy question.
32:57Elon MuskYeah, I mean, my mind is a storm. Yeah. So it's a storm. But I mean, let me maybe tell you something. Like, you didn't ask a question, but I think it's worth nonetheless, maybe just elaborating on something which is, you know, I grew up in South Africa, but my morality was informed by America.
33:24Elon MuskI read comic books, you know, played Dungeons and Dragons and I watched American TV shows and it seemed like America cared about being the good guys, you know, about doing the right thing.
33:45Elon MuskAnd that's actually pretty unusual, by the way.
33:53InterviewerIt's like, it's like in the world, it's very unusual.
33:55Elon MuskYeah.
33:55InterviewerIt's not like actually most countries don't do that.
33:57Elon MuskNo, they don't. No. And so I was like, yeah, you know, you want to be this good, you want to be on the side of good, you want to care about what's right and, and yeah, so that's, that's, yeah, what I believe in, you
34:14Interviewerknow, So I gave you, I gave you a tough one at the end and.
34:20Elon MuskYeah, so, yeah, that's great.
34:25InterviewerThat's great. Elon Musk.
34:26Elon MuskAll right.
34:26InterviewerThank you. Thank you so much.
34:27Elon MuskAll right,