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Language: en
Trump Elon Madness. Yo, that shut the
internet down. I had This is crazy. Like
people who aren't even in politics were
texting me last night and were just
like, "Hey, did you see what's
happening?" Like the girls are fighting.
Girls were fighting was trending on
Twitter yesterday. Really? That's like a
way to say it. Yeah. Like that's like
that's what the the the youth are
saying. It really came down to the big
beautiful bill. Elon think I think this
is my hypothesis. Yeah. Same. He said,
"I can't take it anymore. This is an
abomination." We talked about that. But
then Elon just had time and he just kept
going. He started retweeting other
tweets. He started bringing up Trump's
tweets from 2013, 2020, all these other
things that talked about a balanced
budget and balancing. Yeah, I think
Trump popped off about him and that was
that. But this is utterly fascinating to
watch these insanely powerful guys be
dumb and say like just keep my name out
your [ __ ] mouth, Drew. Like
what? Oh my god. So the number of times
that I have said in business to somebody
but you'll be going into a meeting
something really untoward will have
happened and I will remind people as we
go into the meeting. We're not going to
do anything emotionally satisfying in
this meeting. And so if you're going in
because this person hurt your feelings
and you think they're out of
pocket in this meeting, we're just where
do we want to go? What are the things we
have to do to get there? And when people
start slinging mud, it's like dude, what
are you doing? So when you start looking
at the
timeline, there's no doubt that Elon
fired the first shot in terms of saying
that the big beautiful bill was trash.
Now he doesn't call Trump out by name,
but basically and he said you who voted
for it. Trump may not have voted for it,
but this is signature legislation for
him. So he's going to feel called out by
that. So that that is mistake number
one. Mistake number two though is during
the press conference when people asked
like, "Hey, what about the fact that
Elon is popping off about this big
beautiful bill and then Trump starts
going into I mean he literally says that
he has Trump derangement syndrome. It's
like oh my god and that I would have won
the election without him. It's like what
are you doing?" And so now you get into
this spiral where they are
both approaching this as if what they're
seeking is emotional gratification.
Let's let's start at like the the very
beginning. I'm Elon. I'm sorry. I can't
take it no more. This is a bad bill. We
should do something to balance the
budget. To me, that's not fighting
words. To me, that's criticism. That's
it's going to increase the deficit. I've
been banging about deficit. My whole job
was to try to cut government waste and
abuse. So, me saying that, it's not like
it's left field. I think it escalated.
And I'm going to blame Elon because this
is the same guy that thinks his gaming
stats. So, of course, he's going to take
this a bit more petty. Without me, Trump
wouldn't have got would have lost the
election. Dems would control the house.
Republicans would be 5149. Such
ingratitude to me. I think that was the
line because then it became to your
point about the bill to about I'm now
going to take But Trump had already said
he has Trump derangement syndrome. So if
you look at the timeline of how this all
played out, the the Elon tweet, the
Trump press conference. Yeah, let's jump
to this Trump press conference and see
maybe Yeah. So Elon basically just said
uh hate the bill and then this happened.
Elon knew the inner workings of this
bill. He knew everything about it. He
had no problem with it. All of a sudden,
he had a problem. And he only developed
the problem when he found out that we're
going to have to cut the EV mandate
because that's billions and billions of
dollars. And it really is unfair. We
want to have cars of all types.
Electric. We want to have electric, but
we want to have gasoline,
uh, combustion, we want to have
different, we want to have hybrids, we
want to have all we want to be able to
sell everything. And when that was cut
and Congress wanted to cut it, uh, he
became a little bit different and I can
understand that. But he knew every
aspect of this bill. He knew it better
than almost anybody. There are a few
different pieces that are on the table
in terms of what it could be that Elon
is really freaking out about. And I've
got certainly my take. There are some
tweets and clips from other people like
Naval that I want to play because I
think that they get pretty close to
what's really going on. the pieces on
the table. Um, he hated the bill because
it had pork in it. He hated the bill
because it was negative for his
companies and it hurt the uh EV
subsidies that he was getting and he
just wants it for his own sake. He's
pissed because the NASA guy that he
suggested didn't get in there. Okay, whi
which of these is it? It's entirely
possible that it really is when you look
at Elon's sequence of behavior that
what's really going on is we're headed
towards a fiscal cliff and people are
acting like it doesn't matter. And this
has been a lot of Elon's rhetoric is uh
guys, this is exactly how countries go
broke. People are acting like we can't
default. We we will eventually default.
You will eventually owe so much money on
your [ __ ] debt, you can't do anything
else. I are people not seeing that.
Like,
hey guys, there are physics to this
[ __ ] I've just gotten this big debate
over a business
decision. And I was like, there are
physics to every
situation. and to be mad at me for
pointing out that there there are
physics. Like you will hit a point where
like let's say you're trying to do an
initiative inside of a business and it's
like if we do that initiative then uh we
go from being in the black to being in
the red. If we have a goal that says we
must be in the black and you do that
initiative and that pushes you into the
red. Yeah. Are you saying I would like
to officially change my goals and now I
don't care about being in the black?
Being in the red's perfectly fine as
long as we get this outcome. At least
then we can have a sensible
conversation. Elon has been saying from
the [ __ ] beginning, I'm coming in.
I'm I want to cut these costs because
we're headed towards a fiscal cliff. We
have to get this together. He buys X
Twitter and he says, "We need free
speech because this is what matters to
humanity. Uh we want to go to Mars
because this matters for humanity. We
want to get Eevee going because this
matters for humanity. This guy's been
remarkably consistent. He's the richest
man in the world, but sleeps under his
desk. Uh doesn't have a fancy house.
Like literally sold all of his like
houses and stuff and is like, "That's
not what matters to me. What matters to
me is getting this stuff going." He
slept on the floor or couch of uh for
sure Tesla. I don't know about SpaceX,
but maybe definitely X. Uh definitely
the government. This is not a guy who's
optimizing for I want a lavish
lifestyle. This is a guy who's you
suddenly have a lot more predictive
validity if you're like, "Oh [ __ ] he
actually really believes in these
things."
And he's being hyper petty about this
[ __ ] And it is a weird part of his
personality that if I were advising him,
I'd be like, "For the love of God, like
this kind of thing is not going to get
you where you want to go." But I don't
think he he's on video as early as 2021
saying, "I don't care about the EV
subsidies. Remove them." That was when
Biden was in office. He was saying,
"Remove them. They don't matter." Now,
it's possible that he's so annoyed that
they removed the subsidies for EV
vehicles, but did not remove the oil and
gas subsidies. Maybe. Maybe the
unfairness just got under his skin. But
you're not going to be able to predict
Elon's behaviors unless you go, "This is
somebody who actually believes the
things that he says." There's a tweet,
in fact, that I think gets this pretty
well. I think it's the Naval one. He
says, "Elon stance is principled. Trump
stance is practical. Tech needs
Republicans for the president, for the
present. Republicans need tech for the
future. Drop the tax cuts, cut some
pork, get the bill through. But the idea
that Elon's stance is principled and he
just cannot stop himself from saying
exactly what he thinks and then Trump is
a politician who is slathered in guile
who is saying the things that he needs
to say. He's shaking the hands that he
needs to shake. He's compromising where
he needs to compromise. That whole
reality of politics feels
like it's a red pill unto itself when
you realize what politics is actually
like. But politics is riding on the back
of the truth of the way that the human
animal is. And the reality is we lie
because it's effective. Because it's
effective, you're forced to do it. And
so as a politician, you're forced to
lie. you're forced to do uh back
scratching, you're forced to do quid
proquo because it all works. And like I
think secretly, deep down, we all know
that's how politics functions. And I
think what you're seeing right now is
that collision. Elon put everything at
risk, torched his companies. I mean,
just his own like ability to enjoy his
life like for 6 months longer. He feels
some kind of way about and after all of
that, this guy's still going to drive
the car off the cliff and it's a slap in
the face. It is and it isn't, man. So,
here's the reality. It's entirely
possible. It's all
inescapable given the nature of
politics. You have to drive off the
cliff and that there's no way to avoid
it. That's so defeist. I don't even like
to say it out loud. This is what it
feels like. Watching my own journey has
been surreal because at the individual
level, optimism is the only thing that
makes sense. At the macro level, it's
really distressing. Here's
the analogy that has come full into view
for me. Life exists on two levels. I
want you to imagine you're in a car and
in the car are your loved ones and
you're on a road trip and you're having
a great time and you guys are laughing
and you realize love matters and the way
that you spend your time matters and
you're here with these people that you
care about and everything just feels
right. and your kids are in the back
seat and they're bickering a little bit
and that's annoying, but you know
they're going to grow up one day and
they're going to do cool [ __ ] and you
and your wife, you know, sometimes you
have frustrations and sometimes you butt
heads, but like they're your best friend
and you get to have sex with them and
it's like [ __ ] rad and you've made
some money in life and things are going
good and look at what you've created and
look at what you've done. And then Drew,
it also exists on the macro level of
you're on a satellite looking down at
the car and you realize, uh-oh, that
road is headed towards a bridge that's
blown up or just a cliff. And it's
entirely possible that the people that
built the
road built it to go off a cliff or they
know the bridge is blown up, but the
road still goes there. And there are
people that run up to the side of the
road and they're screaming, "Hey, the
bridge is out." But you're in the car
and you're having a good time. And so
the question becomes, do how much of
your time do you spend zooming out and
going, "We're headed towards a cliff."
Because it is
so nakedly obvious to me in the same way
that I know where my business is when I
look at the
spreadsheets. Just look at your P&L.
Everyone's naked in a P&L. Mhm. When you
come out to the satellite level and you
look
down, you just see, oh, it's inevitable.
We drive off the cliff, you the the debt
will bankrupt this comp this country as
it has bankrupted every country before
it. But are you an [ __ ] if you just
stay up at the satellite and you forget
that inside the car? It's rad. I don't
know what to do with that because when I
go when I go up to this satellite, some
part of me feels like I'm betraying my
own world view of like pursue
fulfillment. Stay focused on the things
that are wonderful and beautiful because
it may be inevitable.
And at the same time, when I'm in the
car, I feel like now you're just
pretending. Now you're like not looking
at the problem, you're ignoring the
problem, hoping it goes away. And it's
like, am I betraying my worldview of you
can always make change there? As long as
it doesn't violate the laws of physics,
you can do something about it. And so I
come to this really weird intellectual
thing that has me sketching out
between I want to be in the car with my
wife and think about the beautiful
things that we're
creating and I want to see if I can do
my small part to nudge the car in a
direction to get at a minimum take your
foot off the accelerator.