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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump And Musk Melt Down Publicly In Epic War Of Words; Musk Losses $34B; Trump's Crypto Windfall. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired June 05, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:28]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
It's getting uglier. The world's richest man versus the most powerful, publicly fighting, with threats of impeachment, contracts canceled, conspiracy theories involving Jeffrey Epstein. And it's still going right now.
Plus, Elon Musk reportedly loses $34 billion from his net worth today. Tesla alone lost more than $150 billion. Is it about to get even worse for Musk as he battles Trump?
And more breaking news from "Forbes" tonight. Trump making $1 billion -- $1 billion from crypto in nine months.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, meltdown. The Elon Musk and Donald Trump alliance has gone up in flames. Total and utter flames. A public meltdown unlike anything the country has ever seen.
Elon Musk just in the past two hours calling for Donald Trump's impeachment and saying Trump's name is in the so-called Epstein file, saying mark, bookmark this one.
At the same time, Trump is threatening to cancel all of Musk's government contracts and Musk's responding, oh, make my day. The whole world watching as this back and forth played out. It only started around noon Eastern Time, when Trump finally broke his silence over Musk's very clear attacks on what Trump insists on calling his big, beautiful bill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, Elon is upset because we took the EV mandate. Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore, but I'm -- I'm very disappointed in Elon. Ive helped Elon a lot. I don't know what it is. It's sort of Trump derangement syndrome.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Oh, he's accusing him of TDS talking about how they had a great relationship. But that was tame. That was how it all started because it was just the beginning.
So, the world's richest man starts replying to the world's most powerful man almost in real time. So, this is how it went. Okay, here's Trump at 12:06 p.m.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people. He knew everything about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: At 12:25 p.m., Musk posts: False. This bill was never shown to me even once, and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it.
And that was the first thing. Then they started fighting over whether Trump would have actually even won the election if it weren't for Musk. Here's Trump at 12:05 p.m. Eastern.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Elon endorsed me very strongly. He actually went up and campaigned for me. I think I would have won, Susie would say I would have won Pennsylvania easily anyway, even if the governor ran -- the real governor, not the governor from Minnesota.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Referring to Shapiro.
And Elon replies at 12:46, quote: Without me, Trump would have lost the election. Dems would control the House, and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude.
Which clearly upset Trump, who posted that he actually fired Musk. Elon was wearing thin. I asked him to leave. I took away his EV mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted, and he just went crazy.
Musk's reply 11 minutes later: Such an obvious lie. So sad.
Well, on this Elon has a point. It is worth remembering that Trump and Musk were so close, so close that remember, it was like, where's J.D. Vance, right? That it was Trump. And the number two was Vance -- was Musk. And look at this first joint interview he gave. It was with Musk, not with J.D. Vance. I think he was in Munich when this happened.
In fact, when Musk's Tesla shares started plunging because buyers shunned him, they shunned him because of his role as Trump's number two. And so, Trump actually, at the time, remember when he went out and he did the big giant car ad for Tesla while standing in the driveway of the White House?
In fact, he got one for his granddaughter, a Cybertruck, and he said he was personally going to buy one. That very Tesla that he was going to buy, it is actually there tonight. It is still parked on the White House grounds. CNN today got its picture, filmed this video of it late today. I wonder if Trump has any idea that it's parked there.
Which brings me to the biggest threats that each man threw at each other today. And it was nasty, frankly, beneath -- beneath both of them. But, you know, hey, all bets are off on that anymore.
At 2:37, Trump threatens to terminate Musk's government contracts, writing: The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars is to terminate Elon's governmental subsidies and contracts, which, while a serious threat, I mean, you got to think about it. SpaceX, the Boring Company, and Tesla benefit massively from government contracts and subsidies. Musk's business empire is built around a $38 billion in reported government funding, according to "The Washington Post".
But to get rid of all those is also a unique threat because without Musk -- well, I mean, what happens to those astronauts on the ISS? I mean, remember the astronauts who waited nine months because only Musk's dragon capsule could bring them back home?
Well, Musk sure does, which is probably why he responded to Trump's threat to terminate his contracts with these two posts. Go ahead, make my day. And then, he added, in light of the president's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, SpaceX will begin decommissioning its dragon spacecraft immediately. Well, he knows who controls that one.
And then Musk threw his own threat out there. One of them -- well, this one was laying down the gantlet, talk about going to the gutter, writing time to drop the really big bomb. The Real Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT.
And that's actually really serious. Those Epstein files perhaps cuts as deeply as anything, but the other one might be just as bad for Trump, a twice impeached president, Musk not long ago posted yes to someone who wrote president versus Elon. Who wins? My money's on Elon. Trump should be impeached. And J.D. Vance should replace him.
It is absolutely stunning to watch it. Maybe that's why no one could look away today. A split for the history books. I mean, when you think about it, it's up there, maybe with Brutus and Caesar, Hamilton and Burr, two men, until just days ago, claimed to just absolutely love each other.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELON MUSK, TECH BILLIONAIRE: Well, I love the president. I just want to be clear about that.
TRUMP: We have a new star. A star is born. Elon. Elon is great. He is from a different planet. He's the greatest guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I use the word love. I didn't just, you know, use it. It's because Musk used it. In February, Musk post, I love Donald Trump as much as a straight man can love another man.
I mean, what else is there to say?
Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live from the White House.
Kristen, from a post like that to what we are seeing today, I mean, it is an absolutely stunning breakdown.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And, Erin, I mean, we talked to a number of White House officials who really tried to downplay it, saying, we've been through this before, but there really is no way to not acknowledge the fact that they haven't been through this exactly before, because we're talking about two of the most powerful men in the world and break up like this, and so publicly and so personally. It is one that they haven't seen in the same manner.
Now, we are told that White House officials met behind closed doors at one point, discussed how they were going to react and the directive from the top. At the top, of course, is President Trump is to just keep focused on the, quote/unquote, big beautiful bill.
The thing we have to remember here is that this is Donald Trump's legacy. So, all this talk about how personal it's getting, actually hitting the bill itself is as personal as it gets for Donald Trump. He also hit him at one point saying these tariffs are going to sink the economy into another recession. That was Elon Musk after Donald Trump.
Another pretty harsh blow for Donald Trump, a man who believes his entire legacy is going to be built on this bill, these tariffs, the trade wars, the trade deals that they have, clearly here trying to kneecap him.
Now, just moments ago, we heard from Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, who was responding to Elon Musk, saying that Donald Trump's name was in the Epstein files. And this is what she said. She said: This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the one big, beautiful bill because it does not include the policies he wanted. The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.
Obviously there again, Erin, the directive from the top, keep it focused on the bill.
BURNETT: Right. All right. Well, thank you very much, Kristen. Of course, Elon Musk has said he isn't happy with the policies in that bill, specifically the trillions of dollars that it will add to the debt, which goes against DOGE.
He believed that Trump actually wanted DOGE.
OUTFRONT now, Katie Drummond, global editorial director at "Wired", which has broken story after story on DOGE and Musk's relationship with Trump. And Ryan Mac, who covers Elon Musk for "The New York Times" and is also the author of "Character Limit: How Elon Musk destroyed Twitter".
Katie, you know, you hear Kristen's new reporting, you know, they had a meeting today on what is going on because this is serious. You've got certainly the world's most powerful man, and against the world's richest, and also one of the most powerful men.
KATIE DRUMMOND, GLOBAL EDITORIAL EDITOR, WIRED: Yeah.
BURNETT: This breakdown. So, what are you watching right now?
DRUMMOND: We have been on the edges of our seats all day at "Wired". I will tell you that much. I mean, for one thing, we are paying very close attention to Truth Social and X, right? The megaphones of choice for these two very rich and powerful men. And then we are on the phone talking to, you know, GOP insiders, members of the administration, and then people in Silicon Valley, right?
[19:10:04]
I mean, the potential ripple effects of this, you know, breakup between Trump and Musk on the tech industry itself is potentially very significant. So were trying to figure out sort of what do tech insiders, VCs, investors, other tech executives think about this allegiance breaking up.
BURNETT: Right. Okay. And on that, Katie, you know, you said, the people that showed up at Trump's inauguration, okay, let's say was it, Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos and then the people who went to Saudi Arabia to be there to, to pay fealty, that's the requirement to do this.
Does this embolden them to turn on Trump, or does this make them even more afraid to do so? More in his corner?
DRUMMOND: They have so much to lose, right? They are counting on an administration and a president who will be good to them from a regulatory perspective, from a financial perspective, they need the presidents buy in, I suspect, a lot more than they need Elon Musk's companionship.
BURNETT: Right, right. And the threat to cut contracts, you know, if you don't have the Dragon capsule is the only way to get the ISS down. He could cut your contracts.
DRUMMOND: Absolutely.
BURNETT: And we'll see what happens with that.
I mean, Ryan, you have covered Elon Musk for such a long time. When you watch this happening, right, and nobody could turn away from it today. Whether you were laughing, whether you were embarrassed by it. I don't know what feeling people might have had. But when you see how far Elon Musk is willing to go, right, he's going there on Jeffrey Epstein and 100 posts about this.
How personal is this for him?
RYAN MAC, REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I mean, it's incredibly personal. I think this is something that we, as Musk reporters have been waiting for, for a time. You know, these both these men get into extreme bust ups with their associates and their staffers, and we're kind of all waiting for this moment, you know, that it happened isn't a surprise. How it happened is more of a surprise to me, you know, and the speed at which Elon was ready to essentially unload his clip.
You know, he went and had a string of insults lined up that he used you know, very quickly. And I think that is what surprised me the most, right?
BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, to go from "I hate the bill" to "you're in the Epstein files". I mean, if there were an escalation ladder, you just jumped off it and jumped up to the roof.
I mean, Katie, Musk, you know, he's saying very serious things. I mean, let's just talk about -- he's saying he's going to decommission the Dragon capsule.
DRUMMOND: Yeah.
BURNETT: I understand that's a threat. But there are people who are on -- Americans on the International Space Station right now. So all of this is actually affecting people's lives.
DRUMMOND: Right.
BURNETT: But he is having a good time. He has a laughing, crying emoji. He adds to a post when he's reposting, he's saying, one things for sure it ain't boring, you know? And he adds that have a nice day, DJT, when he puts the Epstein files threat out there.
He's -- he actually is just -- he's having fun. He's not -- he clearly wasn't doing anything else today.
DRUMMOND: Yeah. Well, I mean, maybe some gaming here and there. You never know. I mean, look, this is -- it's so interesting because what we saw with DOGE, right, was the Elon Musk playbook. What happens when Elon Musk goes into a company and rips it to shreds, right?
What were you seeing on x today is just the Elon Musk playbook for social media. I mean this is how he posts all the time emojis, embarrassing retweets, polls and quizzes. I mean, he had a quiz up about whether we should, you know, find a political leader for the 80 percent of Americans.
BURNETT: Right. The new political party.
DRUMMOND: His polls. BURNETT: Yeah.
DRUMMOND: This is just him sort of doing what he does on social media. The difference is the person he's going after, right? But, I mean, he's been very happy to make jokes about USAID and all of the people who are going to potentially die around the world because he's taking it to the woodchipper. So --
BURNETT: Right.
DRUMMOND: -- now, the target is Donald Trump? Sure. Why not?
BURNETT: You know, Ryan, it is interesting because Musk owns X, and Trump's not on X, right? Musk's posts are -- they are dominant, right? And then you see on X someone takes, you know, a screen grab of Truth Social because there aren't many people on that and puts it over there, right?
If it comes to just the echo chamber out there, Musk is dominating. But how much further do you think he is willing to go? Right? You start on this. You get to Epstein and ending all the government contracts for one of the largest defense contractors in the country. Where do you go from there?
MAC: I think you make a good point with each of these men at their own battle stations. You know, you have one on X firing off to 220 million followers, and you have Donald Trump on Truth Social spouting off to about 10 million.
But I think what we've seen with Elon, when he gets fixated on something, he grabs on and doesn't let go, and he's willing to go further than the other guy. And we've seen this time and time again with, you know, issues big and small. And so, in the case of Donald Trump, he's willing to insult the president, he's willing to criticize his policies, he's willing to do anything to gain the upper hand.
And that's what we're seeing happen as we speak.
BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, just to imagine where it does go from here.
Ryan, thank you very much. You know, Katy, thank you very much. And next, I want to bring in Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California, because he represents California's 17th district. That includes much of Silicon Valley.
[19:15:00]
But also, Congressman, you have known Elon Musk personally for more than a decade. So, you have known him, you know, throughout all of these things, anyone who's read that "New York Times" profile, you know, recently, you've known him through all of it. And at one point, I know you were close friends.
So, when you watch what's going on today and this back and forth, and you look down at your phone to go, OMG, this just happened, what is going on tonight? REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Well, look, Elon is texting me sometimes your
career is over. You're done. He's used insulting words.
When he believes something, he's going to go off. But I think we have to realize why, that substance here. He's concerned that deficits are going to go from 7 percent of GDP to 8.5 percent of GDP. They're unprecedented.
And Donald Trump ran saying he was going to lower deficits. And when I talked to Elon before he went into the administration, he was convinced that he was going to lower deficits. So, this is a slap in the face of everything he's done.
And then these blanket tariffs, I mean, Elon is saying that they're going to cause a recession. And I think he's been, not being willing to go public on that, even though he's believed that for months. And this was the straw that broke the camel's back. He thinks that it's economically disastrous policy.
BURNETT: Well, he could have looked at what Trump did in the first term in terms of spending and his record on debt, and maybe he would have had some more input on this.
But, you know, Musk today also is backing a call for Trump's impeachment. Right? I just read that. But he responded yes to a post that reads, quote, president versus Elon, who wins? My money's on Elon. Trump should be impeached. And J.D. Vance should replace him.
So, you know, where do we go from here? I mean, it would appear to be this is a point of no return for Musk, but to actually go there on impeachment.
KHANNA: Well, I think the question the country should be asking is in the divorce of Elon Musk and Donald Trump, who gets custody of J.D. Vance.
I mean, let's hear from the vice president. Is he on team Musk or is he on team Trump? I think that's the first question.
BURNETT: You mean, just in terms of the spending, the big, the big, the big beautiful.
KHANNA: The spending -- in terms of the spending on the bill, does he agree with Elon Musk, or does he agree with Donald Trump? In terms of the tariff policy, does he agree with Elon Musk or Donald Trump? In terms of the ban on international students, does he agree with Elon Musk or Donald Trump?
He kind of wants it both ways. He wants Musk's money and he wants Trump's endorsement. And he's sort of caught in between in the divorce. And I really think the vice president should have to answer on whose side is he on?
BURNETT: Well, you know, you raise a good point because of Musk's funding, right, of primaries and money and funding of Trump. And, you know, his money's been instrumental, certainly in the process. One of your fellow Democrats said tonight that he is reconsidering his
position on Musk because of this. And he suggests that others are, too. Let me play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): The Dems, we've been dumping all over Musk and vandalizing Teslas, whatever. And now, suddenly, now we might, might be more back into him and thing -- it's just like it's a thing. It's like, you know, he's right about the big, beautiful bill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: By the way, I feel like I have to just put it out there. The reason people call the Big, Beautiful Bill is that's actually what Republicans called it, right? It's not that people are just taking Trump's word. I mean, I know, but I think it's worth people realizing that that is what this thing is called. If we think about some of the ridiculous things out there.
Are you hearing, though, other Democrats say, as Senator Fetterman said, that now we might be more back into him.
KHANNA: Well, look, I condemned, I think, on CNN, the vandalism of Tesla months ago, while Elon Musk was insulting me on Twitter and I said we shouldn't be cheering for Tesla stock to go down. So I think that's just a matter of principle.
But my view on Elon is pretty simple. You're not going to go become his friend and have him support you. That's naive.
Where he says things that you agree with, you should agree with them and where he says things you disagree with. You should disagree with that. And you just call things as balls and strikes.
What I think is wrong though, is just so obsessing about demonizing him that when he's saying things that are objectively correct, that this bill is going to explode deficits and that blanket tariffs are going to hurt the economy, to hold a grudge. I mean, just evaluate things based on whether they're going to be good for the American people.
BURNETT: All right. Congressman Khanna, I appreciate it. It's good to see you.
KHANNA: Thank you, Erin. Thanks for having me tonight.
BURNETT: All right. You, too.
And next, Tesla tanking -- I mean, the loss of value today was about $150 billion in just hours, right? Because as I said, all this started around noon. So, is it going to get worse?
Plus, a jaw-breaking report from -- jaw-breaking report from "Forbes" tonight showing how Trump has made $1 billion from crypto in only nine months. And it actually could be only the beginning. The reporter who broke this story is OUTFRONT to explain.
And the mushroom murder trial that has captivated so many around the world. Did this woman poison her in-laws with beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms?
[19:20:02]
She's on the stand today. Wait until you hear this story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: All right. The breaking news, Tesla shares plunging as that no holds barred war of words broke out between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Tesla shares plummeted about 14 percent today. That means a loss of about $150 billion for Tesla. That is one of the worst days in the company's history, which is saying a lot because they've had a lot of bad days so far this year.
The selloff happening as Trump threatened to target Musk's companies in the wake of Musk's criticizing Trump's so-called. And as I said, this is the name they put on the bills, the actual name on the bill, the Big, Beautiful Bill, Trump posted, quote: The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon's governmental subsidies and contracts. I was always surprised Biden didn't do it.
And Musk himself also losing billions today. Bloomberg reports that the world's richest man's net worth dropped by $34 billion. And when you got a lot of kids, every billion matters.
Harry Enten is here with me. I'm sorry. Sometimes you just got to make a joke because it's just sitting in front of you.
Dan Ives is also here with me.
All right, Dan, you saw this escalate. As I said, there was no escalation ladder. Any kind of rule on escalation was thrown in the garbage. It just went Defcon.
You have known Musk personally for 15 years. Obviously, you have covered Tesla as a stock as well. So, you know him personally and professionally.
Does he go even uglier and nastier from here?
DAN IVES, GLOBAL HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, WEDBUSH SECURITIES: Look, I mean, this is going into a twilight zone period, because the thing with Musk is that he's not just going to apologize. And I think he's going to continue to sort of, I think, dig into the trenches here.
And look, the worry here, and you saw it in Tesla's stock. What does this mean in terms of the autonomous the regulatory future. You don't want to jump on the bad side. And I think now you're seeing this sort of cascade into this next chapter, which caught everyone by surprise. I mean, I think this is a get the popcorn out. It's not over. BURNETT: Yeah. Well, I mean, nobody expected. I mean, people expected
a breakup. They knew the big, big, beautiful bill rhetoric was through the roof. But this is a totally different thing. $150 billion in one day, Dan. So what happens tomorrow?
IVES: I think it's going to be more volatility. I mean the stock will probably be down tomorrow. And I think everyone's waiting for, okay, is there going to be some sort of truce or do they just continue to sort of amp it going into tomorrow and into the weekend?
Because that's the worry, especially from a Tesla holder perspective. And Musk is not going to be sitting there tonight or, you know, reading a book not on social media. Thats going to be the issue.
BURNETT: No. And again, I just say Jeffrey Epstein, it's very hard to just say, okay, let's forget about that one.
Harry, so then as Trump escalated, right he threatens to target Musk companies, his government contracts. And, you know, I tried to put some numbers here in the lead of our show to give everyone a sense of the scale here. One of the largest contractors in the country.
But how much money are we talking about here?
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: I mean, we're talking about in terms of ongoing contracts, upwards of, you know, $11.8 billion over the next two years. What are we talking, we're talking about at least 52 contracts. I'll tell you, I believe that this is an underestimation, because a lot of this data is not, in fact, public.
And we know over the years that Elon Musk from the government, in terms of subsidies, in terms of loans, in terms of contracts, were talking, you know, around what is it like $38 billion Musk and his companies.
So we're just talking billions upon billions upon billions. This is an emotional breakup, but it could potentially be a fiscal one as well.
BURNETT: And Musk's post in response to Trump's threat about getting rid of those contracts was SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately. Now, he knows, right, that they couldn't get the astronauts off the ISS without that. Right?
So, he's posting that. It seems to make a point. Go ahead, because you can't do it without me. Okay, fine. When it comes to SpaceX, though, its relationship with the U.S. government is remarkable.
ENTEN: Yeah, it's linked. It's linked there.
And what are we talking about? I mean, in the 2024 fiscal year alone, how much did SpaceX get from the federal government? I mean, we're talking, get this number, it is 3.8 billion. That is billion with a B I counted it up before those years. We're talking well north of $10 billion overall.
So, Elon Musk, SpaceX, the federal government in cahoots with each other -- again, it is a huge fiscal relationship.
BURNETT: So, Dan, all of this one thing I just I just its worth pointing out here and I can't get my head around it, honestly. Weeks ago, you were saying, look, Musk is facing a fork in the road with Tesla. He's got to get away from Trump to save it. Right?
And shareholders were saying that that's part of the reason he was leaving the government. I mean, his sales were plunging down 50 percent in Europe. What was it the other day we had the president of Finland on 66 percent in Finland. I mean, the company was in freefall and the stock kept going down.
So now, he and Trump are talking about the Epstein files, right? They're as far away as it could possibly be. And Tesla goes down even more. I mean, Dan, is -- can you explain it?
IVES: I mean, look, you couldn't make it up if you tried. And I think the worry is, is that Musk did the right things, leaving Trump White House in terms of all the brand damage and now starting to focus back on Tesla.
You didn't expect him to then try to burn the house down, right? And I think that's the worry. If this continues to go down this path, then you get to continued negatives of Trump toward Musk. And that's just going to put more pressure on Tesla.
And Musk is not someone that's going to back down. Look, this is a UFC fight. But it ultimately it really is kind of like a junior high sort of friendship gone bad. And now the question is what's the next chapter?
BURNETT: Right. Right. Or as Musk said, as I said at the top of the show, I love Donald Trump as much as a straight man can love another man. Thats where they started. And here's where we are -- the Epstein files.
All right. Thank you both very much.
And next, more on our breaking news. Trump's allies now rushing to the president's defense tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE BANNON, PODCAST HOST: Elon Musk is illegal. He's got to go, too. He's illegal, deport immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Also breaking, and this is incredible. We have new reporting on Trump's billion-dollar crypto windfall, billion-dollar. How the president made $1 billion in just nine months. The reporter with all the numbers breaking all of the math is OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:35:39] BURNETT: Also breaking tonight, a Trump ally calling on the president to deport Elon Musk.
Steve Bannon, long a critic of Musk, just moments ago saying this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BANNON: Elon Musk is illegal. He's got to go, too. He's illegal, deport immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Other MAGA loyalists, though, are taking a different tack, trying to steer clear of the entire implosion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): I have a rule I never get between a dog and a fire hydrant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: But he didn't say who was which.
I want to go straight to Manu Raju on the Hill tonight. Manu, how much is this infighting consuming Republicans?
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin, this is dominating the conversation on Capitol Hill and a real concern among Republican leaders that this could become a distraction. It really the worst possible time. Not only are they trying to get the votes in the United States Senate, they can only afford to lose three Republican votes on any party line vote.
But the senators are planning on changing the bill. It's unclear exactly what they're going to do to the bill that passed the House by just a single vote. But if there are significant changes, particularly on how they deal with spending cuts, which is what Elon Musk is most concerned about, that does not drive down the deficit. In fact, the projections suggest it would drive up the deficit.
But if it pares back any of the spending cuts, perhaps it could lead to more opposition in the right flank of the House GOP, potentially even the Senate GOP.
One House Republican who opposed this plan, Thomas Massie, told me earlier in the day in the aftermath of this Musk Trump feud, that he believes this could make this bill impossible to pass.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: So, Mr. Massie, in the battle of Trump versus Musk, which side do you choose?
REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I choose math. The math always wins over the words. And I trust I trust the math from the guy that lands rockets backwards over the politician's math.
I think that patient is on life support. And if the Senate thinks they're going to rehabilitate it and rewrite it, I think they're endangering this patient because people over here are now looking for more reasons to be against it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: And, Erin, not only are there concerns about the impacts of this bill, what are the impacts going to be on the midterm elections, given that Elon Musk had spent a ton of money, the biggest spender in the last cycle? Will he help Republicans when they're trying to keep the House, keep the Senate in the midterm elections? Musk himself, crediting himself with winning back congress, essentially winning, holding the house and growing the Republican majority in the United States Senate.
But I asked the speaker if he agrees with that assessment. He said no one person deserves credit for keeping the House, he said, except for maybe Donald J. Trump -- Erin.
BURNETT: Well, it's clear on which side he is.
All right. Thank you very much, Manu.
Donie O'Sullivan has covered Musk and MAGA extensively, is here with me.
And this is you know, when we hear Steve Bannon making that call to deport Elon Musk. You know, when you are looking at what's going on in Maga and the response. I mean, what -- how do they see this today.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT : Look, I mean, normally in the MAGA verse, as we often call it, you know, people are normally in lockstep. There's some debate sometimes about policy issues and things like that. But when it comes to who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, normally there's a clear villain every day, right? Normally it is the Democrats or it's the mainstream media, or it's so on and so forth, whoever is an annoying Trump that day.
It's been interesting to watch the last few hours, sort of a lot of these influential people in this world sort of scrambling, trying to figure out, well, what should we say about this? What side we should come down on?
I will point out one thing that that I heard Charlie Kirk, who's an influential Turning Point USA, youth activist, basically, he said, he said earlier that, you know, look, people were predicting and he's correct that that this Musk-Trump bromance would not last, you know, a week. You know, I remember back in December, January.
And so, it did last five months. But it has obviously now blown up. These guys are saying that they're happy it's happening now rather than in June of 2026. So that it's happening earlier. They're hoping that it can get --
BURNETT: They could get past it.
All right. So okay, to that point, can we talk about Jeffrey Epstein. And it's not just that Jeffrey Epstein, you know, was convicted of doing absolutely horrific things. It's that there's a long -- a lot of questions about who else was involved. And in MAGA world specifically, there is a big right wing conspiracy theory suggesting that the government is covering up the list of powerful men who also committed heinous crimes with Epstein.
And Musk -- so in that context, Musk posts time to really -- to drop the really big bomb. Real Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT.
And he then reposted a video of Trump and Epstein together back in 1992, with a curious emoji above it.
So, Trump and Epstein were friends, right? Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
Musk didn't have any evidence, but what he posted today is right in the heart of a crucial MAGA conspiracy theory.
O'SULLIVAN: Massive. This is like -- this is the biggest, one of the biggest conspiracy theories and specifically this whole -- I mean, there's this lore, you know, there's a mythology now that has been built up around this so-called Epstein list or Epstein files. Whether or not like, you know, people imagine that it is this list, basically of people who did all bad things on the Epstein island.
And you know, where that list actually exists or not, we haven't seen evidence for that. Some names were released last year as part of the court case. Epstein Trump's name was in that, but there was no wrongdoing. There was just that he had been an associate, as you mentioned. You see that photograph.
And I think really just to show you how difficult it is for MAGA world and beyond that, the conspiracy theory world. Take a look at what Alex Jones had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX JONES, RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY THEORIST: Regardless of what the truth is here, this is the equivalent, in the information sphere, of a full out nuclear war. I believe Musk has at least been told this, but what does it mean that Trump supposedly in the Epstein files? So I'm sure he was told that by some sources he thinks they're accurate. I'm not saying Musk is wrong. We have to coolly investigate this and look at this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: Alex Jones calling for level heads, cooler heads to prevail, it's not something you normally see from this guy, but that that's somebody there who's stuck between Musk and Trump, stuck between a rock and a hard place. BURNETT: Yeah, but it's interesting, you see that Musk has so much
sway, whether its with him or whether it's with Mr. Massie that we just heard telling Manu. Well, I trust the math, and that means I trust the guy who can land rockets backwards.
You know that there is this is going to be a big decision --
O'SULLIVAN: Huge. And Musk by specifically posting this, I mean, he knows exactly what he's doing here. Obviously, this conflict that's going on is affecting D.C. and the stock market, but that inclusion of the mention of Epstein, massive in the online space.
BURNETT: Yeah. All right. Thank you very much, Donie.
And next, breaking news, Ukraine saying Putin has launched ballistic missiles targeting Kyiv as we speak. The residents there have been told to shelter of days after Ukraine executed that massive air assault deep inside Russia.
Also breaking, new numbers revealing Trump has made $1 billion from crypto in just months. These are breaking new numbers. We'll tell you what they are and how we did it with the Forbes reporter who broke the story, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:26]
BURNETT: Breaking news, explosions reported as we speak across Ukraine's capital. Officials warning people to take shelter, saying that Russian ballistic missiles have been fired at Kyiv, a day after Trump said that Putin told him that he would retaliate for Ukraine's massive air assault deep inside Russia.
Nick Paton Walsh has been covering this conflict.
And, Nick, what are you learning about what were seeing tonight or hearing tonight out of Kyiv?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin. It feels like what is happening now in the skies over the Ukrainian capital is something of a greater intensity and significance than the daily nightly attacks we've seen launched across Ukraine by Russia, frankly, for the past years. We seem to have multiple reports of waves of ballistic missiles coming in, suggestions of the Shahed drone waves now moving towards the capital, too.
And I think it's also what's causing concern amongst ordinary Ukrainians is the frequency of the damage reports they're getting from Ukrainian officials, suggesting residential buildings potentially hit in the west of the capital, Kyiv, causing a fire there. Some power outages, too. And indeed, ballistic missile warnings to the Kharkiv area and also from the Sumy area as well. That's part of Ukraine that's seen a particularly significant Russian incursion over the past weeks or so. Look, we knew from the essentially the warning that Vladimir Putin
seems to have given to Donald Trump in that phone call just yesterday that something was likely in the weeks ahead. And there was chatter amongst ordinary Ukrainians warnings, perhaps, that something could be afoot.
Important to stress, until this is finished, we wont know if this marks a particularly more significant or grave departure. As I say from the nightly attacks that Ukraine has endured so frequently.
But it does seem as though something potentially more potent is underway, possibly a bid by Russia to fire so many missiles and drones that they overwhelm Ukraine's defenses and attacks still, though underway. Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Underway as we speak.
Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much with those breaking details, as we are waiting to see exactly the extent of this attack on Kyiv tonight.
And as we wait, we have more breaking news. And this is on Trump's billion dollar crypto windfall. So I mentioned this. This is how much money the president of the United States, right, is supposed to be part of the United States, this is how much money he's made from crypto in just the past nine months.
This is according to a stunning new report from "Forbes", which reports that Trump's crypto holdings are worth more than any single real estate asset in his portfolio. In fact, worth more than Trump tower in New York City and Mar-a-Lago combined.
Dan Alexander is "Forbes" senior editor.
[19:50:00]
He broke the story and he's OUTFRONT.
Dan, I always love seeing you.
This reporting that you have is really incredible. I mean, so when you look at this $9 billion, I mean sorry, $1 billion in the past nine months. You know what. What does this actually mean for what Trump is making.
DAN ALEXANDER, SENIOR EDITOR, FORBES: Well the first thing that it means for him is that his business overall is much more secure than it was a year ago. Remember a year ago, he owed more than $500 million in legal liabilities and had about $400 million on his balance sheet, so he needed cash. And crypto is where he got it.
You know, through these various ventures, his liquidity has increased from about $400 million to now, about $900 million. That now gives him some playing room where if some big loss happens in a courtroom or he has to front some other huge expense, the rest of his empire is going to be safe. BURNETT: That's incredible. You're talking about more than double,
right? More than double of his liquidity. And he hosted a dinner for the biggest buyers of his meme coin, right? They had gone out and spent millions of dollars to try to get matt topless.
They got to go to the dinner, and they did not let anyone know who actually got to go to that dinner. Right. It was all completely behind closed doors. But how important are things like this? Like the dinner? Like the meme coins and making money right now?
ALEXANDER: Well, they're absolutely essential. And the reason is this. So, Donald Trump has a meme coin. And the way that he set it up is initially, none of his tokens were unlocked. But starting in April, so a few months into his presidency, some of them started to unlock.
At this point, about 8 percent of the overall haul that he's going to receive has unlocked. Now that 8 percent, we estimate is worth $400 million. But he still has another 92 percent of that meme coin haul that's going to unlock.
So, the way that he gets that and the way that that is worth a lot of money when he gets it, when it frees up is if he continues to sell things like this, dinners, maybe he gives away other things. You know, you can come see me at Mar-a-Lago, you can go to my golf courses. The more that he merges his presidency with his meme coins, the richer he's going to become because of that structure.
BURNETT: Which is -- so you're saying 8 percent is $400 million. You got 92 percent left. I mean, it is really incredible.
And before we go, dan, I'm just going to put up your calculations. I hope everyone will read your full article, but your billion-dollar figure, it adds up. We look at it, the NFTs, the World Liberty tokens, meme coin earnings, his stash, his stablecoin business. All this crypto is what adds up to your $935 million number.
Absolutely stunning and such incredible reporting. I hope everyone will read your full report. And thank you so much, Dan. We'll see you soon.
And next, the mushroom murder trial that has grabbed the world's attention. Today, the suspect accused of poisoning her in-laws with death cap mushrooms took the stand. And wait until you hear what she said under oath.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:57]
BURNETT: Tonight, a murder trial that is captivating the world. A woman accused of poisoning her in-laws with beef wellington laced with deadly mushrooms.
And Will Ripley is OUTFRONT with the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Erin Patterson invited her estranged in-laws over for lunch, no one could have imagined it would be one of their last meals.
Beef wellington on the menu in the quiet Australian town of Leongatha, four people sat down to eat with her. Three of them died days later.
Don and Gail Patterson, Erin's former in-laws and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, Heather's husband. Ian Wilkinson, a local pastor, barely survived spending weeks in intensive care.
Prosecutors say they were all poisoned by death cap mushrooms. She's pleaded not guilty. Just a few bites can destroy your liver. Deadly fast acting, extremely difficult to survive.
ERIN PATTERSON, ACCUSED OF POISONING HER PARENTS-IN-LAW: I didn't do anything. I loved them, and I'm devastated that they're gone.
RIPLEY: Erin Patterson says she used store bought mushrooms, adding dried ones from her cupboard. Some she admits she picked herself. She told the court there were death caps in the mix, but she didn't mean to pick them. She claims she only ate a small amount, said she was eating slowly, then later binged on leftover cake, forcing herself to throw up, citing past struggles with bulimia.
After the lunch, Patterson admitted she threw out a food dehydrator, the same one she used to prep the death cap mushrooms. Police later found it in a dumpster with her fingerprints on it.
The lone survivor told the court his wife noticed Erin eating from a different colored plate than others.
This case has gripped the world. Crowds outside court, wall to wall media coverage. Erin's estranged husband, Simon Patterson, also testified.
Jurors saw these text messages from the night before the lunch. Simon: Sorry. I feel too uncomfortable about coming to lunch with you. Mom, dad, Ian and Heather tomorrow. Erin: I've spent many hours this week preparing lunch. Spent a small fortune on beef fillet. It's important to me that you're all there tomorrow.
The mother of two cried on the stand. A prosecutor asked: you intended to serve one of those beef wellingtons to Simon Patterson if he came, Erin responded. Yes, but not one with death caps. Not intentionally.
Outside the Wilkinson's church, small tributes for a family ripped apart.
SIMON PATTERSON, ERIN PATTERSON'S ESTRANGED HUSBAND: Mom and dad were always strong pacifists. Mum's SMS notification sound was from the song "War (What is it good for?) Absolutely nothing."
And it was no fluke that mum's final text message on our family group chat as she lay in Dandenong hospital was lots of love to you all.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIPLEY (on camera): Photos on Patterson's phone show she was weighing mushrooms days before that fatal lunch and an expert said those mushrooms looked a lot like death caps, Erin. And then she deleted the photos. But she told police it's because she didn't want to implicate herself. She just thought they'd be used against her.
BURNETT: It's incredible.
All right. Thank you so much, Will Ripley.
And I do want to note, when we talked about this story earlier, earlier we showed video of the suspect's family, not the suspect. I'll show you, of course, who Erin Patterson is, a suspect in the murder mushroom trial.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Anderson starts now.
