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Trump Aides Try To Defuse Tensions, Turn Focus On Economy; Trump Threatens To Terminate Musk Federal Contracts; Bannon: Investigate Musk, Deport Him, "Seize" His Companies; Republicans Caught In The Middle Of Trump-Musk Feud; Thune On Trump-Musk Fight: "I Don't Have An Observation"; House Fiscal Hawks Use Musk To Renew Criticism Of Trump Bill. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired June 06, 2025 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, we have brand new reporting on one of the most epic and heated breakups in the history of politics. I spoke to President Trump this morning about why he has no plans to call the former first buddy.

Plus, will this big, beautiful breakup help or hurt Trump's so called big, beautiful bill. We're watching the signals today on Capitol Hill, where Republicans feel stuck in the middle of a billionaire's brawl. And a Sunshine State switcheroo. I'll speak with ex-Republican Congressman David Jolly about his bid to become the first Democrat in three decades to lead what is now ruby red Florida.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start with a potential detente in the battle royal between the world's richest man and the leader of the free world. Of course, we're monitoring X and Truth Social to see if either side decides to reenter the fray. But for now, it appears that the president and Musk are ratcheting down the rhetoric that exploded yesterday, as the world watched a friendship that defined Trump's early days in office spontaneously combust in real time.

I spoke with President Trump on the phone this morning to try to get the answer to the question, the whole world wants to know. Will they bury the hatchet? When he answered the phone, he immediately launched into what he wants people to focus on, the economy and the monthly jobs report that was about to come out.

He said, quote, big numbers, boy, I tell you we're really doing good. Did you see that gasoline is down to the lowest number it's been in years? We have incredible -- excuse me, we have income. It's unbelievable. It's up. The only thing that's up is income. Everything else, inflation is dead. The border is closed. Pretty amazing. Actually.

I asked, will you be able to focus on that and bury the hatchet with Elon? The president replied, I'm not even thinking about Elon. He's got a problem. The poor guy has got a problem. I followed up, so no call with Elon right now. No, I won't be speaking to him for a while, I guess, but I wish him well.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House. Kristen, what's your take on where things are right now? And what's your take, you know, President Trump very well. What's your take on his motivation and his strategy right now?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think that your phone call with him really outlines where his head is right now. And this is what I was told yesterday. You know, he was the one who sets the agenda for the White House. He sets the tone. He sets the directive. And there was a collective sharp inhale from people, one watching this feud between Musk and Trump play out.

But also, from administration staffers, from advisors, when Elon sent that specific post yesterday, basically, basically, baselessly accusing Trump of being in the Epstein files. Of course, we have no indication Elon would have access to any of those files.

However, this set off a spiral of events in which his staffers, his team, went to him and asked him how he wanted to respond. And I am told that he said he wants to focus on the bill, and that's what you saw. You saw him posting in Truth Social right after Elon had posted this, saying, sorry that we had a falling out, sorry that he's not with me anymore, but let's focus on the bill. Let's focus on the economy.

That's exactly what I would expect for him to have in this conversation with you, because that's what he's saying behind the scenes. Is he mad? Yes. Is he annoyed? Yes. Are people close to him annoyed? They have brought up that they believe Trump did so much for Elon.

And as you said, this friendship really defined the first several months of Donald Trump's administration. But Donald Trump now has given a directive to his team, at least for now, he wants them all focused on pushing this bill. And remember, Dana, this is the most important thing to him. They believe that this is his legacy. He believes his legacy is all tied up in getting this through.

BASH: Yeah. He sure does, and that's going to be one of the things we're going to be watching for the fallout on that important piece of legislation. Kristen, thank you so much. Great reporting. I'm here by a group of terrific reporters as well. CNN's Aaron Blake, Nia-Malika Henderson of CNN and Bloomberg, and Tyler Pager of The New York Times. First of all, this is the first time you've been on since you are officially a CNN, welcome.

TYLER PAGER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Thank you. It's good to be here.

BASH: It's great to have you. It's so great to have you here. Just, let's -- just start with your reporting on what is really going on here. AARON BLAKE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: I mean, it's obviously the thing that we were talking about many months ago, when these two men kind of came together in their marriage of convenience after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

[12:05:00]

The question was always, how long could this last? You know, we have two men with massive egos who own their own social media platforms. These are billionaires. People who are used to getting what they want. And their interests aligned in certain ways, but we always kind of knew the things that they wanted wouldn't always align.

And I think we're really seeing that with the quote, big, beautiful bill right now, where the tech sector is not necessarily liking certain things that they want. Trump is kind of disengaged, but, you know, he really wants his tax cuts. And there's this kind of natural tension that really boiled over here in a big way.

BASH: We just have to -- for people watching at home who might not know what this is. This is called a newspaper. It's what we used to get information before. I don't know, the internet, cable, everything. Let me just put it back up. I hate my -- I mean, The New York Post, they really -- the paper, they really do deliver there.

You know, who else had a great column today? You had a great column today. And I'm going to read our viewers part of it. Musk had become a political liability to Trump, even as the president became a business liability to the world's richest man. The feud has the potential to be as damaging to both men as their unlikely friendship proved to be.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, BLOOMBERG POLITICAL & POLICY COLUMNIST & CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. I mean, if you look at Musk's brand, it has Ted because of his association with Donald Trump, because of the DOGE cups cut. Some people think he went too far. Some people don't think he went too far, don't think he went far enough.

He tried to play in the Wisconsin race, a Supreme Court race there, that backfired the Democrats won. And so, in that way, he became a bit of an albatross around Donald Trump, because he became a big target for Democrats, and all the while you saw yesterday, for instance. Musk's stock tank. I think he lost something like $40 billion because of this feud.

So it was Musk who ended up blinking first, because he realized not that he didn't know it before that much of his wealth was wrapped up in Donald Trump, and that Donald Trump, who is a vindictive person, could exact quite a cost on Elon Musk's bottom line, therefore really defenestrating him and taking away the power he has in politics because of his wealth.

PAGER: Nia, just to add on even more than that. Now there's even a larger threat to Elon Musk with Trump posing, maybe they should cut all government contracts to Elon businesses. And that would be way more significant than any sort of reputational damage he or his companies have suffered because of his association with Trump. So much money is directed to Elon Musk's companies, and there's so much connection between Space X, his space exploration company, and NASA, and that is a priority of Elon Musk. One of the ironies of this whole situation is that Elon Musk left the administration to focus more on his businesses. And as he leaves with this fight with Trump, he may have done more harm in this last week than he did over the course of his entire period working for Donald Trump.

BASH: Yeah. But I mean, I think, and this is a point you were trying to make, they both have a lot to lose here. A lot to lose. I was texting with a former longtime friend of Donald Trump who said, you know, don't kid yourself. That one of the reasons he wanted to get the message out in the conversation he had with me. And he talked to a couple of other reporters this morning, is to try to send a message to Musk, yeah, he's still mad and is very upset with him.

But like, you know, I'm calming down here because the president has a lot to lose here. Among the many things that Elon Musk has is a huge, huge megaphone, huge megaphone, his 200 and something million followers, but also, he has his hands on the algorithm of that profile -- that platform on X.

BLAKE: Yeah. I think it's clear that, if you -- you know, there was a lot of talk yesterday about who would Republicans choose, Trump or Musk? And I think it's pretty clear, you know, the vast majority of Republicans are going to side with Trump. This is the guy they've been with for a long time for a long time. He has real sway over that movement.

But that doesn't mean that Musk, you know, deserting Trump and causing problems for him isn't a real problem for these people. You know, we saw it yesterday in one of Musk's posts, which I thought was really interesting, which was like, Trump is going to be around for three and a half years as president. I'm going to be here for 40 plus years.

That, to me, was Musk pointing at, not just his war chest, but also his influence on his social media platform. Basically, you know, you guys shouldn't leap to join Donald Trump. You may not choose me, but you shouldn't leap to join Donald Trump, because you'll have to deal with me for the foreseeable future.

HENDERSON: Yeah. And this came after, you know, a week or two ago, he was saying that he'd done enough, right, that he seemed to be withdrawing financially from politics. He said that in an interview with Bloomberg.

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BASH: Nia, I just -- we've showed this, shown this a lot over the past, you know, however many four or five months, because Elon Musk was so integral in the beginning of Trump 2.0 and was, you know, cutting left and right. And what I'm going to show you again is Musk's federal contracts.

Last year, $3 billion in total commitments, 100 different contracts, 17 federal agencies involved. And I wanted to sort of put that up as a reminder that this is a soap opera. This is, you know, bravo, worthy feuding, no question about it. And there's a human element, there's a drama element. There's a Shakespearean element to it.

But I don't want to lose sight of the fact that you have the most powerful man in the world, the president, and the richest man of the in the world. They have so much power. They have an exorbitant amount of power that affects, and their behavior affects every single one of us.

HENDERSON: Yeah.

BASH: They have an outsized power. I mean, the president always has an outsized amount of power. But the way that they interact, and their relationship has caused it to be so consequential for everyone, not just in this country, but around the world.

HENDERSON: Yeah. I mean, Musk essentially bought his way into power. He donated something like $270 million to Trump's campaign. He took credit, you know, on X yesterday, for Donald Trump's win, for Republicans being in control as well. You know, it's a corrupt relationship in many ways, right?

Because Musk is obviously benefiting. He paid his way into that position. He has had entree into federal agencies, into the data, into all sorts of insights, into the way the government works, and into his competitors, right? He had real sort of leverage and power, that is not something he wants to give up easily. He paid lots of money for it.

BASH: And Tyler, I know that you spoke with Steve Bannon yesterday, after all of this blew up. And for those who might not know, you need to know. Steve Bannon is not a fan of Elon Musk. He was not a fan of Musk having the kind of power and proximity that he had to Donald Trump and to the federal government.

Listen to what he said on his own show, and then I'll ask you about your conversation.

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STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: The action that President Trump should be taking immediately. I think when he threatens to take one of the big programs out of Space X. President Trump tonight should sign an executive order, calling for the defense to production act, to be caught in Space X and seize Space X tonight, before midnight. The U.S. government should seize it.

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PAGER: Yeah. I mean, Steve Bannon is feeling quite good about this epic breakup. He has long criticized Elon Musk. He called him a few months ago, a parasitic legal immigrant, and he vowed before Trump took office, to evict him from Trump's inner circle. He obviously didn't succeed there, but he is calling for aggressive action against Elon Musk. He says Trump should launch a series of investigations. That's what he said to me in the interview, we did yesterday, and he's repeated in various interviews since he wants Trump to investigate his immigration status. He wants him to investigate his companies and his ties to China. Steve Bannon is waging and continuing to wage quite the war against Elon Musk.

BASH: And I just want to add before we go to break, point out two things. One is that you mentioned that Tesla stock just plummeted yesterday. It's back up a little bit this morning. It rose 4.5 percent with the opening bell. We would see where it goes today. And I just have to put this up, because this is consequential. But this is also one of the many, many epic tweets that we saw yesterday.

This is from Ashley St Clair. She is one of the mothers of one of Elon Musk's 14 children. And she said, hey, Donald Trump, let me know if you need any breakup advice. We'll leave that there. Coming up. Stuck in the middle of this feud Republicans on Capitol Hill. So, whose side will they choose, and what does it mean for that so called big, beautiful bill. That's next.

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BASH: OK. We have seen already. We've established that President Trump and Elon Musk are breaking up. Congressional Republicans, they are stuck in the middle.

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REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): These are two titans. I respect them both, of course, a huge fan and supporter of President Trump. I was with him in the oval office yesterday afternoon when some of this was unfolding, and he was disappointed. I was disappointed. I just hope it resolves quickly.

REP. TROY NEHLS (R-TX): We need to go away for a while, right? And just let everybody just settle down, and temperatures will lower, and it's going to be OK.

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): Two biggest dogs in the pound. They're going to turn on each other eventually.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): I have a rule. I never get between a dog and a fire hydrant.

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BASH: OK. I'm definitely going to find him and follow up to see who's the dog and who's the fire hydrant here. But the timing is very tough because it's right in the middle of Republicans fighting over the president's big piece of legislation. It's his whole agenda. So, the question is, who has the upper hand and what is the -- are the ramifications of that going to be on this important piece of policy for the president and for all Republicans?

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My panel is back. So, Nia, I was talking to a Republican senator this morning, who said, his take was that if people are forced to choose over personality between Trump and Elon which at this moment, that's what people feel like they have to do. They're going to go with Trump. And that there is a chance that the very real concerns that Republicans have with the policy on a host of levels, might get over shadowed by the need to support Donald Trump personally.

HENDERSON: Yeah. I think that makes sense, because do they now just fall in line with Trump in a way to make sure that Trump knows that they are choosing his side. Trump is the father of MAGA. Elon Musk obviously has a foothold. He has this huge platform. He can drive narratives around MAGA and to MAGA, but ultimately, this is Trump's bill. This is Trump's legacy, and the party is likely going to fall in line.

I do think Trump is pointing, or Musk is pointing to some problems with the bill, right, that it explodes spending at a time when he was trying to cut spending. It's not really a MAGA bill in the way that Trump has become this patron saint of the working class. They're very much hurt in this bill. It is a kind of giveaway to the rich, not that Musk is concerned necessarily with that part of it, but it does go against some of this fundamental idea that there should be cuts.

BASH: Well, yeah, I mean, I think that sort of goes to the fundamental question that it hasn't yet been answered, which is on economic policy. What is MAGA? MAGA is whatever it is at that moment that President Trump says it is right?

PAGER: Right. And I think what's sort of instructive to look at is what happened in the House. So, there were many concerns from House Republicans about the spending, about the deficit, about various elements of the bill. This is not surprising. It's a small margin and a diverse range of views within that that conference.

And at the end of the day, Trump won. He got everyone on board, and he got enough support to push that bill through. And I think that is because Trump, as you said, Dana, controls the MAGA movement. What the MAGA movement believes in is what Donald Trump says the MAGA movement believes in. He has that power over the movement.

And so, I think as you look to the Senate, there are some more intransigent members there. There are some people that are more willing to buck the president, but at the end of the day, Trump has shown time and time again that he gets what he wants, particularly when it comes to Republicans.

So, I think there's undoubtedly concern within the Republican Senate group about this, this deficit problem that Elon Musk is raising and railing against over the last week. But I think you don't underestimate Trump when it comes to pushing something across --

BASH: Yeah. And so, you have -- you have that very real dynamic. You heard that the House speaker is speaking out about it, trying to get everybody to come down. The man who's going to be in charge of making the bill actually get through the United States Senate, John Thune, the Senate Majority Leader. He's not touching this. He just said, quote, I don't have an observation on that, which is maybe the most South Dakota thing I've heard a long time ago.

BLAKE: As a Minnesotan, I can relate --

BASH: Here you go.

BLAKE: So, the interesting thing about this -- and again, the question is not, are the vast majority of Republicans going to go along with Donald Trump? Of course, they are. The problem is the very small margins. Interesting part of this that I think has been lost a little bit is that the big problem on this bill for these fiscal conservatives is that it balloons the national debt according to the CBO estimates.

I think maybe the bigger political problem for Republicans has been something else, though, and that's the Medicaid cuts. And I do think that this conversation has kind of taken us away from that a little bit. I think that's the bigger political liability. But to the extent they're talking about fiscal conservatism, I think Trump can eventually get people over the line because of his force in the party. I think where you start getting into more problematic territory is if the Medicaid cuts start to be a bigger part of this.

BASH: Yeah. That's such a good point. On the first point, which is the fiscal conservatives and those who are hardliners that they don't want to do anything to balloon the deficit. In fact, they argue that our whole from their perspective, our whole job here is to try to fix the deficit, which is one of the things that Elon Musk is saying. Listen to two of the Republicans who have been most sort of dead set on this issue.

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REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I trust the math from the guy that lands rockets backwards over the politicians. 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.

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): Elon got, I think, a strong opinion that I think is noteworthy because of his work in DOGE, that we should do more and do better. I can't disagree with that. We should. Congress is notorious for not delivering. I think we should deliver with better spending restraint in order to guarantee he lowered up.

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BASH: And my memory is that Roy ended up voting with the President. Tom Massie, who was the first person you heard.

HENDERSON: Yeah. BASH: He didn't, and he never will.

HENDERSON: Right. He never will. Chip Roy has done the dance around deficits and calling out these bills and ultimately rolls over. I think that's probably the expectation some of these folks, like Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, will see. But, you know, it's Donald Trump, and they tend to buckle when it comes down to it.

PAGER: Yeah. I mean, I think to Aaron's point, there's the politics of this moment and the back and forth between Musk and Trump, and there's the policy. And I think it is easy to get caught up in the politics, because that is ultimately what is probably going to end up driving the day. The power of Trump is indisputable, particularly in the Republican Party.

I think where you might see some of these breaks, as we've seen before, is someone like Susan Collins, whose constituency is very different than a red state senator who needs Trump support. And I think, we're seeing that play out right now in Texas with someone like John Cornyn, who is, you know, positioned himself as loyal to Trump. But polls show is trailing far behind an even more loyal Trump advisor or non-advisor ally in the Senate primary there.

So, I think it just -- that is ultimately what it comes down to with these thin margins, is that politics are going to carry the day, despite some of these people's true and tried beliefs about fiscal conservatives.

BASH: Yeah. Such a good point. Don't go anywhere. Coming up. What happens when a Florida man goes from a Republican member of Congress to running for governor of the Sunshine State as a Democrat? Well, David Jolly, is that Florida man, and he will be right here after a break.

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