Maybe probably the most sudden factor about Sean Hannity‘s hour-long sit down with Donald Trump and Elon Musk — a primary — was the preliminary query that the Fox Information host posed to the duo.
“So he’s working without spending a dime with DOGE. He’s type of put a variety of his life on maintain. And also you sued Twitter a variety of years in the past. You simply made him pay $10 million?” Hannity requested.
Unperturbed, Musk stated he had simply let the attorneys determine the dicey authorized matter, whereas Trump claimed that his No. 1 adviser bought a “huge low cost.”
“It’s very low. I used to be trying to get rather more cash than that,” Trump stated.
Hannity was referring to the most recent settlement of a Trump lawsuit, this time from Musk’s X, which earlier this month agreed to pay the sum to the president even when the litigation had lengthy been dormant.
In any other case, the Hannity interview was what you’d anticipate: The Fox Information host is a long-time defender of Trump’s, who as soon as even was known as to talk at one among his marketing campaign rallies. This time, although, the intent of the interview gave the impression to be to melt Musk’s picture. And with Democrats making an attempt to bait Trump by referring to “President Musk,” Hannity gave them loads of time to disclaim that there’s a rift between them.
Trump stated, “Elon known as me. He stated, ‘, they’re making an attempt to drive us aside. I stated, ‘Completely.’”
As Musk carries out mass layoffs throughout the federal authorities, the pink slips have reportedly gone far past faceless DEI bureaucrats however to these in control of meals and air security in addition to these in control of defending the nuclear weapons arsenal, a variety of whom needed to be rehired. Then there are reviews of DOGE’s entry to authorities private knowledge, the most recent effort being the IRS, with main considerations over how the knowledge is getting used. Earlier than the Hannity interview ran, Kara Swisher advised CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Musk’s finish purpose is entry to the information. “They’re making an attempt to say there may be nothing to see right here when there’s a lot to see right here,” Swisher stated.
But few of these factors had been addressed throughout Trump-Musk sit down. A few of these urgent questions, which contain severe problems with privateness and safety, had been glossed over. Hannity did ask concerning the potential for Musk, whose companies maintain billions of presidency contracts, to have conflicts of curiosity. “Then we gained’t let him do it,” Trump insisted.
“I haven’t requested the president for something ever,” Musk stated. “…I’ll recuse myself whether it is” a battle.
“I’m getting a every day proctology examination right here,” Musk stated. “It isn’t like I will likely be getting away with one thing in the dark.”
Hannity didn’t observe up, however did add, “Welcome to DC. If you’d like a good friend, get a canine.”
In the course of the hour, the Fox Information host spoke in awe of Musk’s profession, whereas sharing his incredulousness at a few of the Democratic assaults, all the things from calling him a “dick” to claiming that the nation was in a constitutional disaster.
“Initially, do you give a flying rip, primary?” Hannity requested.
“They wouldn’t be complaining a lot if we weren’t doing one thing helpful, I feel,” Musk stated, as he railed towards the “unelected paperwork.”
However there’s nonetheless a little bit of a thriller over Musk’s paperwork. The White Home insists that DOGE is clear, however it’s a bit opaque on who really runs DOGE, because the Trump administration currently denies that it’s Musk.
On the outset, Hannity promised that Trump and Musk have “taken a wrecking ball to the deep state, all whereas exposing a stunning quantity of waste, fraud abuse and corruption on the federal stage.” However there have been no new bombshell revelations of what DOGE has discovered. Quite, Hannity’s present ran a scroll of USAID spending, repeating most of the objects that the White Home had recognized final week, a few of them sounding like completely absurd outlays. However per FactCheck.org, a variety of the objects didn’t even come from USAID, equivalent to a “transgender opera” in Colombia.
Throughout one other a part of the interview, Musk talked of his method as being one among “competence and caring,” which is kind of a distinction to any hour on his X feed. Just a few weeks in the past, as company staff engaged on humanitarian initiatives had been within the crosshairs, Musk wrote, “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wooden chipper. Might gone to some nice events. Did that as an alternative.”
The Trump-Musk interview was taped on Friday, whereas loads of different Musk dramas have performed out since then, from the exit of a high Social Safety official to a girl claiming to have fathered one other one among his youngsters. A proclaimed free-speech absolutist, Musk on Sunday known as for 60 Minutes journalists to get a “lengthy jail sentence.”
It’s questionable, although, that Hannity would have introduced any of that up, as this interview was hardly prosecutorial. At one level, it even appeared as if Hannity was treating the Trump-Musk crew like a celeb couple, serving to them refute an onslaught of tabloid gossip.
“I feel they’ve confirmed they haven’t any energy anymore, as a result of they threw all the things they’d at you they usually didn’t win,” Hannity advised them. “…And now I see, they need a divorce. They need you two to start out hating one another.”