CNN's Dana Bash reveals Trump 'threw an elbow' at Elon Musk in candid phone call
CNN's Dana Bash spoke by phone Friday morning with president Donald Trump about his grudge match with Elon Musk, and she called in to reveal details of their conversation.
The president publicly split with his billionaire former adviser Thursday, several days after the tech mogul harshly criticized the "big beautiful bill" that Republicans are trying to pass, and Bash said he seemed "resigned" to their breakup when she spoke with him briefly by phone.
"Well, he said that he's, quote, well, here's exactly what he said, quote, 'I'm not even thinking about Elon – he's got a problem, the poor guy's got a problem,'" Bash said, quoting the president. "He said he won't be speaking to him for a while but he said he wishes Elon Musk well. It was a short conversation, he was, didn't seem very exercised about it, and the interesting thing is, of course, the context of this is how many people who are in both men's orbits are trying to broker a peace deal, so to speak, and trying to get them to talk because of the concern about the fallout in so many directions. I mean, the blast radius from this fallout is really really big and very wide."
"But right now, he said he's not interested in that and he's moving on, and in typical Donald Trump fashion, he, before I even asked the question, wanted to talk about what he wanted the storyline to be today about, the economy," Bash continued. "He was talking about gas prices, he said he was waiting for the jobs numbers to come out, which I think is about two minutes from now. So as he has done his entire career, not just political, but since he was a businessman, trying to push out the narrative and push out the story that he thinks is the most advantageous for him, and he thinks that's the economy now. But, of course, we did briefly talk about Elon Musk, and the headline is he says he has no plans to talk to him right now."
" CNN News Central" host John Berman said the Trump-Musk feud was by far the top story in U.S. news, and he noted the president "threw that elbow" by claiming "the poor guy has got a problem," which he said the Tesla CEO could perceive as a fresh insult.
"He might," Bash agreed. "He also said, 'I won't be speaking to him for a while, I guess, but I wish him well.' He wasn't exercised, he wasn't, he didn't sound angry. He sounded, I guess, more resigned to where their relationship is right now. But he obviously is very well aware of the impact that this is having, and that's why I found it interesting that even though he seemed to try to put a stop to any speculation or, as you were saying, the entreaties from so many people for the two of them to to make up, he was still trying to kind of shape the narrative about what is coming out of the White House."
"It's not an easy thing to do right now," Bash added, "because literally the entire world is focused on this remarkable feud between the president of the United States and Elon Musk."
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