MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” called out Elon Musk over what they say is his desperate attempt to estrange himself from President Donald Trump in an effort to salvage what’s left of his business and tech reputation in Silicon Valley and abroad.
“I don’t understand the complicated ways of Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. but I do understand that Elon Musk is desperately trying, as subtly as he can but as clearly as he can, to separate himself from the work he did over the past four or five months that savaged his reputation in the business world and has hurt Tesla,” host Joe Scarborough said about the Tesla CEO after reviewing his recent interview with CBS News, during which he criticized Trump’s latest spending bill.
“And you can see it there, ‘Oh, I’m not going to get specific, but I don’t agree with everything they’re doing’ — nod, nod, wink, wink,” the anchor mocked.
Watch the full “Morning Joe” segment below:
The Tesla CEO, who donated $288 million to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and served as the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.), exited his position in the White House on Wednesday and appears to be distancing himself from the administration and the actions he made as a “special government employee,” including his role in slashing the federal workforce in an effort to save money.
But what he doesn’t know, co-host Jonathan Lemire says, is that Trump is going to hit him with a reality check by making him take full responsibility for his part in the country’s economic issues.
“What’s he going to get instead, because of that? He’s going to get a news conference in the Oval Office where Donald Trump is going to make him grab, with both arms, a lot of what he did in the administration,” Lemire shared. “In [Musk’s] telling, he thought he could do more than what he did.
Lemire added that ultimately Musk may be more concerned with how his actions under Trump has impacted his own tech empire. In the first quarter of 2025, Tesla sales dropped by 13%, the worst decline in the company’s history.
“He now sees the aftermath of what it’s done on his businesses. We’ve chronicled quite a bit on this show how Tesla has really taken a hit, how Musk has really taken a nose dive in a lot of quarters around the country, and frankly, the planet,” the host added.
Check out the full breakdown from “Morning Joe” in the video above.
