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Trump and Musk both in decline - cognitive and influence [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-31
I was waiting for the transcript of Trump's adieu to Musk in the Oval Office to come out before chiming in. I didn't want to waste the hour it lasted listening to their voices.
It started off with Trump saying what a sacrifice Musk had made to help him.
Trump: ... He didn't need it, and we find out that government is a little nasty on occasion. Hello Peter?
It must have been Peter Doocy of Fox News.
Trump: Government's little bit nasty, Peter. You've noticed that. You've had a charmed life, right?
Peter: You tell me.
Trump whips out a laptop to play a clip by Joe Kernen and Rick Santelli to give Trump those huge numbers he likes. Runs for 2 minutes. Trump just has to stroke himself before sucking Elons toes on both left feet.
Howard Lutnick and Scott Bennett must have been in the office as he has to start talking about the tariffs.
Trump: The tariffs are so important and that's why we were so happy with the decision yesterday where the tariffs continue. Because without the tariffs our nation would be imperiled. We would really be imperiled, I can say with great surety, Scott and Howard....And today, it's about a man named Elon, and he's one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced....And you know the things that he's found and his people have found.
Elon never gets a word in, standing next to Trump sitting at the Resolute Desk.
Trump: I have to say that the numbers we're talking about are substantial, but they are going to be very much more substantial with time because many of the things were working on right now, we're going to have to remember, Elon, as we find them, but the numbers could double and triple because many, many things we don't want to go out with them until we're sure.
Numbers. Trump loves numbers, but he doesn't understand them. Like from the Congressional Budget Office showing his presidency is a disaster. That's why he had to play that clip on the laptop.
Trump: We've found things that are unbelievably stupid and unbelievably bad with the Department of Government Efficiency.
He got something right. DOGE is unbelievably stupid and unbelievably bad.
Trump: ... I will say that, this has less to do with Elon, but the air traffic control systems, we're bidding out to the best companies in the world.
Trump doesn't remember that Musk waltzed in and made the FAA use Starlink.
Trump: ... They tried to hook up wire to copper and it can't be done and they just spent billions of dollars and just wasted money, and actually made the system much worse.
Hook up wire to copper? Usually wire is copper in electronics. Trump was talking about how copper and glass don't mix the other day.
Trump: So after spending billions of dollars, they turned on the system and never any cases from local to countrywide, they never worked.
Tell me that makes any sense.
Trump rambles on about DEI contracts, hotel rooms for illegal aliens. Landlords making all kinds of money. Scholarships in Burma. Studies in Uganda. Then he brings up his old flame, Stacy Abrams.
Trump: I can say, it's $2 billion to Stacy Abrams and her environmental movement. There was $100 in the account and all of a sudden, they found $2 billion in the account. I assume that's being looked into. I don't know. I'm not sure, but I assume that's being looked at. Think of that, $2 billion. And then Lee [Zeldin] will tell you there's another one over there for $20 billion being spent on another environmental --- $20 billion, not $20 million, a lot, $200,000, which is a lot.
There once was a goodbye to Elon Musk, but it seems Donald forgot about him. Just rambling off numbers for effect.
Trump: $20 million for Arab Sesame Street in the middle east. Nobody knows what that's about. Nobody's been able to find it. $8 million making mice transgender. So they spend $8 million making mice transgender.
Trump still has no clue that it was transgenic mice. Taking on human DNA and allowing tests on them instead of human beings. He saw trans and that was all he needed.
The Big Ugly Bill:
Trump: We're going to have it cauterized by Congress, affirmed by Congress. In some cases, we'll make cuts. In some cases, we will use it in a different layer to save the money. But it's hundreds of millions of dollars.
Use it in a different layer. Say what?
Trump: And Elon is not really leaving. He's going to be back and forth, I think, I have a feeling.
Oh, crap! He's not leaving.
Trump: Yet, Elon, willingly, with all of the success, he willingly accepted the outrageous abuse and slander and lies and attacks because he does love our country. I know that very much....So I just want to thank Elon for his time as special government employee.
Wasn't special enough. Actually, βhe wasn't special at all.
Trump launches into his trip to Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar. Then suddenly, 6 months ago the USA was dead. If he hadn't won on November 5th, the country would be in dire straits.
Trump: They can not believe it. In the one case, they've said that they've never seen anything like it as long as they've been doing what they've been doing. They've been doing it for a long time.
Okay...just what was it they were doing? Give me a clue. It's just like him rattling off numbers to fill the void of actually speaking about something.
Trump: And I gave him a little special something we have here.
Musk: Thank you.
Trump: A very special --- that I give to very special people. I have given it to some, but it goes very special people and I thought I'd give it to Elon as a presentation from our country.
Musk, Trump and the golden key.
Trump hands Elon a box that opens and has a golden key and the White House logo inside the top of the box. The outside top of the box has the presidential seal and Trump's signature in gold.
Musk: Well, let me say a few words, that this is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning. My time as a special government employee necessarily had to end. It was a limited time thing....The DOGE influence will only grow stronger. I liken it to a sort of Buddhism. It's like a way of life.
A way of life. That's terrifying. All of the citizens of the United States would be happy to see DOGE disappear forever.
Then Musk does the Trump number ramble talking about how eventually the fraud and waste would total up to $1 trillion. He says they've hit $160 billion dollars so far. Even that number is highly suspect from every person reviewing figures from the DOGE website.
Elon then gets off on what Trump has done to the Oval Office.
Musk: By the way, isn't this incredible? This is incredible. I mean, it's stunning, I think, the way that the Oval Office the president has just completely redone the Oval Office. I love the gold on the ceiling.
Trump explains that there's been a plaster eagle on the ceiling the whole time and he 24 karat gold gilded it.
Musk: The Oval Office finally has the majesty that it deserves thanks to the president.
Majesty. Gold. The King.
Musk then goes again over the $1 trillion goal, thanks Trump. Musk was wearing a black T-shirt that said on it "The DOGE Father" in the same type face as The Godfather's movie titles. He had a right, black eye that Musk said his son had given him.
Reporter: Well, so...there is a New York Times report that accuses you of blurring the line between -β
Musk: Oh, wait, wait, wait. New York Times, is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on RussiaGate? Is it the same organization? I think it is.
Reporter: I've got to check my Pulitzer counter.
Musk: I think it is.
Trump: It is.
Musk says that a judge ruled against the New York Times and that they might have to give back their Pulitzer. The only thing that just happened was that the Florida judge ruled that Trump's case against the Pulitzer Prize board could move forward. A reporter asked Trump if he thought that it was proper to bring in Jill Biden for Congressional questioning about what she knew about Joe Biden and when. After not saying much, Trump rambles off into saying how the 2020 election was stolen. And then the very next sentence talks about the 21 million illegal immigrants.
The man cannot keep together a coherent stream of thought. He still can't do a single sentence that makes sense.
Reporter: With the autopen, how would it work? Like we're in the Oval Office right now; if there was a group of rogue staffers that worked for you, who wanted to advance a bill or an executive order without your knowledge, how could they do it? How do they -β
Trump: And you'd be able --- when somebody takes time to write a letter it's nice to sort of write back and autopens are meant for that. Autopens are not meant to sign major proclamations or tax cuts or borders --- anything having to do with the border, which is so important. And if it happened on my watch, I would be able to see it because the next day or sooner, I'd be reading about something I knew nothing about, and who the hell signed this?
And then it gets really weird. On Wednesday, Trump had signing executive orders on his schedule. Nothing is up on whitehouse.gov as of Saturday morning. There are only three new articles dated May 30th.
Trump: So, I almost never use the autopen. In fact, yesterday [Thursday] I was signing about 81 --- I think it was 81 proclamations and statements to people that I think should be signed by us. I think when you write letters to foreign dignitaries or presidents or prime ministers, you should be signing those letters, not done with autopens.
He says yesterday, Thursday, he didn't sign anything on Thursday. There is absolutely nothing up on whitehouse.gov to verify anything he is saying. He was scheduled to sign executive orders on Wednesday, but there is no proof of it. No reporters have caught him on this.
Reporter to Musk: So, do you expect to continue advising the president and DOGE informally or are you going to sort of shift your focus entirely to your companies?
Musk: Well, I expect to continue to provide advice whenever the president would like advice.
Trump: I hope so.
I would hope not. Maybe Musk's companies will go the same way of DOGE. Without Musk running the show, you can expect them to start making so many fubars worse than the ones they've already done, they will get shut down.
Musk: Obviously, at times when you cut expenses, those who were receiving the money, whether they were receiving that money legitimately or not, they do complain. And you're not going to hear someone confessing that they received money inappropriately, never.
Reporter: Mr. Musk, what do you think would be easier, colonizing Mars or making the government efficient?
Musk: It's a tough call, but I think colonizing Mars and making life multi-planetary is harder.
Then he switches back to saving that trillion dollars.
Reporter: This week, there was a video on board a plane that showed the first lady of France slapping her husband, Emmanuel Macron. Do you have any world leader to world leader marital advice for Macron?
Trump: Make sure the door remains closed. That was not good. That was not good. No, I spoke to him, and he's fine. They are two really good people. I know them very well and I don't know what that was all about, but I know him well and they're fine.
Musk: I got a little excited here.
Musk got excited at Macron's wife slapping him. Read into that what you will.
Then there was a back and forth about the Democrats spending money to find what they did wrong in the 2024 election. It wasn't long before it it switched to his favorite topic.
Trump: I could tell you every one of their programs, when they say men playing in women's sports, I would say that's not a winner. When they say transgender for everybody I think that's not a winner.
Transgender for everybody. That's the second time he's said that this week. What does it mean? Only in Trump's mind does it make any sense.
Reporter: And this one's a little bit more of a page six question, but back when you hosted The Apprentice, you mentioned once that in 2012 that Diddy was a good friend of yours back then. He has found himself in some serious legal trouble.
Trump: Yeah, that's true.
Reporter: Would you ever consider pardoning him?
Trump: Well, nobody's asked --- you had to be the one to ask, Peter, but nobody's asked. But I know people are thinking about it. I know they're thinking about it. I think people have been very close to asking. First of all, I'd look at what's happening and I haven't been watching it too closely, although it's getting a lot of coverage.
It doesn't take more than a million dollars or so to garner a Trump pardon these days. Sometimes, you don't even have to spend any money, like all the January 6th pardons.
Without any explanation of who he was talking about, after rambling on about the Big Ugly Bill:
Trump: That was handed to them by a very well meaning man that gave it to them because he thought it was the right thing to do. It could have been their problem before the election, but this man thought it was the right thing to do, and he was well meaning. I don't hold anything against him for that. But that was put on our plate when it should have been on the Democrats. September 28th, a famous date, it should have been taken care of by the Democrats. But this person, a man of power, gave it to us so that in June that comes due.
I can find anything that has anything to do with the government on September 28th. I think this hand over scenario is about the national debt. That's the best I can make out of it.
Trump now does a weave into his hatred of Harvard. Then it's about Columbia. Then, of course, the end result is trade schools.
Trump: I'd like to see the money go to trade schools where people learn how to fix motors and engines, where people learn how to build rocket ships.
Rocket ships. They learn how to build rocket ships in trade schools.
Trump: And we probably found our pot of gold, and that's what's been wasted at places like Harvard, and the money has been wasted. Yeah, please.
Reporter: I wanted to ask quickly, Mr. Musk, what --- is your eye, okay? What happened to your eye? I noticed there's a bruise there.
Musk: Well, it wasn't --- I wasn't anywhere near France. So, but -β
Reporter: What does that mean?
Trump: I didn't notice his eye.
Reporter: First lady of France.
Musk: She slapped him.
Trump: I didn't notice.
It's like a bunch of stand-up comics bouncing lines off each other.
Trump veers off into the Washington Post and New York Times Pulitzer Prize case rambling on and on about how they're losing so badly. Then, without any transition whatsoever he's talking about the war in Ukraine.
A reporter asked Trump if with the cases that are being decided against him, if he would rather have been a judge. He answers by talking about illegal immigrants and then suddenly it's we wiped out ISIS. He talks about the financing of Hamas and then suddenly it's the 21 million immigrants again. Then, he solved inflation and gas prices. He talks about gas prices for a little bit and then it's back to the immigration problems.
Trump: It's the one thing I can't figure out, and I don't think it was Joe Biden. I really don't. I mean, look, he's been a sort of a moderate person over his lifetime. Not a smart person, but somewhat vicious person, I will say. If you feel sorry for him, don't feel so sorry, because he's vicious.
Vicious Joe. How come he's never used that one?
Then there is a long dissertation about the judges and immigration and how criminals are being kept in the country and we haven't got the time to give them trials. And praise for ICE and the Border Patrol.
Reporter: Are you concerned that tariffs may affect a company like Tesla, which has parts manufactured abroad? And this is also to you, Mr. Musk.
Trump: Well, he's going to end up building his whole car here. I mean, I thought he built his whole car, pretty much he does.... we want America to buy American built cars. Thank you very much everybody, thank you.
Reporter: How was your meeting with Jerome Powell, sir?
Trump: Good meeting, it was a good meeting.
That was the end of it.
The press conference could have been done without Elon, except for the presentation of the golden key.
Trump was incoherent as ever. It was a strain to figure out what he was talking about at any given time. He rambled on so long about repetitive nothings that reporters only got in a few questions. But, that's how Trump answers questions: at great length without saying anything. Reporters need to ask questions so the answer is either yes or no. Well, actually, they did. Like about Diddy. Instead of saying yes or no to a pardon, he talked about how a lot of people are talking about it.
Musk was just a sideshow at the press conference. His talk about DOGE and how they had found so much waste only made one point about unused software licenses. Made sense. Not using the software, don't pay for it. But, nothing about breaking into agencies, pilfering data, leaving systems open after suspending security safeguards and instant login attempts from Russia. You know, the really important permanent damage they have done. And this is only what we know about. This is probably just the tip of the iceberg.
Musk leaving is good for America. After his criticism of the Big Ugly Bill, maybe Trump won't be calling him up for advice anymore. Trump only wants advice from yes men. We've seen that from his cabinet every day. Musk has lost his influence over Trump. Trump has already forgotten Musk's $250 million infusion into his campaign. Trump gave Musk his 15 minutes of fame, but it's over. Musk said he's not going to put any more money into political campaigns. No one needs to listen to him anymore. He no longer has any political influence.
Trump is showing more signs of cognitive decline every time he speaks. Anyone else would give short, concise answers. Trump just spouts words salads at length that say nothing at all except to bring in a factoid or claim. 21 million, open borders, men in women's sports, transgender, DEI, dead six months ago, tariffs will save us, Joe Biden's war, autopen running the government, Harvard disrespects America, the Golden Age. He can put that all into one paragraph, and he has.
Donald Trump needs to be put out to pasture. Musk just was.
[END]
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