Elon Musk sees the election as a 'crusade' and is all in on the Republicans, says Walter Isaacson

[0:00] The midterms are just days away. Elon Musk tweeting overnight saying his biggest concern [0:04] is that there is a clean sweep by Democrats of the House, Senate and presidency, he thinks [0:10] potentially in 2028. And if that happens, he says in his words, it would be game over for America. [0:17] Joining us right now was Walter Isaacson, author of Elon Musk, professor of history [0:20] at Tulane University, advisor, partner at Preble Weinberg, a CNBC contributor and podcaster [0:27] with a great new series called The Builders, which features interviews with everybody [0:31] from Musk himself to Dario Amadei and so many others. Great to see you this morning. [0:37] Let's just start with the tweet of the hour, Walter, which is what do you think is inspiring [0:45] Elon to speak out about this in the way that he just did? [0:51] In the podcast, in the Builders series, I talked to Musk and he said that he was too out front. [0:57] He felt he was doing way too much showmanship. Last time he got involved in politics, carrying [1:04] that chainsaw on stage, he got a little bit too forward on it. What he's doing now is spending [1:10] twice as much money, but more quietly behind the scenes, especially on things like get out [1:15] the vote, targeted ads, things he did so well in Pennsylvania two years ago to help President [1:22] Trump carry that state. I think that he is deeply, deeply political right now. And he feels especially [1:31] that in Texas, he wants to defeat Tallarico and he feels that the Republicans come in. He's the type [1:37] of person who's an all in person. He doesn't see nuance that well. He doesn't see black and white. [1:43] He sees this as a crusade. He has to get on because he's all in now for the Republicans. [1:50] Are you surprised? And I ask because he did walk away from politics, I thought, and was pretty [2:00] outspoken about how he thought originally it made a mistake. He then talked about that with you, [2:04] but now appears to be back. [2:06] Well, yeah, in the Builders podcast, he said he made a mistake by getting too out front. [2:12] And yeah, he's mercurial. He changes. He, I mean, on many things, he can be all in or he can change. [2:19] There was a while when he left the Trump administration, where he said he was going [2:24] to fund independence. He said that, you know, he was giving up, giving to Trump. He has changed, [2:31] but it doesn't surprise me because he, he is mercurial. He's somebody who, as you know, [2:41] as the mood changes, he can suddenly put on his super, you know, superhero cape and go back into [2:48] the breach. Here's a political question. Given his support of Republicans and the amount of money [2:53] that he's now put towards Republicans, what genuine risk do you think he has created or poses for [3:00] himself, Starlink, Tesla, et cetera, down the line if, in fact, Democrats do win? [3:09] Well, I mean, that's up to the Democrats, but certainly this is not something that a government [3:14] affairs office of a regular corporation would say this is a good idea because even though, [3:21] you know, he's created all these things that didn't, despite what people say, depend just on [3:28] government subsidies, whether it's NASA needing to approve his flights or the FAA or Tesla or anything [3:37] else, if there's a sweep of the Democrats, which is what he said in his tweet last night, and in two [3:44] years, a Democratic president, you know, it's certainly not going to be great for his ability [3:50] to work with the U.S. government. But that's not something that I think motivates him. I don't think [3:55] he makes a calculus. I think he's just deeply driven by some of his political fields. [4:05] You've seen, I mean, you're kind of soft pedaling this. It's not just that they might not be, [4:11] you know, that you might not have a great working relationship with the federal government. They're [4:15] going, they're talking about going after companies, people, employees. I mean, even media types, [4:22] I imagine. Maybe it's just the crazy fringe of the party at this point. But they're looking at anyone [4:31] that had anything to do with Trump that wasn't part of the resistance. They're going to investigate. [4:36] That could be bad. That could be just not working with Musk. That could be, you know, looking for, [4:43] you know, show me a man, I'll find you a crime even. You know what? I agree with you. But with the risk [4:49] of sounding like your last guest, I think the weaponization of investigations of justice of [4:56] the Department of Justice, this is bad whenever it happens. And yes, I think that if there's a clean, [5:04] big sweep for the Democrats, there'll be all sorts of investigations and it'll be retaliatory. [5:11] And this is not the best way to run a country. Right. I mean, you're not one of the people that [5:16] said looking into the Alaska situation. I watched people on all of our cable competitors until it [5:24] became really clear from Andrew's great paper, which actually did. That was a good story. [5:31] That was a good story. And it, you know, shined a light on it. But before then, [5:35] they had plenty of support in the legacy media that this was about the DOJ trying to go, [5:43] trying to insert itself into the Alaska election. They didn't want anyone looking at anything that [5:47] they're wacky. Yeah. I think that the weaponization of the Department of Justice has definitely happened [5:54] during the Trump administration. But I also think we've seen this in our politics now that everything [6:01] involves investigation. And I fear, just as you said, Joe, that if the Democrats sweep, [6:08] you're going to see wild investigations. Walter, got to ask you about Starlink, [6:12] Starshield. Do you know anything more than we already know? And what do you think really happened? [6:19] Well, when the Ukraine war first broke out, of course, he was very he saved Ukraine in the first [6:26] few days by allowing Starlink to restore communications that have been cut off. And as you [6:32] know, he then geofenced it off so they couldn't go into Crimea. There was an outcry. So he created [6:39] Starshield, which is the smart thing to do, I think, which is to say Starshield is a military use of [6:46] Starlink. Let's have the Pentagon or the government be in charge. He feels, as he said, that the regular [6:55] commercial Starlink was used against the terms of service. But basically, I also think he's gone [7:01] sour. We talk about him being mercurial. He's gone sour on President Zelensky. So he throttled. He felt [7:09] that they were violating the terms of service. This is something that should not be a private citizen [7:14] doing it.