Trump 2.0: Musk in the Oval, a Gift to Mayor Adams and a Win for Putin
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What recent events are being discussed in Trump's presidency?
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today. Over the past week, President Trump dramatically ceded the stage to Elon Musk in the Oval Office, turned the Democratic mayor of New York City into a kind of political pawn, and ensured that Vladimir Putin begins peace talks with Ukraine on Russia's terms. To make sense of all of that, I turned to three of my colleagues, White House reporters Maggie Haverman, David Sanger, and Zolin Kano-Youngs. It's Friday, February 14th. Friends, welcome back to The Roundtable. But first, happy Valentine's Day.
Happy Valentine's Day, Michael.
Thank you, Michael.
Happy to spend it with you.
I mean, who else would you spend it with?
I can think of one person. I can, too.
I can, too. You have a wonderful husband. David, appreciate you joining us from Munich. I was going to say from Paris, city of love.
That was the plan, but you changed location since we... Oh, that was two days ago with Vice President Vance, yeah.
Yep. You've been traveling with the Vice President. Zolan and Maggie, appreciate you coming to us from our studio in Washington, D.C., I just want to set up this conversation. Loosely speaking, our theme this week is projections of power, exercises of power by the Trump administration, both overseas and here at home. And we're going to start here at home. It feels like the story of this presidency so far is the extraordinary wielding of power by President Trump and a remarkable wielding of power by Elon Musk, private citizen and the world's richest man. And they've been happening simultaneously and seemingly a little bit independently. And this week, we saw those two things come together in a very vivid and at times weird way in the Oval Office.
How did Elon Musk's presence in the Oval Office impact President Trump?
Maggie, for anyone who didn't see this or watch it, can you just describe this scene?
It was pretty remarkable, Michael. Elon Musk joined Donald Trump in the Oval Office with Elon Musk's four-year-old child named X, just like the social media website that used to be Twitter that Elon Musk has renamed. And it was for an executive order signing related to how Doge, Musk's so-called cost-cutting initiative, interacts with the hiring process in the federal government. And Trump really just turned it over to Musk. And Musk just held forth for many, many minutes. I think it was much of the roughly 30-minute event. And he described what he's doing. He kept talking about all of the so-called fraud and waste and abuse that he says they have found. The most striking allegation for which he provided no evidence and still has not as far as I know was that some government workers were taking kickbacks. Right. That they were getting percentages. I believe it was specifically of USAID spending. But Trump was relegated to sort of a spectator.
in his own office, just sitting at the desk and nodding and occasionally chiming in and criticizing judges. And what was really striking about it, Michael, is that it looked to those of us who have watched him for a long time as if Trump was not enjoying this. I talked to a number of his advisors afterwards. They said he was fine with it. They said that he, and I don't think that they're making it up. I think that he was defending his guy, Elon Musk, who has gone above and beyond in many ways to try to prove loyalty to Trump. And Trump really likes having the richest man in the world seeking his approval.
Right, well, Zolan and David, I want to bring you in. What immediately stood out about this scene was not just the fact that Elon Musk was there defending and justifying his unusual role. It was just the fact of him holding court next to a sitting President Trump for 30 minutes in this room that is the very definition of American presidential power. It was the stature that it conferred on Musk. And you all know this, but there's been this running motif here that Musk is a kind of co-president. And Time magazine went so far over the past couple days as to put Musk on the cover of its latest issue, sitting behind the Resolute desk with a coffee mug in his hand. And this scene didn't seem to combat that, or did it?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What recent events are being discussed in Trump's presidency?
0:04–2:15
2
How did Elon Musk's presence in the Oval Office impact President Trump?
2:15–5:48
3
Why is Elon Musk's influence considered as a co-presidency?
5:48–12:19
4
What are the implications of dropping charges against Mayor Eric Adams?
12:19–20:39
5
How does Trump's influence extend beyond the federal government?
20:39–35:21
Speakers
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