Trump encouraged Vance to respond diplomatically when asked about Musk. Here's how it played in real time

CNN

5 hours ago

Vice President JD Vance rolled his eyes when shown during a podcast taping Elon Musk's suggestion that President Donald Trump should be impeached and Vance should replace him.
'Oh, my God,' Vance said, sipping on a sparkling orange energy drink while sitting across from comedian and podcaster Theo Von. 'See, this is what I'm talking about.'
'What are you talking about — campaigning?' Von joked.
But Vance didn't take the bait, or even risk joking about the possibility of taking power from Trump.
'This stuff is just not helpful,' Vance said of Musk, who turned criticism of Trump's domestic policy agenda into bitter personal attacks, this jab specifically appearing to pit the president and Vance against each other.
'Politics is a place where people stab each other in the back. You can't get anything done, unless you're all on the same team and you're actually committed to getting stuff done together,' Vance continued. 'The idea that … the president should be impeached — I'm sorry, it's insane.'
As Musk was adding fuel to the flames of the escalating fight Thursday, Vance was taping a podcast with Von in Nashville at Trump ally Kid Rock's new restaurant and was forced to respond in real time.
Vance was shown for the first time Musk's post accusing Trump, without evidence, of being in the 'Epstein files.'
Reading the post on the monitor, Vance said, 'I haven't even seen this one.'
'Jeez, man,' Vance said, letting out a breath.
'Presumably when this comes out, people are going to know more about this than even I do, because this kinda happened on the plane when I was coming on down here,' he said during the interview, which was released Saturday morning.
Before Vance flew to Nashville to tape the podcast, the vice president was in the Oval Office sitting to Trump's left when reporters peppered the president with questions about Musk's criticism of his 'one big, beautiful bill.' A source familiar said Trump and Vance had multiple conversations throughout the day Thursday and that Trump encouraged Vance to speak diplomatically about Musk when asked about him publicly.
Vance first defended Trump against the Epstein allegations, saying in the podcast, 'Absolutely not. Donald Trump didn't do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein.'
'Whatever the Democrats and the media says about them, that's totally BS,' Vance added.
But it wasn't the Democrats or 'the media' making this allegation, it was Trump's former right-hand man, Musk.
Vance, however, didn't lash out at Musk or serve as an attack dog for Trump, instead taking the diplomatic approach the president encouraged and making it clear where his loyalty lies. At the time, Vance said he hoped the two men might make amends, but the Epstein post put some doubt in his mind.
'I'm the vice president to President Trump. My loyalties are always going to be with the president, and I think that Elon, he's an incredible entrepreneur,' Vance said, adding, 'I hope that eventually Elon kind of comes back into the fold. Maybe that's not possible now, because he's gone so nuclear.'
On Saturday, Trump told NBC News he's not interested in fixing his relationship with Musk. The Tesla CEO appears to have deleted several of the posts from Thursday's feud, including the one about Epstein and suggesting the president should be impeached and replaced with Vance, but the criticism of Trump's bill remains on his X account.
Vance and Musk, however, have long had a good relationship, even before Vance was chosen as Trump's running mate, and the two would speak regularly, a source familiar with their interactions told CNN.
CNN previously reported that Musk lobbied Trump to pick Vance as a running mate, as did several conservative allies, including Donald Trump Jr., Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson.
Responding to Musk's implosion with Trump, Vance praised him for his efforts to rid out 'waste, fraud and abuse' with the Department of Government Efficiency, but cast him as emotional, an entrepreneur who is frustrated with business of politics.
'Elon's new to politics, right? So, his businesses are being attacked nonstop. They're literally, like, fire-bombing some of his cars,' Vance said, referring to acts of vandalism against Tesla vehicles and facilities. 'I think part of it is this guy got into politics and has suffered a lot for it.'
'I get the frustration,' Vance said. 'It's a good bill. It's not a perfect bill, like the process of DC, if you're a business leader, you probably get frustrated with that process because it's more, you know, bureaucratic, it's more slow-moving.'
Vance hinted at some erosion between Trump and Musk's relationship, based on his criticism of the bill, even before Thursday's blowup.
'I don't want to reveal too many confidences, but [Trump] was getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon, but I think has been very restrained, because the president doesn't think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk, and I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine,' Vance said.
While Vance said, 'Elon's entitled to his opinion,' he warned of entering a 'war' with Trump.
'Is this war actually in the interest of the country? I don't think so. So, hopefully, Elon figures it out, comes back into the fold,' Vance added.
Boiling it down further, Vance said, 'I think Elon means the best. But I think he's making a mistake.'