Sean Hannity's Donald Trump-Elon Musk Sit Down Interview: Plenty Of Softballs And Few Surprises
Perhaps the most unexpected thing about Sean Hannity's hour-long sit down with Donald Trump and Elon Musk — a first — was the initial question that the Fox News host posed to the duo.
'So he's working for free with DOGE. He's kind of put a lot of his life on hold. And you sued Twitter a number of years ago. You just made him pay $10 million?' Hannity asked.
More from Deadline
Kamala Harris Signs With CAA As She Eyes Next Political Moves
Donald Trump Says White House Will Prohibit Associated Press From Events Until They Agree To Rename Gulf Of Mexico
John Oliver Returns And Lambasts Trump, Calls Musk "A Parasitic Freak" And Finds Joy In Viral "Hostile Government Takeover" Song
Unperturbed, Musk said he had just let the lawyers figure out the dicey legal matter, while Trump claimed that his No. 1 adviser got a 'big discount.'
'It's very low. I was looking to get much more money than that,' Trump said.
Hannity was referring to the latest settlement of a Trump lawsuit, this time from Musk's X, which earlier this month agreed to pay the sum to the president even if the litigation had long been dormant.
Otherwise, the Hannity interview was what you would expect: The Fox News host is a long-time defender of Trump's, who once even was called to speak at one of his campaign rallies. This time, though, the intent of the interview seemed to be to soften Musk's image. And with Democrats trying to bait Trump by referring to 'President Musk,' Hannity gave them plenty of time to deny that there is a rift between them.
Trump said, 'Elon called me. He said, 'You know, they are trying to drive us apart. I said, 'Absolutely.''
As Musk carries out mass layoffs across the federal government, the pink slips have reportedly gone far beyond faceless DEI bureaucrats but to those in charge of food and air safety as well as those in charge of protecting the nuclear weapons arsenal, a number of whom had to be rehired. Then there are reports of DOGE's access to government personal data, the latest effort being the IRS, with major concerns over how the information is being used. Before the Hannity interview ran, Kara Swisher told CNN's Anderson Cooper that Musk's end goal is access to the data. 'They are trying to say there is nothing to see here when there is a lot to see here,' Swisher said.
Yet few of those points were addressed during Trump-Musk sit down. Some of those pressing questions, which involve serious issues of privacy and security, were glossed over. Hannity did ask about the potential for Musk, whose businesses hold billions of government contracts, to have conflicts of interest. 'Then we won't let him do it,' Trump insisted.
'I haven't asked the president for anything ever,' Musk said. '…I will recuse myself if it is' a conflict.
'I'm getting a daily proctology exam here,' Musk said. 'It is not like I will be getting away with something in the dead of night.'
Hannity didn't follow up, but did add, 'Welcome to DC. If you want a friend, get a dog.'
During the hour, the Fox News host spoke in awe of Musk's career, while sharing his incredulousness at some of the Democratic attacks, everything from calling him a 'dick' to claiming that the nation was in a constitutional crisis.
'First of all, do you give a flying rip, number one?' Hannity asked.
'They wouldn't be complaining so much if we weren't doing something useful, I think,' Musk said, as he railed against the 'unelected bureaucracy.'
But there's still a bit of a mystery over Musk's bureaucracy. The White House insists that DOGE is transparent, but it's a bit opaque on who actually runs DOGE, as the Trump administration lately denies that it is Musk.
At the outset, Hannity promised that Trump and Musk have 'taken a wrecking ball to the deep state, all while exposing a shocking amount of waste, fraud abuse and corruption at the federal level.' But there were no new bombshell revelations of what DOGE has found. Rather, Hannity's show ran a scroll of USAID spending, repeating many of the items that the White House had identified last week, some of them sounding like perfectly absurd outlays. But per FactCheck.org, a number of the items didn't even come from USAID, such as a 'transgender opera' in Colombia.
During another part of the interview, Musk talked of his approach as being one of 'competence and caring,' which is quite a contrast to any hour on his X feed. A few weeks ago, as agency employees working on humanitarian projects were in the crosshairs, Musk wrote, 'We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.'
The Trump-Musk interview was taped on Friday, while plenty of other Musk dramas have played out since then, from the exit of a top Social Security official to a woman claiming to have fathered another one of his children. A proclaimed free-speech absolutist, Musk on Sunday called for 60 Minutes journalists to get a 'long prison sentence.'
It's questionable, though, that Hannity would have brought any of that up, as this interview was hardly prosecutorial. At one point, it even seemed as if Hannity was treating the Trump-Musk team like a celebrity couple, helping them refute an onslaught of tabloid gossip.
'I think they've proven they have no power anymore, because they threw everything they had at you and they didn't win,' Hannity told them. '…And now I see, they want a divorce. They want you two to start hating each other.'
Best of Deadline
2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery
2025 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Tonys, Guilds & More
How To Watch Sunday's 'SNL50: The Anniversary Special' Online & On TV
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
20 minutes ago
- The Hill
Newsom: Pentagon lying over LA to justify National Guard deployment
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday accused the Defense Department of 'lying to the American people' in justifying deploying National Guard troops to the state to quell Los Angeles protests against federal immigration raids, asserting that the situation intensified only when the Pentagon deployed troops. 'The situation became escalated when THEY deployed troops,' Newsom posted to X, referring to the Pentagon. 'Donald Trump has manufactured a crisis and is inflaming conditions. He clearly can't solve this, so California will.' Newsom was responding to a post from DOD Rapid Response on X, a Pentagon-run account, which claimed that 'Los Angeles is burning, and local leaders are refusing to respond.' President Trump on Saturday deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to the Los Angeles area amid the ICE protests, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying the decision was made due to 'violent mobs' attacking 'Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations.' While protests have intensified in recent days, devolving at times into violence, the majority of gatherings have been largely peaceful. Still, California National Guard troops began arriving in Los Angeles on Sunday morning, with some 300 deployed on the ground later that day at three locations: Los Angeles proper, Paramount and Compton. White House officials have sought to highlight images of burning vehicles and clashes with law enforcement to make the case that the situation had gotten out of control. 'The people that are causing the problem are professional agitators. They're insurrectionists. They're bad people. They should be in jail,' Trump told reporters on Monday. In addition, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has threatened to deploy approximately 500 U.S. Marines to the city, with U.S. Northern Command on Sunday confirming the service members were 'prepared to deploy.' The use of American troops has rankled California officials, who have said the federal response 'inflammatory' and said the deployment of soldiers 'will erode public trust.' Newsom also has traded insults with Hegseth, calling him 'a joke,' and that the idea of deploying active duty Marines in California was 'deranged behavior.' 'Pete Hegseth's a joke. He's a joke. Everybody knows he's so in over his head. What an embarrassment. That guy's weakness masquerading as strength. . . . It's a serious moment,' Newsom said in an interview with podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen. The tit-for-tat continued when chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell then took to X on Monday to attack Newsom. 'LA is on FIRE right now, but instead of tackling the issue, Gavin Newsom is spending his time attacking Secretary Hegseth,' Parnell wrote. 'Unlike Newsom, [Hegseth] isn't afraid to lead.' Newsom, who has formally demanded the Trump administration pull the National Guard troops off the streets, has declared the deployment 'unlawful' and said California will sue the Trump administration over its actions. 'There is currently no need for the National Guard to be deployed in Los Angeles, and to do so in this unlawful manner and for such a lengthy period is a serious breach of state sovereignty that seems intentionally designed to inflame the situation,' David Sapp, Newsom's legal affairs secretary, wrote in a letter to Hegseth on Sunday. 'Accordingly, we ask that you immediately rescind your order and return the National Guard to its rightful control by the State of California, to be deployed as appropriate when necessary.' In the past 60 years, a U.S. president has only on one occasion mobilized a state's National Guard troops without the consent of its governor to quell unrest or enforce the law. That was in 1965, when former President Lyndon Johnson sent Guard members to Selma, Ala., to protect civil rights protesters there.
San Francisco Chronicle
20 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
AP PHOTOS: Trump's new travel ban takes effect, and some protest
President Donald Trump's ban on travel to the United States took effect Monday. Demonstrators outside Los Angeles International Airport held signs protesting the ban affecting citizens from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries. At Miami International Airport, passengers moved steadily through an area for international arrivals. Tensions are escalating over the Trump administration's campaign of immigration enforcement. The new ban applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It also imposes heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela who are outside the U.S. and don't hold a valid visa. This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Mass. Sen. Warren: DOGE accessed ‘sensitive' student loan data at Education Dept., calls for probe
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she wants to know how the quasi-governmental Department of Government Efficiency gained access to 'sensitive' student loan information at the U.S. Department of Education. On Monday, Warren and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, both Democrats, called for the agency's acting inspector general to find out how that breach happened. They were joined by Democratic senators from eight states, including U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. Warren said lawmakers learned of the potential breach of systems at Federal Student Aid after DOGE, which was helmed until recently by tech titan Elon Musk, infiltrated the agency. In response, Education Department officials revealed that DOGE workers 'supported' a review of the FSA's contracts. As a part of that review, one employee was granted 'read-only' access to two internal systems that held sensitive personal information about borrowers. The agency said it had since revoked that access. But, according to Warren, it did not explain why that access had been revoked, or whether the employee had continued access to other databases. 'Because of the [Education] department's refusal to provide full and complete information, the full extent of DOGE's role and influence at ED remains unknown,' the lawmakers wrote in a June 8 letter to René L. Rocque, the agency's acting inspector general. That 'lack of clarity is not only frustrating for borrowers but also dangerous for the future of an agency that handles an extensive student loan portfolio and a range of federal aid programs for higher education,' the lawmakers continued. Warren, Markey and their colleagues have called on Roque's office to determine whether the department adhered to the Federal Privacy Act, which dictates how the government can collect and use personal information. They also asked Roque to 'determine the impact of DOGE's new plans to consolidate Americans' personal information across government databases.' 'It won't end well for Trump' if he does this amid LA protests, ex-GOP rep says All Ivy League schools are supporting Harvard lawsuit — except these 2 Embassies directed to resume processing Harvard University student visas Over 12,000 Harvard alums lend weight to court battle with Trump in new filing Markey: Trump using National Guard in LA to distract from big cuts in 'Big Beautiful Bill' Read the original article on MassLive.
