'He's got this sort of god complex': Kara Swisher on Elon Musk's controversial tweets
Elon Musk facing major criticism tonight. Both are his decision to block content in Turkey and for tweets about George Soros, which have been condemned by the Israeli government. Here's what Mr. Musk said just a few hours ago on CNBC. He said he wants to road the very fabric of civilization and Soros hates humanity. Like when you do something like that, do you think about- Yeah, I think that's true. That's my opinion.
Okay. But why share it? Why share it? Why share it when people who buy Teslas may not agree with you? Advertisers on Twitter may not agree with you. I mean, this is freedom of speech, I'm allowed to say what I want to say. You absolutely are, but I'm trying to understand why you do. I'll say what I want to say and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it. So be it. Luckily, Kara Swisher is here to discuss all of it.
She's an editor at Large of New York Magazine and host of the podcast Pivot and On with Kara Swisher. Kara, explain this to us. Why is Elon Musk permitted by shareholders, employees, his board to behave in a way that no other CEO in the world can act? Is it all just, well, he controls his board and he's made a lot of money for shareholders with Tesla? That's about it. He's made a lot of money for shareholders and they're on the gravy train of Elon Musk and so they're going to let him keep doing it until they're not. And then they might object, but in general, he sort of defies the laws of corporate gravity in some fashion. Again, Twitter's private, so the employees can leave, I guess, and he probably would say leave if you don't like me. SpaceX, same thing, and Tesla is essentially a private company because he controls every aspect of it and it's very dependent on him.
And the board has over the years not shown any proclivity to reign him in. They like him as the bad boy of corporations, I guess. And they like what Tesla has done, but Twitter is a company based on ad revenue. Tonight, he also talked about the mass shooting that took place in Allen, Texas. We know, police confirmed that the shooter held white supremacist views. He had a swastika tattoo on his body. But Elon Musk decides he wants to call that into question.
Why? Four days ago, he announced my former colleague Linda Yaccarino, who's an ad sales genius, she's going to come in and be the CEO of the company. Why would he then just roll the dice on hateful nonsense like this? Well, like, PSYOps, that kind of thing, saying it's fake and it's all part of a conspiracy, because he's very, he's steeped in this stuff, it looks like. I don't think he's just playing around. I don't think he's just saying what he wants. I think he's starting to believe this stuff. As you know, from covering this misinformation ultimately grabs people's heads and squeezes it dry, essentially. And so what he's doing is what he is in his head, where he's been moved or, you know, you can call it red-pilled, you can call it whatever you want.
But he actually, I don't think he would say these things unless he actually believed them and everyone thinks he's kidding people. But it's moved to a pretty ugly place. The Soros, I mean, it was ugly months ago. When you and I had been talking about this for months, whether he was attacking Paul Pelosi after he got beaten, why would a normal person do that? Why would he do these conspiracy theories about George Soros, which everybody knows are anti-Semitic? Why would he continue to make things up? It's just, you know, don't believe, you know, don't believe your lie and eyes. I don't know what he's doing. It's weird, Stephanie. And I think people just put up with it because they like to be part of the Elon Musk circus that he conducts on a 24-7 basis all across the globe.
How much longer can his lenders, his equity partners in Twitter, like to be on the Elon Musk train? I mean, again, he's pushing this false narrative that when he took over the company, it was as though it was a plane and a nosedive. He was teleported into it. Let's be clear. The company was having problems, but they had a multi-billion dollar advertising business that he torched. They did. He did. I would ask reporters to push back on that.
I haven't really seen many say, that's not true. That's not true. You know, it reminds you of someone else. You have said that, but not directly to him because he won't have an interview with you or me because we would say that is not true. That is not true. That is not true. And he doesn't like that.
He doesn't like people pushing back on him in any way. And it reminds you of Donald Trump. And Donald Trump did that for a long time. And he's not precisely like Donald Trump, but it sure has the same echoes of just saying things over and over again so that they're true. And it's part of his personal narrative of heroics. And that he has done for years. I have saved the Tesla company by sleeping on the floor of the factory.
I mean, it's such nonsense, but he does work hard. There's no question about that, but you work hard. I work hard. And I don't think you're saving NBC or I'm saving box media. I just think we do a good job and stuff. And so he's got this sort of a God complex, I think, in many ways. He used to talk to me about how he could change Trump's mind about immigration, for example.
I can do it. So I think he does. I'll say what I want to say. And so be it is kind of his policy. And ultimately, he hasn't paid a price for it in any way yet. What about what he did with Turkey over the weekend, right? Agreeing to limit what they were putting out on Twitter so the platform could remain in that country. How dangerous is that? Right? Other world leaders are seeing how Elon Musk is willing to play this guy controls a major communications company.
And we've seen he's going to dabble in elections and foreign governments. Yeah, I think that's, you know, it's a question of how influential Twitter is there. But for years, Twitter has resisted this. And Turkey, the last time that the same leader tried to do this, they turned off Twitter. That's all they did. And then ultimately, he gave. This was like a big flashing green light for all kinds of dictators across the world to do this and then get what they want.
Now other social media networks have done this, but Twitter was for a long time the one company that resisted, including U.S. government efforts. I know there's all these conspiracy theories around the government was inside of Twitter, which Elon has propagated, but are true in the way they're saying it. These are just normal requests that come in. But you know, these requests have risen from 50 percent agreement with the government in giving over information to 80 percent under Elon Musk. He loves cooperating with governments.
He loves being part of that. And of course, it will have an effect. He loves to be in very, very powerful positions. And right now he's in one. And he is. Caris Wischer, always great to see you, my dear. Thanks, Stephanie.
Stephanie Ruhle