Elon Musk let loose on Donald Trump’s spending bill this week, calling it a “disgusting abomination” in a tirade on social media while threatening to “fire” every Republican that voted for it. And, according to “The View” host Alyssa Farah Griffin, the billionaire is a threat that Trump and the Republican party should take very seriously.
In discussing Musk’s angry posts on Wednesday morning, moderator Whoopi Goldberg first questioned why anyone could or should take the CEO’s outrage seriously, considering “he just spent several months destroying people’s lives.” But, Farah Griffin argued that, at least politically, upsetting Musk could have serious fallout.
“Elon Musk basically could tank Donald Trump’s entire legislative agenda,” she said. “This ‘big, beautiful bill,’ it has energy, it has border security, it has extending his tax cuts in it. If Republicans decide, ‘Ooh, we don’t want to get on the wrong side of Elon,’ that [bill] is what Donald Trump is banking it all on, and that’s kind of devastating for his administration.”
That said, Farah Griffin noted that if Republicans are more afraid of upsetting Trump than Musk, they could then lose their jobs by standing with him — if Musk actually follows through on his threat to primary them.
“Those Republicans, if you’re in a house district, you’re like, ‘I’m afraid of Donald Trump.’ But Elon Musk, because of the dark money system we live in, he can come in and primary you by just pouring millions and millions into your race,” she explained.
Farah Griffin then reminded viewers that he spent $20 million just on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Race earlier this year, though it’s also worth pointing out that the candidate he backed didn’t actually end up winning. Still, she added that it wouldn’t require much to damage Republican majorities in several places.
“So imagine, he would just need to peel off a handful of Republicans this cycle,” she said. “The entire balance of power in the House of Representatives could stand on if Elon Musk actually follows through and primaries people who voted for the bill.”
At that, host Joy Behar noted that Trump should actually be afraid of Musk, prompting Whoopi to say that she believes he already is, simply because of how much inside knowledge the billionaire now has.
“Elon knows the 4-1-1 on everything,” she said. “He knows how all this came down.” You can watch the full discussion from “The View” in the video above.
