Tech journalist and podcaster Kara Swisher on Friday said that a victory for President Donald Trump in his very public fight with Tesla CEO Elon Musk won’t prevent the break-up spelling his doom anyway, because Musk is “angry” and unpredictable, and there’s no telling just how far he’ll go.

Swisher’s pyrrhic prediction was part of the long and mostly ebullient coverage of the Trump-Musk “break-up” on the Pivot podcast Friday with co-host Scott Galloway, during which the two reveled in the spiteful and “ugly” battle between the president and his ex-billionaire bestie.

As they discussed the implications and fallout, Swisher said “Donald Trump is going to prevail because he’s the president, right, ultimately,” but even so, “it’s finished for him.”

“I think it’s finished, because Elon is willing to go nuclear,” Swisher said. “He really is. He doesn’t have a problem with it.”

Swisher said other CEOs want to chew Trump out also, and that Musk doing so could now give them license to likewise “chip away” at Trump’s power, so that by 2026 he’ll be “finished.”

“I warned the Trump people, there’s also no telling what he could do,” she added. “You just don’t know where he’s going. He’s got means, he’s got motive, he’s angry. He’s, as you know, a petty person.

She referenced an earlier part of the discussion in which Galloway referred to Musk as a “toddler” drug addict, and said he could” just go right off the rails and take Trump with him.”

Later in the podcast, the “toddler” description came up again, as Swisher argued that Trump is much more the toddler between the two men.

On the subject of Musk ending Trump’s viability, Swisher added that Musk is “unexpected” and “a wild card.”

“Trump is somewhat reliably corrupt the way he is,” she said. “You never know what Elon’s gonna do, you just don’t.”

GALLOWAY: But it really is sort of a, the two, arguably the two most powerful men in the world squaring off in the high school cafeteria. What are your thoughts there?

SWISHER: So which one would — I think Donald, look, Donald Trump is going to prevail because he’s the president, right, ultimately.

GALLOWAY: Yeah, that’s right.

SWISHER: But I think it’s finished for him. I think its finished. Because Elon is willing to go nuclear. He really is. He doesn’t have a problem with it. What you just said, interestingly enough, that CEOs all want to say this to Trump, right? They want to stop being pushed around. If he’s doing it, it will give permission to everybody else to start pushing back on Trump, I think.

GALLOWAY: Oh, I don’t know because I think every CEO looks at a 14% decline in the stock in one day and thinks, I don’t control my board. I could get fired for this shit. I mean, Tesla shed $150 billion in value.

SWISHER: But I mean that the idea that you can, if Elon’s doing it — like especially ones that are, you know, look, Jamie Dimon’s been critical. I think it’ll give people permission to be more critical of Trump and start to chip away at his power, you now? Because I’ve always thought that he’s in real trouble because of the trends and the polling and everything else, and by 2026 it’s finished for him. But now, this sort of, there’s no telling what — I warned the Trump people, there’s also no telling what he could do. Right? You just don’t know where he’s going. He’s got means, he’s got motive, he’s angry. He’s, as you know, a petty person. He’s got, as you discussed, a problem with some drugs. I think this guy could just go right off the rails and take Trump with him. Because he’s so affiliated with Trump, if you think about it, and he’s absolutely right. He helped get, he was the critical part of getting Trump elected, I think.

GALLOWAY: Yeah, he may have in fact got him elected. But the thing is, and you’ve been more right than wrong on this. You predicted a while ago that this was gonna be the mother of all breakups at some point, and it’s happening. And now it seems obvious, but at the time, people weren’t predicting it and you did predict it. But here’s the thing. I think Trump has proven himself — we’re in a slow burn towards a, autocracy, and autocrats will sicc their Department of Justice on people, and he’s the president. And so if he wants to stick his DOJ on them, if he wants to fire up inspector generals to say, I have some real fears about his autonomous technology and we’re auditing Tesla’s tax returns, oh, and by the way, we, we have evidence that he was carrying a listed drug. I mean, this guy isn’t beyond…

SWISHER: No, but now everything will be tainted, right? It’s just, it’ll be so obvious to people what he’s doing. And whether you like Elon or not, he still has a lot of fans too, right. Now his numbers were declining because of his affiliation with Trump, right, his numbers were going down and his, you know, he had just lost a lot because of the affiliation with Donald Trump. But, if he’s against Donald Trump, he’ll get different fans, right? You could see – it’s almost, oddly enough, it is like a wrestling match, right. And this is how Trump conducts everything, is, we’re in the middle of a wrestling match with one of those idiot narratives that they have there. Which is they’re throwing blows, they’re causing entertainment. But in this case, I, Elon can truly do a lot of damage to this man. And especially those who are so effusive about him, like Mike Johnson and others, right? He can pick them off one at a time, and Trump has to protect, right, in some ways. Trump can’t go nuclear on him in a similar way. Maybe he can.

GALLOWAY: I think this is such a tough one to call. And I think if, if our biases are coming out here, I think what we’re discovering is you hate Trump more than Musk and I hate Musk more than Trump.

SWISHER: No, I just think he’s unexpected, right? And so he’s a wild card. I don’t, I think he is, listen, I would do an interview with him in five seconds to talk about this. But I think that he is… Trump is somewhat reliably corrupt the way he is. You never know what Elon’s gonna do, you just don’t.

Watch the clip above via the Pivot podcast on YouTube.

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