Trump, Musk say media trying to drive them apart

President Trump and Elon Musk, one of his top allies, argued that the mainstream media is trying to drive a wedge between them and stymie the president’s agenda.

“That’s true,” Trump responded when Fox News host Sean Hannity told the president that leading outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post “threw everything they had at you.”

“They want a divorce,” Hannity said during the joint interview with Trump and Musk, which will air Tuesday evening on Fox. “They want you to start hating each other.”

“Oh, I see it all the time. They tried it, then they stopped. That was — they have many different things, hatred,” Trump agreed.

Musk during the interview mentioned that he “used to be adored by the left,” but after he voiced his support for Trump at a party with friends before the election, it was like he “got shot with a dart in the jugular that contained methamphetamine and rabies.”

Musk called Trump recently, the president said, after seeing news coverage of his efforts to reform the federal government.

“He said, ‘You know, they’re trying to drive us apart.’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ You know, they said, ‘We have breaking news: Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk,'” Trump scoffed. “And I say, it’s just so obvious. They’re so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it. They’re actually bad at it, because if they were good at it, I’d never be president because I think nobody in history has ever gotten more bad publicity than me.”

Trump and Musk have in recent weeks ratcheted up their attacks on major newspapers and broadcast networks over coverage of Trump’s first weeks in office and Musk’s role as the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk this week suggested journalists at CBS News be jailed for how the network handled a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Trump has routinely suggested other broadcasters lose their licenses over coverage that is not favorable to him.