Close All Tabs - Elon's Great Crash-Out / Unmasked in LA

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Elon Musk and President Trump breaking up? LA protesters clashing with law enforcement? Waymos on fire (again)? Things have been moving fast the last few days — and like you, our feeds are on overload. Today, we’re bringing you a quick reaction episode to catch you up on a couple stories we’ve covered before that are suddenly back in the news. Close All Tabs producer Maya Cueva joins Morgan to break it all down. We’ve talked about a few of these stories before — if you want to go deeper, here are some past episodes to check out: The Broligarchy Pt 1: Chronicles of the PayPal Mafia | KQED The Surveillance Machine, Pt. 1: How We Got Here | KQED Waymo Robotaxis - Uneasiness and Vandalism | KQED Further reading: A timeline of the twists and turns in the Trump-Musk relationship — Nnamdi Egwuonwu, NBC News  Immigration Protests Threaten to Boil Over in Los Angeles — E. Tammy Kim, The New Yorker ICE raids tried to split LA apart, but might have made it stronger — Michael Lozano, LA Public Press  How Waymo got caught in the crossfire of Los Angeles ICE protests —  Joe Berkowitz, Fast Company  Read the transcript here Want to give us feedback on the series? Shoot us an email at [e-mail] You can also follow us on Instagram Credits: This episode was reported and hosted by Morgan Sung. Our Producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Additional editing by Jen Chien. Sound design by Maya Cueva, Chris Egusa and Brendan Willard. Original music by Chris Egusa, with additional music from APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad and Alana Walker. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. Holly Kernan is our Chief Content Officer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support for KQED Podcasts comes from Star One Credit Union. Give your savings account the love it deserves. When you keep your money with Star One, you keep more of your money. Star One Credit Union in your best interest. You also having trouble with scammers trying to poke holes in your dam? We need a phone plan that stops these pests at the perimeter. That's why I switched to GoogleFi Wireless, a wireless plan built with industry-leading security.

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We had planned to bring you part two of our Spotify deep dive today. And don't worry, we'll get back to that next week. But there have been some developments over the past week. Basically, the last few days have been so wild that we need to talk about it. We're actually following up on three of our previous episodes today. And joining me to help sort through all of it is our producer, Maya Kueva. Hey, Morgan. Hey, Maya.

So this will be a bit of a speed round, two quick tabs today. And as a side quest, I am going to try to make the case to you, Maya, for why I've stayed on Twitter. Or, as we now call it, X. Yeah, please make your case because it's hard for me to get what you. anyone would want to stay on X, but I do want to understand. I will try my best. Okay, we've got a few things to cover today, including what's happening with Waymo's and protest surveillance in L.A. But before we get to that, we have to talk about something that happens last week. Elon Musk and Donald Trump finally broke up. This is Close All Tabs. I'm Morgan Sung, tech journalist, and your chronically

online friend here to open as many browser tabs as it takes to help you understand how the digital world affects our real lives. Let's get into it. Maya, are you ready? Yeah, Morgan. Let's open a new tab. The Great Elon Crashout. Back in March, we did a series on the broligarchy, and more specifically, the ideology that drives tech titans like Elon Musk as they accumulate political power. And how they might use that power to influence U.S. policy. We're seeing a rise in what I guess we'll call the broligarchy. The brologarcs really have an explicit.

political agenda. How do you survive the broiligarchy? And nothing embodied the broligarchy quite like the relationship between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. And I just want to say up front, this stuff is really serious, right? Like the fact that these two men control so many levers of power and the ripple effects of their decisions have already had massive and sometimes devastating consequences. That should be a source of concern for us all. But at the same time, their personal relationship, what many have called a bromance, there's something kind of funny about it. Like, it has high school vibes. And social media has really eaten that up. But it seems like that relationship is over, right? It's true. At least it is as of when we're

recording this on Monday afternoon. After less than a year since Musk publicly endorsed Trump, the bromance is dead. Okay, let's start right after Election Day. They were still pretty cozy back then. This was Trump in his victory speech right after winning the election. Let me tell you, we have a new star. A star is born, Elon. And then Elon starts overseeing Doge, right? Right. He's the face of the Department of Government Efficiency. And under his de facto leadership, Doge is slashing government agencies left and right. We see mass layoffs and the dismantling of aid programs, and it's an accounting and privacy disaster. Obviously, Trump and Musk, are getting a lot of backlash over this, and we start to see cracks in the relationship.

Right, yeah. And didn't that bizarre White House Tesla showcase happened during all of this? Yeah, by March, Tesla stock was down by like 45%. So while Tesla is slumping as a company, Trump and Musk turned the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom. They live streamed on X, and Trump makes a show of wanting to buy one. He really talks up the cyber truck. Who else but this guy would design this and everybody on the road is looking at it. on it. It's amazing, actually. As soon as I saw it and I said, that is the coolest design. So you know how there's always that one couple on Instagram that you know is not doing well, but they overcompensate by posting really, like, lovey-dubby captions and all that.

Yes, it's like, why are you pretending? You're not fooling anyone. Okay, so I think this Tesla showcase is kind of like that. That same month, as the White House gets heat for Doge's actions, Trump goes on truth social and says that the agency heads are in charge of staffing, not Musk and Doge. This is when the president starts to reign Musk in. Okay, so we've heard that Trump and Musk are getting backlash for a lot of actions they're taking, especially Doge, and Musk's companies are suffering. And all of this seems to be creating tension, right? So when did the actual breakup happen? Well, at the start of last month, Musk says he's stepping back from Doge to focus on his own companies like Tesla and SpaceX. A few

A few weeks later, Musk goes on CBS and bashes the president's budget proposal, what Trump calls his big, beautiful bill. Musk says that bill increases the budget deficit and undermines Doge's work. I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don't know if it can be both. And by the end of the month, the White House announces that Musk's temporary role as a special government employee has ended. They host a ceremony and the president makes this grand gesture of gifting mother. a gold key to the White House. I have given it to some, but they goes to very special people,

and I thought I'd give it to Elon as a presentation from our country. Thank you, Elon. Thank you. Okay, so this seems pretty cordial to me. You know, it's like that part of a breakup where you tell people you're still in good terms and you wish each other the best and you're going to be in each other's lives, all that. But, like, we know what happens. Oh, yeah, we've all been there before.

Right. Except these are two exceptionally powerful men. So this is where it gets really juicy. Okay, tell me. So a couple of days ago, Musk goes on X and starts tearing apart the bill. He says, hold on, let me pull it up. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it. You know you did wrong. You know it. And Trump tells reporters that Musk is upset because the bill would end tax credits for electric vehicles. And then these guys just start going at it. Wait, so what happened? Can you break it down for me? This is why I say I will never leave the app because as bad as it gets, there are still days when everyone comes out of hibernation and just starts posting. And this includes Elon Musk. So he starts firing off at Trump on X.

First, he says that Trump would have lost the election without him. Trump goes to truth social, and he says that Musk went crazy after he was asked to leave the White House. He threatens to cut Musk's government subsidies and contracts. And I'm guessing Elon Musk didn't take that well. Oh, not at all. Musk goes nuclear. He runs back to X and posts something that makes everyone's jaw drop. He claims that the president is in the Epstein files.

What? Yeah. So it's worth noting that Trump was once publicly friends with the pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, but he hasn't been implicated in any of the investigations into Epstein or his accomplices. So it can't get worse than that, right? He kept going. In another post, Must says that the tariffs will cause a recession. And then he reposts someone else who says that Trump should be impeached and replaced with JD Bans. So this is all what people are calling a generational criminal. crash out. Were you seeing any of this? Honestly, Morgan, not the full back and forth. Like, I got the condensed version from IG Reels reacting to them fighting. And I saw some funny responses like when AOC quoted Azealia Banks. Any quick reaction on what's going on with Elon Musk and President Trump on Twitter right now? Oh, man, the girls are fighting, aren't they? This is the reason I'm still on this hellish app. There were so many good memes about this breakup. Like, there's this one where someone posted a picture of Trump and Musk. together and then captioned it with the lyrics from the Bonnie Bear song, Skinny Love,

classic breakup song, we've all been there. Or someone else posted this edit, mashing up a scene from The Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie, and Driver's License by Olierely. You broke my hand and you didn't even seem sorry. That broken end was the best thing that ever happened to you. And they captioned it, the two most powerful men in the country on a random Thursday. That's hilarious. is. I'll tell you about one example that really sent me. Maya, are you familiar with Old Man Yowie?

Wait, no, what is that? Okay. So this is one of those very online, deep internet things. So just stay with me here. Old Man Yawi is kind of like a jokey fan fiction trope. Yawi is this Japanese term that refers to gay male relationships in manga and anime. Sometimes it's called BL or Boys Love. And people will also tag fan fiction as Yowie. Old Man Yawi is this term for older male characters. And naturally, because the internet is the way it is, there is a lot of tongue-in-cheek Old Man Yawi about Trump.

Wait, really? Last year, there was a lot of enemies to lovers Old Man Yowie about Trump and former president Joe Biden. And now, there's Old Man Yawi about Trump and Musk. Can I read you an excerpt that I saw an ex during the Great Crash Out? I guess. I don't think I have a choice here. Sorry, you do not. Okay. So here's a dramatic reading of some Old Man Yawi posted by ex-user, Aganism. Aganism, thank you for making my day.

Donald, please, let's just talk about this. Eamon pleads, attempting to catch the other man's eyes. But Donald rolls over in bed, presenting his back to him. The tension in the bedroom is suffocating, and Elon tries to take a deep breath, but it feels like he can barely get any air. There's nothing to talk about. Donald finally responds, flatly, and Elon is taken aback by his tone. He sounds so cold and distant. He doesn't want to fight. He can feel tears welling up, and he takes a moment to wipe his face before continuing, hoping Donald won't notice his red rim dies. Don, this bill is bad for Tesla. You have to understand. that. Donald's eyes heavily. Oh my God. I literally have no words. I do admire the creativity,

though. Again, one of the top 10 days on Twitter. This app is terrible, but there's nothing that's really taken its place for me. I get a lot of news from Reddit and Blue Sky, funny posts from Tumblr, and Instagram is great for organizing and sharing resources, and honestly, good shit post accounts. TikTok is up there with good content, too. But there's nothing that quite has the same real-time super fast memeability like Twitter does. And you're definitely not getting this stuff on threads. Okay, I feel like I am convinced now. So what are some of the other top meme days on Twitter?

Okay, just in recent years, Luigi. Right. I do want to give a credit to Luigi Mangione. The Will Smith Oscar slap. Will Smith just smack the shit out of me. You remember that time that ship got stuck in the Suez Canal? Oh, yeah. A giant container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal after losing power.

Or when President Biden, dropped out of the presidential race. Yeah. President Joe Biden's decision not to run for re-election. Or J.D. Vance couch rumors. You remember that. You may be wondering why you're seeing a ton of memes and posts about Donald Trump's VP pick, J.D. Vance, and his sectional relationship with his couch.

I do remember that, and we did a story about it. But my personal favorite day is right after the election back in 2020 when Rudy Giuliani hosted a press conference at four seasons total landscaping instead of the four seasons, Now, there is, of course, a mystery that hangs over all this, which is how the press conference came to be held at four seasons total landscaping in the first place. Oh, my God, yes, I remember this. Okay, so I feel like I kind of get it. It's the immediacy, right?

But let's get back to the bromance breakup. Are Trump and Musk done for good? Well, like any good breakup, it's complicated. Musk actually ended up deleting some of his more incendiary posts, including the one about the Epstein files. Over the weekend, Trump told NBC News that their relationship was over and that he has no desire to repair it. Ugh, classic breakup. But it looks like Elon is the one missing Trump, but Trump is the one over it.

And we're all watching their reality TV show. Yeah, exactly. Except, unlike Love Island, Welcome to Love Island. This reality show also has massive real-world ripple effects, which are affecting real people. The state of democracy kind of rests on the whims of these two very powerful, very egotistical guys. But I will say that the tone has changed recently. Musk is screenshoting some of Trump's truth social posts and reposting them on X, appearing to agree with him.

So it seems like he's trying to make amends. Yeah, I think I did see that he was agreeing with Trump's posts condemning the protests against ICE raids in L.A. I feel like we should get into that Morgan, right? In a new tab? We definitely will. But before we do that, let's take a quick break. Support for a key QBD podcast comes from Xfinity. Thanks to the Xfinity five-year price guarantee, you're guaranteed five years of reliable Wi-Fi with our best equipment, no annual contracts, and no fees. Plus, get online in minutes with same-day Wi-Fi. Lock in your price and unlock the possibilities.

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Okay, we're back. Newtown. What's happening in LA? question mark. Okay, so last month we did a two-part episode on the surveillance date and how protesters and organizers are being identified and targeted. 30-year-old Rumessa Azturk was on her way to break her Ramadan fast when six plain-clothed officers approached her.

But Morgan, what's going on where you are in Los Angeles? If you hear any background noise right now, it's probably the helicopters flying over my apartment. I'm not too far from the protests, and LAPD has been circling over the city. all weekend. We're recording this on Monday evening, and the protests are still going strong. But aside from where those demonstrations are happening, at least in the neighborhood I'm in, L.A. is unsettlingly quiet. It's like people are afraid to go outside, especially as ICE continues to patrol the city. But again, this is why I'm still on Twitter. There's a pretty

well-established network of mutual aid groups and organizers sharing resources and information over there. A lot of it is on Instagram, but real-time. time updates are coming from Twitter. Yeah, I'm seeing it all over my IG feed as well, but when did this all start? So it all started with a string of immigration raids on Friday, from a Home Depot to a clothing store downtown. And then people who appeared for their immigration check-ins were detained and taken to unknown locations. The FBI Homeland Security and ICE agents performed a a couple of hours ago, and we're just now seeing some people that are being detained. And remember, Los Angeles is a sanctuary city.

City resources cannot be used for federal immigration enforcement, and the city is prohibited from sharing data with immigration authorities. It's also worth noting that Los Angeles is a city of immigrants, something that a lot of the community takes pride in. So protests started that night, one outside an immigration detention center downtown, and another in the fashion district where one of the ice rates happened. At some point, they converged. Law enforcement showed up in riot gear to disperse the crowds. But the protests spread on Saturday, across downtown L.A., Compton, and Paramount. Trump deployed at least 2,000 National Guard

troops in Los Angeles, which Governor Newsom has called unlawful and a serious breach of state sovereignty. Law enforcement has used tear gas and pepper spray and flashbang grenades to try to disperse the crowds. You told me you got caught up in the tear gas as well. Describe what happened to you. Oh, just tasted a little tear gas. Tasted like fascism. But it all really escalated on Sunday afternoon, which coincided with L.A. Pride. People were literally going straight from pride events to the protests, demanding an end to ice raids. Who's got the power? They even managed to shut down the freeway. So the LAPD has deployed rubber bullets and surveillance drones,

in addition to the tear gas and flashbang grenades. I think they're going to push in from this side of the road. And then there's everything with Waymo's. Right, like a few months ago, we did an episode on the recent uptick in Waymo vandalism. And as a reminder, Waymos are the autonomous self-driving cars that operate in a few cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. But Morgan, why don't you walk us through what Waymos have to do with the protests? Well, a bunch of Waymos happened to be nearby during the protests downtown. And amid the confrontation between law enforcement and protesters, those Waymoes were tagged with

anti-ice messages and then set on fire, which went super viral. So there's been a lot of discourse around Waymo vandalism and property damage during these protests. But I think it's important to remember that Waymos have become representative of encroaching big tech, especially here in L.A. There's a lot of anger at the way that tech companies like Palantir are helping immigration enforcement. Right. And plus there's speculation that Waymos might be used as surveillance tools. Exactly. Four or Four or Four Media recently reported that the LAPD has used footage obtained from a Waymo to investigate crimes. So a lot of people are suspicious of autonomous vehicles right now. Yeah. So what else is happening in L.A.? Well, now the latest escalation is that the Trump

administration is sending Marines to L.A.? Yeah, I saw that. It really looks like a war zone. Yeah, only around certain parts of L.A. But the president is posting through it on Truth Social. He's called the protests a riot. Wow. I haven't seen any of that because I'm not on Truth Social.

But does this bring us back to Elon Musk? I'm also not on Truth Social, but I did see screenshots on Twitter. And yes, one of the posts that Musk shared on Twitter or X calls for a ban on masks at protests. And like we talked about in our surveillance series a few weeks ago, masks have become a staple at protests to avoid facial recognition. That and also to reduce exposure to tear gas, preper spray, and airborne viruses like COVID. Yeah, but like we've seen in the student protests for Palestine over the last year, there's been an effort to make protesters easier to identify. Exactly. On truth social, Trump has also called for the arrest of anyone

wearing a mask. So masking has become a real point of contention in these protests, as activists demand that ICE agents and LAPD and other law enforcement officials also unmask when showing up to protests. This is a thing in Los Angeles especially. Activists have made an effort to identify ICE agents and publicize their names and faces so that anyone at risk of deportation knows who to avoid. But now, some conservative lawmakers are trying to penalize anyone who I'd like to. identifies a law enforcement officer. Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn recently proposed legislation that would punish people with up to five years in prison for identifying ICE agents. But we'll have to see how the protests unfold throughout the rest of the month. Ice operations in L.A. are supposed to

continue for the next 30 days. But it is worth noting that the president's social media posts aren't like legal powers enshrined in the Constitution. They can't enforce a mask ban just because he posted about it. They can't legally enforce that. But we don't legally enforce that. But we don't, we've seen this administration do plenty of things they're not supposed to do. So true. Right. Executive orders are quick to enact, and the justice system is really slow. And those things have real consequences for all of us. So while Twitter memes are a nice distraction, let's remember how serious this is. Absolutely. I mean, I'm trying to curb my Twitter addiction, but between the memes and the important protest information, it's just really hard to leave.

Anyway, those were all our updates. Thanks for joining, Maya. Anytime, Morgan, because I literally work here. Speaking of protest information, if you do find yourself in a protest zone, stay safe. We'll leave some links about protecting your digital privacy in the show notes. And it might be worth going back and listening to our two-part series called The Surveillance Machine. We'll be back next week with part two of our series on Spotify. For now, let's close all these tabs.

Close All Tabs is a production of a show of a show show. of KQED Studios and is reported and hosted by me, Morgan Sung. Our producer is Maya Kueva. Chris Aguza is our senior editor. Jen Cheen is KQED's director of podcasts and helps edit the show. Sound design by Maya Quaba. Original music by Chris Agusa. Additional music by APM.

Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Mahasanaad and Alana Walker. Katie Springer is our podcast operations manager, and Holly Kernan is our chief content officer. Support for this program comes from Be Wrong Who and supporters of the KQED Studios Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California, local. Keyboard sounds were recorded on my purple and pink, dust silver K-84 wired mechanical keyboard

with Gatoron Red switches. If you have feedback or a topic you think we should cover, hit us up at Close All tabs at kQED.org. Follow us on Instagram at close all tabs pod or drop it on Discord. We're in the close all tabs channel at discord.g slash kQED. And if you're enjoying the show, give us a rating on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you use. Thanks for listening. Support for KQBD Podcasts comes from Xfinity. Thanks to the Xfinity five-year price guarantee, you're guaranteed five years of reliable Wi-Fi with our best equipment, no annual contracts, and no fees. Plus, get online in minutes with same-day Wi-Fi.

Lock in your price and unlock the possibilities. Xfinity, imagine that. Restrictions apply. Select plans only. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank.

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