The Headlines - Trump’s Historic Chief of Staff Pick, and What Elon Musk Wants Now

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

Plus, for $200, he was the voice of the internet.   Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:Trump Names Susie Wiles as His White House Chief of Staff, by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan SwanElon Musk Helped Elect Trump. What Does He Expect in Return?, by Eric Lipton, Kirsten Grind, David A. Fahrenthold and Theodore SchleiferBiden Vows a Peaceful Transfer of Power: ‘The American Experiment Endures’, by Michael D. Shear‘Total Nightmare’ as Wildfire Burns Through Southern California Homes, by Corina Knoll and Rachel ParsonsElwood Edwards, Voice of AOL’s ‘You’ve Got Mail!’ Alert, Dies at 74, by Emmett Lindner

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Friday, November 8th. Here's what we're covering. Donald Trump's White House is starting to take shape. Last night, the president-elect made the first appointment of his new administration, picking Suzy Wiles, his campaign manager, to be his chief of staff. Chief of staff is often described as the second most powerful job in Washington.

Chiefs of staff drive the president's agenda and act as gatekeepers to the Oval Office. Wiles will be the first woman to ever hold the position. At Trump's victory speech on Wednesday, he publicly praised Wiles, who normally keeps — He did. Suzy, come Suzy, come here. Come here Suzy. — At Trump's victory speech on Wednesday, he publicly praised Wiles, who normally keeps an extremely low profile and has little interest in appearing in front of cameras. He tried and failed twice to get her to speak in front of the crowd. — Suzy likes to stay sort of in the back, let me tell you. The Ice Maiden, we call her the Ice Maiden.

— Trump said his nickname for her is the ice maiden. Wiles is known as a key Trump insider, a savvy operative who's been in politics since the 1970s. She's been a lobbyist, helped get Ron DeSantis elected governor in Florida, and is close with the Trump family. She's the only one of his campaign managers to ever make it through an entire race. But she'll be taking on a role that was defined by chaos in Trump's first administration. He went through four chiefs of staff in four years. One of them, John Kelly,

described it as the worst job he'd ever had. As Trump staffs up his administration, one prominent figure has already been making some requests. Elon Musk. Musk, who's the world's richest man, became one of Trump's biggest backers in the past few months, pouring more than $100 million into Trump's campaign and joining him at rallies. And honestly, you want to just be a pest. Just be a pest to everyone you know, people on the street everywhere. Vote, vote, vote. Fight, fight, fight. Vote, vote, vote.

Thank you. For us on the outside, as reporters, we were wondering what might be motivating us to be so incredibly driven to help Trump get back into the White House. Eric Lipton is an investigative reporter at the Times. He says even before Trump was reelected, Musk asked him to hire employees from SpaceX for top government positions, including at the Department of Defense. What Elon Musk wants is influence to affect the way that the federal government operates.

Musk businesses have a pretty incredible array of business operations with the federal government. SpaceX alone, just in the last five years, received $11 billion worth of contracts. It launches crews to the International Space Station. It sends up many of NASA satellites. And even more importantly, most of the national security payloads are going up on SpaceX rockets. And so are spy satellites. He's both launching the spy satellites and building them now. And so therefore the budgets of the Department of Defense, the budget at NASA, and the intelligence agency budgets, all of those impact his bottom line and his profits. Eric says Musk's interest in Trump's presidency

also goes beyond budgets and contracts. Some of his businesses are facing federal investigations into workplace safety and environmental standards. I mean, it's just like an alphabet soup of federal agencies investigating his operations because Elon Musk has a tendency to push the limits of the law in his drive to get things done quickly. He's so determined to build fast that he often skirts at the edge or right over the limits

of federal law. And so he is this target of a pretty extraordinary array of federal investigations. The presumption is that many of those would simply go away once Trump is in office and he appoints his cabinet secretaries and they have jurisdiction over all of these investigations. It's also possible that Musk himself could end up as part of the government. Trump has promised to create a government efficiency commission, which he said Musk would lead, with the goal of auditing the federal government

and recommending, quote, drastic reforms. For more about Trump's plans for a second term, you can listen to today's episode of The Daily with Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. Meanwhile... Jonathan Swan. Meanwhile. On January 20th, we'll have a peaceful transfer of power here in America. In the Rose Garden at the White House yesterday, President Biden spoke publicly for the first time since the election. He promised a smooth transition to the next presidency, a sharp contrast to what happened four years ago when Trump refused to concede.

In his brief seven-minute speech, Biden highlighted what he felt his administration had achieved, and he set aside any criticism of Trump, saying, quote, the American experiment endures. I know for some people it's a time for victory to state the obvious. For others, it's a time of loss. Campaigns are contests of competing visions.

The country chooses one or the other. I mean, for President Biden, this is actually a very awkward and uncomfortable moment. He is going to be the first president in our lifetime to be succeeded by the very person that he defeated four years earlier. Peter Baker is the Times Chief White House correspondent. One of the things that's interesting about the speech, of course, is he didn't take any responsibility for what happened.

He didn't offer any second guessing or introspection about what Democrats did wrong. I would have loved if he had taken questions. We could have asked him about that. So, you know, sir, why is it that you think that Democrats lost you? What do Democrats need to do to appeal to people who obviously have left you,

at least at this point for Donald Trump? And what are the implications for the future at this point? He told us, as did Vice President Kamala Harris, that if Trump were reelected, democracy was under threat. Okay, it's happened now. So is it under threat? And if so, what should people think about that? In Southern California, a fast-moving wildfire northwest of Los Angeles has forced over 10,000 people from their homes and destroyed more than 100 buildings, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency. Dubbed the Mountain Fire, it's been tearing through the hilly communities of Ventura County, fueled by high winds. As of early this morning, it's only 5% contained. The destruction has been somewhat unpredictable.

On one street, there were lots with nothing left but a scorched chimney, while other homes were untouched, their lawns still green. Wildfires aren't uncommon in the area, but residents say they weren't prepared for how fast the mountain fire spread. A recent study found that wildfires in the Western U.S. have been getting faster over the last few years, potentially because of hotter, drier conditions. heartbeat And finally...

Before Siri, before Alexa, before whatever that automated voice on TikTok is, one man was the voice of the internet. You've got mail. Elwood Edwards, who recorded AOL's iconic tagline, died this week at 74. His chipper greeting used to sound out every time someone logged onto their AOL account, which used to be the way to get online. The backstory to his big break.

In 1989, Edwards' wife was working at the company that eventually became AOL and heard it was looking for someone to be the voice of its alerts. Edwards recorded himself on a cassette deck in his living room and soon his voice was everywhere, becoming a cultural touchstone and potentially peaking in the most 90s way possible. I turn on my computer. Inspiring a Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan rom-com. I go online. Welcome.

And my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words. You got mail. Edwards, who went on to have a long career in broadcasting, claimed AOL told him that at one point, his voice was heard more than 35 million times a day before the company lost its internet dominance. In total, Edwards said he was paid $200 for the gig. Those are the headlines.

This show is made by Robert Jemison, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford, with help from Isabella Anderson. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, Megan Luditt, Zoe Murphy, Mary Sue, Paula Schuman, and Karen Workman. The headlines will be back on Monday.