‘The View’: Whoopi Goldberg Says Trump-Musk Feud Is ‘Fake’

Amanda Bell June 9, 2025, 11:48 am

On Monday’s (June 9) episode of The View cohosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin returned to tackle the “Hot Topics” of the day and, after it was glaringly omitted from Friday’s episode, the subject of Donald Trump and Elon Musk‘s very public spat finally came up.

After hearing what her fellow cohosts had to say about the matter, Goldberg revealed her theory: that the whole episode is fake.

“I love that ya’ll bought into it… I do believe it’s fake,” she said. “Yes, I do. It’s too strategic.”

After some disagreement from Griffin, who said Goldberg is giving the two “too much credit” with that assessment, Goldberg continued, “No, this is another distraction to keep us talking not about the stuff we are talking about but the stuff they want us to. I don’t buy them because they lie.”

Goldberg was previously the cohost who maintained that Musk was a “shadow president” under Trump’s second term.

Before Goldberg’s theory came through, the others shared their takes. For Hostin, it was “very funny” that the “big, beautiful bromance” between the two was over. “I mean, you have the president of the United States publicly squabbling with the richest man in the world on the social media sites that they own, fighting against each other. It was so messy and ridiculous and silly,” she said before adding, “And they say a woman is too emotional to run the country.”

'The View' Skips Covering Trump-Musk Feud, Leaving Viewers Completely Confused

Griffin then suggested that the most damaging thing Musk said about Trump was that he will be around longer. “The tweet that actually hurt the most was not Elon Musk saying JD Vance should replace you and you should be impeached, where you’re going to take the U.S. economy and throw into a recession. It was him saying Donald Trump is a lame duck. He said, ‘He’s here for three and a half years. I’m here for 40 years,'” Griffin said. “Because what he was signaling to Republicans on Capitol Hill is, ‘Be with me and be against this Big, Beautiful Bill,’ which is Donald Trump’s entire legislative agenda. And if people decide, shoot Elon Musk is going to be around for a lot longer than Trump, I’m going to side with him. That’s his whole agenda that falls apart.”

However, she later clarified, “In this fight, my money is on Donald Trump,” citing his stated willingness to cancel Musk’s federal contracts as a reason.

For Navarro, meanwhile, “I found the entire ‘Yo Mama’ contest between the two of them… amazing and entertaining, but it’s also horrifying because the question to Trump would be, ‘If Elon Musk is so bad, then how the hell did you give him unfettered access to our information?’ To Elon Musk would be, ‘If Donald Trump is so bad, then why the hell did you put in $300 million to get him and Republicans elected so that they now have no checks and balances?'”

She also suggested that the unexpected change in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia (a Maryland father who was deported to the El Salvador prison complex due to an “administrative error,” and the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to “facilitate” his return) is indicative of something larger. “I knew this thing had gotten out of hand for the White House when they even brought back Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador, the guy that they had disappeared into that gulag in El Salvador. They brought him back because I think they are so desperate to distract from what the rest of the world and America must find the most infantile tantrum between two really big babies.”

For Haines, the whole debacle just solidified another political holding that she has. “It’s funny to watch until you’re like, that is literally the president of the United States being matched tweet for tweet, at the same level of complete insanity,” she said. “But the bigger point here is, you’re watching Elon Musk lose all his millions of worth in one day, and then you’re watching this bill that’s going to add trillions to our deficit. Why don’t we just tax the billionaires? They’re going to lose it for fun.”

The View, Weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC