Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Read more
The View’s Whoopi Goldberg pushed back against her fellow co-hosts relishing the very public and bitter breakup between Donald Trump and his former “first buddy” Elon Musk, claiming on Monday that the meltdown between the pair was “fake” and a “distraction.”
With the show taping Friday’s broadcast Thursday, Monday’s program represented the first opportunity for the panel to weigh in on the increasingly fraught back-and-forth between the world’s richest man and the leader of the free world, which has seen Trump recently insist that he has “no intention” of speaking to the “disrespectful” Musk.
After airing clips of Republican lawmakers and Vice President JD Vance expressing disappointment over the split, which was precipitated by Musk’s anger over the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” the show also highlighted progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gleefully reacting that “the girls are fighting.”
“The fact that the big beautiful bromance is over was just very funny to me,” co-host Sunny Hostin declared, kicking off the discussion. She went on to note that both Musk and Trump were using the respective social media platforms that they owned to fire off personal attacks against each other.
“It was so messy and ridiculous and silly. And they say a woman is too emotional to run the country? Okay! Alright,” she added as the in-studio audience applauded.
.jpg)
open image in gallery
Alyssa Farah Griffin, the resident conservative panelist and a former Trump administration official turned Never Trumper, giggled at AOC’s “the girls are fighting” quote before saying she “couldn’t look away” as the feud ignited. At the same time, she tried to give some insight into what really rubbed Trump the wrong way.
“The tweet that hurt the most wasn’t Elon Musk saying JD Vance should replace you and you should be impeached, it was him saying Donald Trump is a lame-duck, he’s here for three and a half years, I’m here for 40 years,” she said. “What he was signaling to Republicans on Capitol Hill was to be with me and be against this ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’ which is Donald Trump’s entire legislative agenda.”
Ana Navarro, another Republican who has made a name for herself as a fierce Trump critic, also stated that she found the meltdown “incredibly amazing and entertaining.” She then argued that the “infantile tantrum between two really big babies” got so bad that the administration “even brought back Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador” because they are “so desperate to distract” the rest of the world.
As the table began to debate who they thought would come out ahead in the squabble, Goldberg poured cold water on the conversation.
“I love that you all brought into it,” she flatly stated, adding that she does “believe it’s fake.”
.jpg)
open image in gallery
With a somewhat surprised Hostin asking her why she felt that this wasn’t a genuine beef between the two powerful men, Goldberg asserted that the whole thing was just a way to divert the public’s attention away from the president’s other actions.
“It’s too strategic. I just feel like, oh yeah, now suddenly everybody’s upset about stuff. I’m sorry, no. This is another distraction to keep us talking not about the stuff we’re talking about, but the stuff they want us to,” she exclaimed.
“I’m not buying it. I don’t buy it, because they love to lie all day,” Goldberg continued before turning her attention to Abrego Garcia, who was finally returned to the United States after the Department of Justice filed federal criminal smuggling charges against him.
“They brought a man back, they brought a man back, at first, look at his hands, we got these gang signs,” she concluded. “Now he’s been running people out of the country. He’s been, you know, trafficking people. It’s like, okay, what else, bring me more. Because I don’t believe anything they say anymore. They have shown themselves not to be the most trustworthy people.”
