Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville predicted on Monday that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk — because of the work he is doing with the blessing of President Donald Trump’s administration — would drive more Democrat voters to the polls than even former President Barack Obama did.
Carville joined NewsNation host Chris Cuomo to discuss his recent prediction about the Trump administration — made during an interview with Mediaite founder Dan Abrams — namely, that it was on the brink of collapse and things would begin to fall apart in the next four to six weeks.
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Democratic strategist @JamesCarville tells @ChrisCuomo that he believes Elon Musk’s missteps with the Department of Government Efficiency will ultimately be an incredible catalyst for the Democratic Party.
MORE: https://t.co/jmXKxKamLB #CUOMO pic.twitter.com/fiURh3SJcx
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) February 25, 2025
Carville began with the economy, arguing that persistent inflation and the coming budget fight would sour voters on Trump.
“Literally every Western democracy government has failed because of inflation. So I place a lot of stock on that. The trend is going the wrong way. But the real thing here, Chris, is the calendar,” Carville said. “And what I’m asking Democrats to do is remember, I think it was Harold Macmillan, might have been Harold Wilson said, ‘Events, my dear boy, events.’ So they have to produce a budget by March the 14th. They have to go through reconciliation. They can’t not do it. They have to extend the debt limit.”
“Let the ball come to you. Then throw it. The ball is coming to us,” Carville continued. “And the other thing I place a lot of stock in are these organic town halls. These are not being organized by Democratic interest groups. These are not being organized by the DNC. These are just people coming up and saying, we don’t like this at all. And you’re seeing it and as you point out, very smartly in Georgia and Wisconsin and Oregon, I saw something even in Idaho, you know, when you start to lose Idaho, you got some problems.”
Carville then turned to address Musk — and the efforts being made by the Department Of Government Efficiency project — and said that people angry about what Musk and DOGE were doing would come out in force at the next election.
“So I think we just have to play possum for a little while. Just let them keep coming. And Musk will turn out, if they keep him, he will be the greatest generator — let me say this very specifically — the greatest generator of Democratic turnout ever, more than Barack Obama. Musk will turn out more Democrats than Obama,” Carville predicted.