Fernando Cao Profile picture
Mar 2 25 tweets 9 min read Read on X
Elon Musk's pod with Rogan yesterday is mind-blowing.

They discussed:

• The chances of Musk being assassinated
• Who's really protecting the Epstein files
• Why AI could end humanity by 2030

Let me save you 3 hours — here are the 12 most important things they talked about🧵 Image
1. The scale of government waste is worse than anyone imagined.

$1.9 billion was sent to an NGO formed just a year ago with almost no prior activity.

The US government is losing $2 trillion per year, failing its own audits.

And it gets even worse:
Treasury payments worth nearly $5 trillion annually had no categorization codes or descriptions - essentially blank, untraceable checks.

A change as simple as making payment codes mandatory could save $100 billion yearly.

And here's DOGE's most shocking discovery:
DOGE found 20M dead people marked as alive in Social Security databases.

While they weren't directly receiving payments, their "alive" status enabled fraud through disability claims, unemployment, and fake medical payments.

This is potentially the biggest scam in human history.
2. What's really happening with immigration?

Elon believes Democratic leadership is using immigration as a voter recruitment strategy:

In swing states where elections are decided by ~20,000 votes, adding 200,000 immigrants who vote Democrat could alter the political landscape.
FEMA, designed to help Americans during disasters, was paying for luxury hotels for illegal immigrants in New York - even AFTER Trump signed an executive order to stop it.

This isn't compassion — it's calculation.
3. Musk had a shocking realization about X (Twitter).

If he hadn't bought the platform, Trump would have never been allowed back, Alex Jones would have remained banned, and Musk's own account could've been suspended.

The 2024 election might have had an entirely different outcome as a result.
4. Musk's Mars timeline has accelerated dramatically.

SpaceX will launch several Starships to Mars by the end of next year (November/December 2025).

The goal: determine if they can successfully land intact before sending humans.

But why the urgency?
Mars missions face a fundamental time constraint. Each Earth-Mars orbital synchronization occurs every 26 months.

Musk believes we have about 15 such opportunities (roughly 30 years) to establish a self-sufficient civilization on Mars before Earth potentially faces civilization collapse.
5. The SpaceX astronaut rescue mission finally has a timeline.

The stranded astronauts who've been in space for 8 months (instead of the planned 8 days) will be rescued in ~4 weeks.

Musk revealed that Biden rejected earlier rescue offers for political reasons.
6. On AI, Musk made his most alarming prediction yet:

We'll have AI smarter than any human within a year or two.

By 2029-2030, we'll likely have AI smarter than all humans combined.

But there's a fascinating silver lining to this existential threat...
Musk estimates that there's an 80% chance AI will benefit humanity. The other 20%? Complete annihilation.

His biggest worry isn't AI itself, but AI programmed with extremist values — Elon wants to avoid a world where AI "executes people for misgendering."
7. On the Epstein files, Musk didn't hold back.

The lack of transparency around the Epstein client list raises serious questions.

If Ghislaine Maxwell is in jail for sex trafficking, who exactly was she trafficking to?

But powerful interests are preventing disclosure...
8. SpaceX is working on a technological breakthrough that's never been achieved before.

The Starship must solve fully reusable orbital heat shields - a problem no one has solved.

The heat shield tiles are as brittle as coffee cups but must withstand both extreme cold (liquid oxygen at -330°F) and reentry heat (potentially 1000+°F).
9. Government's structure makes reform nearly impossible.

Musk compared it to becoming captain of a ship where the entire crew was previously your enemy.

This explains the slow pace of promised transparency:

Even high-level appointees like Kash Patel face institutional resistance when trying to release classified information.
10. Musk fears assassination.

Two separate incidents involved people traveling to Austin to kill him before his political involvement.

Now with mainstream media portraying him as a "Nazi," he believes the risk has risen.

He's careful about how hard he pushes on corruption.
11. The Trump assassination attempt mysteries remain troubling.

The shooter's house was "professionally scrubbed" with no cutlery or personal items.

He had five phones at age 20, and his digital footprint was almost completely erased.

Strange.
12. Musk believes our future requires becoming multiplanetary.

For the first time in Earth's 4.5 billion year history, we can extend consciousness beyond our home planet.

This window may not stay open long - civilization could collapse from war, natural disaster, or simply population decline.

Mars is our insurance policy.
Musk's conversation with Rogan reveals something profound:

In an era of misinformation and competing narratives, your personal voice matters more than ever.

When thought leaders like Musk speak directly to the public, they bypass traditional information gatekeepers.

The significance?
With a personal brand, you can share your vision, unfiltered, with millions instantly.

A strong personal brand doesn't just amplify your message - it builds trust at a scale impossible through traditional marketing.

This is why Musk's acquisition of Twitter was so brilliant...
He understood a fundamental truth: in today's information landscape, controlling distribution equals power.

When you build a personal brand, you create your own distribution channel - one that works for you 24/7, even while you sleep.

The benefits?
With a personal brand, you:

• Attract top talent effortlessly
• Open doors to investment opportunities
• Create customer relationships before the first sales call

Today's top founders are all investing in a personal brand that becomes their competitive advantage.

Will you?
Founders: We’ll build your personal/company brand on 𝕏 (and beyond) without you lifting a finger.

To date, we've already helped 140+ founders get 3+ Billion combined views.

Interested in how we can do this for you? Book your free discovery call here: form.typeform.com/to/JWuXNkxQ?ut…
Thanks for reading! A bit about me:

2 years ago, I cofounded @ThoughtleadrX — a premium personal branding agency for world-class founders, executives, and investors to dominate socials.

If you enjoyed this, hit "follow" for more breakdowns! Image
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More from @thefernandocz

Feb 28
Naval Ravikant calls this man "the smartest living human".

He wrote two books that shaped Naval's entire philosophy on wealth & success.

These are the ideas of David Deutsche — the man who developed the ultimate framework for solving any problem🧵 Image
Born in Haifa, Israel in 1953, David Deutsch moved to the UK as a child.

His academic journey took him through Cambridge and Oxford — the UK's best universities — but it wasn't just about getting degrees.

David was obsessed with one fundamental question:
What is the true nature of reality itself?

His discoveries would reshape our understanding of everything...

And in 1985, he published a paper that transformed computing forever.

He described the first quantum Turing machine:
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Feb 28
This is René Girard.

The man who mentored Peter Thiel at Stanford.

He taught Thiel a devastating philosophy that led Thiel to invest in Facebook before anyone else (and turn $500K into $1 BILLION).

Here's that philosophy: Image
Girard started as a literary critic studying great novels like those by Dostoevsky, Proust, and Cervantes.

Through literature, Girard discovered a universal pattern of human behavior that would become his life's work...
Girard realized:

Human desire isn't original. It's copied.

We want things because other people want them.

And this "mimetic desire" shapes everything from what we buy to who we become.

Here’s an example:
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Feb 27
Email Elon what you accomplished last week — or resign.

That's Musk's ultimatum to 2M government employees.

But while government workers are in shock, this is NORMAL for Elon's management style.

A deep dive into the radical management style that made Elon Musk $400B+🧵 Image
The email was sent on February 24, 2025.

As head of the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk instructed ALL federal workers to send "approximately 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week."

The deadline? Image
11:59 PM that same day.

"Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

Government employees better demonstrate their value immediately - or they're out.

But to understand why this is happening, we need to look at Musk's management philosophy:
Read 28 tweets
Feb 26
Bill Gates once bet $3 BILLION against Elon Musk.

Elon Musk found out — and asked Gates why he did it.

But when Elon heard Gates' answer...

Elon never spoke to Bill Gates again.

Here's the full story: Image
The year was 2022.

Elon had just cemented his position as the world's richest person, while Bill Gates remained a fixture in the top 10.

Despite their different approaches to tech & business, they'd maintained a cordial relationship until this point.

But...
Gates had invited Musk to join his "Giving Pledge" campaign, aimed at encouraging billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth.

The meeting took place at Tesla's massive 10-million-square-foot gigafactory in Austin.

The meeting started off well:
Read 25 tweets
Feb 24
Naval Ravikant's parenting style is mind-blowing.

He lets his kids eat ice cream at 9 PM.

His oldest plays iPad 9 hours a day.

And he never forces his kids to do anything they don't want to do.

Here's why Naval says less strictness raises healthier kids: Image
This philosophy comes from David Deutsch — a man Naval considers "the smartest living human."

Aside from his work on quantum computing, Deutsch pioneered a concept called "Taking Children Seriously".

The core idea? Treat kids exactly like you'd treat other adults...
The philosophy argues that we only control children through implicit threats of physical force (e.g. "Go to your room!" or "Hand over that iPad!")

These are forms of intimidation we'd never use with adults. They may get children to do what you want — but don't teach them why.
Read 22 tweets
Feb 23
In 2022, Apple could have killed Twitter with ONE decision.

Apple removed billions in advertising from Twitter.

It could have been the end — then Elon Musk walked into Apple HQ...

And ONE meeting with Tim Cook changed free speech and politics forever.

Here's the full story🧵 Image
The stage was set in late 2022.

Elon had just bought Twitter for $44 billion.

His vision? Transform it into X - an "everything app" inspired by WeChat.

But there was one massive obstacle standing in his way...
Apple.

Apple wasn't just any advertiser.

They were Twitter's largest, accounting for 4% of Twitter's revenue in Q1 2022.

And they wielded an even more powerful weapon:

Control over the App Store - Twitter's gateway to iOS users.
Read 17 tweets

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