The interview was initially delayed by technical difficulties, however as soon as it began it turned a wide-ranging dialogue that coated final month’s assassination try towards Trump, immigration, international coverage, and the economic system. At factors throughout the interview Trump gave meandering solutions, lots of which have been riddled with falsehoods.
When discussing the economic system, Musk recurrently spoke of the runaway authorities spending that he mentioned led to inflation and the excessive price of paying curiosity on public debt. A number of instances Musk pitched himself as a candidate to serve on a “government efficiency commission” that will look at public spending.
The fee in would “ensure that the taxpayer money, the taxpayers’ hard earned money, is spent in a good way,” Musk mentioned. “And I’d be happy to help out on such a commission.” Trump, who typically pivoted to his ordinary speaking factors about the price of residing.”
Trump responded favorably, telling Musk he’d “love” to have him on such a committee. The federal authorities spent $6.13 trillion in fiscal yr 2022. Trump then pivoted to his speaking factors about the price of residing.
Musk went on to say that extreme authorities regulation was one more reason for persistent inflation. “If you deregulate, like have sensible regulations, so because lot of the regulations are nonsensical and cause the cost to be extreme for no reason,” Musk mentioned.
Over the course of the interview, Musk and Trump have been quite chummy, joking and complimenting each other.
Musk solely just lately formally endorsed Trump, which he did instantly after the failed assassination try towards him final month. Since then experiences emerged that Musk was throwing his appreciable monetary weight behind the previous president’s reelection marketing campaign. The Musk-backed America PAC pledged thousands and thousands in assist of Trump. Musk is reportedly personally concerned with components of the PAC’s work, which incorporates an effort to turnout 800,000 low propensity voters in varied battleground states, in accordance to the Wall Road Journal. (Officers from North Carolina and Michigan are investigating the PAC over allegations it improperly collected voter knowledge).
I absolutely endorse President Trump and hope for his speedy restoration pic.twitter.com/ZdxkF63EqF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2024
Previous to the previous few years, Musk had a comparatively little involvement in politics. Now, he stands as one of many commonplace bearers for Silicon Valley’s assist of Trump. That in and of itself is considerably stunning contemplating the tech business was prior to now thought of a bastion of Democratic assist. Whereas it’s nonetheless overwhelmingly so, the emergence of outstanding tech business figures popping out in assist of Trump is a considerably new improvement. Along with Musk, Trump’s tech supporters embody a crop of enterprise capitalists like Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Peter Thiel, Doug Leone, and Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale.
Musk’s assist for Trump doesn’t dovetail neatly along with his enterprise pursuits because the CEO of an electrical automobile firm. Trump has recurrently been hostile to electrical automobiles. He has additionally talked about that he plans to finish subsidies for electrical automobiles, which assist Tesla’s gross sales. Though Trump might have modified his tune, saying just lately he had “no choice” however to assist electrical automobiles since Musk endorsed him.
Throughout their joint dialog, Trump complimented Teslas, calling them a “great product.”
Musk’s assist for Trump grew over time. In 2022, throughout an look on the All-In podcast, Musk mentioned that previously he had voted “overwhelmingly” for Democrats. Round that point his political allegiances started shifting. By the 2022 midterms Musk would come out in assist of the Republican Get together. But he nonetheless hadn’t warmed to Trump completely.
“I don’t hate the man,” Elon Musk wrote in a social media put up in July 2022, “but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”
I don’t hate the person, but it surely’s time for Trump to hold up his hat & sail into the sundown.
Dems must also name off the assault – don’t make it in order that Trump’s solely strategy to survive is to regain the Presidency.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2022
In the identical social media thread Musk expressed concern about Trump’s age. “Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America,” Musk wrote.
Trump could be 82 at finish of time period, which is just too outdated to be chief govt of something, not to mention the US of America.
If DeSantis runs towards Biden in 2024, then DeSantis will simply win – he doesn’t even have to marketing campaign.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2022
Satirically, that was the exact same argument used to finally push President Joe Biden out of the race final month. Biden then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris who has since turn out to be the Democratic nominee. Since then, Trump’s mammoth lead within the polls has been slipping. A current ballot discovered Harris main Trump within the essential battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
At instances the dialog between Musk and Trump reached near-apocalyptic ranges, as they two fretted over the potential of a world battle. “We have numerous places that could end up in world war three right now,” Trump mentioned.
Musk agreed, highlighting what he noticed as the prices. “The risk of global thermonuclear warfare it’s game over for you,” he mentioned.
There was an analogous tone when discussing the state of the economic system.
The interview, which each Musk and Trump had closely promoted, was set to happen at 8 p.m. ET on X Areas, a function of the app that permits customers to host reside conversations. Nevertheless, individuals couldn’t be a part of the chatroom to hear in. Customers that attempted to affix the dialog to hear reside have been as an alternative met with an error display that advised them the House was “unavailable.”
Halfway by the interview, Musk realized this was the case and tweeted that he believed X was being attacked. “There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X,” Musk wrote in a put up on X. “Working on shutting it down. Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.”
There seems to be a large DDOS assault on 𝕏. Engaged on shutting it down.
Worst case, we are going to proceed with a smaller variety of reside listeners and put up the dialog later.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
DDOS stands for distributed denial of service, referring to a sort of cyberattack that disrupts regular service to a sure web site. Fortune was not in a position to independently confirm if X had been the sufferer of a cyberattack.
Musk additionally mentioned that earlier on Monday X had examined Areas with 8 million listeners.
The technical difficulties with Musk’s Trump interview have been paying homage to comparable issues Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis encountered when he launched his Republican major bid on the platform in Might 2023. Roughly 500,000 individuals tried to affix the X House directly, inflicting the positioning’s servers to crash.
The technical mishap throughout the interview come at a troublesome time for Trump’s presidential marketing campaign, his third general. He has struggled to take care of a disciplined message, much more so than ordinary, handled a rocky rollout of his vice presidential nominee Ohio Senator JD Vance. In the meantime his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris has energized her social gathering’s base ever since she took over the function of Democratic nominee from President Joe Biden. Democratic voters desperate to rally behind a candidate that wasn’t Biden have rallied behind Harris, greeting her marketing campaign with appreciable enthusiasm. A brand new ballot now exhibits Harris overtaking Trump within the essential battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, which he had beforehand led in.
