The largest moments from Elon Musk’s interview with Trump

Final evening, former President Donald Trump returned to X, the social media web site as soon as referred to as Twitter in as bombastic a type as potential: a livestream with the positioning’s now-owner Elon Musk. The interview on Areas, X’s platform for dwell audio conversations, lined every part from unlawful immigration to union busting. At one level, Trump and Musk underscored the necessity for an American chief who would encourage concern in different international locations. Over the course of two hours, the richest man on this planet and the previous president of america reminded us that they share some putting similarities — big egos, a love of consideration and social media, but on the identical time a way of victimhood. (Vice President Kamala Harris may love Venn diagrams, however she’d need to hate this intersection.)

Whereas Trump had been banned following the occasions of January 6, and reinstated when Musk took over, he solely returned to the platform in textual content for yesterday’s dialog. Each Musk and Trump promoted the interview as a marquee leisure occasion, with Musk promising that it will be “unscripted with no limits on subject material, so must be extremely entertaining!” But the 2 males gabbed principally concerning the predictable matters: the US border, crime, after which nonetheless extra concerning the border. The interview was yet one more alternative for Trump to spew insults and make false statements, with no pushback from his interviewer — not even when Trump instructed Musk, the CEO of an EV firm, that he deliberate to “drill, child, drill” in his second time period.

The livestream began practically an hour late as a result of technical difficulties. Nearly 20 minutes after it was set to start, Musk wrote that there seemed to be a “large DDOS assault on X.” (A DDoS assault deliberately disrupts a web site by flooding it with site visitors; it wouldn’t be correct to name it a DDoS assault if lots of people organically wished to tune in.) Earlier Areas occasions on X have been rife with glitches, too — a dwell convo between Musk and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis final Might, through which DeSantis introduced his presidential bid, crashed when over 500,000 folks tried to pay attention in. Earlier than the Trump interview, Musk mentioned that X can be conducting stress exams to make sure the livestream may deal with the site visitors. Prime livestreams on YouTube and Twitch have dealt with tens of millions of concurrent viewers earlier than, and the preferred streamers on these platforms commonly get pleasure from tons of of hundreds of viewers.

Right now, Trump returned to Fact Social, the social media web site that he has a majority stake in, to reward Musk and lash out in opposition to the media for reporting on the technical points that delayed the livestream.

“I completely HATE the Faux Information Media,” he wrote. “So unhealthy for our Nation!”

Trump and Musk haven’t all the time been on good phrases. Within the run-up to the presidential election in 2016, Musk mentioned in a CNBC interview that Trump was “not the best man,” noting that he didn’t have the “form of character that displays properly on america.” Nonetheless, as soon as Trump was in workplace Musk initially fostered a pleasant relationship with the president, even agreeing to affix two White Home advisory councils. He shortly stepped down after Trump pulled out of the Paris Settlement, which goals to restrict international warming to beneath 2 levels Celsius.

Then, at a rally in 2022, Trump claimed that Musk had instructed him he voted for him in 2016, calling the billionaire a “bullshit artist.” Musk sniped again that Trump ought to “sail into the sundown,” and in response Trump wrote on Fact Social that Musk had come to the Oval Workplace to ask for assist “on all of his many backed tasks,” and that he may have instructed Musk to drop to his knees and beg.

All that seems to be water beneath the bridge now. Musk formally endorsed Trump in July on the day of his tried assassination, and is backing a tremendous PAC aiming to get 800,000 Individuals in swing states to vote for Trump. The Wall Road Journal just lately reported that the 2 communicate on the cellphone a number of occasions a month now to debate matters resembling “immigration, expertise and science.”

Because the dialog wound down, Trump congratulated Musk on getting “60 to 70 million” listeners, showing to mistake the variety of passive views the occasion obtained on X with the quantity of people that had tuned in (somewhat over 1 million). Musk mused that the overall variety of views the interview would finally get can be within the tons of of tens of millions.

It was a second that summed up what the 2 males have in widespread — an inclination to self-aggrandize and inflate their accomplishments. They each have a behavior of claiming incendiary issues, whether or not on digital camera or on-line, and have used social media to develop a fervent fan base round their cult of character.

Trump has been principally absent on X even after being reinstated in November 2022, posting totally on Fact Social. He’s beneath an exclusivity clause that limits non-political posts he could make exterior of Fact Social — however this interview seems to fall beneath an exemption as a result of it’s associated to politics. Yesterday, within the lead-up to the interview, Trump made a number of posts on X boosting his presidential marketing campaign, pinning a marketing campaign advert to the highest of his profile.

Previous to August 12, Trump hadn’t posted on X in virtually a yr.

Now, although, Musk and Trump are additionally united by a way of private grievance and persecution. Trump complained that the Democrats had weaponized the authorized system in opposition to him, referring to the numerous legal investigations he’s beneath. “The Biden administration did one thing that’s by no means been executed on this nation, and that’s go after their political opponent — me — with this nonsense,” Trump mentioned. A number of days in the past, Musk posted a graphic (the supply of which is unclear) on X portraying himself and his political beliefs because the aspect resisting oppression — very similar to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, Katniss Everdeen in The Starvation Video games, or Neo in The Matrix. “When it’s fiction you perceive,” the image reads. “You refuse to see it when it’s the truth you’re residing in.”

Musk groused that folks painted him as a “far-right man, which is absurd as a result of I’m, like, making electrical automobiles,” he mentioned. “I stood in line for six hours to shake Obama’s hand when he was president.” Whereas Musk mentioned he used to vote for Democrats, in 2022 he introduced he would begin voting Republican as a result of the Dems had grow to be the get together of “division & hate.” Up to now yr he has repeated rhetoric echoing the white supremacist “nice alternative” idea, which alleges that there’s a conspiracy to switch white folks by bringing undocumented immigrants into the US. He has additionally constantly been dismissive of LGBTQ+ equality, displaying specific contempt for transgender folks. Musk’s daughter, who’s trans, has criticized his remedy of her gender id on Instagram’s Threads.

There have been loads of unusual asides that the 2 males touched on throughout the dialog on X, highlighting their shared chaos — resembling when Musk introduced up constructing tunnels to “clear up site visitors.” Trump praised China’s high-speed rail system, however Musk was referring to tunnels for Tesla vehicles, just like the Las Vegas Loop. Each agreed that Harris was a “far left” politician, with Trump repeating his accusation that Biden’s determination to drop out of the presidential race was a “coup” performed by the Democratic Social gathering. Whereas with reference to authorities overspending, Trump declared that he would shutter the Division of Training and “transfer schooling again to the states” throughout his second time period. The previous president additionally appeared to reward Musk for his mass firing of disgruntled Twitter workers in late 2022. “I gained’t point out the title of the corporate,” he mentioned, “however they go on strike and also you say, ‘That’s okay, you’re all gone.’” After the X interview, the United Auto Employees filed federal labor expenses with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, accusing Trump and Musk of “unlawful makes an attempt to threaten and intimidate employees.”

On the prime of the interview, Musk mentioned that he wished to point out what Trump was like exterior of an adversarial interview, even if the previous president is legendary for holding numerous rallies the place he speaks with out restraint. “It’s arduous to catch a vibe about somebody for those who simply don’t hear them discuss in a standard approach,” Musk claimed, including that the occasion was aimed toward “open-minded unbiased voters.” It stays to be seen what number of voters had been impressed by Trump’s and Musk’s vibes.