Almost everything was agreed upon by the wealthiest and, at one point, perhaps most powerful man in the world.
In an effort to hinder Kamala Harris’s ascent as the Democratic candidate, tech magnate Elon Musk opened up his X platform on Monday night, providing Donald Trump with a conduit devoid of fact checks for his lies, conspiracies, and extremism.
With its astonishing turns in recent weeks—such as an attempt on Trump’s life and President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of his reelection campaign—the presidential campaign has defied logic once again. The conversation marked yet another incredible chapter in this story.
Inability to handle the new Democratic nominee’s explosive start has left the outgoing president reeling. Musk seemed to be coaching Trump on how to present a stronger case against Harris at various points throughout their lengthy conversation. Musk did this by leveraging the influence and popularity of his platform.
At one point during his campaign, Trump remarked of a Democratic opponent who had erased his lead in the polls in only three weeks, “She’s a believer in being radical left.” Furthermore, the ex-president defiantly said that Biden had been forcibly removed in order to make room for Harris, in an effort to rig an election that he lost. Admit what you will, this was a coup. She hasn’t participated in an interview since the beginning of the entire hoax. Trump lost it. “This was a coup for an American president,” he said.
Convincing his guest that he was powerful and his Democratic opponents were weak, Musk agreed with Trump that Harris was a radical lefty. To America’s foes he remarked, “Is it someone they do not respect and do not fear, or do they dread the American president? Now let’s examine the assassination video footage. Let me tell you something, President Trump is trying to tell you not to mess with him.
Musk is undoubtedly in favour of Trump receiving a second term, as seen by his endorsement of the candidate on Monday night. You are the route to success. I believe Kamala to be the complete opposite,” he informed Trump.
At one point in his campaign, Musk gave the Republican contender access to a minimum of 1.3 million continuous listeners. Musk has a significant financial stake in gaining favourable treatment from the next government. It was his prediction that in the next several days, the material will be seen by at least 100 million people.
There was plenty to gain for both Trump and Musk.
During the occasion, Trump seemed to be stuttering or lisping his words at times. For months, he had been criticising Biden for his age, stammer, and difficulty sometimes finishing sentences. Whether there was an audio problem at hand was unclear. Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesperson for the former president, said, “Must be your hearing,” when asked for an explanation.
Both men had something to gain, as seen by the friendly exchange between the former president and the entrepreneur.
Elon Musk successfully conveyed his own opinions on immigration, the economy, reducing government regulation, and tax reduction to a prospective presidential candidate who is recognised for his transactional leadership style. Changes in governmental policy may have an effect on Musk’s businesses, such as SpaceX, a major participant in the US space program, and Tesla, an electric car manufacturer. There might have been conflicts of interest throughout the whole discussion. Never will the average American have the chance to speak with a potential future president in such a way.
Musk had once even mentioned accepting a job offer from the US government, maybe as a member of an efficiency committee meant to reduce the size of the administrative state. Elon Musk is a fantastic “cutter,” and Trump said he’d “love it” if he got involved.
Despite dedicating almost two hours of his time, Trump reaped several benefits. Musk didn’t confront him on any of his fabrications and misrepresentations, including as his claim that, should he lose in November, 60 million illegal immigrants will enter the country.
In defence of his innovative electric car business, Musk brushed down the danger posed by global warming throughout the speech. The threat presented by “nuclear warming,” which Trump said was more dangerous than “global warming,” was also mentioned. Though Musk said that nuclear power was “not as scary as people think,” it was unclear whether he was making a reference to it.
This interaction served as a potent illustration of how social media and the fragmentation of conventional journalism have changed presidential politics. Trump’s rise to political prominence in 2016 corresponded with Twitter’s peak, thus it’s possible that he would not have been elected president without the social media platform. The presidential contest of that year was a singular fusion of a man and his time thanks to his ability to use the new platform as no other candidate could.
After eight years, many of the measures on the site that prevented the spread of lies and conspiracy theories have been undermined by X, headed by Musk, who advocates for unrestricted free speech. So, it’s the ideal platform for the former president to break free from the confines of mainstream media and spread his vastly popular other world among his millions of fans.
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What they claim is favourable media coverage of the emerging Harris campaign is the source of Republican complaints. However, very few contenders have encountered less difficulty than the Republican front-runner did on X on Monday evening.
A European commissioner named Thierry Breton wrote to Musk alerting him to the global political issues brought up by the development of X and cautioning him that he must stop the “amplification of harmful content” that customers inside the bloc may access.
It seemed that Cheung’s remarks on X were a bad sign for the already tense relationship between the Trump camp, Musk, and Europe, as she advised the EU to “mind their own business instead of trying to meddle in the US Presidential election.”
Trump showered Musk with accolades after years of shunning X and Twitter.
On Monday night, Trump told a litany of lies and exaggerations, ranging from the number of migrants who crossed the border to the severity of the inflation crisis that has since subsided, his legal issues, the current administration’s energy policy, and his well-known accusation that foreign countries were dumping their prisoners across the southern US border.
When hearing or seeing snippets of the chat in the days ahead, a large number of Trump supporters would undoubtedly agree with most of what the former president said, highlighting his political survival even after Harris turned the race.
Trump did, at times, provide a more cogent and targeted case for a second term than he has in recent days, when he seemed unnerved by the turn of events in a contest he thought he was sure to win over Biden. Along with Musk, he said that the vice president and the current president had adopted spending policies that contributed to the inflation that millions of Americans had to endure.
Yet, Trump’s many digressions and exaggeration of conspiracy theories also showed why he is despised by many people and raised concerns about his viability as a candidate among suburban and female voters in red areas.
Since the meeting was delayed due to technological difficulties, it first seemed as if it might become a new metaphor for Trump’s missteps. Although it was impossible to instantly identify the malicious actors, Musk claimed that a distributed denial-of-service assault was to blame. What President Trump has to say is met with a lot of resistance, according to Musk.
In a clumsy Twitter Spaces event with Musk, the Harris campaign promptly responded by sharing a Trump Truth Social post from the previous year in which it chastised Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the poor beginning to his primary campaign.
After his mob’s January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, the previous proprietors of the site barred Trump from using X, previously known as Twitter. This event marked his comeback to the platform. Musk had cleaned his account.
The two hours of talk revealed more about Musk’s changing political beliefs and his increasing propensity to use money and influence to further them than it did new information about Trump for anybody who listened to the whole thing. When it came to a new buddy at a moment of political necessity, the former president was ecstatic.
“You are a remarkable individual, and your work is truly remarkable.” Before bidding farewell, Trump said, “You inspire people greatly.”