Nearly every opinion was shared by the wealthiest and probably most powerful guy in the world at the time.
Tech tycoon Elon Musk opened up his X platform on Monday night, providing Donald Trump with an unfiltered channel for his conspiracy theories, lies, and fanaticism in an attempt to impede Kamala Harris, the Democratic contender, from becoming more prominent.
The conversation was yet another remarkable development in a presidential campaign that has defied reason with its surprising turns in recent weeks, which have included President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of his reelection quest and an attempt on Trump’s life.
The outgoing president has been unable to keep up with the incoming Democratic nominee’s explosive start. In their lengthy conversation, Musk sometimes gave the impression that he was coaching Trump on how to present a stronger case against Harris by using the influence of his platform and reputation.
In reference to a Democratic opponent who had eliminated his lead in the polls in only three weeks as a candidate, Trump once claimed, “She’s a believer in being radical left.” Furthermore, the ex-president made the ludicrous allegation that Biden was forcibly removed from office in order to make room for Harris, in an effort to rig an election that he lost. “Say what you want, this was a coup, but she hasn’t done an interview since this entire fraud began. Trump erupted, “This was a coup for an American president.”
Musk reassured his visitor by suggesting that he was powerful and his Democratic rivals were weak, and he agreed with Trump that Harris was an extreme lefty. Speaking of America’s adversaries, he questioned, “Is it someone they admire and do not fear, or do they dread the American president? Examining the assassination video will help us. Assuming that President Trump is saying, “Don’t mess with me,” is understandable.
Musk has already shown his support to Trump, and on Monday night, he made it clear that he hopes the president is elected to a second term. “The road to success leads through you. And I believe Kamala to be the reverse,” he said to Trump.
At the lowest point of his campaign so far, Musk—who has enormous commercial stakes in winning the next administration’s favor—offered the Republican candidate an audience of at least 1.3 million listeners simultaneously. And in the next days, he projected that the material will be seen by at least 100 million people.
Trump and Musk stood to benefit greatly.
Trump seemed to be slurring or lisping his words at points throughout the event. For months, Trump has been criticising Biden for his age, stammer, and difficulty finishing sentences. Whether an audio problem was to fault was unclear. “Must be your hearing,” said Steven Cheung, the former president’s campaign spokesperson, when asked for an explanation.
The former president and business magnate had a friendly chat that revealed what each guy stood to gain.
With his reputation for transactional leadership, Musk was able to persuade a potential future president of his own beliefs about immigration, the economy, reducing government regulation, and tax cuts. 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. Potential conflicts of interest were there throughout the whole talk. The chance to speak with a potential future president in person would never be afforded to the average American.
Musk even went so far as to offer to work for the US government, maybe on an efficiency commission that would reduce the size of the administrative state. Musk is a fantastic “cutter,” according to Trump, who added that he would “love it” if the multibillionaire got involved.
Trump got a significant return on his more than two-hour time commitment. Musk didn’t confront him on any of his falsehoods and distortions, like as his assertion that, should he lose in November, 60 million illegal immigrants will flood the country.
Musk defended his innovative electric car enterprise throughout the speech, downplaying the danger posed by global change. Meanwhile, Trump issued a warning, claiming that “nuclear warming” was a worse threat than “global warming.” Whether he was alluding to nuclear power, which Musk said was “not as scary as people think,” remained unclear.
An excellent illustration of how social media and the fragmentation of conventional journalism have changed presidential politics is provided by this meeting. Given that the peak of the website’s popularity occurred in 2016, it’s possible that Trump would not have been president without it. He was a man and his time, and his ability to use the new platform to its fullest advantage set him apart from other politicians in that year’s presidential contest.
Eight years later, many of the measures aimed at preventing the spread of lies and conspiracy theories on the platform have been undermined by X, headed by Musk, who advocates for unrestricted free speech. Therefore, it’s the ideal platform for the former president to break free from the confines of mainstream media and spread his belief system, which is wildly popular among his millions of fans.
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Republicans claim that favourable media coverage of Harris’s early campaign is the source of their complaints. However, few contenders have encountered more difficulties than the Republican nominee did on X on Monday night.
A European commissioner named Thierry Breton warned Musk in a letter that he needed to stop the “amplification of harmful content,” which might be viewed by customers within the EU, indicating the worldwide political issues that the development of X has brought to light.
The EU should “mind their own business instead of trying to meddle in the US Presidential election,” Cheung said on X, in a statement that seemed to portend badly for the already tense ties between the Trump camp and Musk and Europe.
Trump showered Musk with adulation after shunning X and Twitter for years.
The number of migrants who crossed the border, the severity of the inflation crisis that has since subsided, Trump’s 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 were just a few of the many lies and exaggerations he spread on Monday night.
Without a certain, a large number of Trump supporters will concur with most of the former president’s remarks when they hear excerpts of the chat in the days to come, underscoring his political viability even after Harris changed the course of the election.
There were times when Trump seemed more focused and cogent in his case for a second term than he has in recent days, when he seemed shaken by the turn of events in a campaign he thought he was sure to win over Biden. Both he and Musk said that the vice president and the president in office had implemented expenditure plans that contributed to the inflation that millions of Americans had to endure.
However, it was also made clear by Trump’s many digressions and exaggeration of conspiracy theories why he is despised by many people and why his appeal to suburban and female voters in crucial states is in doubt.
Due to technological difficulties, the meeting seemed to start late and might end up being another metaphor for Trump’s missteps. Although it was not immediately feasible to determine that malicious actors were to fault, Musk claimed that a distributed denial-of-service assault was to blame. According to Musk, “there is a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say.”
Swiftly reacting, the Harris team shared a Trump Truth Social post from the previous year criticising Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the rough beginning to his primary campaign at an awkward Twitter Spaces gathering with Musk.
At the occasion, Trump made his comeback to X, previously known as Twitter, from which he had been banned after his mob’s attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, by the site’s previous proprietors. Musk reinstated his account.
More about Musk’s changing political beliefs and his increasing propensity to use his riches and influence to further them than anything new about Trump would have been revealed to anybody who listened to the whole two-hour discussion. However, the former president was ecstatic to have made a new buddy at a critical moment for his career.
“You’ve done a fantastic job, you’re an amazing guy.” Before bidding farewell, Trump said, “You are a great inspiration to people.”
