Elon Musk, the billionaire, hosted an interview with former president Donald Trump on his network, X, this past Monday. The conversation was a controversial one, covering Trump’s well-known contentious topics.
The interview started off on shaky ground due to a series of technical difficulties that left many viewers unable to watch at the beginning. Musk attributed the setback to a extensive cyberattack, but the real reason behind the hiccup wasn’t quite understood.
Almost three-quarters of an hour behind schedule, the conversation kicked off with Trump discussing an assassination attempt that took place against him the previous month, at Musk’s behest. Trump, a republican, had said previously that he’d tell the tale only once, at the last republican gathering. However, he recounted detailed events of that close shave with death at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally, a place he promised to revisit in October.
“It was a close call. If I hadn’t turned my head, I might not have been here today, chatting with you, even though I enjoy your company,” he claimed.
Next, Trump shifted his attention to his stringent stance on immigration, making ominous warnings about “dangerous people” trying to cross over the US-Mexico border.
“We have killers and all sorts of criminals being released into our country,” he warned. However, extensive studies have found no correlation between immigration and crime rates.
Trump proceeded to launch an attack on Kamala Harris, his opponent, derogatorily referring to her as the “border tsar” of the Biden administration. This label of hers has been disputed by Democrat officials and those championing the rights of immigrants alike.
Trump repeatedly portrayed Harris as a “radical” Democrat, claiming she had left California in ruins during her terms as its attorney general and later its senator. He even oddly praised Harris for looking “beautiful” on Time magazine cover, contrasting her with his wife, Melania and added that the picture was a drawing.
The Harris camp slammed the interview, calling it an instance of Trump displaying “far-right tendencies and the dangerous Project 2025 agenda.”
Joseph Costello, spokesperson for Harris’s campaign, criticised Trump’s campaign, suggesting it caters to wealthy individuals akin to Elon Musk and Trump himself—individuals who prioritise their own interests over that of the middle class and lack proficiency in conducting a live-stream in 2024.
Following the start of her campaign last month, Harris has garnered increasing popularity, surpassing Trump in the polls. Current figures from the Decision Desk HQ and the Hill’s National Polling Average illustrate that the Democrat candidate holds a slight edge over Trump by 0.3%, a reversal from Trump’s previous 3.3% lead over Joe Biden prior to his withdrawal from the race.
Crucially, Harris seems to have an even more significant lead in key swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin which are expected to be critical in deciding the November election’s outcome.
Trump’s campaign appears unsettled amidst the Democrat’s growing popularity. Trump’s efforts to undermine Harris have proven ineffective as her favourability continues to soar over the past month. Earlier this week, Trump demonstrated nostalgia for his past rivalry with Biden, continually dismissing the sitting president as “the worst president in history”.
Furthermore, during the discourse, Trump digressed into discussions about the climate crisis and the Ukrainian war. Downplaying the severity of global warming, Trump identified nuclear warming as the more significant threat. He commented on Ukraine’s conflict, stating Russia – with its history of victories against Germany and Napoleon was unfairly treated, and left the US in a problematic position. Trump, however, stopped short of wholly blaming anyone for the situation but suggested that he could have intervened to prevent it.
Throughout the conversation, Musk remained generally unaffected and expressed appreciation for Trump, hinting at his potential role in the possible Trump administration as part of a “government efficiency commission”. In response, Trump complimented Musk’s knack for executing large-scale redundancies, dubbing him “the greatest cutter”.
The relationship between Mr Musk and Mr Biden can be described as both varied and complicated. Despite Mr Musk having disclosed that he supported Biden in the 2020 election, just a month after the unsuccessful assassination bid, he voiced his support for Mr Trump. In addition to his unexpected endorsement, he has recently initiated a political advocacy group to aid the Republican ballot campaigns. As per details from the Wall Street Journal, Mr Musk aims to inspire 800,000 Trump supporters in key battleground areas to cast their votes.
Two years after the ban on Mr Trump’s X account in response to the notorious attack on the US Capitol on January 6, Mr Musk reinstated it in 2022. Despite this, Mr Trump has predominantly chosen to utilise his own digital platform, Truth Social, making minimal use of the reinstated account.
With less than a quarter of a year remaining until voting day, Mr Trump suggested his increased presence on the X platform. Given his history of causing disruption in news through his tweets, this suggested return may introduce even higher levels of unpredictability in an already turbulent presidential race. – Guardian