Trump, the Republican candidate for the presidency in November, ran through his favorite conspiracy theories, complained about the immigration “zombie apocalypse”, repeatedly called President Joe Biden stupid and criticized his rival, the US Democratic candidate Kamal Harris.
The interview, which was more like a conversation between like-minded allies, lasted more than two hours. But it was initially delayed by technical issues, which Musk blamed on a cyber attack. In 2022, Musk bought Twitter for 44 billion dollars and renamed it “X”.
Musk formally endorsed Trump’s candidacy in July after the former president survived an assassination attempt at a political rally in Pennsylvania.
In the interview, Trump dismissed the threat of global warming. “The biggest threat is not global warming, where the ocean will rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years,” Trump said, adding that it would only create more oceanfront property. According to him, the biggest threat is nuclear weapons and it is necessary to prevent incidents that can occur when stupid people are in power.
More than a million “X” users listened to the interview in real time.
In his conversation with Musk, Trump often returned to his favorite theme of bragging about his relationships with autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, and claiming that America would be safer under his leadership.
Trump also promised to build a new missile defense system similar to the one Israel has. “We’re going to have the best Iron Dome in the world (…) because it only takes one maniac to, you know, start something,” Trump said.
Musk, who claimed to have voted for Democrats in the past, has become a vocal critic of the Democratic Party. In the interview, he repeatedly expressed his strong support for Trump, saying that the ex-president is the path to prosperity, but Kamala embodies the opposite. Musk also hinted that he would like a job in the Trump administration in the future.
“I think it would be great to just have a commission on government efficiency to look at these things and just make sure that the taxpayers’ money … is being spent wisely,” Musk said, adding that he would be happy to serve on such a commission. Trump was receptive to the idea.
2024-08-14 09:48:46