Trump and Musk Discuss Assassination Attempt, Immigration, and Harris on X

The highly anticipated conversation between former President Donald Trump and Tesla founder Elon Musk on X, scheduled for Monday, faced delays due to technical issues, which Musk attributed to a suspected cyberattack.

“There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X. Working on shutting it down. Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later,” Musk posted. Despite the delays, the event marked Trump’s return to the platform, formerly known as Twitter, where he had been a dominant presence during his 2016 campaign and presidency.

Trump shared a link to the X Spaces event just before 8 p.m., but the conversation didn’t start until 8:42 p.m. By that time, over 700,000 users had joined. Musk acknowledged the delay, commenting, “As this massive attack illustrates, there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say.”

Trump congratulated Musk for “breaking every record in the book tonight” with the number of listeners attempting to join.

The technical difficulties were reminiscent of those faced by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis when he tried to launch his 2024 presidential campaign on X Spaces. That event was also plagued by issues, with the call dropping in and out for over 20 minutes before Musk had to restart the session.

During the conversation, Musk opened by asking Trump about an assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally the previous month. Trump downplayed the incident, saying, “I didn’t know I had that much blood,” and added that the outcome was “the best alternative you could think about” since he wasn’t more seriously injured. He also mentioned that the event had strengthened his faith, saying, “I’m a believer, now. I’m more of a believer in God, I think.”

The discussion also touched on the recent Time magazine cover featuring Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump likened the cover image to his wife, Melania, saying, “She looked very much like our great first lady, Melania.” The cover, titled “Her Moment,” has drawn criticism for being released at a time when Harris has not given a media interview since President Joe Biden withdrew from the race.

A spokesperson for the Harris-Walz 2024 campaign, Joseph Costello, criticized the conversation, stating, “Donald Trump’s extremism and dangerous Project 2025 agenda is a feature not a glitch of his campaign, which was on full display for those unlucky enough to listen in tonight during whatever that was on X.com. Trump’s entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself — self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024.”

Trump also addressed immigration during the conversation, claiming, “You have millions of people coming in a month. And they have another 5 months.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 7.1 million arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico between January 2021 and June 2024. However, many of these were repeat attempts due to pandemic-era asylum restrictions, meaning the number of people involved is lower than the number of arrests.

Trump praised Argentina’s President Javier Milei for his austerity measures, which have led to over 70,000 public sector layoffs and significant pension cuts. “He’s great,” Trump told Musk. “I hear he’s doing really a terrific job. He’s going to make Argentina great again.” However, Argentina continues to struggle with annual inflation exceeding 270%, one of the highest rates globally.

The live interview was hosted on Trump’s official X account, @realDonaldTrump, using X Spaces for an “unscripted” and “highly entertaining” conversation, according to Musk. The Trump campaign had promoted it as “the interview of the century.”

Ahead of the interview, Musk ran system scaling tests in anticipation of a high volume of viewers. Trump returned to the platform for the first time in nearly a year, posting a campaign ad and later criticizing the state of the economy, writing, “Are you better off now than you were when I was president? Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We’re a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!”

Musk’s support for Trump marks a significant shift from 2022 when he suggested that Trump should step aside for new leadership in the Republican Party. The relationship between the two has since improved, with Musk now backing Trump both rhetorically and financially.

While they share common ground on issues like immigration and anti-transgender legislation, they differ on the topic of electric vehicles. Trump has criticized the push for electric cars, arguing that the country isn’t ready for a full transition. Musk, as the head of Tesla, has been a strong advocate for electric vehicles. Despite this, Trump acknowledged, “He’s never mentioned to me, ‘Why are you hitting the electric cars?’ Because he understands I’m not hitting it. I think it’s incredible. I’ve had them, I’ve driven them. They’re incredible, but they’re not for everybody.” Trump noted that electric vehicles tend to be more expensive and are often made in China, making them impractical for some.

By: Politics406 staff