Minutes of the Elon Musk–Donald Trump mutual admiration society

Former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump had a cordial "chat" on X with Elon Musk — marking the presidential nominee's first 'presence' on the platform since he was banned from it two years ago!

The highly anticipated two-hour interview on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter was hit by significant technical issues — what Musk claimed was a "massive DDoS attack" — causing a delay of over 40 minutes.

If that degree vulnerability wasn't surprise enough for a tech mogul's personal showcase, the nature of the 'show' was. While Musk as a Trump supporter could only have many a netizen shaking their head with a 'told you so', even they could hardly have anticipated how blatantly this would turn into a promotional circus — especially given his prior ban from X.

The conversation, which seemed designed to showcase Trump’s perspectives on key issues, saw the former president to air his views without much challenge from Musk, reported the BBC. The UK-based Guardian newspaper headlined it 'a surprisingly dull meeting of two planet-sized egos'.

The DDOS attack, meanwhile — of which many tech-savvy observers were sceptical — caused many users to struggle to access the livestream, per DW reports, with some receiving error messages. Musk, in a post on X, mentioned that the platform was working to resolve the issue and eventually proceeded with a reduced number of live listeners.

In a post on X, Musk stated that the combined views of the conversation with Trump and subsequent discussion of it by other accounts had reached 1 billion.

The tech magnate who just recently accused Google of 'interfering' with the US presidential elections seemed to have no compunctions about sticking his oar in and abandoning all pretence of impartiality himself, though.

Friendly dialogue

The conversation between Musk and Trump seemed more like a friendly endorsement than a rigorous interview. Indian viewers might be forgiven if any found themselves recalling 'Howdy, Modi' in the middle of it.

Musk asked Trump about topics like immigration and inflation, allowing the former president to make several unsubstantiated claims.

At one point, Trump praised Musk for his leadership and for daring to cut down his workforce when employees were on strike — a little nugget that his Democrat rival Kamala Harris' team was quick to latch on to, highlighting that these workers were 'striking for better pay and working conditions'.

Musk, in his turn, repeated his endorsement of the Red leader, expressing confidence in his ability to steer the US.

"I think we're at a fork in the road of destiny, of civilisation, and I think we need to take the right path, and I think you're the right path," Musk told Trump as the interview concluded, reported Reuters.

One-sided remarks

During the interview, Trump discussed a range of topics, including the recent 'assassination attempt' against himself at a rally in Pennsylvania, the need for a US missile defence system like Israel’s Iron Dome and his desire to eliminate the federal department of education.

Trump vented about a "zombie apocalypse" of immigration and repeatedly attacked President Joe Biden as "stupid" as well.

He also made controversial remarks on climate change, downplaying the significance of rising sea levels and instead emphasising the threat of "nuclear warming".

"The biggest threat is not that. The biggest threat is nuclear warming, because we have five countries now that have significant nuclear power, and we have to not allow anything to happen with stupid people like Biden," Trump continued.

Trump also did not shy away from personal attacks on his election rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, who recently replaced her boss Biden as the Democratic candidate in the upcoming election. Trump insulted Harris multiple times, calling her "third rate", "incompetent" and "a radical left lunatic", as Reuters and other media noted.

Trump expressed his frustration over Harris replacing Biden on the Democratic ticket as well, was Reuters' reading, with the news agency noting that he also falsely claimed that the replacement was a "coup" by his team.

Musk's endorsement of Trump

Elon Musk, who has raised eyebrows with his shifting political stance over the years, expressed strong support for Trump during the interview. Musk has become increasingly aligned with the Conservatives, even establishing a political committee to back the Trump campaign.

In recent years, his personal politics have skewed unapologetically right-wing and anti-liberal, culminating in a recent father–child feud with his transgender daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson — whose portraiture in his biography has been distinctly unsympathetic — quite recently culminated in her regaling followers on rival platform Threads (by Meta!) with a savage attack on her father, who had deadnamed her, called her gay and 'slightly autistic'.

At the same time, X had been in peals last month in July when Musk — who regards his daughter (or per him, his son) as dead, killed by the 'woke mind virus' — seemed to ask Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling to tone down her gender-essentialist anti-trans rhetoric on Twitter and post some positive stuff for a change.

Regardless, Musk's right-wing alignment was evident throughout the conversation, as he refrained from challenging Trump’s more controversial statements and instead offered praise, reported DW.

Hot topics such as inflation and immigration seemed to have been planted / planned with intent.

“Elon, what’s happened is unbelievable," said Trump. "You have from Africa, from the Congo, they’re coming. From the Congo. And 22 people came in from the Congo recently and they’re murderers.” Musk commiserated, presumably based on his own African background and intimate knowledge of the Congolese therefrom.

He was also quick to exonerate himself as a 'legal immigrant' in the face of Trump's dire promise to stage the “largest deportation in the history of this country”.

Zionism and anti-Semitic sentiments were not far behind in the stakes, as Trump ranted: “If you’re a Jewish person or if you believe in Israel… if you vote for her — it’s worse than Biden and Biden was bad — but if you vote for her, you ought to have your head examined.”

Trump’s return to X

This interview certainly marked a significant moment in being Trump’s return to X after his account was reinstated by Musk in November 2022, following a ban after the 6 January Capitol riot.

While Trump has been active on his own platform, Truth Social, his return to X could signal a broader strategy to engage with a larger audience as he ramps up his re-election campaign.

It's not clear whether Trump, who frequently posts on his Truth Social site— or his team — will now go on to continue to post more frequently on X, remarked the BBC.

The interview, despite its rocky start, certainly provided Trump with a broad platform to air his grievances, praise allies and attack opponents, however, which he would be a fool not to take advantage of.

He certainly didn't seem averse to endorsing Tesla, also owned by Musk, despite his own mockery of climate change claims and consequent scorn of electric vehicles, as the BBC noted.

“I’m sort of waiting for you to come up with solar panels on the roofs of your cars and on the trunks of the cars, and it just seems like something that at some point you will come up with — I’m sure you’ll be the first — but it would seem that a solar panel on the roofs, you know on flat surfaces, on certain surfaces might be good at least in certain areas of the country or the world where you have the sun,” Trump rambled brilliantly.

What next?

Meanwhile, Musk made a post indicating he wouldn't mind having Trump's presidential race rival Kamala Harris on for a chat too.

Netizens on both the red and the blue side seemed scornful, for different reasons.

Harris and her running mate Tim Walz's team had nothing but scorn to offer either for the X mogul. In a statement released 12 August, which seemed to have been ready well ahead of time, spokesperson Joseph Costello lumped Musk right along with their opponent:

No, we won't be expecting to see that Harris–Musk conversation over cup of coffee anytime too soon. Not after the Democrats have lumped the tycoon right in with Trump's Project 2025 supporters.

Given Musk's statement that "America is at a fork in the road and you are the path to prosperity and I think Kamala [Harris] is the opposite", her reaction is hardly surprising.

It certainly also goes to show which side Musk thinks his bread is buttered on — even if he did protest (too much?) against allegations of being a right-wing stooge: "They try to paint me as a far right guy, which is absurd because I’m making electric vehicles and solar and batteries, helping the environment." 

And finally, to match the "massive cyberattack" paranoia of Musk's DDOS attack, netizens posited that Trump's odd lisping speech in the interview might have originated from a massive alcohol intake (or strong drugs).

Notably, Trump was leading over Biden in polls in several battleground states — an advantage he seemed to quickly close on Harris' entry into the fray. A recent New York Times/Sienna College poll found him trailing her in some of those same states! Harris now has edged past him in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania with 50 per cent support to his 46.

Those would be the voters who'd be happy to see Trump and Musk next meet in Venezuela, like they plan, if the election doesn't go their way.