More than 1.2 million people tuned in to listen to Donald Trump and the world’s richest man (and one of his most important supporters) Elon Musk have a friendly conversation about politics for more than two hours on Monday night (Tuesday AEST).
For any close followers of the Republican presidential candidate’s political arguments and campaign rhetoric, it was a long two hours indeed, and one that started 43 minutes later than the 8pm advertised start time owing to, according to Mr Musk, a “massive DDOS attack on X”.
“There’s a lot of opposition to people hearing even what Donald Trump has to say,” a defensive Musk explained.
Trump advisers must have winced as they recalled how X crashed and appeared to doom Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign launch in a similarly styled interview with Mr Musk last year.
Mr Trump, undeterred, blasted Kamala Harris, Joe Biden — “he had a low IQ 30 years ago, now he might not have an IQ at all” — and Democrats in his typical apocalyptic terms, while talking up his own extraordinary talents and supposedly exemplary policy record.
But whatever the dearth of new material, the interview made up for in humour. Quite aside from the cyberattack at the start that Mr Trump naturally put down to “being overwhelmed with listeners”, an audio glitch on Mr Trump’s end gave the former president a profound lisp throughout.
“Illegal immigration saved my life,” Mr Trump quipped at the start of the chat, referring to a large chart of illegal immigrants that he tiled his head to look at just enough to avoid being assassinated, at his now infamous campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month.
Future historians will be grateful Mr Trump revealed a tense private conversation between himself and Vladimir Putin over the latter’s alleged intention to invade Ukraine during Mr Trump’s presidency. “I said to Vladimir Putin – don’t do it … And I told him things that I would do. And he said, ‘no way.’ And I said ‘way’.”
Mr Trump said climate change was exaggerated and had a silver lining: “It would lead to a “rise in sea levels 1/8 of an inch over the next 400 years – and you’ll have more oceanfront property, right?”
The two billionaires gushed over each other throughout the chat, with Mr Musk at one point praising Mr Trump’s “epic tweets” and describing him as “the path to prosperity”. The former president returned the favour to “amazing guy” Musk’s Tesla products as “incredible”, lauding him as “the greatest cutter” for slashing staff numbers at X when he bought the platform in 2022.
“Not all endorsements mean that much to be honest, but your endorsement meant a lot,” Mr Trump said, earlier agreeing to Mr Musk’s suggestion that Mr Trump set up a government efficiency commission with Mr Musk at the helm.
If the lengthy love-in does make its way the millions of mainstream listeners as Mr Musk promised in coming days and weeks, and allows Mr Trump to retake the lead in the national polls, it will be because the interview underscored the former president’s ability and willingness to answer questions any topic in an unscripted fashion – something Kamala Harris has been totally unwilling to do for more than three weeks.
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