Trump, Elon Musk interview as it happened: Former US president attacks Kamala Harris, immigrants in talk with X owner

The interview between US Republican president nominee Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk has ended. Here’s what we know after the interview:

• The interview was initially delayed after Musk said there had been a massive DDOS attack on X.
• Trump began by speaking about the assassination attempt, telling Musk “I didn’t know I had that much blood”.
• Trump attacked both immigrants and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who he called a “third-rate phoney candidate”.
• The former president spoke of the risk of “World War III” and his desire for the US to have an Iron Dome similar to Israel’s, which he said he would build if elected.
• Trump also claimed that, if elected, he would shut down the federal Department of Education and make the states responsible for education policy.
• Harris’ campaign released a statement describing Musk and Trump as “self-obsessed rich guys”.

Thanks for joining us, that is all for this afternoon’s blog.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump.Credit: Bloomberg

The campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has accused Donald Trump of extremism.

In a statement, Harris’ spokesperson, Joseph Costello, described both Trump and X owner Elon Musk as “self-obsessed”.

“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 to tonight during whatever was on X.com,” he said.

“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.”

Vice President Kamala Harris.Credit: AP

Donald Trump and Elon Musk commended each other at the conclusion of the interview, expressing their mutual admiration.

“I just want, I want to congratulate you, you’ve done an amazing job, you are, you have definitely got a fertile mind,” Trump said to Musk.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk.Credit: AP

“And now you, you’re into the AI and that’s going to be another beauty … It’s an amazing thing you’ve done, Elon, it’s an amazing thing and I congratulate you … your endorsement meant a lot.”

Musk then said he used to be a Democrat, but that the Biden administration was not moderate.

“I think a lot of people thought, you know, the Biden administration would be a moderate administration, but it’s not, and obviously we’re just going to see an even further left administration with Kamala, that’s my honest opinion,” Musk said.

“The people out there who are in the moderate camp … I think you should support Donald Trump for president.”

The pair then wrapped up the interview.

US Republican candidate Donald Trump has attacked Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz for his policy of making tampons free in Minnesota schools.

Trump accused Walz of making tampons free in boys’ bathrooms, stoking recent Republican attacks against Walz and labelling him as “tampon Tim”.

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz at a campaign rally in Wisconsin.Credit: AP

“Her running mate approved, signed into legislation, tampons in boys’ bathrooms,” Trump said.

“A lot of people thought she’d [Harris] pick sort of the opposite, but she picked an anti-Israel, radical left person, but she is far worse, they say, than [US senator] Bernie Sanders.”

A fact check note: Walz’s law requires schools to provide free menstrual supplies to students from grade 4 and up, but does not mention boys’ bathrooms.

Trump has just claimed that if elected he will shut down the federal Department of Education and make the states responsible for education policy.

“If you move education back to the 50 [states], some of them won’t do well … but it’s almost going to force them to do better.”

This is sure to be controversial, as it essentially adopts an idea touted in the Heritage Foundation’s controversial “Project 2025” agenda, which sets out the blueprint for a second Trump presidency.

That agenda calls for agencies to be abolished on ideological grounds, from the Education Department (which the document claims has injected “anti-American, ‘ahistorical’ propaganda into America’s classrooms”) to the Department of Homeland Security (which it says has “helped migrants criminally enter our country with impunity”).

Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, which Democrats describe as a “MAGA manifesto”.

Read more about “Project 2025” here.

Protester Nadine Seiler holds a banner outside federal court.Credit: AP

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says the world is at risk of heading into nuclear war and the US should have an Iron Dome similar to Israel’s.

Speaking about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump started by saying he could have stopped the war if he were president, then shifted to saying the world was at risk of nuclear warfare.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a news conference last week.Credit: AP

“We have numerous places that could end up in World War III right now, for no reason,” Trump said.

“One of the things we’re going to do, is we’re going to build an Iron Dome over it, with, you know, Israel has it, we’re going to have the best Iron Dome in the world. We need it and we’re going to make it all in the United States.

“We’re going to have protection, because it just takes one maniac to, you know, start something. We’re going to have protection … why shouldn’t we have an Iron Dome? Israel has one.”

Republican nominee Donald Trump has described Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris as a “third-rate phoney candidate”.

Illegal immigration has been dominating Trump’s discussion points so far in this interview with Musk, as the former president argues the Democrats failed to manage the number of people coming into the US.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.Credit: AP

“I think this [illegal immigration] is a fundamental existential issue for the United States and if we have another four more years of open borders, and it’s going to be even worse with another four more years,” Trump said.

A fact-check note is the US does not have an open border policy. It is illegal to cross the US border without approval.

Trump continued to say more immigrants are coming into the US before shifting his line of attack mid-sentence.

“This third-rate phoney candidate, don’t forget, I beat, I beat Biden. He failed in the debate miserably,” he said.

“We cannot have a Democrat. We cannot have her [Harris], she’s incompetent … I mean you’re really not a country unless you’re in a secure border and [have a] secure election.”

Trump then went on to falsely claim he won the 2020 election.

X owner and billionaire Elon Musk has congratulated Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for his “courage” after the assassination attempt, while the former president says he plans to return to the location of the shooting.

“You can’t fake bravery under such circumstances, the courage is instinctual or it is not, it’s not a rehearsed action and so I just want to say that I think a lot of people admire your courage under fire there,” Musk said.

Donald Trump raises a fist to the crowd attending his rally at Butler, Pennsylvania, after the July assassination attempt.Credit: AP

Trump gives his thanks, and says when the secret service agents were on top of him, he wanted to get up.

“When they were on top of me, covering me, actually, very much covering me and very bravely, but I wanted to get up, I said, ‘I want to get up’,” he said.

“They wanted [a] stretcher, I didn’t like the stretcher and I knew I was hit in the ear, but I knew I wasn’t hit anywhere else.”

Trump also announced his campaign will be returning to the place of his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania in October.

“We’re going back to Butler and we’re gonna go back in October. We’re all set up and … the people are fantastic in Butler,” he said.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he did not know he had “that much blood” until his July 13 assassination attempt in Pennsylvania when his right ear was wounded.

Asked by Musk what the experience was like, Trump said it was “not pleasant”.

A defiant Trump raises a fist to the crowd after his right ear was nicked by one of the sniper’s bullets.Credit: AP

“I didn’t know I had that much blood,” Trump said.

“The doctors later told me that the ear is a place that is a very bloody place if you’re going to get hit, but in this case, it was probably the best alternative you could even think about because it went at the right angle.

“It was a hard hit, it was very, I guess you would say, surreal.”

Trump also commended his sniper for successfully shooting would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks.

“A lot more people … could have been badly hurt and killed, so I have to take my hat off to [the sniper],” Trump said.

“He’s got very good vision … he came very quickly and it was, they say, it was approximately five seconds from long range, one bullet.”

The interview between Elon Musk and Donald Trump has begun, with Musk claiming the technical failure is proof of the opposition against the Republican presidential candidate.

“This massive attack illustrates there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say, and so, I’m honoured to have this conversation,” Musk said.

Trump then went on to congratulate Musk for breaking “every record in the book with so many millions of people”.

President Donald Trump talks with Elon Musk (left) at the White House in 2017.Credit: AP