(The Hill) – Former President Trump spoke with Tesla founder Elon Musk on X, which is owned by Musk, on Monday, marking Trump’s most significant return to the social media platform since his reinstatement in 2023.
Trump and Musk spoke for about two hours after their conversation was postponed due to technical issues that initially prevented many from attending. The two discussed a range of topics, including the recent assassination attempt on Trump, his views on immigration and the economy, and the future of energy production. Musk supports Trump in the 2024 campaign.
Here are five insights from their conversation.
Trump returns to X
Monday essentially marked Trump’s return to the social media platform where he essentially built his political brand and rewrote the rules of presidential communication.
In addition to speaking to Musk about Spaces, Trump also made several posts on X in the hours leading up to the interview—a sign that he may be turning to X again as a means of communication during a turbulent time in his re-election campaign.
At its peak, “Spaces” had more than 1 million listeners on Monday.
Trump was a prolific poster on the platform when it was still called Twitter, until his account was blocked shortly after the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, when officials said his posts posed “the risk of further incitement of violence.”
His account was restored last year after Musk took over the platform and renamed it X. Since then, he has posted once: shares his mugshot from an indictment in Georgia last August.
The former president’s return to the stage comes as polls show Vice President Harris Trump’s lead in the polls is being curbed and caused great excitement after she replaced President Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Trump avoids major missteps
The former president’s conversation with Musk was often reminiscent of one of his rallies: Trump often spoke incoherently, attacked Harris and Biden as “incompetent” and repeated many of the anecdotes he tells at campaign rallies.
But he also managed to stay focused on the issues, particularly inflation, and avoid the inflammatory and controversial comments that had plagued his recent public appearances.
(*5*) Trump said. “And that’s a disgrace. And that’s what I think people care about most.”
The former president attacked Harris as a “San Francisco liberal” who had changed her mind on issues such as fracking and defunding police. He argued that Harris would return to more liberal positions if elected in November.
Trump also attacked Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D). for signing laws Requirement for schools to provide free menstrual products in all public school toilets.
Some of Trump’s recent public appearances were damaged through controversial comments while his allies implored him to focus on policy.
At a meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the former president attacked Harris for her biracial heritage. A recent campaign rally in Atlanta was overshadowed by his attacks on Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R), and at a press conference last week, Trump boasted about the size of the crowd he drew before rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
But still gives the Democrats fodder
Although Trump focused on policy issues in his approach to Harris, his often rambling responses to Musk’s calls nevertheless provided Democrats with some buzzwords they are likely to operate against the former president.
Trump reiterated his stance that he would try to shut down the Department of Education and leave it to the states to resolve the problem themselves. repeat a suggestion from Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation document that Democrats have aggressively promoted as a blueprint for Trump’s victory.
“Not every state is going to do well,” Trump said. “I would bet 35 of the 50 states are going to do well.”
Trump again claimed There are enemies “inside” the country that are more perilous than Russia or China.
He persisted, calling Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker a “loser,” accusing Vice President Harris of being “incompetent,” and claiming President Biden was “close to the growth stage.”
Harris’ campaign account on X shared Trump’s comments praising Musk for firing striking Tesla workers.
“I won’t name the company, but they go on strike and they say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone,'” Trump said.
Musk wants to influence Trump in politics
Musk has made it clear his support for Trumpoften presented his own prescriptions for certain policy issues or tried to persuade the former president to agree with his point of view.
Musk said his views on climate change are that the country should not “demonize” the oil and gas industry, but that “we should move toward sustainability.” Trump has previously said he is for “clean air” and “clean water,” but has Raise doubts on the legitimacy of climate change.
As the two exchanged thoughts on immigration and the influx of migrants at the southern border, Musk expressed his own views on immigration, taking a much more moderate stance than Trump often takes.
The Tesla founder said he believes legal immigration is a good thing. Most of those who cross the border illegally are good people. However, there must be a strict screening process to prevent perilous people from entering the country.
Trump, on the other hand, has announced the largest deportation campaign in the country’s history if he is elected. falsely claimed that other countries are emptying their prisons and mental institutions and sending them to the southern border, and that some of the people entering the United States speak languages that no one knows.
Later in the interview, Musk repeatedly raised the possibility of a government commission that could examine the national debt and consider how Congress could reassess its spending.
“I think it would be great if there was a commission on government efficiency to look at these things to make sure that taxpayers’ money is being spent wisely,” Musk told Trump. “I would be happy to help with such a commission.”
Another event on X was plagued by technical problems
For many who watched the entertainment on Monday evening, it was a feeling of déjà vu, as the start was delayed by almost an hour due to technical problems.
The event was supposed to start at 8 p.m. and Trump posted a link to the spaces where the conversation was to take place about 10 minutes beforehand. But it wasn’t until 8:42 p.m. that the event finally started.
Users reported having difficulty joining the space, sharing screenshots of messages such as “Details not available” or “This space is unavailable.” Others were able to join but only heard filler music while they waited for Trump and Musk to begin speaking.
Musk attributed the problem to a “massive DDOS” or denial-of-service attack targeting the platform.
“As this massive attack shows, there is a lot of resistance to people simply listening to what President Trump has to say,” Musk told listeners at the start of the call.
The technical problems were reminiscent of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R) attempt to operate Spaces for his 2024 presidential candidacy. That too was plagued by technical problemsas the conversation went on and off for more than 20 minutes before Musk ended the original Spaces and attempted to start a fresh one.
Monday’s difficulties may cause other politicians to hesitate to hold a similar event on topic X in the future.
