Former President Donald Trump spoke with Tesla founder Elon Musk on Musk’s X on Monday, marking Trump’s most significant return to the social media platform since returning to the presidency in 2023.
Trump and Musk spoke for about two hours after the conversation was initially delayed by technical issues that 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 is supporting Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Here are five takeaways from their conversation.
Trump returns to X
Monday essentially marked President Trump’s return to the social media platforms where he has built his political brand and rewritten the rules for presidential communication.
Not only did Trump speak with Musk on Spaces, but he also posted to X several times in the hours before the interview, which may be a sign that he is again turning to X as a means of communication during a turbulent period in his re-election bid.
At its peak, Monday’s Spaces had over one million listeners.
Trump had been posting frequently on the platform since it was called Twitter, but his account was suspended shortly after the January 6 Capitol riots. Authorities said Trump’s posts posed a “risk of inciting further violence.”
His account was reinstated last year after Musk bought the platform and rebranded it as X. He has since posted one photo of his mugshot from his arrest following his indictment in Georgia last August.
The former president’s return comes as Vice President Harris has replaced President Biden as the top Democratic candidate, overturning President Trump’s lead in polls and showing strong support.
President Trump avoids major blunder
The conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk mirrored the way Mr. Trump has spoken at rallies, with Mr. Trump frequently rambling, calling Ms. Harris and Mr. Biden “incompetent” and repeating many of the same anecdotes he tells on the campaign trail.
But he also avoided the kind of inflammatory and controversial comments that have dogged his recent public comments, focusing on issues such as inflation in particular.
“We have an election coming up and people want to hear about the economy. Food prices are going up and this stupid administration has allowed this to happen,” Trump said. “It’s unfortunate. And in my opinion, that’s what people care about most.”
The former president slammed Harris as a “San Francisco liberal” and accused her of changing her stance on issues like fracking and police budget cuts, and argued that she would return to more liberal positions if elected in November.
Trump also criticized Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), for signing a bill into law that requires all public school bathrooms to provide free menstrual products.
Some of Trump’s recent public appearances have been marred by controversial comments as allies plead with him to focus on policy.
At a sit-in at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), former President Trump criticized Harris for being biracial. A recent campaign rally in Atlanta was overshadowed by attacks on Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R), and at a press conference last week, Trump bragged about the size of the crowd he had gathered before rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
But it still feeds the Democrats.
Despite focusing on policy in his attacks on Harris, Trump’s often incoherent responses to Musk’s questions gave Democrats some brief remarks they could use to attack the former president.
Trump reiterated his stance of shutting down the Department of Education and allowing states to deal with their own problems, echoing a proposal in Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation document that Democrats have aggressively promoted as a blueprint if Trump wins.
“Not every state is going to work,” Trump said. “Out of 50 states, I’m going to bet 35 are going to work.”
TrumpAgain asserted We have domestic enemies that are more dangerous than Russia or China.
He went on a scathing tirade, calling Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (Democrat) a “loser,” slamming Vice President Harris as “incompetent” and claiming President Biden is “almost a vegetable.”
Harris’ X campaign account promoted comments from Trump praising Musk for firing striking Tesla workers.
“I won’t name the companies, but when they go on strike, they say, ‘OK, you guys get out,'” Trump said.
Musk tries to provoke Trump on policy
Musk, an outspoken supporter of Trump, frequently offered his own prescriptions on certain policy issues or tried to persuade the former president to agree with his views.
Musk said his view on climate change is that the country should not “blame” the oil and gas industry, but “lean toward sustainability.” Trump has previously said he supports “clean air” and “clean water,” but has questioned the legitimacy of climate change.
As the two men exchanged views on immigration and the surge in migrants at the southern border, Musk offered his own views on the issue, which were far more moderate than Trump often takes.
The Tesla founder said he believes legal immigration is a good thing and that the majority of people who cross the border illegally are good people, but that rigorous vetting processes are necessary to keep dangerous people from entering the country.
Trump has responded by promising to launch the largest deportation campaign in US history if elected, falsely claiming that other countries are emptying their prisons and psychiatric hospitals and sending them to the southern border, and that some people entering the US speak languages no one has ever heard.
Later in the interview, Musk reiterated the possibility of setting up a government committee to look at the national debt and how Congress could reassess spending.
“I think it would be great to have a government efficiency commission that would look at these things to make sure taxpayer money is being spent appropriately,” Musk told Trump. “I’d be happy to work with such a commission.”
Another X event plagued by technical issues
For many watching Monday night’s conversation, it was deja vu when technical issues delayed the start by nearly an hour.
The event was scheduled to begin at 8pm, and Trump posted a link to the space where the conversation would take place about 10 minutes before, but it didn’t finally begin until 8:42pm.
Users posted about their struggles to join the space, sharing screenshots of messages like “Details Unknown” and “This space is unavailable.” Some were able to join but could only hear filler music while waiting for Trump and Musk to start speaking.
Musk blamed the issue on a “massive DDOS (denial of service) attack” targeting the platform.
“As this massive attack shows, there’s a lot of opposition to just listening to President Trump,” Musk told the audience as the conversation began.
The technical issues are reminiscent of when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) tried to use a space to announce his 2024 presidential candidacy, but that too was plagued by technical issues, with the call cutting in and out for more than 20 minutes before Musk was able to end the first space and start a new one.
Monday’s difficulties may make other politicians think twice before holding similar events at X in the future.
