Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign slammed former President Trump’s interview with billionaire Elon Musk, saying the Trump campaign was for “self-centered rich people who are betraying the middle class.”
Trump’s interview with Musk on XSpaces, a live audio chat feature of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), got off to a rocky start Monday night due to technical issues, but millions of people ultimately tuned in to watch the interview, according to live trackers throughout the discussion.
In a post following the interview, Musk said he would also be happy to welcome Harris to X-Space.
During Monday’s interview, Musk gave Trump ample time to explain his positions on a range of issues, including immigration, the assassination attempt he survived at a campaign rally last month, inflation and his proposal to abolish the Department of Education to give states more power over their school systems.
Trump speaks to Musk in lengthy and comprehensive interview as Harris continues to callously ignore the media
Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has slammed former President Trump’s interview with billionaire Elon Musk. (Getty Images)
“I want to close the Department of Education and give education back to the states… out of the 50 states [states]”35 states will do great. 15 of them, no, 20 of them will be as good as Norway, which is considered a great country,” Trump said, adding that heavily Democratic states like California could struggle if the department was abolished.
Harris’ campaign attacked Trump over policy proposals the former president mentioned in the interview and criticized technical issues X-Space has had.
“Donald Trump’s extremism and dangerous Project 2025 plan are a feature, not a flaw, of his campaign, and that was made perfectly clear to those unfortunate enough to tune into tonight’s broadcast on X.com,” Harris campaign spokesman Joseph Costello said in a statement. “The Trump campaign is entirely in service of people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump — self-centered rich people who have betrayed the middle class and won’t even be able to broadcast live in 2024.”
Project 2025 is a controversial effort organized by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation and drafted by a number of conservatives, including former Trump administration officials.
X collapses after Trump and Musk interview “Space” crashes instantly
Trump spoke with Musk on Monday night on XSpaces, a live audio chat feature of the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). (Getty Images)
The initiative makes right-wing policy proposals if Trump wins the presidential election, including replacing civil servants with Trump supporters, abolishing the Department of Education, criminalizing pornography, eliminating DEI programs, cutting funding to Medicaid and Medicare, rejecting abortion as medical care, and instilling Christian values in government.
Trump Distance yourself from leadership The plan has been criticised as an authoritarian, Christian nationalist scheme that would undermine civil liberties, but he said he knew nothing about it, that parts of it were “totally ridiculous and terrible” and that its supporters were “far-right”.
On Monday, Trump returned to X after a nearly year-long hiatus from posting on the social media platform, posting a series of campaign ads before his interview with Musk.
Before Musk bought X in 2022, Trump was banned from the platform following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, when the platform was still called Twitter. But even after Musk reinstated his account, Trump’s only post was when he shared a mug shot of his face from his arrest last August.
Harris’ campaign said the Trump campaign “serves rich, self-centered people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump who are betraying the middle class.” (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
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“This country is in decline and we’re dealing with bad people. They’re liars. They say they’re saying things and they’re doing very bad things. They say they’re going to harden the border. They say they’ve done a great job at border control, but in fact it’s the worst in history. They say they’re going to stop crime,” Trump said toward the end of the interview.
Trump also addressed Biden’s decision last month to end his reelection campaign, calling it a “coup” by Democrats pressuring him to step aside. Biden’s decision came amid pressure from Democrats to drop out of the race due to concerns about his mental health.
“This was a coup. This was a coup of the president of the United States. He didn’t want to leave, but they said, ‘We can do it the soft way or we can do it the hard way,'” Trump said.
“They took him out behind a shed and basically shot him,” Musk replied, before Trump criticized Biden as “the worst president ever.”
Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
