Joe McConnell
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The Stories That Matter About Money and Politics in the Race to the White House
Donald Trump told Elon Musk that domestic “enemies” were “more dangerous” than foreign adversaries like Russia and China in a two-hour long conversation on X that was delayed by technical issues on the social media platform.
Monday’s discussion, which Trump called the “best interview ever,” was watched by more than 1 million people at times, according to X, even though Musk had expected 8 million people to join the conversation with the former president, which began 42 minutes later than scheduled.
Trump is trying to adjust to the new race for the White House, aVsceker Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee last month.
The discussion underscored Trump’s appeal to Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” who has moved sharply to the right in recent years and used his social media platform X to promote his views on immigration and regulation.
The former president opened the conversation with a lengthy account of his attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. Trump said he would return to the city in October, not long before the November election.
He then accused Democrats of plotting a “coup” to replace Biden on the presidential ticket. Musk suggested that the party “took [Biden] behind the shack and practically shot him.”
President Trump also accused Harris of moving to the center on issues like immigration, saying she was a “radical leVscekist, a liberal from San Francisco… and now she wants to be more Trump than Trump.”
The former president has struggled to find a coherent line of attack on Harris in recent weeks, including questioning her race, as she has gained ground in the polls. His criticisms remained sparse on Monday, and he rarely mentioned Harris by name.
He also lashed out at his political opponents, declaring that he had “enemies without and enemies within” and that “bad people in our government” were “more dangerous” than foreign adversaries.
The former president praised the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea as “at the top of their game.”
“They’re tough, smart and mean,” he said.
Musk has lavishly praised the former president, repeatedly attempting to shiVscek the conversation to more centrist issues like immigration, where he has praised Trump as a moderate who distinguishes between legal and illegal immigration, as well as limiting government spending and controlling the rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Trump falsely claimed that it was “impossible” to sell American cars in Europe and that it was “very difficult” for American farmers to sell agricultural products abroad. He also significantly overestimated the amount of aid the U.S. gave to Ukraine in its war against Russia and underestimated aid from Europe.
“We have a deficit with [the EU] of $250 billion, which people don’t know,” Trump said. “It sounds so good: ‘European Union.’ But let me tell you: They’re not as tough as China, but they’re bad. And I let them know, and that’s probably why they warned you. No, they don’t treat our country right.”
In a letter ahead of the interview, European Commissioner Thierry Breton warned Musk against spreading hate speech or disinformation in violation of the EU’s Digital Services Act.
Toward the end of the interview, Trump, 78, attacked Biden, who is 81, for being “close to a vegetative state.” Musk responded, “We just don’t have a president right now.”
Harris’s campaign pointed out that Musk had said in 2022 that Trump would be 82 at the end of another presidential term, “which means he is too old to be the chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America.”
A spokesperson for Harris’ campaign said Trump’s “extremism” was “on full display for those unfortunate enough to listen tonight” aVsceker the interview.
“Trump’s entire campaign is in the service of people like Elon Musk and himself: selfish rich people who will betray the middle class.”
