Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sat down for a rambling two-hour conversation on Monday night with Elon Musk, on the billionaire entrepreneur’s social media platform X.
It was a friendly chat rather than a cross-examination, with former president Trump and Musk - the world’s richest person, who has publicly come out in support of Trump - repeatedly praising one another.
Technical problems delayed the start of the event for around 45 minutes, meaning those who logged on to X to listen in were faced with a blank page, which Musk quickly blamed on a cyber attack.
Once under way, the chat ran for nearly two hours. lengthy chat was underway, a counter on X showed as many as 1.3 million people were listening in - far fewer than the “60 million or something” Trump at one point claimed had tuned in.
Here are some of the most bizarre moments...
1. Trump said Kamala Harris looked like his wife
Trump insulted Harris several times in the interview, referring to her as "third rate", "incompetent" and "a radical left lunatic."
But he then praised her looks.
Referring to a drawing of Harris which has appeared on the latest cover of Time magazine, he said: "She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live.
The reintroduction of Kamala Harris https://t.co/noW5TOgawP pic.twitter.com/iLmQIhxOeF
— TIME (@TIME) August 12, 2024
“It was a drawing, and actually, she looked very much like a great first lady, Melania," he added, referring to his wife Melania Trump.
“She didn't look, she didn't look, she didn't look like Camilla,” he added. Here he mispronounced Harris’ first name, Kamala.
“But, of course, she's a beautiful woman, so we'll leave it at that, right?” he added.
2. Trump wrongly claimed US inflation is at a 100-year high
At one point, Trump said “I think we have the worst inflation we’ve had in 100 years. They say it’s 48 years - I don’t believe it.”
But this has been dismissed by CNN factcheckers, who say it is “baseless” and wrong on two fronts.
Inflation did hit a peak relatively recently, back in June 2022, when it hit 9.1 per cent. But that was only around a 40-year high, not a 48-year high and certainly not a 100-year one.
Importantly, inflation has fallen significantly since then. In July, it was at 3.2 per cent.
3. Trump called Biden dropping out of presidential race a ‘coup’
Trump repeatedly claimed Joe Biden pulled out of the presidential race following a “coup”, as he expressed anger that Harris had been swapped in on the Democratic ticket.
"She hasn't done an interview since this whole scam started," Trump said. “This was a coup.”
Elsewhere, he said: "This was a coup of a president of the United States. He [Biden] didn’t want to leave. And they said, ‘We can do it the nice way, or we can do it the hard way".
Trump had been leading Biden in many polls of battleground states likely to be critical to the outcome of the November 5 election, but is now trailing Harris in some of the same states.
4. Trump said illegal immigration ‘saved his life’
At one point, Trump joked: “Illegal immigration saved my life.” The comment prompted laughter from Musk, who was heard giggling at several points in the conversation.
The former president had been turning his head to look at a chart on illegal immigration, when he was shot at by a would-be assassin at a Republican rally on July 13.
The bullet pierced his ear, but it is thought had Trump not been turning his head at the time, the shot may have proven fatal.
Trump’s comment on illegal immigration “saving his life” is facetious, given the former president’s anti-immigration stance.
Elsewhere in his interview, he falsely claimed that under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “millions” of immigrants were arriving in the US each month.
According to CNN factcheckers, the highest monthly figure for border “encounters” during the administration reached almost 371,000 in December. The figure for June was around 205,000. “Encounters” with border security personnel do not equate to people accessing the country, as many people are turned away.
At another point, Trump that of the people who have migrated to the US during the Biden/Harris administration, “many [have come] from jails, from prisons, from mental institutions, or a bigger version of that is insane asylums”.
These claims are believed to be baseless.
5. Trump appeared to have a lisp
At several points in Monday night’s interview, the former president appeared at several points to have a lisp adopt a hitherto-unheard lisp seems worth including in this list.
Why does Trump sound like Donald Duck? This lisp thing is distracting #ElonXTrump pic.twitter.com/jJ1AHhi5t7
— sidney (@hcesd) August 13, 2024
The apparent lisp was noted by many listeners noted on X, but it was not clear if the former president was actually lisping or whether there were ongoing technical or audio issues.
The Huffington Post’s White House corresponded S. V. Date asked the Trump campaign why the presidential hopeful appeared to be lisping and slurring his words.
“Must be your s***ty hearing. Get your ears checked out,” a campaign spokesperson appeared to respond, in a screenshot Date shared on X.
