Support truly
independent journalism
Kamala Harris appeared to relish the technical difficulties plaguing Donald Trump’s X Spaces interview with Elon Musk, taking to his own platform Truth Social to taunt him with his own past words.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee “ReTruthed” an old Trump post from May 25 2023 in which the candidate had roasted his then-rival for the Republican presidential nomination Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over his own disastrous X Spaces session with Musk.
DeSantis formally launched his campaign in the hotly-anticipated X interview – but the event was best remembered for its technical problems and bugs.
“Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!” Trump had gloated at the time.
Harris trolled Trump by resharing his own post on Monday night.
To make matters worse, she shared it on Trump’s own social media platform – which he launched after being banned from Twitter following the January 6 Capitol riot.
At the time of DeSantis’s interview, Trump had also boasted about his platform: “My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!). Yours does not.”
The Republican presidential nominee had hoped his live call with the tech entrepreneur would reset his floundering 2024 campaign, which has been rocked in the three weeks since President Joe Biden stepped aside from the Democratic ticket and Harris launched her own bid – causing her to rocket in the polls and leaving Trump struggling to land potent attacks.
But the softball interview suffered a 40-minute delay as listeners reported being unable to access the conversation, a problem Musk blamed on an apparent cyber attack.
When the conversation did finally get underway, Trump bizarrely compared Harris’s “beautiful” appearance on the cover of the new issue of Time magazine to that of his own wife Melania Trump and complained that her succeeding Biden was a “coup”.
In the discussion where Trump went unchallenged, he also discussed closing the federal Department of Education, establishing an Israeli-style “Iron Dome” defense system for the US, peddled false claims on illegal immigration and climate change, hailed authoritarian leaders Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un and praised electric cars, no doubt music to the Tesla manufacturer’s ears.
In return, Musk told him: “I think we’re at a fork in the road of destiny, of civilization, and I think we need to take the right path, and I think you’re the right path.”
However, the big takeaway from the night for many was the odd sound of Trump’s voice, with listeners noting a slurring or “lisp” in his speech.
Harris campaign spokesperson Joseph Costello said in a statement after the interview: “Trump's entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself – self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024.”
Despite, the mockery, Musk ended the night by posting that he would be “happy to host” Harris for an X Spaces event of her own.
