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Donald Trump and Elon Musk staged a rambling “conversation” in which the Republican White House candidate aired his views unchallenged for two hours after a technical delay that drew mockery from his Democratic rival.
The glitch on X (formerly Twitter) held up the online appearance by more than 40 minutes, to the outspoken frustration of prominent Republicans and donors who were trying to tune in. Mr Musk, who owns X and Tesla, blamed a cyber attack but offered no evidence of that.
When it did begin, the 78-year-old former president dwelt on his attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania a month ago. He appeared at times to be speaking with a lisp. It was unclear whether that was due to audio issues, but it attracted online memes likening him to Mike Tyson or Daffy Duck.
Among a series of false claims that drew no rebuttal from Mr Musk, Trump claimed that 22 “murderers” had been released from prison in “the Congo” and deposited in the United States. He also suggested that 60 million people were listening in. A running count on the site showed a live peak of 1.2 million.
The Republican claimed that Joe Biden, 81, was forced to withdraw from the presidential election race in a “coup” and insulted his new opponent, vice-president Kamala Harris, as “third rate”, “incompetent” and “a radical Left lunatic”. In a surreal turn, he also appeared to liken her looks favourably with his wife Melania’s, after Time magazine featured the Democratic candidate on its cover.
“She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live,” Mr Trump said, perhaps intending to reinforce his claims that Ms Harris was inauthentic after questioning her racial credentials. He added: “It was a drawing, and actually, she looked very much like a great first lady, Melania.”
Trump did blame Ms Harris for a rise in illegal immigration. But he has appeared wrongfooted by the adulatory welcome she has received from supporters on the campaign trail alongside her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, and opinion polls showing the Democrats back in contention ahead of their convention in Chicago next week. “She’s going to be worse than him [Mr Biden],” Trump claimed, adding the US needed to prevent anything happening under “stupid people like Biden”, and going on to praise strongmen leaders such as Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.
Responding to the X call, the Harris campaign said: “Donald Trump’s extremism and dangerous ‘Project 2025’ agenda is a feature not a glitch of his campaign, which was on full display for those unlucky enough to listen in tonight during whatever that was on X. 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.”
The conversation came about after Mr Musk endorsed Trump, who had been banned by Twitter’s former owners for spreading disinformation ahead of the January 2021 riot by his supporters on Capitol Hill, following his election defeat by Mr Biden.
Trump in turn has been speaking more favourably of electric cars, after previously ridiculing Mr Musk for seeking subsidies for Tesla. He sympathised with the entrepreneur for facing challenges in the European Union after Mr Musk’s recent incendiary remarks suggesting that Britain was on the verge of “civil war” because of a wave of far-Right disorder, which was fomented by false claims amplified on X against the Muslim community.
Ahead of the interview, EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton posted an open letter reminding Mr Musk of its digital services act, designed to stop the spread of hate speech. “With great audience comes greater responsibility,” the Frenchman tweeted, specifically citing the UK riots.
During the interview, Mr Musk made no mention of his accusation that Sir Keir Starmer is curbing “free speech” with his response to the riots, an allegation that Downing Street forcefully rejected. But he did re-tweet Mr Breton’s appeal with a meme reading: “And literally, f*** your own face.”
