Musk tees up softball questions for Trump on X, after technical problems
What was supposed to be Donald Trump’s triumphant return to a social-media platform central to his presidency was marred by glitches Monday night, when a livestreamed conversation on the social platform X between Trump and its owner, Elon Musk, was significantly delayed by technical issues.
But once their chat began, 40 minutes after it was scheduled, Musk’s and Trump’s newly developed camaraderie was on clear display, with the billionaire tech entrepreneur lobbing softball questions that allowed Trump to rattle off the talking points that have animated his presidential campaign.
The conversation offered little new information about Trump’s views. Over the course of more than two hours, Trump attacked Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, as a “phony” who, along with President Joe Biden, failed to address crossings at the U.S. border with Mexico. He repeated a number of false claims, including that the 2020 election was rigged, the criminal cases against him were a conspiracy by the Biden administration to undermine his candidacy and the leaders of other nations were deliberately sending criminals and “their nonproductive people” to America.
To all of these points, Musk largely voiced his agreement, offering frequent praise as he proved a sympathetic partner to help amplify Trump’s views on a social-media platform that once barred him for promoting false claims that promoted political violence. Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and rebranded it as X last year.
“I’ve not been very political before,” Musk said toward the end of their chat, describing himself as “moderate, if not moderate, slightly left,” and adding that listeners who categorized themselves that way should back Trump.
Early in the evening, Musk — who shares with Trump a contempt for the mainstream media — was clear that he was not conducting an “adversarial” interview but wanted to help “open-minded, independent voters” simply “catch a vibe.”
“I want to emphasize it’s a conversation, and it’s really intended to just get a feel for what Donald Trump is just like in a conversation,” Musk said.
Whether that gambit will help Trump win over undecided voters or Musk restore confidence in his platform remains unclear. The faulty beginning, which Musk attributed to a cyberattack, threatened to overshadow the conversation itself. And the technical errors recalled similar issues that plagued another political event hosted by Musk last year, when Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announcement on Twitter was rife with glitches, hot mics and dead air.
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