In glitchy interview, Trump tells Musk Iran ‘wouldn’t be attacking’ if he were president
In two-hour chat marred by technical issues, former US leader reiterates assertion ‘zero chance’ Oct. 7 would have happened on his watch, invites billionaire to join administration
NEW YORK — Donald Trump recounted his assassination attempt in vivid detail and promised the largest deportation in US history during a high-profile return to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — a conversation that was plagued by technical glitches.
“If I had not turned my head, I would not be talking to you right now — as much as I like you,” Trump told X’s owner Elon Musk.
Musk, a former Trump critic, said the Republican nominee’s toughness, as demonstrated by his reaction to last month’s shooting, was critical for national security.
“There’s some real tough characters out there,” Musk said. “And if they don’t think the American president is tough, they will do what they want to do.”
Trump also told Musk that “Iran would not be attacking” Israel if he were in office, as the Jewish state prepares for a threatened retaliation by the Islamic Republic over the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July. Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for the assassination, though Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.
The glitchy streamed conversation between Trump and Musk marked the former president’s return to the social media platform.
Trump reiterated a claim he’s previously made, saying there is “zero chance” Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel would have happened if he were in office.
The former president said that when he was in office, Iran “had no money for Hamas… they had no money for Hezbollah.”
Discussing plans for his presidency should he win the election, Trump asserted that the US will have an Iron Dome missile defense system. “Why shouldn’t we have an Iron Dome? Israel has one,” he added.
Iron Dome is a system only effective against short-range rockets — not a challenge the US has had to contend with on its territory.
The rare public conversation between Trump and Musk, which spanned more than two hours and was overwhelmingly friendly, revealed little about Trump’s plans for a second term. The former president spent much of the discussion focused on his recent assassination attempt, illegal immigration and his plans to cut government regulations.
Still, the online meeting underscored just how much the US political landscape has changed less than four years after Trump was permanently banned by the social media platform’s former leadership for spreading disinformation that sparked the January 6, 2021, attack on Congress.
Such disinformation has thrived at X under Musk’s leadership, who has described himself as a free speech absolutist, although it was largely ignored during his conversation with Trump save for a passing Trump reference to a “rigged election.”
Delay, glitches
The session was intended to serve as a way for the former US president to reach potentially millions of voters directly. It was also an opportunity for X, a platform that relies heavily on politics, to redeem itself after some struggles. It did not begin as planned.
With more than 878,000 users connected to the meeting more than 40 minutes after the scheduled start time, the interview had not yet begun. Many users received a message reading, “Details not available.”
Trump’s team posted that the “interview on X is being overwhelmed with listeners logging in.” And once the meeting began, Musk apologized for the late start and blamed a “massive attack” that overwhelmed the company’s system. Trump’s voice sounded muffled at times.
Trump supporters were openly frustrated.
“Not available????? I planned my whole day around this,” wrote conservative commentator Glenn Beck.
“Please let Elon know we can’t join,” billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman posted.
Trump sought to turn the problems into a positive, congratulating Musk on the number of people trying to tune in. A counter on X showed as many as 1.3 million people were listening at times during the lengthy conversation.
Ahead of the event, Musk posted on the platform that X was conducting “some system scaling tests” to handle what was anticipated to be a high volume of participants.
The rocky start was reminiscent of a May 2023 social media conversation between Musk and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The Republican governor was using the social media platform as a way to officially announce his presidential bid, a disastrous rollout marred by technical glitches, overloaded by the more than 400,000 people who tried to dial in.
Trump’s Democratic rival, US Vice President Kamala Harris, has noted that Trump mocked DeSantis at the time.
“Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!” Trump wrote in a message reposted by Harris’s campaign Monday.
Once the interview ended, Harris’s campaign responded with a statement saying, “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.”
Musk later posted on X that he was willing to host Harris on his platform.
Monday’s meeting highlighted the evolving personal relationship between Trump and Musk, two of the world’s most powerful men, who have shifted from being bitter rivals to unlikely allies over the span of one election season.
Combined views of the conversation with @realDonaldTrump and subsequent discussion by other accounts now ~1 billion https://t.co/s8x8QmdmnY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
Musk, who described himself as a “moderate Democrat” until recently, suggested in 2022 that Trump was too old to be president again. Still, Musk formally endorsed the Republican candidate two days after his assassination attempt last month.
During their talk, Trump welcomed the idea of Musk joining his next administration to help cut government waste. Musk volunteered to join a prospective “government efficiency commission.”
“You’re the greatest cutter,” Trump told Musk. “I need an Elon Musk — I need somebody that has a lot of strength and courage and smarts. I want to close up the Department of Education, move education back to the states.”
Insulting Harris
Trump insulted Harris several times, referring to her as “third rate,” “incompetent” and “a radical left lunatic.”
But, he said, she was “getting a free ride” in the media, which was seeking to portray her in an overwhelmingly positive light.
“I saw a picture of her on Time Magazine today. She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live,” Trump said, apparently mocking the portrayal. “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 like Kamila,” he added, mispronouncing his rival’s name.
The cover of Time Magazine.
The next President of the United States, Madam President Kamala Harris!
Drop a ???? and Repost if she has your vote! pic.twitter.com/MoL6kVoMtW
— ????Brittney???? (@AZ_Brittney) August 12, 2024
He also expressed anger that Harris had been swapped in for Biden on the Democratic ticket.
“She hasn’t done an interview since this whole scam started,” Trump said, claiming falsely that Biden dropping off the ticket was a “coup.”
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.
Even before his endorsement, the tech CEO had already been working privately to support a pro-Trump super PAC. The group, known as America PAC, is now under investigation by election officials for alleged misleading attempts to collect data from voters.
Meanwhile, Trump has softened his criticism of electric vehicles, citing Musk’s leadership of Tesla. And on Monday, at least, Trump returned to Musk’s social media platform in force. The former president made at least eight individual posts in the hours leading up to the Musk interview.
Long before he endorsed Trump, Musk turned increasingly toward the right in his posts and actions on the platform, also using X to try to sway political discourse around the world. He’s gotten in a dustup with a Brazilian judge over censorship, railed against what he calls the “woke mind virus” and amplified false claims that Democrats are secretly flying in migrants to vote in US elections.
Coming shortly, ???? will publish everything demanded by @Alexandre and how those requests violate Brazilian law.
This judge has brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil. He should resign or be impeached.
Shame @Alexandre, shame.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2024
Musk has also reinstated previously banned accounts such as the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Trump, who was kicked off the platform — then known as Twitter — two days after the January 6 violence, with the company citing “the risk of further incitement of violence.”
By November 2022, Musk had bought the company, and Trump’s account was reinstated, although the former US president refrained from tweeting until Monday, insisting that he was happier on his own Truth Social site, which he launched during the ban.
Trump’s audience on X is legions larger than on Truth Social, which became a publicly traded company earlier this year. Trump has just over 7.5 million followers on Truth Social, while his mostly dormant X account is followed by 88 million. Musk’s account, which hosted the interview, has more than 193 million followers.
