(The Center Square) – Saying he remains more moderate and left than not, billionaire Elon Musk hosted and affirmed his endorsement of former President Donald Trump in a conversation on his social media platform.
Musk said, “We are at a fork in the road in the destiny of civilization. We need to take the right path and I think you are the right path.”
And in another moment, describing the election race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, he said of the Republican, “You are the path to prosperity. And Kamala is the opposite.”
Undeterred by an opening glitch, Trump and Musk chatted in a public interview on Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. More than 1 million people joined the stream to listen to the two-hour conversation after the host said they would have to scale back the event to a smaller number of listeners because of a “massive” cyberattack.
“Congratulations on breaking every record in the book tonight,” Trump told Musk, when, within 30 minutes of the intended start of the stream, nearly 30 million people had already viewed the post.
“We view that as an honor,” Trump said.
Throughout the conversation, Musk and Trump touched on a wide range of subjects, from illegal immigration to the assassination attempt on Trump. There were no deviations from past policy foundations in his campaign.
Musk, co-founder of PayPal and an early investor of Tesla before becoming its CEO, has estimated net worth of more than $220 billion – richest man on the planet. Trump is estimated net worth of $4.7 billion.
Musk gave context to his position, saying he waited in line six hours to shake President Barack Obama’s hand, he has significant investments in industries typically associated with Democrats, and he has a love for his country.
Musk applauded Trump for his “inspiring” reaction to the assassination attempt on his life, saying that played a part in his excitement over endorsing Trump.
“Instead of shying away from things, instead of ducking down, you were pumping your fist in there and saying, fight, fight, fight,” Musk said. “The President of the United States represents America. And I think that is America. That is strength under fire.”
There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the Secret Service since the attempt, leading to the resignation of former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on July 23.
Yet, when asked by Musk his thoughts on the job done by security at the event, Trump said a lack of communication seemed to be the biggest problem, while continuing to stand by the “tremendous courage” of his Secret Service team.
They then went on to touch on illegal immigration, where Trump was quick to blast President Joe Biden and Harris.
“You have millions of people coming in a month, and then he gets up and she tries to pretend like she’s going to do something,” Trump said. “She had three and a half years and, by the way, they have another five months that they can do something, but they won’t do anything. It’s all talk.”
He added, “She was in charge of the border and the border is the worst ever.”
Musk agreed with Trump’s concerns.
“It’s simply not working,” Musk said. “Whether it’s a question of intention or incompetence, either way, we don’t have a secure border.”
Trump said the world would be in a better place if he had been president these last four years, reminding voters to ask themselves if they are better today than four years ago.
“The Israeli attack would have never happened, Russia would never have attacked Ukraine, we’d have no inflation, and we wouldn’t have had the Afghanistan mess,” Trump said.
Musk also advocated the importance of a strong leader in the United States.
“In the context of global security, if the American president is someone who evil dictators are scared of, that makes a huge difference to the security of the world,” Musk said.
Trump said he was that person.
“I know Putin. I know President Xi. I know Kim Jong Un of North Korea. I know every one of them,” he said. “They are at the top of their game. They’re tough, they’re smart, they’re vicious, and they’re going to protect their country . . . and when they see Kamala or when they see Biden, Sleepy Joe, they can’t even believe it. They can’t believe this happened.”
Trump promised that, if given a second term by voters in November, he wants to decrease income taxes on middle-class families.
He also called out what he sees as Harris’ hypocrisy in recently announcing similar policies. The most significant is no taxes on tips.
“Our country is becoming a very dangerous place and she is a radical left San Francisco liberal,” Trump said. ‘Now she’s looking like she wants to be more Trump than Trump.”
Prior to the interview, a member of the European Union sent a letter to Musk, stating that it led to a greater “risk of amplification of potentially harmful content” which might lead to the EU taking “interim measures” against X.
Musk said that he believes issues like this are why it is important to elect Trump.
“I think, really, it is essential that you win for the good of the country,” he said. “There’s a lot of attempts to . . . force censorship, even on Americans from other countries.”
Trump ended the interview by saying that Nov. 5 is going to be the “most important day in the history of our country.”
“We are going to do some great things,” Trump said. “We are going to really turn around things fast. We have no choice, otherwise we are not going to have a country.”
