In a lengthy conversation at an X Space, Elon Musk found himself yielding to the ideas of former president Donald Trump on various policy issues that directly impact Musk’s businesses. Trump took control of the discussion, sometimes not allowing much room for Musk to share his thoughts. The conversation started with Trump mentioning the assassination attempt against him in July, but soon shifted to topics like immigration and energy policy.
During the discussion, Trump expressed support for policies that conflicted with Musk’s business interests, such as advocating for increased US oil drilling and universal adoption of electric vehicles. Musk, on the other hand, tried to present a moderate stance on climate change and the oil industry, stating that vilifying these industries and the hardworking people within them may not be the right approach.
At one point, Musk suggested the creation of a “government efficiency” body that he could be a part of if Trump was reelected, to which Trump praised Musk for his cost-cutting abilities. However, the start of the X event was delayed by technical difficulties, with Musk attributing it to a massive DDOS attack on the platform. Despite the challenges, around one million people tuned in to listen to the conversation live.
This isn’t the first time an X Space event experienced technical issues. In a previous incident involving Florida governor Ron DeSantis, the platform couldn’t handle the large number of listeners, leading to disruptions in the audio stream. Musk later assured that the platform had been stress-tested for millions of concurrent listeners and promised to release the full audio of the conversation.
Following the conversation, the Kamala Harris campaign took to Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, to highlight criticisms made by Trump towards DeSantis’ previous X Space event with Musk. Trump and Musk also made disparaging remarks about Harris and her family, relying on debunked conspiracies.
Throughout the interview, Musk mentioned his past identification as a Democrat but hinted at a shift towards more right-leaning views in recent weeks. After the July assassination attempt on Trump, Musk publicly endorsed the former president and allegedly pledged significant donations to a pro-Trump super PAC. However, Musk later clarified that any contributions would be at a lower level than initially reported.
Despite the controversies and differing viewpoints presented in the conversation, it drew a peak of 1.3 million listeners, indicating the significant interest in the dialogue between Trump and Musk on various political and business-related topics.