Former President Donald Trump went on a two-hour tear of lies, exaggerations and fearmongering in a dialog Monday with billionaire Elon Musk on the X social media platform.
The chat between the 2 males, one the Republican nominee for president and the opposite the world’s richest man, is Trump’s newest effort to attraction to voters as Vice President Kamala Harris has continued to achieve floor within the early days of her Democratic presidential bid. Musk, who has endorsed Trump, mentioned the occasion was meant to let individuals “get a feel” for what the previous president is like when he’s having an off-the-cuff dialog.
“It’s hard to catch a vibe when people don’t talk in a normal way,” Musk mentioned.
Listed here are 5 notable moments from their dialog.
Trump repeated his lies a few migrant disaster on the southern border.
The previous president shared acquainted assaults in opposition to migrants who cross the U.S. border with Mexico, describing a lot of them as “rapists,” “murderers” and “criminals” whereas claiming nations akin to Venezuela have been emptying their jails to ship individuals to the USA.
There isn’t a proof to help these claims. In actual fact, current analysis reveals that immigrants are a lot much less probably to be incarcerated than individuals who have been born within the U.S. Different research present that undocumented migration doesn’t enhance violent crime.
Trump additionally tried to hyperlink the surge in migration to Harris, echoing Republican claims that she was the Biden administration’s “border czar.” She was tasked with investigating the basis causes of the immigration wave, however claims about an all-encompassing position are exaggerations.
Trump bragged about his relationships with Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
At one level, Musk congratulated Trump for his “epic tweets” throughout his administration, together with when the previous president known as North Korean chief Kim Jong Un “rocket man.”
Evan Vucci/Related Press
“I know Putin, I know President Xi, I know Kim Jong Un of North Korea. I know every one of them,” Trump mentioned. “I’m not saying anything good or bad. They’re at the top of their game. They’re tough, they’re smart, they’re vicious, and they’re going to protect their country. Whether they love their country, they probably do. It’s just a different form of love, but they’re going to protect their country.”
Trump was the primary president to satisfy with Kim, a call critics mentioned lended legitimacy to Kim’s authoritarian regime on a global stage.
Musk mentioned critics shouldn’t ‘vilify’ the oil and gasoline business.
Musk, whose mammoth fortune is basically tied to his electrical automobile firm, mentioned the world ought to “lean in the direction of sustainability” however not vilify fossil fuels as a result of they’re wanted to maintain the world transferring.
“I’m pro-environment, but I’m not against, I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry,” Musk mentioned.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP through Getty Pictures
Trump, for his half, made enjoyable of these involved about local weather change and touted his efforts to open up a vital wildlife refuge in Alaska to grease and gasoline exploration throughout his administration. (President Joe Biden rolled again these plans.)
Trump remains to be obsessive about crowd sizes.
Trump repeatedly talked about the sizes of his numerous audiences all through the dialog. At one level he claimed that “60 million” individuals have been listening to the livestream on Monday evening, though the depend on X indicated 1.3 million listeners at its peak.
He additionally described the July 13 assassination try at a rally close to Butler, Pennsylvania, saying he had a “massive crowd” there. The scale of the occasion, he mentioned, made him fear how many individuals might have been killed. A bystander was fatally shot.
Trump sounded odd for a big portion of the decision.
The previous president seemed like he was slurring his phrases for a big portion of the dialog, though it’s unclear if the audio was guilty. Video of Trump talking that was shared by an X worker appeared to indicate comparable points.
