Light on news, heavy on personality in Elon Musk and Donald Trump X interview

Former President Donald Trump and billionaire X owner Elon Musk said a lot but made little news in a meandering interview marred by a lengthy technical delay on Monday night.

Overwhelmingly, Trump’s comments followed the contours of one of his rally speeches: he blasted undocumented immigrants as dangerous, he bragged about his relationships with leaders of U.S. adversaries like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin and he insulted his political opponents, particularly President Biden and Vice President Harris.

Musk interjected largely in agreement with Trump and added his own takes, including digressions about the root causes of inflation and concerns about air quality. It made for a contradictory display of chumminess: the men repeatedly agreed with each other while also talking past each other.

The conversation did not have a smooth start. As people tried to tune in, many were greeted with a message on X stating that the Spaces audio feed was unavailable. It finally began about 40 minutes later than advertised. Musk blamed a cyberattack, but he has not provided any evidence to support that, and the rest of the website appeared to be operating normally.

The hiccups were reminiscent of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s botched campaign rollout on X, then known as Twitter, last year, which was plagued with technical glitches and abruptly ended after 20 minutes. But Monday’s interview was eventually able to get going, and had 1.3 million listeners at its peak, according to X’s metrics.

Musk, who has endorsed Trump, kicked off the interview by seeming to acknowledge his questions would not put pressure on the former president. “No one is really themselves in an adversarial interview,” Musk said. “It's hard to catch a vibe about someone if you don't hear them talk in just a normal way."

They spent the first 20 minutes discussing the assassination attempt on Trump at a July rally in Butler, PA, during which Musk’s Trump support was on clear display.

Musk praised Trump for standing and raising his fist after being shot at. “I think a lot of people admire your courage under fire,” he added.

After that, the two men transitioned to subjects they agree on, including illegal immigration and what they see as the Biden administration’s failure to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump returns to X as Musk embraces right-wing politics

Monday's interview marked the first major re-appearance of Trump on X since Musk reinstated his account following his purchase of the platform in late 2022.

Twitter had banned the former president after his supporters rioted on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, saying Trump’s posts violated its rules against glorifying violence. Since then, Trump has spent most of his time online posting to his own social network, Truth Social.

The former president has been doing more online outreach as he tries to regain attention following Democrats’ move to swap Harris for Biden as their nominee.

The conversation with Trump was the most visible example so far of Musk’s increasingly open embrace of right-wing politics. He endorsed Trump in July after the assassination attempt against the former president, but said he previously considered himself "a moderate Democrat."

Close allies of Musk formed a super-PAC supporting Trump, and it is expected to pump millions of dollars into Trump’s re-election campaign. No Musk donations to the group have been disclosed so far to the Federal Election Commission, but those close to the billionaire say he is expected to financially support the effort, and Trump has touted Musk's financial support on the campaign trail. Meanwhile, the group’s data-collection practices in battleground states are being investigated by state prosecutors.

Musk’s control of X has created a situation in which the go-to online platform for real-time news and information has also become a soapbox for a major-party political candidate during a presidential election.

“We don't have a precedent for the owner of a social media platform aggressively advocating on behalf of one candidate, especially when that person is himself widely spreading misinformation and extremism,” said Brendan Nyhan, a political science professor at Dartmouth College.

Musk has upended Twitter’s previous political neutrality

Prior to Musk’s takeover, Twitter, now X, had mostly tried to remain politically neutral since its founding in 2006. And however imperfect those efforts were, executives at the platform labored to appear non-ideological. Not without controversy, of course: accounts that were suspended and posts that were flagged triggered accusations of political bias, especially from voices on the right.

But now, Musk has completely reset the platform’s norms. Feeds on X are regularly flooded with posts from outspoken surrogates of Trump demonizing Democrats and celebrating the former president, even for users who do not follow those accounts.

Musk frequently uses his outsized presence on X to promote his political views, often sharing memes, jokes, or other posts from right-wing commentators about culture war issues. Railing against transgender rights, posting misleading claims about immigration and sharing breathless assessments of crime in large American cities are among some of his frequent subjects - subjects he shares with Trump.

He also sparked a debate among misinformation researchers when he posted a deepfake video of Harris that he defended as a parody, even though it was not marked as a fake.

Musk recently has been weighing in on anti-immigrant riots in the U.K, writing that “civil war is inevitable.” His comments prompted a scolding from British government officials, who feared his posts would further inflame the violence that has erupted in the country.

That kind of polarizing behavior puts Musk’s political activity seemingly at odds with his business goals, said Sarah T. Roberts, the director of UCLA's Center for Critical Internet Inquiry who spent time as a researcher at Twitter in 2022 before Musk bought the company.

“His activity is intended to appeal to particular demographics and people who share his viewpoint. It may do that, but it certainly alienates other people,” Roberts said. “And so that’s a big gamble for someone who is trying to make a product that is popular.”