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 enchantment 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, stated the occasion was meant to let individuals “get a really feel” for what the previous president is like when he’s having an off-the-cuff dialog.
“It’s exhausting to catch a vibe when individuals don’t speak in a traditional method,” Musk stated.
Listed here are 5 notable moments from their dialog.
Trump repeated his lies a couple of migrant disaster on the southern border.
The previous president shared acquainted assaults towards migrants who cross the U.S. border with Mexico, describing a lot of them as “rapists,” “murderers” and “criminals” whereas claiming nations equivalent to Venezuela had been emptying their jails to ship individuals to the USA.
There isn’t a proof to assist these claims. Actually, current analysis reveals that immigrants are a lot much less more likely to be incarcerated than individuals who had been born within the U.S. Different research present that undocumented migration doesn’t improve 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 foundation 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 do know Putin, I do know President Xi, I do know Kim Jong Un of North Korea. I do know each one in all them,” Trump stated. “I’m not saying something good or unhealthy. They’re on the high of their recreation. They’re powerful, they’re sensible, they’re vicious, they usually’re going to guard their nation. Whether or not they love their nation, they most likely do. It’s only a completely different type of love, however they’re going to guard their nation.”
Trump was the primary president to fulfill with Kim, a call critics stated lended legitimacy to Kim’s authoritarian regime on a global stage.
Musk stated critics shouldn’t ‘vilify’ the oil and fuel trade.
Musk, whose mammoth fortune is basically tied to his electrical car firm, stated the world ought to “lean within the path of sustainability” however not vilify fossil fuels as a result of they’re wanted to maintain the world transferring.
“I’m pro-environment, however I’m not towards, I don’t assume we must always vilify the oil and fuel trade,” Musk stated.
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 crucial wildlife refuge in Alaska to grease and fuel 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 had been listening to the livestream on Monday evening, regardless that 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 “large crowd” there. The scale of the occasion, he stated, 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 accountable. Video of Trump talking that was shared by an X worker appeared to point out comparable points.