Billionaire Elon Musk held an online interview with former President Donald Trump, aiming to support him in preventing the growing influence of Vice President Kamala Harris in US politics.
Billionaire Elon Musk. Photo: Reuters
In order to increase support from voters in the race for the White House, billionaire Elon Musk recently held an online interview with former President Donald Trump on social network X (formerly Twitter). With a fortune of 221.2 billion USD and leadership roles at SpaceX, Tesla and social network X, Mr. Musk expressed agreement with most of Mr. Trump’s views in the interview held on August 12. However, much of the information that Mr. Trump gave during the conversation has not been verified and lacks specific evidence. The interview not only attracted great attention but also reflected the billionaire’s strategy in supporting Mr. Trump in the upcoming election.
Former President Trump is strongly supported by billionaire Musk. Photo: Reuters
The interview ran about 40 minutes later than scheduled and Musk said the social network X was under a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Details of the incident are unclear, but The Washington Post reported that the FBI began investigating suspected cyberattacks on both Republican and Democratic campaigns in June.
Meanwhile, according to CNN, the interview was an opportunity for Trump to address voters, who at one point had about 1.3 million followers, although he exaggerated the number to “about 60 million”. At the beginning of the conversation, Trump recalled his attempted assassination while campaigning in Pennsylvania on July 13, at Musk’s request. He then turned to illegal immigration, warning that “rude people” were trying to cross the border from Mexico, including “criminals who committed murder”.
In a recent interview, former President Donald Trump expressed frustration that Vice President Kamala Harris could replace President Joe Biden in the election. Trump criticized Harris for not doing any interviews since the issue began and accused Biden of withdrawing as “a coup.” When discussing global issues, Trump asserted that the biggest threat today is nuclear, not global warming. He claimed, without providing specific evidence, that Russia would not invade Ukraine if he were president and praised world leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Harris “hits back” – Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign responded strongly to former President Donald Trump’s online interview, criticizing it as a prime example of Trump’s “extremism and dangerous Project 2025 agenda.” Harris campaign spokesman Joseph Costello criticized Trump’s campaign for serving the interests of wealthy people like Elon Musk and ignoring the interests of the middle class. The interview came as Harris was leading Trump in the polls, with an average advantage of 1.4 percentage points, according to a count by The Hill on August 13, based on 114 surveys over the past two months. CNN later fact-checked the interview, pointing out that many of the information Trump provided in the interview was inaccurate.
Mr. Trump answered an online interview from the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Photo: Reuters
Former President Donald Trump claimed that the crime rate in the US was “through the roof,” despite the fact that crime rates had dropped significantly last year and in the first quarter of 2024. Trump also claimed that inflation was “the worst in 100 years,” when in fact the highest inflation rate under President Biden’s term was 9.1% in June 2022, the highest since 1981. According to CNN, Trump also made inaccurate statements about a number of other issues, including the rate of sea level rise, Kamala Harris’s policy on inmates, her role in immigration control, the number of immigrants, the legitimacy of the 2020 election, and several other issues.
