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Put together the richest man in the world and another billionaire who just happens to be a former president of the United States – and who very much wants to get his old job back – and the conversation is bound to be lively. For whatever else they may be – and whatever you may think of their views – this much is beyond debate: Donald Trump and Elon Musk aren’t boring.
Tens of millions of people apparently agreed, because they logged on to the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) Monday night to catch the exchange between the Telsa CEO (and X owner) and the former POTUS.
According to Musk, an estimated 1 billion people have viewed the exchange on one channel or another…
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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2024
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History briefly repeated itself when the chat was scheduled to start. Glitches delayed the start of the discussion for nearly forty minutes, eerily reminiscent of the problems that plagued Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ official presidential announcement on the same platform last year.
According to X, the site was the victim of a sustained DDOS (distributed denial-of-service) attack at the very moment the interview was set to begin.
Once the technical gremlins were finally exorcised, the two got down to business in earnest.
The exchange was vintage Trump, who zigzags through interviews like a beer-blurred frat boy staggering home at closing time. He wanders around aimlessly for a while, and then – just when you think he’s lost – magically shows up in his room with a big grin on his face. So it is with Trump. It takes a while, but he eventually arrives at the point he wants to make.
The questions from Musk were mostly softball tosses – and little new ground was covered. Trump recounted his harrowing brush with death during last month’s assassination attempt. He also decried the deplorable conditions at the southern border, the inflation-choked economy, climate change and more.
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At one point, Musk suggested creating a new presidential commission focused on “government efficiency.” Trump’s reply: “I’d love it.”
The two weren’t shy slobbering love all over each other. Musk has endorsed Trump campaign, which prompted this gushing reaction from the 2024 GOP nominee: “Not all endorsements mean that much, to be honest. Your endorsement meant a lot.”
The whole thing led CNN media analyst Sara Fischer to dub the exchange a “bromance,” though she also rated it as “successful” for the Trump campaign.
To some viewers, it sounded as though Trump was slurring his words at times.
“Must be your hearing,” a Trump campaign spokesman said when asked about it afterward.
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Combined views of the conversation with @realDonaldTrump and subsequent discussion by other accounts now ~1 billion https://t.co/s8x8QmdmnY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
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One thing is for sure: The event marked Trump’s triumphant return to the very same platform that once banned his presence. Also, as of Monday night he had regained around 900,000 new followers on X.
Musk, for his part, also viewed the event as a huge success. In addition to touting the massive viewership, he extended an invitation for the Democratic nominee, vice president Kamala Harris, to join him for a similar “no holds barred” discussion. While there’s no word yet on the status of that invitation, the Harris campaign did dismiss the event with a populist brush-off, calling it a chat between “two self-obsessed rich guys.”
A big part of Trump’s decision to participate in the first place was to highlight one of Harris’ perceived weaknesses: She has yet to sit down for a single substantive one-on-one interview or hold a single press conference since being gifted the Democratic nomination. It appears her campaign intends to keep her wrapped in a cocoon of coziness – insulated from the possibility of unpleasant questions – for as long as it possibly can.
For the moment, the Harris campaign is poo-pooing calls for her to talk to reporters, hinting that the public isn’t interested in media interviews. The millions who watched Trump and Musk on Monday night would probably beg to differ.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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11 comments
lol
The blogger who typed up this ridiculous post is so far up Trump’s butt he can’t recognize reality any longer.
Elon claimed there was a DDOS attack, his employees at X were the ones who called out that lie (the rest of X was working fine. I guess getting rid of most of your competent employees can cause basic operational issues? Blame Elon’s management style fur the technical failures. (It was broadly reported that Elon lied about the DDOS attack , so not sure why this blogger ignored all those reports)
Trump was a rambling, slurring disaster, as usual. Trump said he would flee to Venezuela when he loses. He kept bringing up things he’d do if re-elected that were straight out of the Project 2025 playbook (the one he claims to know nothing about) and rambled incoherently about running against Biden. He thinks Kamala’s crowds are AI generated. Just bizarre old man yelling at clouds behavior.
Speaking of old man stuff, Elon said over and over Trump is way too to be President, when he was supporting DeSantis. What’s changed? Trump’s even older now. Elon is an immature weirdo, so he’s a good fit with Trump and Vance.
Trump did even more to hurt his campaign (and Truth Social investors pocket books) by participating in this laughing stock of an “interview”. That has been pretty much the unanimous take by all media….except this fine little MAGA blog.
It must be nice to not have worry about having credibility or integrity!
Interesting.
This guy thinks Trump and Elon’s raging dumpster fire of a sit down was a “triumphant” return to Twitter? You don’t know what triumphant means, my guy.
It was a technical failure from Elon (the DDOS attack lie was exposed by employees from X). He’s totally ruined Twitter. Same technical issues when he did the same thing with DeSantis…another epic failure).
It is funny watching these MAGA bloggers totally try to ignore how insane, crazy and weird Trump sounds whenever he talks. The guy rarely makes sense and just lies constantly, like a toddler. These bloggers have spent the last few years talking about how Biden is too old, but now suddenly a clearly demented Trump isn’t too old?
lol
Keep that head way deep down in the sand, my guy. It ain’t pretty for you guys up here in reality ;-)
Great interview. MAGA
#MAGA: Make America Golf Again!
Liar interviews liar.
Just listening to them talk about climate change is enough to realize how doomed our survival as a species is.
This was a satirical post, right?
Triumphant my ass.
Trump “triumphantly” declared he would flee to Venezuela when he loses.
What a badas……..I mean, dumbass.
And you can’t overlook the guy who was trying to cozy up to the Teamsters, laughing and joking about firing people for trying to organize and strike. It’s very awkward for the Teamsters president at this point. He is going to get asked about that every time he speaks.
One billion people watched this Trump/Musk bromance? Twitter doesn’t have one billion users. The size of Trump’s crowds and the size of X users.
Hey Musk, quit smoking that weed. You’re as full of it as Trump is.
Comparing Trump’s random stringing of words to a drunken frat boy is hilarious.
I’ll buy Trump’s plane ticket to Venezuela if he doesn’t use his personal plane.