5 takeaways from the Trump-Musk conversation on X

Former President Trump spoke Monday with Tesla founder Elon Musk on X, which Musk owns, marking Trump’s most significant return to the social media platform since he was reinstated on it in 2023.

Trump and Musk spoke for roughly two hours after their conversation was delayed because of technical issues that prevented many from initially joining. The two covered a range of topics, including the recent assassination attempt on Trump, his views on immigration and the economy, and the future of energy production. Musk has endorsed Trump in the 2024 campaign.

Here are five takeaways from their conversation.

Trump returns to X

Monday essentially marked Trump’s return to the social media platform where he largely built his political brand and rewrote the rules around presidential communication.

Trump not only spoke with Musk on Spaces, but he posted several times on X in the hours ahead of the interview, a sign he may be dipping back into X as a means of communication at a tumultuous time for his bid to take back the White House.

At its peak, Monday’s Spaces had more than 1 million listeners.

Trump was a prolific poster on the platform when it was known as Twitter until his account was suspended shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol, when officials said his posts posed “the risk of further incitement of violence.”

His account was reinstated last year, after Musk had bought the platform and rebranded it as X. He has posted once since, sharing his mug shot from a Georgia criminal indictment last August. 

The former president’s return to the platform comes as polls have shown Vice President Harris erasing Trump’s polling lead and generating significant enthusiasm after replacing President Biden atop the Democratic ticket.

Trump avoids major missteps

The former president’s chat with Musk frequently resembled one of his rallies, as Trump rambled often, attacked Harris and Biden as “incompetent” and repeated many of the same anecdotes he tells at campaign events.

But he also managed to focus on issues, inflation in particular, and avoided making the type of inflammatory, controversial comments that have plagued his recent public appearances.

“The election is coming up, and people want to hear about the economy. Food prices are up … and this stupid administration allowed this to happen,” Trump said. “And it’s a shame. And that’s the thing people most care about, in my opinion.”

The former president attacked Harris as a “San Francisco liberal” who had changed her tune on issues such as fracking and defunding the police. He argued Harris would revert to more liberal stances if she is elected in November.

Trump also attacked Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), for signing legislation requiring schools to provide free menstrual products in all public school bathrooms.

Some of Trump’s recent public appearances were marred by controversial comments, and his allies pleaded with him to focus on policy.

A sit-down at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) was marked by the former president attacking Harris for her biracial heritage. A recent campaign rally in Atlanta was overshadowed by his attacks on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), and a press conference last week saw Trump brag about the size of the crowd he drew before rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But still gives Democrats fodder

Despite his focus on policy when going after Harris, Trump’s often rambling responses to Musk’s prompts still gave Democrats some sound bites they are likely to use against the former president.

Trump reiterated his stance that he would try to shutter the Department of Education and allow states to handle the issue on their own, echoing a proposal from Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation document Democrats have aggressively promoted as a blueprint for Trump should he win.

“Not every state will do great,” Trump said. “Of the 50, I would bet that 35 would do great.”

Trump again claimed there are enemies “within” the country who are more dangerous than Russia or China.

He levied plenty of name-calling, deriding Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) as a “loser,” ripping Harris as “incompetent” and claiming Biden is “close to vegetable stage.”

Harris’s campaign account on X promoted Trump’s comments praising Musk for firing striking workers at Tesla.

“I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone,'” Trump said.

Musk seeks to nudge Trump on policy

Musk, who has made his support for Trump clear, frequently offered his own prescriptions for certain policy issues or tried to coax the former president into agreeing with his own point of view.

Musk said his views on climate change were that the country should not “vilify” the oil and gas industry but that “we should lean in the direction of sustainability.” Trump has previously said he’s for “clean air” and “clean water” but has cast doubt on the legitimacy of climate change.

As the two exchanged thoughts on immigration and the surge of migrants at the southern border, Musk opined on his own beliefs about immigration, which was a much softer view than Trump often espouses. 

The Tesla founder, who was born in South Africa, said he thinks legal immigration is good and that most of those who cross the border illegally are also good people, but that there needs to be a strong vetting process to prevent those who are dangerous from getting in. 

Trump, by comparison, has promised the largest deportation operation in the country’s history if he is elected. He has falsely claimed that other nations are emptying their prisons and mental institutions and sending those individuals to the southern border, and that some entering the U.S. speak languages nobody has heard of.

Later in the interview, Musk repeatedly raised the prospect of creating a government commission to study the national debt and how Congress could reassess spending.

“I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that looks at these things to make sure taxpayer money is spent in a good way,” Musk told Trump. “I’d be happy to help out on such a commission.”

Another event on X plagued by tech issues

For many tuning in to Monday night’s conversation, it was deja vu as the start was delayed by close to an hour because of technical issues.

The event was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. EDT, and Trump posted a link to the Spaces where the conversation would take place about 10 minutes before. But it was at 8:42 p.m. that the event finally got underway.

Users posted about having difficulties joining the Space, sharing screenshots of messages saying “details not available” or “this space is not available.” Others were able to join but only heard filler music while waiting for Trump and Musk to begin talking.

Musk blamed the issue on what he called a “massive DDOS,” or denial-of-service attack, targeting the platform.

“As this massive attack illustrates, there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say,” Musk told listeners once the conversation began. 

The technical problems were reminiscent of when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) attempted to use Spaces to launch his 2024 presidential bid. That was also plagued by technical issues, as the call went in and out for more than 20 minutes before Musk ended the original Spaces and attempted to begin a new one.

Monday’s difficulties may give other politicians pause before doing a similar event on X in the future.