Trump, Musk talk assassination attempt, immigration, inflation in 'conversation' on X

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Billionaire Elon Musk 's more than 2-hour live conversation on his social-media platform X with former President Donald Trump on Monday night got off to a late start due to technical issues that Musk called a "massive DDOS attack," as Trump argued voters just "want to have the American dream back again."

Nearly 45 minutes after it was scheduled to start, Trump blasted the Biden-Harris administration for immigration, inflation and the current unrest in the world, saying "nobody is better off now" than they were when he was president.

Musk explained that while he supported former President Barack Obama and would call himself a "moderate Democrat," he added "we are at a critical junction for the country."

"The Biden administration is not a moderate administration and we would see a further left administration with Kamala Harris ," Musk said. "You are the path to prosperity and Kamala is not. That is my honest opinion. And we're in deep trouble if it goes the other way."

During their talk, Trump argued with Musk over climate change, saying that while it is a concern and there is a place for electric cars , the world should be much more worried right now about nuclear war, which he called the "greatest immediate threat."

Trump also warned Vice President Kamala Harris is a "radical left," who is campaigning like she is a moderate. "If she is elected, I don't think our country will survive."

The Kamala Harris campaign released an email during the interview and accused Musk of allowing "hate speech and disinformation" on his platform, claiming the billionaire is a "lackey for Team MAGA."

The interview, which was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. EDT, started experiencing technical problems before it even started Monday night.

"There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X," Musk wrote in a post on X at 8:20 p.m. "Working on shutting it down. Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later."

The live interview got underway at 8:42 p.m., with Musk speaking about what he billed as a "conversation" instead of an interview with the former president.

"My use of the word conversation is deliberate," Musk said. "This is so that people understand how Donald Trump talks when it's a conversation, rather than an interview. Nobody is quite themselves in an interview, so it's hard to understand what they're really like."

"So many millions of people. We are honored," Trump responded at the start. "Congratulations on breaking every record in the book tonight."

Musk asked Trump about the assassination attempt, saying "your actions after the shooting were inspiring. The President of the United States represents America and that is strength under fire," Musk said, as he explained why he endorsed Trump.

"I knew immediately that it was a bullet. I knew immediately that it was at the ear. I also heard people shout bullets, bullets, bullets," Trump said as he called it a "miracle" he survived. "We lost somebody who was great, Corey, a great firefighter," Trump added, saying they raised a lot of money for Corey's family and for the two who were injured in the shooting.

Trump also commended the Secret Service sniper who killed the gunman.

"Immediately recognized, and immediately took a shot. And it was one good shot from very far away," Trump said. "A lot more people could have been killed. I take my hat off to him."

"There should have been nobody on the roof," Trump added, as he said he plans to return to Butler in Pennsylvania to finish the rally where he was so "rudely interrupted."

Trump then moved on to talking about immigration and his administration's record with the border.

"They have to come in legally. They have to be checked," Trump said about immigrants, as he turned his attack to Harris.

"She doesn't have to say what I'm saying about what she would do, she could close the border right now," Trump said as he referenced Harris' "moderate campaign" promises. "They hired IRS agents and many of them were assigned to go after restaurant workers to go after their tips and now she's repeating my policy of 'no tax on tips.' These people are fake. They have the worst numbers on the border," Trump said about Harris and her running mate Tim Walz.

Harris was "the border czar. It was in the headlines of all the newspapers. People can't allow them to get away with their disinformation campaign. She could have shut the border down by now," Trump said, adding that he will have "the largest deportation in the history of our country. We have to."

Trump briefly touched on Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race, calling it a "coup" by those around him as he labeled Biden the "worst president. Israel attack would never have happened, Russia wouldn't have invaded Ukraine . We would also have no inflation, without Biden."

Trump said during his administration he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine and added it "did not happen," as Musk argued the president of the United States needs to be "intimidating" to keep world peace, to which Trump agreed.

"It's all about the oil. If you buy oil from Iran, you're not going to do business with the United States. Iran had no money for Hamas , no money for Hezbollah and no money for any instruments of terror."

"Four years ago, we were so respected and Israel would never have been attacked," Trump claimed, arguing it is not a problem to get along with all leaders in the world, including North Korea , Russia and Iran to keep the peace.

"I always say we have enemies on the outside and enemies on the inside. We have some really bad people in our government. They are more dangerous than Russia and China," he added. "You can not let Russia and China align. Here we have a modern day axis of evil. The biggest threat is not climate change, the biggest threat right now is nuclear war."

Trump shifted the discussion to the economy, saying "what Kamala and Biden let happen to the economy is terrible. Inflation is eating you alive. Energy started it. The cost of energy and gasoline, that has to come down in order to bring down inflation," Trump said. "The waste is incredible. Nobody negotiates prices."

Musk called on Trump to form a government efficiency commission to prevent government overspending and make sure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely, to which Trump agreed and asked Musk to serve.

Trump blasted education in the United States, saying "we're ranked at the bottom," and "yet we spend more per pupil than any other country."

"I want to close the Department of Education and move education back to the states," Trump said. "I would bet 35 states, which are really well run, would do an amazing job. And the others would be forced to do better And it would cost less than half than it does with it in Washington, D.C.," Trump added, "while there would still need to be some small oversight."

Trump and Musk agreed for the need to achieve energy independence and solve government overspending to lower inflation.

"We've got to get the prices down. When you look at some of the food products. They used to buy a whole cart and today, they can't buy as much."

"We did more deregulation for businesses. We did radical cuts that have been put back by this administration. We had the best economy before COVID-19 ," Trump said. "The best years we ever had in business were the Trump years."

Musk asked Trump about how he would have the United States move toward sustainability to slow climate change.

"I've heard in terms of the fossil fuel, it takes a lot to create an electric car," Trump argued, as Musk continued to make his point about global warming.

"I'm sort of waiting for you to come up with solar panels for the roofs of the cars. I'm sure you will be the first," Trump said. "People talk about global warming and climate change, but not nuclear warming. That's a more immediate threat."

Musk moved the conversation to the Biden-Harris administration's use of "lawfare" in Trump's numerous indictments.

"This does happen in Banana Republics, in Third World countries, not here," Trump said. "Here you fight for election integrity and you get indicted."

"What Kamala has done to San Francisco and California, with crime, with cashless bail. Our country is becoming a dangerous place. She is a radical who is talking now like she is 'more Trump than Trump' to get elected," he said.

"She's talking like she's tough on borders and it's a lie. Defunding the police. No fracking," Trump said. "Do you think Kamala could do this interview? It's pretty sad that someone can't answer a question when they're running for office."

On Sunday, the SpaceX chief announced on X that he would interview Trump on Monday, and that it would to be live-streamed on his social media platform formerly known as Twitter. He also made a call-out for questions and comments after Trump teased about the interview on his preferred media platform, Truth Social.

Earlier Monday, the European Union warned against "illegal content and disinformation" before what was expected to be a "major audience."

The EU warned Musk in a letter against promoting "harmful content" and reminded him that X is subject to the EU's Digital Services Act, a new law that regulates illegal content and disinformation on large social media platforms.

"With great audience comes greater responsibility," wrote Thierry Breton, the EU's commissioner for Internal Market, in a post on X as he reminded Musk that "formal proceedings are already ongoing against X under the DSA" for previous violations.

Musk said Monday night he disagreed with other bloc's "censoring speech in the United States."

Musk endorsed Trump's re-election bid shortly after July's attempted assassination at a campaign event in Butler, Pa. Since that time, Musk has leveled a series of attacks at Harris and Walz, as the Democratic National Convention approaches a week from now.

For his part, Trump on Monday made an X post for the first time in nearly a year by sharing a campaign advertisement in a posting that saw 4.8 million views in less than an hour. It marked only the second time Trump had posted on the social media platform since his account was "permanently suspended" just days after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol.

Musk was key in reinstating Trump's then-Twitter account after he authorized a public poll on the website following his $44 billion purchase of Twitter in 2022.

A self-described " free speech absolutist " who has been criticized for a hands-off approach to censorship, Musk's actions have been viewed by some as attempts to interfere in U.S. elections in a way to promote more authoritarian-leaning views. As examples, critics point to his ban on journalists on X who openly questioned the billionaire and even his profane altering of how the company responds to press inquiries.

Last year, he admitted that, since he took over the platform, it has seen a 50% drop in ad revenue and has carried a "heavy debt load."

More recently, Musk was the recipient of a letter by the five secretaries of states who called on him to alter X's artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, after it gave out false election information to users across the United States.

That came after last year's October warning by the European Union to Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over disinformation about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. That also was about the same time the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Musk in order to compel him to testify in a probe over his Twitter acquisition, which he agreed to do so later this year.