Compiled by Deng Tong, Golden Finance, Source: BBC
August 13, 2024 is a day that can be counted in Twitter's history - Trump and Musk appeared together on Twitter Space. It is reported that more than 1 million people participated in the Space event. But the conversation between the two did not go smoothly at the beginning. There was a small episode - Twitter seemed to be facing technical problems. Users reported difficulties in accessing the event. Data from the X platform showed that 2 million people were watching the live interview between Trump and Musk, but the live broadcast details could not be displayed. For this reason, Musk posted that "X seems to have suffered a large-scale DDOS attack," referring to a distributed denial of service network attack. And said: "We tested the system with 8 million simultaneous listeners earlier today."
But the flaws do not cover the merits. The two talked about Trump's assassination on Space, the entry of illegal immigrants, Biden's withdrawal from the election, Harris's refusal to accept interviews, wanting to cancel the Ministry of Education, criticizing the governor of California, and electric vehicle policies.
Golden Finance compiled the content of the peak dialogue between the two giants as follows for readers.
Musk: Cyberattack shows that there is opposition to Trump in the United States
After Twitter Space was restored, Musk first mentioned the distributed denial of service, which he said "saturated all our data lines". The alleged cyberattack shows that there is opposition to listening to Trump in the United States. The interview will be informal to help "independent voters who are open-minded and are trying to make up their minds."
Trump: Congratulations to Musk and mentions assassination
Trump's voice is then heard. Trump first congratulated Musk for "breaking all records" because of the large number of listeners at the event. It is not clear what record he is referring to.
Currently, the X's interface shows that there are about 1 million listeners.
Elon began by asking Trump about the assassination attempt, when Trump was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump laughed and said it was "not pleasant," then went into detail about his experience.
Trump: Hope interview helps gain more political momentum
Elon Musk opened by saying it was to give open-minded voters a chance to see what it's like to talk to Donald Trump. But Musk took no sides - his tone made it clear he supported Trump and reaffirmed that he supported him. The Twitter space showed Trump as the host and Musk as the co-host, so we know who the power is.
Trump hoped the interview would help him gain more momentum after President Biden dropped out and Vice President Kamala Harris reinvigorated the Democratic base.Musk had to apologize for such a late and awkward opening, though. So there was little to win.
At the Republican National Convention, we were told that Trump had changed and would adopt a new unified tone. That didn't quite come to pass.
Trump also said he might never talk about the assassination attempt again - but it's the only issue he's discussed in depth so far.
Trump said it made him believe in God more than before - which was certainly music to his religious ears.
Trump also lavished praise on the female agent who joined him on stage that day. Musk remained silent on the fact that the agent had received a lot of criticism on X, including from Musk himself. He questioned her abilities and why she was hired.
How many illegal immigrants have entered the United States during the Biden administration?
Trump claims: He has pivoted to immigration, one of his main campaign issues, which helped launch his 2016 presidential campaign.
The Republican presidential candidate claimed, without offering evidence, that immigrants are coming from "mental hospitals" around the world.
"Millions of people come in in a month and she stands up and pretends to do something," he said, referring to Kamala Harris. He claimed there are 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
It is impossible to know exactly how many illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border into the United States during Biden's presidency, but official data shows the actual number is lower than Trump previously claimed.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that since January 2021, U.S. law enforcement officers have had 10.5 million encounters with illegal immigrants, including more than 8 million who crossed the southern border.
It is worth noting that it is possible to encounter the same person trying to cross the border multiple times.
This number is generally a significant increase compared to the four years of Donald Trump's administration and is the highest record under any U.S. administration.
The number of people arrested for illegally crossing the southern border has dropped sharply since Biden introduced a rule in early June to limit the rights of crossers to seek asylum.
In July, U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested about 57,000 immigrants at the border, the lowest record since September 2020.
That's a sharp drop from December, when about 250,000 migrants were arrested crossing the border.
Trump to return to Butler, city hit by shooting
Trump said he plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, for another campaign event after his last one was cut short by gunfire.
Donald Trump joked that he will start his next speech in Butler with "As I was saying..."
"Before you get rudely interrupted," Elon Musk quipped.
Trump accuses Biden of invading Ukraine
Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if it weren't for Biden, Trump claimed.
Musk did not dispute the claim, and told Trump that he made a "very good point."
“I get along very well with Putin, and he respects me,”
“I get along very well with Putin, and he respects me,”
Trump said, adding that he used to talk to Putin often.
He went on to describe a time when he allegedly talked Putin out of invading Ukraine.
“We would talk about Ukraine. It was the apple of his eye. But I told him not to do it,” he claimed.
“He said ‘no way,’ and I said ‘yes,’ ” Trump said.
Trump has consistently said he “knows” both Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“They’re both smart and they’re vicious,” he said.
“When they see Kamala or Sleepy Joe, they can’t believe it,” he said, mispronouncing the vice president’s name.
Trump wants an Iron Dome defense system
“Why shouldn’t we have an Iron Dome defense system? Israel has one,” Trump said.
His comments were in reference to Israel’s missile defense system, which can destroy short-range weapons launched toward the country.
The Iron Dome defense system was developed after Israel’s conflict with the militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in 2006.
It was created by Israeli companies Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, with some support from the United States.
Trump: Biden dropping out is a coup
It was a lot like Donald Trump reciting his long list of grievances to Elon Musk, who listened patiently and sympathetically.
He again expressed his condolences for President Biden’s withdrawal from the race, with whom he apparently wants an election rematch.
He said “this is a coup, it’s a coup of the president of the United States,” referring to Kamala Harris’s replacement of Joe Biden in this race.
He previously called it unconstitutional. None of this is accurate, but it’s interesting to note that Trump has never accepted that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
This may be the closest we’ve ever come to seeing him acknowledge the truth: Biden legitimately won the White House.
Trump Criticizes Harris for Not Doing More Interviews
Donald Trump slammed Kamala Harris for not giving any lengthy interviews since clinching the Democratic presidential nominationas she says she is doing now.
“It’s great to have a forum like this,” Trump said.
Speaking of Biden, he said: “It’s very sad when you think about someone who does this for a living not being able to answer questions or being afraid to do an interview,” despite the president’s interview with US broadcaster CBS just days earlier.
Musk went on to claim Harris would not give him an interview.
While Harris has been holding large rallies regularly, she has not given an interview to a major media outlet since joining the presidential race.
Harris campaign: Musk is Trump's 'stooge'
As the interview unfolded, the Harris-Waltz campaign sent out a fundraising appeal to supporters.
The subject line: "Tonight, the two worst people you know go live."
"It's not enough that Musk has pledged millions to help Trump get re-elected. He is using the platform he purchased - one of the largest social media sites in the world - to spread Trump's deranged and hateful agenda to millions of users," the campaign email claimed, italicizing the word "millions." It called Musk a Trump "stooge."
Meanwhile, the Harris-Waltz campaign also used Trump's own social media platform, Truth Social, to continue its attacks on him during the interview.
Are Trump's tax cuts the biggest ever?
Trump's claim: In his conversation with Musk, Trump said his administration had delivered the biggest tax cut ever for the American people.
Note: Donald Trump did enact massive tax cuts during his presidency, but they were not the biggest in history. Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut taxes across the board. Unless the next administration extends them, they will expire in 2025.
According to an analysis by the independent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Trump’s outside tax cuts are the eighth-largest as a percentage of the size of the economy (GDP) since 1918, and the fourth-largest in dollar terms since 1940 (adjusted for inflation).
While Trump didn’t introduce the biggest tax cuts overall, he did pass the largest corporate tax cut in U.S. history. The 2017 law cut that rate from 35% to 21%.
That’s higher than the tax cuts passed during Ronald Reagan’s administration in the 1980s, which cut the rate from 46% to 34%.
In late June, Trump told Bloomberg that he supports a further reduction in the corporate tax rate from the current 21% to 15%.
Trump wants to abolish the Department of Education
“I want to close the Department of Education and move education back to the states,” Trump said, calling for the elimination of the federal agency.
He said American students are falling behind compared to their peers around the world.
He said there are “a lot of benefits to abolishing the Department of Education” and claimed it would cut the cost of education in half.
The plan is similar to Project 2025, a conservative wish list that the Trump campaign has been reluctant to embrace.
It also mirrors the Republican platform laid out at last month’s Republican National Convention.
Trump slams California governor
Donald Trump harshly criticized California's leadership, calling it "terribly mismanaged."
In typical style, he also gave California Governor Gavin Newsom an offensive nickname and criticized his record on education.
But California is a Democratic-run state with abortion rights and strict gun control laws, so it's not surprising that it has come under fire from Donald Trump.
Governor Gavin Newsom has also not been afraid to mince words about his views on Donald Trump, having previously described him as "a little bit unhinged."
Is Musk seeking a position in the Trump administration?
In the latter part of this interview, Elon Musk seems to be pushing for a position in the Trump administration.
He's willing to help hold Trump accountable for government spending, possibly to help set up a government deficit commission. Trump said he wants Musk to be involved.
US media reported back in May that Trump had been considering offering Musk a government advisory position if he wins.
Musk spent this interview praising Trump and agreeing with him, and this could go both ways: an interview for Trump, a very public interview for Musk.
How many miles of border wall has Trump built?
Trump claim: Trump told Musk that he built hundreds of miles of wall to protect the southern border while he was president.
Note: The length of border wall built during Trump's presidency depends on what you measure, but even including new sections and sections that have been replaced or reinforced, the total length is less than 500 miles. A report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection puts the total length at 458 miles (exterior). However, only 85 miles of brand new wall sections were built during Trump's administration.
The rest was either replacement or reinforcement of existing barriers.
Towards the end of Trump's presidency, the BBC investigated the status of the border wall.
President Biden paused construction after taking office, but last year his administration allowed a section of the wall to be built in southern Texas to stem a growing number of immigrants.
Musk talks climate, Trump turns to 'nuclear warming'
Musk said he wants to create a positive future and talked about addressing global warming and the one-eighth of an inch rise in sea levels expected over the next few hundred years.
He seemed to advocate for the shift to renewable energy that Democrats have been pushing for years.
Donald Trump: The biggest threat is not global warming. It's nuclear warming, he said.
Musk smiled.
TRUMP: “No, really.”
Trump said there are five countries that have nuclear power. Actually there are nine: the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, France, Russia, China, Pakistan, India and North Korea.
Trump slams Harris running mate for tampon bill
Trump claimed that Harris' running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz, signed a law authorizing schools to place tampons in boys' bathrooms in public schools.
The state law, enacted last year, does not specify which bathrooms can use tampons. It only says that tampons should be available to anyone who menstruates.
Republicans have harshly criticized the law, calling Waltz "Tampon Tim."
Waltz, meanwhile, has embraced the nickname and said he is proud of his work to make menstrual products free.
Electric Vehicle Policy Reversal
Former President Trump said at a rally last weekend that he had "no choice" but to change his tune on electric vehicles after Elon Musk endorsed his presidential campaign. "I support electric vehicles, and I have to because Elon supports me very strongly," he told attendees.
During the interview,Trump talked about Tesla vehicles and praised the technology. Musk also told Trump that he wants to shift to sustainable energy.
At the Republican National Convention, Trump vowed to slash President Biden's regulations aimed at promoting electric vehicle adoption on his first day in office.
He opposes a large-scale shift to electric vehicles out of concern for American autoworker jobs. But he also said that electric vehicles themselves are "expensive" and "don't have enough range." That didn’t stop him from owning an electric car, though, according to a 2015 Washington Post article, which cited his campaign as saying one of the two American cars in his fleet at the time was a Tesla.
Musk’s renewed support for Trump didn’t sit well with some Tesla fans and customers.
Last week, a German company said it would stop buying Tesla vehicles for its corporate fleet because Musk’s comments were “inconsistent” with what Tesla stands for.
Twitter Space is Trump’s “Safe Space”
More of a lighthearted conversation than an interview — Musk was very flattering and didn’t push back on some of Donald Trump’s unfounded claims about immigration.
He often says, without any evidence, that other countries intentionally send in violent and bad criminals.
Musk did offer something slightly counter-argumentative, saying immigration could be a good thing, but he quickly acquiesced to Trump’s view.
Immigration is Trump’s strongest issue in voters’ minds. He follows Kamala Harris on this, calling her a failed “border czar,” even though her duties as vice president have focused more on drivers of migration from Central America.
On Musk’s political preferences
I doubt independent voters have learned anything new about Donald Trump so far — if that’s their goal.
People who love him still love him, and vice versa. But maybe we’re learning a little more about Elon Musk.
He said he likes strong leaders, and when Trump spoke fondly of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Musk said it was cool that Trump met with him.
Trump and his vice presidential pick, JD Vance, have given a lot of interviews and stressed that Harris and Waltz have not done so so far.
Trump said Kamala Harris would never speak to Musk the way she did, even though this was not an interview by any means.
Given that Musk has called Harris a "far-left radical" and supports Trump wholeheartedly, he obviously won't go easy on her as he did on Trump.
Nature of the Interview: Musk Makes a Big Promotion for Trump
Musk briefly said he generally doesn't care about politics, but also said he once lined up to shake Barack Obama's hand.
He stammered that America is at a crossroads, but didn't elaborate on it much before saying he thinks independent voters should vote for Donald Trump.
So this proves that Musk was not interviewing a major political candidate, but was simply using his platform to make a major push for Trump.
Spaces Listening Rates Not as High as Previous Big Events
About a half hour into the chat, X’s own data showed that 1.2 million people were listening to the live conversation.
By comparison, the highest number of people listening to the live stream last year when Musk helped launch Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign on Twitter Spaces was about 300,000.
Compared to the telecasts of several other major events during this campaign, today’s numbers are minuscule.
More than 51 million people watched the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, according to Nielsen ratings.
Last month, 28 million people watched Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention.
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