Source: BBC
Compiled by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance
August 13, 2024 is a day that can be counted in Twitter's history - Trump and Musk appeared together on Twitter Space, and it is reported that more than 1 million people attended the Space event. But the conversation between the two did not go smoothly at the beginning, and there was a small episode - Twitter seemed to be facing technical problems, and 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. He also said: "We tested the system with 8 million simultaneous listeners earlier today."
But the merits outweigh the flaws. The two talked on Space about the assassination attempt on Trump, the entry of illegal immigrants, Biden's withdrawal from the election, Harris's refusal to accept interviews, his desire to abolish the Department of Education, his criticism of the governor of California, and electric vehicle policies.
The content of the two giants’ top dialogue is compiled below for readers’ enjoyment.
Musk: Cyberattacks show some people in the US are against Trump
After Twitter Space was restored, Musk first mentioned the distributed denial of service, which he said "saturated all our data lines." The alleged cyber attack showed that there was opposition within the United States to hearing from Trump. The interviews will be informal to help "independent voters who are open-minded and are trying to make up their minds."
Trump: Congratulations to Musk, mentions assassination
Trump was then heard. Trump began by congratulating Musk for "breaking all the records" because of the huge audience at the event. It was unclear what records he was referring to.
Currently, X’s interface shows around 1 million listeners.
Elon first asked Trump about the assassination attempt, which occurred 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 the show by saying it was to give open-minded voters a chance to see what it's like to talk to Donald Trump. But Musk didn't take sides - his tone made it clear he supported Trump and reaffirmed his support for him. The Twitter space showed Trump as the host and Musk as the co-host, so we know who the power is.
Trump hopes the interview will 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 room for victory.
At the Republican National Convention, we were told that Trump had changed and would strike a new, unified tone. That didn’t quite come to pass.
Trump also said he might never speak about the assassination attempt again — but it is the only issue he has discussed in depth so far.
Trump said it made him believe in God more than before - which was undoubtedly music to his religious followers' ears.
Trump also lavished praise on the female Secret Service agent who joined him on stage that day. Musk remained silent on the fact that the agent had received a lot of criticism at X, including from Musk himself. He questioned her abilities and why she was hired.
How many illegal immigrants entered the United States during Biden's administration?
Trump claims: He has turned to immigration, one of his main campaign issues that helped launch his 2016 presidential campaign.
The Republican presidential candidate claimed, without providing evidence, that immigrants come from "mental hospitals" around the world.
“Millions of people are coming in in a month, and she stands up and pretends to do something,” he said, referring to Kamala Harris, who 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 under President Biden, but official data show the actual number is lower than Trump previously claimed.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said U.S. law enforcement officers have had 10.5 million encounters with illegal immigrants since January 2021, including more than 8 million who crossed the southern border.
It is worth noting that you may encounter the same person attempting to cross the border multiple times.
This figure is a significant increase overall compared to the four years of Donald Trump's administration and is the highest record ever recorded by any US administration.
The number of people apprehended for illegally crossing the southern border has dropped dramatically since Biden introduced rules in early June that limited border crossers’ rights to seek asylum.
In July, U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended about 57,000 migrants at the border, the lowest number recorded since September 2020.
The numbers are down significantly from December, when about 250,000 migrants were apprehended crossing the border.
Trump to return to Butler, city hit by shooting
Trump said he planned to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, for another campaign event after his last one was cut short by gunfire.
Donald Trump joked that he would begin his next speech at Butler with “As I was saying…”
"Before you get rudely interrupted," Elon Musk quipped.
Trump accuses Biden of invading Ukraine
Trump claims that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if it weren't for Biden.
Musk did not dispute the claim and told Trump he made a "very good point."
"I get along very well with Putin, he respects me," Trump said, adding that he used to talk to Putin frequently.
He went on to describe a time when he allegedly advised Putin not to invade 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 long said he "knows" both Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“They are smart and 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 following Israel's 2006 conflict with the militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
It was created by Israeli companies Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, with some support from the United States.
Trump: Biden's withdrawal is a coup
It was a lot like Donald Trump laying out his long list of grievances to Elon Musk, with Elon Musk listening 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, this is a coup of the president of the United States," referring to Kamala Harris's replacement of Joe Biden in the race.
He previously called it unconstitutional. None of this is accurate, but it’s interesting that Trump has never accepted the fact 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 nomination, like she says she's 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 a guy who does this for a living who can't answer questions or is afraid to be interviewed," despite the president's interview with the American broadcaster CBS a few days ago.
Musk went on to claim that Harris would not grant him an interview.
While Harris has been holding large rallies regularly, she has not given an interview to a major media outlet since entering the presidential race.
Harris campaign: Musk is Trump's "running dog"
As the interview unfolded, the Harris-Waltz campaign issued a fundraising appeal to supporters.
The subject line is: "Tonight, the two baddest people you know are on the line."
"It's not enough that Musk has pledged to donate millions to help re-elect Trump. 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 "stooge" for Trump.
Meanwhile, the Harris-Waltz campaign used Trump's own social media platform, Truth Social, to continue attacking 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 cuts ever to the American people.
NOTE: Donald Trump’s presidency did enact large tax cuts, but they were not the largest 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.
Trump’s outside tax cuts are the eighth-largest tax cut as a percentage of the size of the economy (GDP) since 1918, and the fourth-largest tax cut in dollars since 1940 (adjusted for inflation), according to an analysis by the independent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
While Trump didn’t introduce the biggest tax cut 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 dropped the rate from 46 percent to 34 percent.
In late June, Trump told Bloomberg that he supports further reducing the corporate tax rate to 15% from the current 21%.
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 were "many 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 reflects 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 "poor management."
In typical fashion, he also gave California Gov. 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 be outspoken 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 second half of this interview, Elon Musk seemed to be working towards a position in the Trump administration.
He is willing to help Trump hold government spending accountable, possibly by helping to form a government deficit commission, which Trump has said he wants Musk to be involved in.
US media reported as early as May that Trump had been considering offering Musk a government advisory position if he won.
Musk consistently praised Trump and agreed with him in this interview, and this could go both ways: an interview for Trump, and a very public interview for Musk.
How many miles of border wall has Trump built?
Trump's claim: Trump told Musk that when he was president he built hundreds of miles of wall to protect the southern border.
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 will either replace or reinforce 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 South Texas in an effort to stem a growing influx of migrants.
Musk talks climate, Trump turns to 'nuclear warming'
Musk said he wants to create a positive future and talked about tackling global warming and the projected one-eighth of an inch rise in sea levels over the next few hundred years.
He appeared to be advocating for the shift toward renewable energy that Democrats have been pushing for years.
Donald Trump: Biggest threat isn't global warming. It's nuclear warming, he says
Musk laughed.
TRUMP: “No, really.”
Trump said there are five countries with nuclear power. Actually there are nine: the United States, Britain, 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 restrooms can use tampons. It only says tampons should be available to anyone who menstruates.
Republicans have sharply criticized the law, calling Waltz "Tampon Tim."
Walz, meanwhile, embraced the nickname and said he was proud of his work making 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 him for president. "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, and Musk also told Trump that he wants to move toward sustainable energy.
At the Republican National Convention, Trump vowed to slash President Biden's regulations aimed at promoting electric vehicles on his first day in office.
He opposed a mass shift to electric vehicles out of concern for American autoworker jobs. But he also said that electric cars themselves were "expensive" and "didn't have enough range." That didn't stop him from owning one, though, according to a 2015 Washington Post article, which quoted his campaign as saying that one of the two American cars in his fleet at the time was a Tesla.
Musk's renewed support for Trump is not going over 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"
It was more of a lighthearted conversation than an interview — Musk was extremely 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 deliberately send violent and vicious 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 the issue Trump is strongest on with voters. He went after Kamala Harris on that front, calling her a failed “border czar,” even though as vice president her duties were more focused on the drivers of migration from Central America.
On Musk's political preferences
I doubt that independent voters have gained any new understanding of Donald Trump so far—if that is their goal.
Those who loved him will still love him, and vice versa. But maybe we've learned 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 for Trump to meet with him.
Trump and his vice presidential pick, JD Vance, have given numerous 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 it wasn't an interview by any means.
Given that Musk has called Harris a "far-left radical" and wholeheartedly supports Trump, it's clear he won't go easy on her as much as he did on Trump.
Nature of the interview: Musk makes a big pitch for Trump
Musk briefly said he was generally apolitical, but also said he once lined up to shake Barack Obama's hand.
He stammered that America was at a crossroads, but didn’t elaborate much on that before saying he thought independent voters should vote for Donald Trump.
Therefore, this proves that Musk was not interviewing a major political candidate, but was simply using his platform to make a major promotion for Trump.
Space listening rate is not as good as previous major events
About half an hour into the chat, X’s own data showed that 1.2 million people were listening to the live conversation.
By comparison, the largest audience tuned in last year when Musk helped launch Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign on Twitter Spaces was about 300,000.
Today's numbers are minuscule compared with the telecasts of several other major events during this campaign.
More than 51 million people watched the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, according to Nielsen ratings agency.
Last month, 28 million people watched Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention.
