Elon Musk and Donald Trump blame regulation for inflation

The interview was initially delayed by technical difficulties, but once it got underway it became a wide-ranging discussion that covered last month’s assassination attempt on Trump, immigration, foreign policy and the economy. At points during the interview, Trump gave meandering answers, many of which were filled with falsehoods.

When discussing the economy, Musk regularly talked about runaway government spending that he said led to inflation and the high cost of paying interest on the public debt. Musk has repeatedly floated himself as a candidate to serve on a “government efficiency commission” that would examine public spending.

The commission would “ensure that taxpayers’ money, taxpayers’ hard-earned money, is spent in a good way,” Musk said. “And I would be happy to help with such a commission.” Trump, who often referred to his usual talking points about the cost of living.”

Trump responded favorably, telling Musk that he would like to have him on such a committee. The federal government has spent $6.13 trillion in fiscal year 2022. Trump then moved on to his talking points about the cost of living.

Musk went on to say that excessive government regulation was another reason for persistent inflation. “If you deregulate, like you have sensible regulations, so because a lot of the regulations are meaningless and make the costs extreme for no reason,” Musk said.

Throughout the interview, Musk and Trump were quite friendly, joking and complimenting each other.

Musk only recently officially endorsed Trump, which he did right after the failed assassination attempt against him last month. Reports have since surfaced that Musk was throwing his considerable financial weight behind the former president’s re-election campaign. America PAC backed by Musk has pledged millions in support of Trump. Musk is personally involved in parts of the PAC’s work, which includes an effort to get 800,000 low-probability voters in various battleground states, according to him. Wall Street Journal. (Officials in North Carolina and Michigan are investigating the PAC over allegations it improperly collected voter data.)

I fully support President Trump and hope for his speedy recovery pic.twitter.com/ZdxkF63EqF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2024

Before the last few years, Musk had relatively little involvement in politics. Now, he is one of the standard bearers of Silicon Valley’s support for Trump. That in itself is somewhat surprising, given that the tech industry has historically been considered a bastion of Democratic support. While still overwhelming, the emergence of prominent figures in the tech industry coming out in support of Trump is a somewhat new development. In addition to Musk, Trump’s tech backers include a host of venture capitalists such as Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Peter Thiel, Doug Leone and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.

Musk’s support for Trump doesn’t sit well with his business interests as CEO of an electric vehicle company. Trump has regularly been hostile to electric vehicles. He also mentioned that he plans to end subsidies for electric vehicles, which help Tesla’s sales. Although Trump may have changed his tune, recently saying he “had no choice” but to support electric vehicles since Musk backed him.

During their joint conversation, Trump complimented Teslas, calling it a “great product.”

Musk’s support for Trump has grown over time. In 2022, during an appearance at all in podcast, Musk said he has voted “overwhelmingly” for Democrats in the past. During that time, his political beliefs began to change. By the 2022 midterms, Musk will be supporting the Republican Party. However, he still hasn’t warmed to Trump entirely.

“I don’t hate the man,” Elon Musk wrote in a July 2022 social media post, “but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail off into the sunset.”

I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail off into the sunset.

The Dems should also call off the attack – don’t make it so that Trump’s only way to survive is to win back the Presidency.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2022

In the same social media thread, Musk expressed concern about Trump’s age. “Trump would be 82 at the end of his term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America,” Musk wrote.

Trump would be 82 at the end of his term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, much less the United States of America.

If DeSantis runs against Biden in 2024, then DeSantis will win handily — he doesn’t even need to campaign.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2022

Ironically, this was the same argument used to finally take President Joe Biden out of the race last month. Then Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who has since become the Democratic nominee. Since then, Trump’s huge lead in the polls has dwindled. A recent poll found Harris leading Trump in the critical battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

At times, the conversation between Musk and Trump reached almost apocalyptic levels as the two worried about the possibility of a world war. “We have numerous places that could end up in World War III right now,” Trump said.

Musk agreed, pointing out what he saw as costs. “The risk of global thermonuclear war is over for you,” he said.

There was a similar tone when discussing the state of the economy.

The interview, which both Musk and Trump have heavily promoted, was scheduled to take place at 8pm ET on X Spaces, a feature of the app that allows users to host live chats. However, people could not join the chat room to listen. Users who tried to join the conversation to listen live were instead met with an error screen that told them the space was “unavailable.”

Halfway through the interview, Musk realized this was the case and tweeted that he thought X was under attack. “Looks like there is a massive DDOS attack on X,” Musk wrote in a post about X. “Working to shut it down. At worst, we will continue with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.”

It looks like there is a massive DDOS attack on 𝕏. We are working on closing it.

At worst, we’ll continue with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024

DDOS stands for distributed denial of service, referring to a type of cyber attack that interrupts normal service to a particular website. wealth could not independently verify whether X was the victim of a cyberattack.

Musk also said that earlier on Monday, X tested Spaces with 8 million listeners.

The technical difficulties surrounding Musk’s interview with Trump are reminiscent of similar problems Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ran into when he launched his Republican primary bid on the platform in May 2023. About 500,000 people tried to join X Space suddenly, causing the site’s servers to crash. .

The technical mishap during the interview came at a difficult time for Trump’s presidential campaign, his third overall. He struggled to maintain a disciplined message, even more so than usual, as he dealt with a difficult launch from his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. Meanwhile, his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, has energized his party’s base since taking over as the Democratic nominee from President Joe Biden. Democratic voters eager to rally behind a non-Biden candidate rallied behind Harris, greeting his campaign with considerable enthusiasm. A new poll now shows Harris leading Trump in the critical battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where he previously led.