Elon Musk pitches himself to Donald Trump as a leader to audit government spending

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

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

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

Trump responded favorably, telling Musk he’d “love” to have him on such a committee. The federal government spent $6.13 trillion in fiscal year 2022. Trump then pivoted 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 have sensible regulations, so because lot of the regulations are nonsensical and cause the cost to be extreme for no reason,” Musk said.

Over the course of the interview, Musk and Trump were rather chummy, joking and complimenting one another.

Musk only recently formally endorsed Trump, which he did immediately after the failed assassination attempt against him last month. Since then reports emerged that Musk was throwing his considerable financial weight behind the former president’s reelection campaign. The Musk-backed America PAC pledged millions in support of Trump. Musk is reportedly personally involved with parts of the PAC’s work, which includes an effort to turnout 800,000 low propensity voters in various battleground states, according to the Wall Street Journal. (Officials from North Carolina and Michigan are investigating the PAC over allegations it improperly collected voter data). 

I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery pic.twitter.com/ZdxkF63EqF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2024

Prior to the last few years, Musk had a relatively little involvement in politics. Now, he stands as one of the standard bearers for Silicon Valley’s support of Trump. That in and of itself is somewhat surprising considering the tech industry was in the past considered a bastion of Democratic support. While it’s still overwhelmingly so, the emergence of prominent tech industry figures coming out in support of Trump is a somewhat new development. In addition to Musk, Trump’s tech supporters include a crop of venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Peter Thiel, Doug Leone, and Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale.  

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

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

Musk’s support for Trump grew over time. In 2022, during an appearance on the All-In podcast, Musk said that in the past he had voted “overwhelmingly” for Democrats. Around that time his political allegiances began shifting. By the 2022 midterms Musk would come out in support of the Republican Party. Yet he still hadn’t warmed to Trump entirely. 

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

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

Dems should also call off the attack – don’t make it so that Trump’s only way to survive is to regain 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 end of 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 end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America.

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

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2022

Ironically, that was the very same argument used to eventually push President Joe Biden out of the race last month. Biden then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris who has since become the Democratic nominee. Since then, Trump’s mammoth lead in the polls has been slipping. 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 near-apocalyptic levels, as they two fretted over the possibility of a world war. “We have numerous places that could end up in world war three right now,” Trump said.

Musk agreed, highlighting what he saw as the costs. “The risk of global thermonuclear warfare it’s game over for you,” he said.

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

The interview, which both Musk and Trump had heavily promoted, was set to take place at 8 p.m. ET on X Spaces, a feature of the app that allows users to host live conversations. However, people couldn’t join the chatroom to listen in. Users that tried to join the conversation to listen live were instead met with an error screen that told them the Space was “unavailable.”

Midway through the interview, Musk realized this was the case and tweeted that he believed X was being attacked. “There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X,” Musk wrote in a post on X. “Working on shutting it down. Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.”

There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on 𝕏. Working on shutting it down.

Worst case, we will proceed 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 cyberattack that disrupts normal service to a certain website. Fortune was not able to independently verify if X had been the victim of a cyberattack.

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

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

The technical mishap during the interview come at a difficult time for Trump’s presidential campaign, his third overall. He has struggled to maintain a disciplined message, even more so than usual, dealt with a rocky rollout of his vice presidential nominee Ohio Senator JD Vance. Meanwhile his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris has energized her party’s base ever since she took over the role of Democratic nominee from President Joe Biden. Democratic voters eager to rally behind a candidate that wasn’t Biden have rallied behind Harris, greeting her campaign with considerable enthusiasm. A new poll now shows Harris overtaking Trump in the critical battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, which he had previously led in.