Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk had a long “conversation” Monday night with Donald Trump on his social media platform X, offering at one point to help the former president rein in federal spending should he be elected to a second term.
In an exchange with Musk that stretched to two hours, Trump addressed illegal immigration and violent crime, dangerous foreign leaders, the toll of high inflation and taxes, and the need to cut government spending and regulations while encouraging domestic production of oil and natural gas.
These topics and more all came up after Musk and Trump dwelled for over 20 minutes on Trump’s narrow escape a month ago from a would-be assassin’s bullets. The beginning of the chat was delayed for over a half hour because of what Musk said was a massive hack attempt on the site.
Trump seemed to have trouble focusing on Vice President Kamala Harris as his opponent in the Nov. 5 election, after Democrats pressured President Joe Biden to step aside and he endorsed Harris on July 21 to replace him at the top of the ticket.
“She’s a believer in the radical Left,” Trump said at one point, “and he wasn’t.”
The number of those who tuned in during the course of the interview wasn’t clear. Toward the end, X showed 30.6 million.
Musk has financially supported a pro-Trump political action committee during this race, although he has not always been a Trump supporter.
Musk has said he was an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama and noted that he reluctantly voted for Biden in 2020. During the Republican presidential primary, Musk supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who eventually bowed out.
Here are seven key takeaways from the Trump-Musk discussion.
1. ‘Government Efficiency Commission’
“They want the American dream back,” Trump said of Americans at one point, talking about soaring prices for eggs, bacon, milk, and other staples in recent years.
Musk focused a bit on something that hasn’t been considered a strong point for Trump on the Right—reining in government spending.
“Inflation is caused by government overspending,” Musk said, then asked: “Would you agree that we need to take a look at government spending, and have perhaps a government efficiency commission that tries to make the spending sensible so that the country lives within its means, just like a person does?”
Trump responded that the government doesn’t routinely negotiate prices the way businesses do, but that he negotiated $1.6 billion in savings on upgrades for Air Force One.
Now, he said, the “dopey suckers” aren’t negotiating government contracts.
Musk pressed again, and this time volunteered his help.
“I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and ensures taxpayers’ hard-earned money is spent in a good way,” Musk said. “I’d be happy to help out on such a commission if it were formed.”
Trump replied, “I’d love it.”
“You, you’re the greatest cutter,” Trump said. “I look at what you do. You walk in, I won’t mention the name, they go on strike and you say, ‘That’s OK. You’re all gone.’ You would be very good. You would love it.”
The Kamala Harris HQ responded in a post on X: “Trump praises billionaire Elon Musk for firing workers who were striking for better pay and working conditions.”
2. ‘Made Me More of a Believer’
Musk began the conversation by asking Trump about the attempted assassination at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
A bullet grazed his right ear, the former president recalled, as he turned slightly to talk about an oversize chart showing illegal immigration numbers during the Trump-Pence administration years with the much higher numbers of the Biden-Harris administration.
“It was a bigger miracle that I was looking directly at the shooter, so [the bullet] hit me at an angle that was far less destructive than any other miracle,” Trump told Musk in the audio interview on X.
One rallygoer was killed and two others wounded by the shooter, and Trump expressed sorrow that they were hit by bullets meant for him.
“For those people that don’t believe in God, I think we’ve all got to start thinking about that,” Trump said. “I’m a believer, but it’s made me more of a believer, I think. A lot of great people have said that to me, actually. It was amazing that I happened to be turned at that perfect angle.”
Musk, who endorsed Trump after the attempt to kill him, called him “courageous” Monday night for standing up and pumping his fist after being hit.
3. ‘Illegal Immigration Saved My Life’
The two talked about the shooting at some length, dwelling on the large chart depicting unlawful border crossings that led Trump to tilt his head in a certain direction.
“Illegal immigration saved my life,” Trump said at one point, prompting laughter from Musk.
Trump regularly campaigns on restoring border security and keeping criminal gangs and drug traffickers from entering the country. The former president also has promised the “largest deportation effort” in history to send home illegal aliens admitted by the Biden-Harris administration.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., had his staff create the original chart for use during a hearing.
“I’ll be sleeping with that chart. That chart was very important for a lot of reasons,” Trump said.
He mentioned several times that Harris had the unofficial title of “border czar” after Biden assigned her early in 2021 to determine the root causes of illegal immigration, a problem that then worsened.
“I saw an ad from Kamala talking about providing border security,” Trump said. “Where has she been for three and a half years?”
“We’re already overwhelmed, Elon. We’re overwhelmed,” the former president said at another point, speaking of illegal aliens admitted by the Biden-Harris administration.
4. ‘Dragged Him Behind the Barn’
Later, Musk used the word “shot” in a figurative way in describing how Democrats forced Biden out of the 2024 race, using a metaphor for putting an injured farm animal out of its misery.
“This was a coup of the president of the United States,” Trump said of Biden, then referred to other top Democrats. “He didn’t want to leave and they said, ‘We can do this the nice way or do this hard way.’”
Musk concurred, saying metaphorically that Biden was shot.
“They just took him out back behind the shed and basically shot him,” Musk said.
Trump began to say, “What they did to this guy … ,” before clarifying that he didn’t want to defend Biden too much.
“I’m not a fan of his, and he was a horrible president, the worst president in history,” Trump said, sounding a familiar theme.
5. ‘Defective Government’
Trump ridiculed the Biden-Harris administration as “defective.”
“We have a defective government. These are defective people,” the 45th president said.
Later, Trump said that in some ways, the U.S. government has become worse than its enemies.
“We have some really bad people in our government,” Trump said. “I’d say they’re more dangerous than Russia or China. We need a smart president, a president that gets it. We are not in danger from those countries because they need us and they need our help.”
Musk did most of the asking of questions during the exchange. However, at one point Trump asked Musk: “You think Biden could do this interview? You think that Kamala could do this interview?”
Musk laughed and responded, “No. They could not.”
Trump replied, “It’s pretty sad.”
“Yes. Absolutely,” Musk agreed.
6. ‘Iron Dome’ for America
Trump said Biden’s comments have made the world less safe, including the president’s talk of Ukraine joining the NATO alliance even as Russia dug in with its invasion of the former Soviet republic.
“Biden had a low IQ 30 years ago. He’s very low IQ now,” Trump said.
“It was so bad the words he was using,” Trump said of Biden. “The stupid threats coming from his stupid face. It could lead to World War III.”
Musk asserted: “People underrate the risk of World War III,” and added, “It’s game over for humanity.”
Trump argued that the biggest threat facing humanity isn’t climate change or global warming, but “nuclear warming.”
Trump brought up an “Iron Dome” for America, using the name of the antimissile system Israel developed as a shield to foil the rocket attacks of its enemies.
“Why shouldn’t we have an Iron Dome?” Trump said. “Israel has an Iron Dome.”
7. President’s ‘Vegetable Stage’
“Now Biden is close to vegetable stage, in my opinion,” Trump said bluntly at one point, perhaps alluding to those who argue that Harris should have succeeded Biden as president by now, rather than just replace him on the ballot.
“I looked at him on the beach [in photos over the weekend] and I thought why would anyone allow him—the guy could barely walk. Does he have a political adviser that thinks this looks good?” Trump said.
“He can’t lift the chair,” Trump added. “The chair weighs about three ounces! It’s meant for children and old people.”
Musk replied, “It’s clearly like we don’t have a president right now.”
Trump added of Harris and her record as vice president, senator, and California attorney general: “And she’s worse than him.”
Ken McIntyre contributed to this report.