Trump and Musk: ‘Revolting, repulsive, and at times strangely compelling’

By Michael Baggs (with Jon Sopel & Lewis Goodall)

Fans of Donald Trump and Elon Musk praised the pair's two hour conversation on X, but The News Agents had a slightly different opinion.

In brief...

• Elon Musk and Donald Trump had a two-hour conversation on X
• The chat was packed with mutual praise, but was criticised by the Harris/Walz campaign as "dangerous" and "extremist"
• The News Agents speculate the chat may have been an attempt for Trump to regain relevance and counter the rising popularity of Harris/Walz, while Musk may benefit financially from his support for Trump.

"Greatest campaign event in US history". "That was FIRE". “The legacy media cannot compete”.

Those were some of the views of Elon Musk followers on X (or Twitter if you prefer) following his two hour interview with Donald Trump that took place on the social media platform on Monday night.

A statement from X claims the chat received 73 million views.

The News Agents, however, had a slightly different take on the conversation.

"It was revolting and repulsive and, at times, strangely compelling," says Jon Sopel, chatting with Lewis Goodall the morning two of the most powerful men in the world shared their views, and admiration for each other, on a public forum.

The News Agents on Donald Trump and Elon Musk

"This was the kind of climax of a bromance between these two people that has been developing over the past couple of years," says Lewis.

This "bromance" has grown from unlikely beginnings.

In 2016, Elon Musk said that Trump "doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States," and said his then-rival Hillary Clinton's economic and environmental policies at the time were "the right ones".

"They had this long rambling conversation, which was basically a kind of mutual love in," Lewis continues.

"Trump was complimenting Musk endlessly about his business prowess, his corporate prowess, everything that he'd done with X and likewise.

"Musk was saying that Trump was the path for America back to prosperity."

What happened on the X livestream?

Well, not much at first – the livestream got off to a bumpy start, with technical problems affecting the conversation, much like they did when Florida governor Ron DeSantis launched his campaign to become the Republican nominee on X in May 2023.

Jon says his comments about Vladimir Putin, and how he attempted to dissuade the Russian leader from invading Ukraine, sounded like "two teenagers in a playground arguing."

“I said to Vladimir Putin, 'Don’t do it. You can’t do it, Vladimir. If you do it, it’s going to be a bad day," Trump told Musk.

Trump also called Kamala Harris 'Camilla', and claimed an image of the Democratic Party nominee on a recent cover of Time magazine looked like his wife, Melania Trump.

He also revealed his plan to abolish the department of education if he is elected, and praised Musk for allegedly firing striking workers, calling him "the greatest".

A statement from the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz campaign, following the livestream, mocked the technical difficulties, but also claimed the stream (once it got up and running) was both "dangerous" and an example of "extremism".

Why did Donald Trump do it?

The News Agents pinpoint two main reasons for Donald Trump agreeing to chat, for so long, with Musk – attention, and frustration, both of which have stemmed from the rising popularity, and attention, the Harris/Walz campaign has been receiving in the US.

"Trump has been struggling massively to counter, or find a point of critique, to the Harris campaign," suggests Lewis.

"He is deeply, deeply annoyed by the amount of free media that she's receiving as a new candidate, which is a domain in which he normally excels.

"So he's trying to find some way of feeling relevant, getting back into the game and X/Twitter is another arena in which he used to previously excel, if that is the right word."

There may also be financial gain for Musk in becoming such a vocal supporter of Trump, with the Republican candidate promising to put a 100% tariff on electric vehicles imported from China.

As the owner of electric car company Tesla, Jon suggests there is an obvious potential financial benefit for Musk.

Donald Trump was absent from Twitter between January 2021 and November 2022, being banned after his role in the January 6 riots in the Washington capitol. Musk reinstated the former president after hosting a poll on X.

During his absence, he launched his own social media platform, Truth Social, but despite having tens of thousands of followers there, it pales to the 89 million he boasts on X, let alone tapping into the 193 million who follow Musk.

"If he's able to leverage the supporters that Elon Musk has, plus the millions and millions of people who follow Donald Trump on X, then he's in a much better place," says Jon.

"Now the question I have is, does it make that much difference to the race? Of course, you'd rather have Elon Musk in your camp than outside of it. But is it a game changer?"

Musk has made the same offer to host a conversation with Kamala Harris, who has already agreed to a televised presidential debate with Trump on 10 September.

She is unlikely to take Musk up on his offer, The News Agents believe, due to his vocal support for Trump, and how X now actively "promotes" more right-wing views.

"Musk has recalibrated the way the entire website works to basically promote the sort of views and pro-Trump voices that are advantageous to him, to Trump.

"And we've seen this sort of happen little by little."

Despite this, and the combined efforts of Trump and Musk, Kamala Harris is currently polling higher among US voters as their pick for the November election.

Listen in full on The News Agents.

---