Trump blasts Biden and Harris in widely followed conversation with Musk, who calls Trump ‘right path’ for future

Former President Donald Trump and tech visionary Elon Musk delivered a powerful critique of the Biden-Harris administration in a Monday night interview, as Trump outlined the contrasting future for the country if he is elected president in November.

The conversation, broadcast on X (formerly Twitter), had nearly 1 billion combined views during a three-hour period, according to the social media platform.

Trump outlined his plan to fix the U.S. economy, secure the borders, and restore law and order, promising swift action to reverse the policies of what he called “the worst president in history.” 

Musk, noting he used to be a left-leaning liberal, endorsed Trump for president. 

The interview lasted two hours but was delayed for nearly an hour after the social media site was hit by a denial-of-service attack, Musk said. 

When the interview got underway, Musk began by discussing the near assassination of the former president one month before, on July 13. 

“I think a lot of people admire your courage under fire there,” said Musk. 

Trump replied by heaping praise on law enforcement and the Secret Service for their response to the shooter. 

“They moved so fast. And let me tell you, that took tremendous courage,” said Trump about the Secret Service reaction in covering the GOP presidential nominee after he was shot in the ear. 

Musk and Trump then pivoted to the illegal immigration problems that have happened in the U.S. under Biden and his apparent “border czar,” Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. 

Musk said that illegal immigration is a “fundamental existential issue for the United States.”  

Trump noted that illegal immigrants aren’t just coming from countries south of the U.S., but from all over the world.  

The former president accused leaders of less-developed countries of emptying prisons, mental institutions and insane asylums, to dump those populations in America.  

“And many are terrorists,” added Trump.  

He also accused Harris of ignoring the border issue under Biden. 

“Now she’s trying to say that she wasn’t [in charge of the border], she wasn’t really involved, and the whole thing is horrible,” said Trump.  

The GOP presidential nominee promised that once inaugurated for a second term, he would commence the “largest deportation in the history of this country.”  

“We have no choice,” said Trump, agreeing with Musk that stopping illegal immigration in the U.S. is fundamental to its future success. 

With four more years of open borders, “I’m not sure we’ve got a country,” said Musk.   

“You don’t have a country, Elon, if they get in,” Trump agreed.  

Musk and Trump also touched on global security, with Trump accusing Biden and Harris of being too weak to handle dictators, such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and China’s Communist strongman, Party General Secretary Xi Jinping.  

“It’s so sad when you look at Ukraine, it should have never happened. We have a defective government. These are defective people, and they’re not people that should be running it,” Trump said of Biden and Harris. 

Musk told Trump that he thought the world has grown too complacent about a risk of World War III and the risk of nuclear weapons being released.   

Trump promised to build a missile defense system he calls an Iron Dome, to protect America against nuclear and conventional missile and drone attacks.  

On the economy, Trump said much of the current inflation problem has been the result of Biden’s anti-oil stance.  

“Inflation has killed [consumers]. Food prices are up 50-60%, even 100% in some cases, and this, this stupid administration, allowed this to happen, and it’s a shame, and that’s the thing that people most care about,” said Trump. 

Total inflation is up 20% since Biden took office, but Trump is correct that some food prices have soared much higher. 

Egg prices, for example, were up over 40% as of March, said The Heritage Foundation. Fast-food inflation has also soared.  

Trump repeatedly attacked Democrat policy on oil and gas, saying there would be no inflation without the Democrats’ war on fossil fuels. 

Trump would reverse course, opening the U.S., and Alaska in particular, for oil development, helping ease inflation, he promised. 

The House Committee on Natural Resources found that opening just a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for example, would allow the U.S. to produce more oil daily than it imports from Saudi Arabia. 

On education, Trump reiterated a promise to move the responsibility for K-12 education back to the states.  

“I want to close up the Department of Education, move education back to the states,” he told Musk. 

That would increase competition among states to educate students, he said, citing plunging test scores and the declining trust in K-12 education. 

Trump’s biggest salvo was aimed at President Biden.  

“I’m no fan of his. And he was a horrible president, the worst president in history,” Trump said. “And one of the reasons he was so bad, first of all: the Israeli attack would have never happened. Russia would never have attacked Ukraine, and we’d have no inflation, and we wouldn’t have had the Afghanistan mess.” 

Musk and Trump finished the conversation talking about the failures of the Biden-Harris administration to combat crime, advocating for “no-bail” policies in the cases of violent criminals, while trying Trump on spurious charges.  

Trump also blasted Democrats for punishing police officers for trying to do their job by arresting criminals. 

Musk noted a specific incident in Times Square, New York City, where a group of illegal immigrants beat up police officers and were given free tickets to California, which he said was “telling” about Democratic policies on immigration and crime.  

“Nothing happened to those guys,” said Musk who called it a “gross indignity” to the country and police officers.  

Musk said he believes the upcoming election on Nov. 5 will be crucial for the future of the country, and thinks Trump is the correct choice for the future.  

“I think we’re at a fork in the road of destiny of civilization, and I think we need to take the right path, and I think you’re the right path,” said Musk, concluding the interview.