Donald Trump sat down with X owner Elon Musk on Monday night for an interview that touched on the assassination attempt against the Republican presidential candidate as well as his views on immigration and energy.
The live-streamed session featured an overwhelmingly friendly discussion between the two right-leaning public figures that spanned more than two hours.
While Mr Trump is running for president, the chat revealed little new about his plans for a second term in the White House.
The interview got off to a shaky start, however, with users complaining they were unable to access it.
The Trump team posted that the “interview on X is being overwhelmed with listeners logging in”.
And once the meeting began, Mr Musk apologised for the late start and claimed a “massive attack” had overwhelmed the company's system, without providing evidence.
Staffers speaking under condition of anonymity told tech publication The Verge there was not a DDOS, or distributed denial-of-service, attack as Mr Musk had claimed.
Mr Trump recounted the attempt on his life in vivid detail, with the presidential hopeful saying the event had reinforced his faith in God.
“If I had not turned my head, I would not be talking to you right now – as much as I like you,” Mr Trump told Mr Musk.
Mr Musk, a former Trump critic, said the Republican nominee's toughness, as demonstrated by his reaction to last month's shooting, was critical for national security.
“There’s some real tough characters out there,” Mr Musk said. “And if they don’t think the American president is tough, they will do what they want to do.”
The conversation between the two men was friendly – Mr Musk endorsed Mr Trump for president last month – and did little to shed light on how Mr Trump might handle a second term in the White House, apart from his plans to tackle illegal immigration.
During the interview, Mr Trump repeated a debunked claim that the Congo was releasing criminals from jails and sending them to the US.
“Elon, what’s happened is unbelievable. You have from Africa, from the Congo. They’re coming from the Congo and 22 people came in from the Congo recently, and they’re murderers,” Mr Trump said.
The Trump campaign has been focusing on discrediting his Democratic challenger Kamala Harris's record on the border, with claims that as Vice President, she was responsible for allowing a record number of people into the country illegally.
Ms Harris has erased Mr Trump's lead in opinion polls and energised Democratic voters with a series of high-energy rallies, Reuters reported.
The interview also delved into Mr Trump's views on climate change, which he has frequently called a hoax. Mr Musk tried to steer Mr Trump towards acknowledging the risks to the environment caused by fossil fuels and the need to support a clean energy transition.
Vilifying oil and gas is wrong because the economy would collapse without the industry, Mr Musk said, but the fossil fuel supply is finite and global warming does pose some risk – and that is where Tesla comes in.
“When you look at our cars, we don’t believe that environmentalism, that caring about the environment, should mean that you have to suffer,” Mr Musk said of Tesla.
But Mr Trump was unmoved, slamming President Joe Biden for shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline project.
“I allowed it [the pipeline project] in my first week because it was jobs and it moved oil,” Mr Trump said. “And by the way, in a much more environmentally friendly way, it's underground, it's not a truck that catches on fire or a train that catches on fire.”
On Monday morning, Mr Trump returned to X for the first time in a year, posting a video that highlighted his claim that the four criminal prosecutions he faces are politically motivated.
He quickly followed with a half-dozen other posts, in a possible indication he will be more active on X from here on.
His last X post before Monday was one in August 2023, when he appealed for donations and showed a mugshot after he was booked at an Atlanta jail over felony charges tied to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.
Mr Trump's access to his account, @realDonaldTrump, was restored a month into Mr Musk's ownership of X after being suspended by the platform's previous owners following the January 6, 2021, attack on Congress by his supporters.
The former president frequently posts on his Truth Social platform, which was launched in February 2022, but his posts there reach a much smaller audience than on X.
A look at former president Donald Trump's Truth Social feed – in pictures
-
On Truth Social, a social media platform founded by Donald Trump after he was banned from Twitter, conversation is often limited to sycophantic memes and conspiratorial memes. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Almost all of Mr Trump's followers are die-hard supporters and criticism of the former president is rare. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump's signature line on 'The Apprentice' was: 'You're Fired!' Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Many memes lionise the former president. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump hopes to get a second term in office in 2024. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
A not-true ReTruth: Trump-backed, election-denying candidate Kari Lake lost to Democrat Katie Dobbs in the Arizona governor race. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump suggests voter fraud in the Arizona governor race. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump attacks Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who may be well positioned to duel the former president in the 2024 White House race. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Many Maga Republicans miss Mr Trump. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump attacks mail-in ballots that allow millions of Americans who are unable to vote on election day to participate. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Some of the Trump supporters that stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, used American flags to attack police officers. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Supporters credit Mr Trump with not starting any new wars. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
How many moves in a game of chess? Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Another ReTruth. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
The 'Greatest Of All Time'? That remains to be seen. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump was expected to announce a new run for the White House on November 15. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump blamed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for Republicans' poor showing in the midterm elections. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump still attracts fierce loyalty from his 'Maga' supporters. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump suggests he would perform better than Ron DeSantis. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
A variation on the election-denying theme. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump has continued to make his baseless claims of election fraud in races he or his fellow Republicans lost. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Another ReTruth. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump returns to his debunked claims of widespread election fraud. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Another teaser for his November 15 announcement. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump 'ReTruths' a message from a follower. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
The 'legend' will be 78 at the 2024 election, the same age Joe Biden was when he got elected. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump is expected to announce he will run again for president in 2024. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Mr Trump teases his announcement on November 15. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social -
Truth Social is only available in the US, Canada and Brazil. Reuters
