For a fascism-curious billionaire who loves to embrace right-wing crazies, Elon Musk sure is good at making right-wing politicians look stupid.
Former President Donald Trump loudly trumpeted a planned Monday Night Interview with Musk that would be broadcast on X. But, just like the disastrous launch on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis presidential campaignthe Musk/Trump interview has not been releasedleaving social media users laughing at the collective incompetence.
Since Vice President Kamala Harris rose to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket last month, Trump’s re-election campaign has been weak. Your childish attacks on her aren’t working. Racist comments from her about her mixed-race heritage repelled all but her most loyal supporters. Her choice for vice president, JD Vance, becomes less likable every time he speaks.
So his response, oddly enough, was to sit down with Musk and speak to what would undoubtedly be a very online audience that doesn’t represent the broader electorate. If the conversation had gone off without a hitch, it still would have been awkward and largely unhelpful to Trump’s effort to halt Harris’ momentum.
Trump’s interview with Elon Musk was an absolute disaster
But the online interview went off the rails with a multitude of problems. X users erupted in frustration or laughter when the planned start time passed and nothing could be accessed. It took more than 40 minutes before the interview could begin and be heard by anyone. It was amateur hour, the last thing a campaign struggling to project competence needed.
In May 2023, when DeSantis’ presidential campaign debuted with a fantastic interview with Musk on what was then called Twitter, Trump mocked the disasterwriting on social media: “Wow! DeSanctus’ launch on TWITTER is a DISASTER! Your entire campaign will be a disaster. TO ATTEND!”
On behalf of DeSantis, allow me to say this: HAH!
Forget the flaws, Trump X’s interview got worse when he started talking
Of course, things didn’t get better for Trump after the interview was able to continue.
Trump says the AI did this: Trump blames Harris’ crowd AI, so let’s all assume everything we don’t like is fake!
He was rambling, rambling on about crowd sizes, immigration, President Joe Biden and everything else that seemed to cross his mind. He was also mispronouncing his wordsraising questions about her health and doing nothing to quell growing concerns about her age and well-being.
He looked like a racist, disoriented Daffy Duck.
Elon Musk is no Barbara Walters – his interview skills are terrible
Meanwhile, Musk has the interviewing skills of a stoned introvert. He did little other than root for Trump and agree with every bizarre thing that came out of his mouth, while occasionally going into the kind of strange right-wing tangents you’d expect from a man too rich to be told to shut up.
I’m not going to quote anything that Trump said in the interview because it was too stupid to deserve transcription or a mere repetition of the nonsense he says at every rally he holds.
Harris can beat Trump: I was wrong about Kamala Harris. And that’s a big problem for Donald Trump
A big part of Trump’s problem right now is that he has become almost unbearably boring. He builds a wall. Drill, baby, drill. Marxist, socialist something. Harris only recently became black. Blah, blah, blah.
Musk gave Trump the same gift he gave Ron DeSantis. Who is who.
So for Trump, sitting down with a rich weirdo who few people like and dragging his way through an interview that wasn’t released was, in the words of one Donald J. Trump, “a DISASTER!”
Musk, with his social media ineptitude and his undeserved sense of self-importance, made DeSantis look like an idiot. And now he has done the same to Trump.
Hell, if Musk keeps this up, I might start to like him.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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This article originally appeared in USA TODAY: Who let Trump and Musk’s interview happen? X wasn’t the only one with flaws
