As Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s discussion began on Monday night on X, the the voice of the former president raised immediate questions among listeners, many of whom said they thought it sounded like he was speaking with a distinct lisp.
The live one-on-one between former President Trump – which last week floated “at least 162 distortions, exaggerations and outright lies” during a 64-minute press conference at his Florida country club — and X boss Musk — whose false or misleading claims about the 2024 election were has racked up over 1 billion views on the social media site – was derailed due to technical failures for around 40 minutes on Monday night before it finally began.
Musk said the chat would give people the opportunity to “get a feel for what Donald Trump is like in conversation.” But listeners were immediately distracted by Trump’s strange voice.
“Trump stopped campaign rallies because of the huge lisp he made in this Twitter interview with Elon?” a user X posted.
“It’s just me… What’s wrong with Trump’s voice??” another wrote. “Does it look like he has a lisp??”
“Trump was hit by the CIA’s lisp gun” posted a third.
In an emailed response to a question about the lisp from a Huffington Post reporter, the Trump campaign said: “Must be your horrible hearing. Get your ears checked.
The former president spent the most of the chat treating listeners to a long list of the same complaints and grievances he’s been airing for years.
Trump called President Joe Biden “stupid” and described Vice President Kamala Harris as “incompetent,” while praising North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Chinese strongman Xi Jinping and Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin as “tough.” , “intelligent”, “cruel”. and “on top of the game.” He criticized illegal immigration, claimed other countries were emptying their prisons and mental hospitals and sending residents to the US, and denigrated Biden as “the worst” US president in history. (In truth, Trump was ranked as the worst American president by academics and historians.)
Musk dutifully complied as Trump once again complained about the price of bacon, adding: “They call it ‘sticker shock.’” credit” for that.
Trump also recounted the experience of being shot at a rally in Pennsylvania last month, injuring his right ear but emerging without any serious damage.
“It was a big hit,” he told Musk about the moment he said the bullet hit his ear. “It was very, I guess you would say, surreal, but it wasn’t surreal. You know, I was telling someone, you have cases like this… where you feel like it’s a surreal situation. And I’ve never felt this way. I knew immediately it was a bullet.”
Trump was slow to accuse Harris of copying him, muttering: “Suddenly [Harris is] giving a speech there will be no tax on tips. I said this months ago. Musk, in turn, told Trump that the media was “unfair” to the former president and did not disagree when Trump called Biden “a stupid man.”
The broadcast came as Harris, Trump’s 2024 Democratic rival, surged ahead in national polls, raising millions for her running mate. Tim Walz.
The conversation between the increasingly erratic Musk and the twice-impeached former commander in chief culminated in Trump’s return to the social network in the past known as Twitter. His reappearance came about three years after he was banned from military service following the sacking of the US Capitol on January 6, over fears of what the company described as “further incitement of violence”.
In November 2022, a month after Musk – who has lately fallen happily into the arms of the political far right – bought Twitter for $44 billion, he lifted the ban on Trump completely. On Monday morning, Trump fired numerous posts on the platformrenamed by Musk as “X”, alternately extolling Musk’s interview, criticizing Harris, his rival in the upcoming presidential election, and claiming that without him, the US is a “nation in decline”.
Musk blamed DeSantis’ problems on X servers. In an apparent attempt to ensure the setup didn’t similarly fail on Monday night, Musk posted earlier in the day on X: “I’ll do some system scaling tests tonight and tomorrow before the conversation with @ realDonaldTrump.”
“Entertainment guaranteed!” he gushed in another post.
Musk said the interview would be “improvised, with no subject limits,” and invited X users to post questions for him to ask.
However, the interview only started almost 40 minutes late, which Musk attributed to a “massive” cyber attack.
Ahead of the webcast, European leaders expressed concern about the tête-à-tête between two powerful men known as prodigious liars.
“With a large audience comes greater responsibility,” EU Commissioner for Internal Markets Thierry Breton posted on X. “As there is a risk of amplification of potentially harmful content in connection with large audience events around the world, I have sent this letter to @elonmusk.”
In response, Musk posted a meme from the movie Tropic Thunder, which read: “AND LITERALLY, FUCK YOUR OWN FACE!”
Musk was blamed for fueling further violence in Southport, England, where race riots consumed the area, with misinformation and disinformation published on X.
In a statement issued on Trump’s behalf, campaign spokesman and former MMA fighter Steven Cheung said: “The European Union should mind its own business instead of trying to interfere in the US presidential election. Only in the America of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can a non-democratic foreign organization feel emboldened enough to tell this country what to do. They know that a victory for President Trump means that America will no longer be cheated because he will intelligently utilize tariffs and renegotiated trade agreements that put America first. Let us be very clear: the European Union is the enemy of freedom of expression and does not have any kind of authority to dictate the way we campaign.”
