In a highly anticipated return to X, former President Donald Trump engaged in a two-hour conversation with the social media site's owner, Elon Musk, marking Trump's official return after his suspension following the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. The discussion, marred by initial technical difficulties, covered a range of topics from Trump's campaign plans to his views on international affairs and immigration policy.
The Republican presidential candidate revealed his intentions to revisit the site of his recent assassination attempt near Butler, Pennsylvania, in October. "Your actions after that assassination attempt were inspiring," Musk told Trump. "You were pumping your fist in the air… I think that is America, that is strength under fire." When he asked Trump what was it like for him, The former president replied jokingly "Not pleasant." He added, "I didn't know I had that much blood… it was a hard hit. For those people who don't believe in God, I think we got to all start thinking about that… Now I'm more of a believer."
Trump didn't shy away from his characteristic rhetoric, asserting the Oct. 7 attack, the potential Iranian attack on Israel, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine would never have happened under his presidency. "All the horror that you're seeing now, look at Israel – they're all waiting for an attack from Iran. Iran would not be attacking, believe me… Iran was broke," he said. "They were at a point where they had no money for Hamas, for Hezbollah… and it was amazing."
"People obviously have not been at all intimidated by Biden, and they certainly will not be intimidated by Kamala," Musk added. "You have to really think of that in the context of global security, if the American president is someone evil dictators are scared of."
"She's so anti-Israel," Trump added in regards to the Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. "Netanyahu came to give a talk and I was there," Musk added, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent address to Congress. "Kamala stood him up. What does that say?" Musk said. "It's highly disrespectful," Trump answered. "If you're a Jewish person or if you believe in Israel... If you vote for her, you ought to have your head examined," adding, "If she's going to be our president, very quickly you're not going to have a country anymore."
Immigration emerged as a central theme, with Trump saying "There's never been a country in history that has a catastrophe like this." "They're coming not just from South America, they're coming from Africa, from stupidly and horribly bombing Israel," referring to the Middle East, adding, "We're going to have the largest deportation in history of this country."
The former president also touched on defense policy. In response to Musk's claim that "people underrate the risk of World War III, looking at the risk of thermonuclear warfare," Trump promised to construct "the best Iron Dome in the world." He added, "Why shouldn't we have an Iron Dome? Israel has one, some other places have one that nobody even knows about frankly…to me that's so important."
The conversation's start was plagued by technical issues, preventing many users from accessing the livestream. Musk attributed the problems to a "massive" cyberattack, stating on X, "Worst case, we'll proceed with fewer live listeners and release the recording later."
This technical stumble proves embarrassing for Musk, especially considering a similar incident last May when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's campaign launch on X devolved into a technical fiasco. At that time, Trump's campaign had mockingly commented to Business Insider, "Glitchy. Tech issues. Uncomfortable silences. A complete failure to launch. And that's just the candidate."
