Introduction
Ex-President of the USA Donald Trump resumed active work on the social media platform x (ex-twitter) on Monday and had a near-to-two-hour stimulating dialogue with the tech manager Elon Musk. This was Trump’s most extensive return to the platform since coming back in 2023, in the words of Standford University’s Dr. Aluminium, it reached ‘wow, over a million listeners at its peak’. Emigration attempts on Trump’s life, the economy, and the energy policy were discussed in the conversation. Though Musk supported Trump in the 2024 campaign, he took on both the roles of an interviewer and an offering policy analyst in the exchange. Here are five important things that should be derived from this high-level discourse.
Table of Contents
1. Return of Trump to X means a new stage
The recent interview of Donald Trump with Elon Musk on X may mark the prologue to the return to this medium that played a decisive role in his political career. Now permanently banned by Twitter for incitement of Capitol riots on January 6th, Trump was one of the most active and polarizing users of this platform. His account was restored in 2023 after Musk purchased and repurposed the platform as X In this case, this discussion together with Trump’s relative escalation in his usage of the X in the lead-up to the event suggests that he may be using the platform once again to disseise messages to his base given that he has a potentially very competitive re-election campaign ahead of him.
2. Donald Trump Remains Compliant, He Does Not Step on Any Raw Nerve
Hence, even during a conversation, Trump was able to stay ‘on message’, and touch on fiscal issues namely inflation and economic worries, which are noble goals or concerns most voters cherish. He said that in words that echo his campaign speeches in which he quite often lambastes his political rivals. Nonetheless, denizen Liberals bemuse that Trump is not nasty or grievous or just plain silly and found himself in hot water the way he has been recently. His observations on the economy, immigration, and the performance of the present administration were sharp but not very loaded, which suggests that he is much more strategic now that he is eyeing the 2024 polls.
3. Even as the president plays it safe, love and war with the Democrats provide material for both sides to use and fire.
Still, the interview gave Democrats more weapons against Trump, and although it was more tempered than the campaign’s earlier speeches, it continued the aggressive rhetoric. His plan to close the Department of Education and let states handle education themselves is in Project 2025, a document widely shared by Democrats as an agenda for Trump’s second term in office. Also, his comments that were in the past seen as a critique of Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, and different governors for different democrats are enough meat for his opponents to dissect and confront him with. Perhaps, the discussions provoked by Trump’s statements, especially about the shutdown of federal departments and his rather harsh comments directed at several critical Democrats, will persist.
4. Musk tries to change Trump’s policy position
Trump does have the business support of many big tycoons and inventors including Elon Musk who, despite funding the former president’s campaigns, did not hesitate to remind him of certain policy orientations. Musk promoted good middle-ground, saying that it is wrong to condemn the oil and gas industry while supporting climate conservation. Regarding immigration Musk was more liberal than Trump, insisting on legal immigration, and appropriate screening mechanisms. Also, there was a plan put forward by Musk that reflected his desire for the optimization of government processes – a special government efficiency commission for analysis of a country’s debt and spending. As seen in this interaction, Musk had some power over Trump and was trying to tame the latter into being less extreme in his positions.
5. Technical hitches mar another big event on X
There were a lot of challenges technically in the conversation between Trump and Musk, specifically, the event’s beginning was an hour late. Some users arrogated to themselves some issues connecting to the Spaces session: some received messages about the error, while others faced music and waited for the beginning of the discussion. These problems, Musk claimed, were due to a “massive DDOS attack” on the platform, a problem similar to the technological problems encountered during the launch of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign on X earlier this year. Such repeated technical hitches could discourage other politicians from relying on X to organize large-scale political gatherings in the future.
Conclusion
That discussion of Trump and Musk on X was meaningful as it showed Trump’s possible return to the platform and Musk’s increasing political power. During his campaigns, Trump was able to sidestep the big issues but his comments gave his detractors plenty of material with which to work. On the one hand, Musk failed to steer Trump on policy matters – which is a trend that forms part of political developments – as well as the technical hitches during the event. This is particularly important as Trump aims at the 2024 election and his standing with X and its owner, Musk, will be a significant determinant of his approach.
