STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some Republicans have thoughts about what Donald Trump should do now that he has slipped behind in polls. We hear Vivek Ramaswamy in a moment. First, we hear from the candidate himself.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP: Congratulations, 'cause I see you broke every record in the book with so many millions of people. And that's an honor. We view that as an honor.
INSKEEP: The world's richest man interviewed Donald Trump last evening. Elon Musk said beforehand, quote, "entertainment guaranteed." He had time to say that because the interview on X started 42 minutes late. The site once known as Twitter did a lot of traffic last evening as people asked what was happening. The owner of the site claimed, without evidence, that his site faced a cyberattack, although the real problem appeared to be technical issues, as had happened to Musk in a similar situation before.
Anyway, he did talk with the Republican presidential candidate. And NPR's Bobby Allyn listened. Bobby, good morning.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Hey, Steve.
INSKEEP: Two hours of discussion - how'd it go?
ALLYN: Well, it depends how you measure it. In terms of new information, there wasn't very much. But there were some memorable moments. Trump said his assassination attempt renewed his faith in God. He said several times that he's worried about what he's calling nuclear warming. Apparently, he's referring to the threat of nukes around the world.
INSKEEP: OK - kind of playing off global warming, which he dismisses. Go on.
ALLYN: That's right. Now, the two of them didn't exactly have the best chemistry. Musk lobbed all sorts of friendly questions his way, but Trump would use that as an opportunity to just rant on about all sorts of things. Then Musk would chime in and give his own kind of speech. It seemed like they were talking past each other quite a bit. But they did come together at times. Here, the two of them are agreeing on immigration enforcement.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELON MUSK: It's just not possible for the United States to absorb, you know, everyone from Earth or, you know, even a few percent of the rest of Earth. It's just not possible. So...
TRUMP: Well, Elon, we're going to have...
MUSK: That's - yeah.
TRUMP: ...Just to finish this up - we're going to have the largest deportation in history of this country. And we have no choice.
ALLYN: Yeah, and they also agreed on things like cutting government regulations, cracking down on violence in big cities and tackling inflation.
INSKEEP: Well, this is the first time we've had such a major social media platform run by a single person who openly roots for one presidential candidate. Musk has endorsed Trump. What do you make of that?
ALLYN: Yeah, well, before Musk, Twitter's executives really went out of their way to not put their finger on the scale when it came to politics. Of course, Twitter would defend against all sorts of allegations of bias. And after the January 6 attacks on the Capitol, Twitter suspended Trump. And that really energized Trump supporters as proof of bias. But there wasn't this top-down political agenda as overtly as it is now.
What we heard last night, Steve, I think, is really a full embracing of Trump as a candidate by Musk. And what's almost as interesting as Twitter's pivot was hearing Musk himself talk about his own political evolution.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MUSK: So they try to paint me as, like, a far-right guy, which is absurd because I'm, like, making electric vehicles and, you know, solar and batteries - helping the environment. And I actually (laughter) - I - you know, I supported Obama. I stood in line for six hours to shake Obama's hand when he was running for president.
ALLYN: Yeah, and he brought up this anecdote as a way to appeal to moderate Democrats as saying, hey, I used to be like one of you. But now he believes in Trump.
INSKEEP: Well, is the presidential campaign helping his business?
ALLYN: Well, the 2024 presidential campaign is certainly energizing the platform. I mean, many key moments have played out on the site. President Biden announced that he was stepping aside on X. Many other viral moments from both campaigns have started on X. But, right, this new momentum isn't yet translating into any kind of financial success. Advertising is still down 60% from last year, and that does remain X's biggest problem.
INSKEEP: And we should mention that Musk says he's willing to interview Kamala Harris as well. Bobby, thanks so much.
ALLYN: Thanks, Steve.
INSKEEP: NPR's Bobby Allyn. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
