By Charles Dervarics

With Vice President Kamala Harris surging in the polls, Donald J. Trump took to the friendly territory of X (formerly Twitter) Monday night for an interview with Elon Musk in hopes of reclaiming momentum for the fall presidential campaign.

What he perhaps didn’t expect were technical glitches that delayed the event by 40 minutes. Users received messages such as “this space is not available,” and those gaining access just heard music for many minutes. Musk claimed that a massive external attack on the website was to blame, and both he and Trump spun the delay as proof of tremendous interest in the interview.

The event was a homecoming of sorts for the former president, whose Twitter account was suspended in 2021 and who then launched his own social media site, Truth Social. Prior to the interview, Trump touted his return to the platform in a video posted to X.

While the Trump campaign termed it beforehand as “the interview of the century,” the event was more of a conversation between two men who agree on most topics. His questions were more of the softball variety, with no fact-checking of the responses.

For his part, Trump returned to many of his favorite themes, sharply criticizing Harris as both unqualified and too-far left for most Americans. “I think she’s more incompetent than he (President Biden) is,” Trump said. He also urged his supporters and the media to not let Democrats “get away with their disinformation campaign” to distance the vice president from her role in setting immigration policy.

The more newsworthy revelations, however, included the following:

• Return to Butler: “We’re going back to Butler,” Trump said of his desire to return to the Pennsylvania site of his recent assassination attempt. The former president and Musk spent 20 minutes talking about the assassination attempt, with Trump stating that he will return there in October. He also joked that “illegal immigration saved my life” because he turned his head toward an immigration chart on stage. Without that turn of the head, the bullet may have caused more catastrophic injury.

• Education changes: Trump returned to an earlier theme of wanting to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and “move education back to the states.” He noted that “not every state will do great” but that it would spur competition as families may relocate in search of better schools. He predicted about 35 states would “do great” with the change.

• Government efficiency: Musk said he wants to sit on a commission to examine government inefficiency, and Trump seemed ready to take him up on his offer. “The waste [in government spending] is incredible,” Trump asserted.

Musk previously has endorsed Trump and pledged to provide substantial funding for his campaign.

TUE 8/13/24