As Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s discussion got underway Monday night on X, the former president’s voice 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 — who last week floated “at least 162 misstatements, 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 have amassed more than 1 billion views on the social media site — was derailed by technical glitches for some 40 minutes before finally starting.
Musk said the chat would give people an opportunity to “get a feel for what Donald Trump is like in a conversation.” But listeners were immediately distracted by Trump’s odd-sounding voice.
“Did Trump pause campaign rallies because of this massive lisp he has on this Twitter interview with Elon?” one X user posted.
“Is it just me….. What is wrong with trumps voice??” another wrote. “Sound like he has a lisp??”
“Trump got hit by the CIA lisp gun” posted a third.
In an emailed response to an inquiry about the lisp from a Huffington Post reporter, the Trump campaign said, “Must be your s****y hearing. Get your ears checked.”
The former president spent the bulk of the chat treating listeners to a laundry list of the same complaints and grievances he has 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,” “smart,” “vicious, and “at the top of their game.” He railed against illegal immigration, claimed other countries were emptying out their prisons and psychiatric hospitals and sending the residents to the US, and denigrated Biden as “the worst” US president in history. (In fact, Trump was ranked as the worst American president by academics and historians.)
Musk agreed dutifully as Trump once again complained about the price of bacon, adding, “They call it ‘sticker shock.’” Trump went on to claim the US had a roaring economy prior to Covid, and bellyached that he didn’t “get credit” for it.
Trump also recounted the experience of getting shot at a Pennsylvania rally last month, injuring his right ear but coming away without any serious damage.
“It was a hard hit,” he told Musk of the moment when 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 somebody, you have instances like this … where you feel it’s a surreal situation. And I never felt that way. I knew immediately that it was a bullet.”
Trump took time to accuse Harris of copying him, grumbling, “All of a sudden [Harris is] making a speech there will be no tax on tips. I said that months ago.” Musk, for his part, told Trump that the media was “unfair” to the former president, and did not disagree when Trump called Biden “a stupid man.”
The broadcast took place as Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival in 2024, pulled ahead in national polls, raising millions with running mate Tim Walz.
The conversation between the increasingly erratic Musk and the twice-impeached former commander-in-chief capped off Trump’s return to the social network formerly known as Twitter. His reappearance came some three years after he was banished from the service following the January 6 sacking of the US Capitol, over fears of what the company described as “further incitement of violence.”
In November 2022, a month after Musk — who has of late lurched gleefully into the arms of the political far-right — purchased Twitter for $44 billion, he lifted Trump’s ban outright. Earlier on Monday, Trump fired off numerous posts on the platform, rebranded by Musk as “X,” alternately hyping up the Musk interview, slamming Harris, his rival in the upcoming presidential election, and claiming that without him, the US is a “nation in decline.”
Musk said the interview would be “unscripted with no limits on subject matter,” and invited X users to post questions for him to ask.
However, the interview didn’t get going until almost 40 minutes behind schedule, which Musk blamed on a “massive” cyberattack.
The technical snafus on Monday mirrored those that bogged down Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s announcement last year that he was entering the presidential race. Musk at the time blamed the DeSantis issues on X’s servers. In an apparent attempt to ensure the setup didn’t buckle similarly on Monday night, Musk earlier in the day posted on X, “Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation with @realDonaldTrump.”
“Entertainment guaranteed!” he gushed in another post.
Prior to the webcast, European leaders expressed concern about the tête-à-tête between two powerful men known as prodigious liars.
“With great 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 events with major audience around the world, I sent this letter to @elonmusk.”
In response, Musk posted a meme from the film Tropic Thunder, which said, “AND LITERALLY, F**K YOUR OWN FACE!”
Musk was blamed for further stoking violence in Southport, England, where race riots had consumed the area, with mis- and disinformation posted on X.
In a statement issued on behalf of Trump, campaign spokesman and former MMA fighter Steven Cheung said, “The European Union should mind their own business instead of trying to meddle in the U.S. Presidential election. Only in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ America can an un-Democratic foreign organization feel emboldened enough to tell this country what to do. They know that a President Trump victory means America will no longer be ripped off because he will smartly utilize tariffs and renegotiated trade deals that puts America First. Let us be very clear: the European Union is an enemy of free speech and has no authority of any kind to dictate how we campaign.”