Elon Musk and Donald Trump blasted Kamala Harris in an interview livestreamed Monday on social media platform X, with the former president deriding her as a “radical, left San Francisco liberal” and “farther left than Bernie Sanders.”
Trump, who called Harris “not a smart person,” claimed she “destroyed” San Francisco during her tenure as the city’s district attorney.
“She is a San Francisco liberal who destroyed San Francisco and then, as attorney general, she destroyed California,” Trump said. “When you think of her, San Francisco 15 years ago, I had a great friend Bob Tisch, he said it’s the greatest city in America. And now it’s almost not livable there. And California likewise. And she was involved in the destruction of San Francisco and the destruction of California.”
Musk said Harris is “not a moderate” and is “actually very far left,” pointing out that Harris’ father was a Marxist economist.
“I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool Republican,” Musk told Trump. “I just think we’re at this critical juncture. I think you’re the path to prosperity, and Kamala is the opposite.”
NEW from @KamalaHQ on Trump’s *unhinged* interview with @elonmusk:
— Joseph Costello (@costellojoseph_) August 13, 2024
“Trump’s entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself — self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024.” pic.twitter.com/G3sDUSoDNm
Harris’ campaign clapped back in a statement released minutes after the livestream ended, calling the interview “unhinged.”
The interview, which was livestreamed through X Spaces, a feature that allows users of the platform to host audio conversations, got off to a glitchy start. As low-fi techno beats played through Trump’s X account, a host of people reported being unable to join the chat.
Musk blamed the issue on a cyberattack that deliberately overwhelmed the web server with traffic to prevent people from tuning in.
When the chat kicked off — 42 minutes after its scheduled start time — Musk again mentioned the alleged DDOS (distributed denial-of-service) attack.
“This massive attack demonstrates the opposition to just listen to what Donald Trump has to say,” Musk said.
A report from the Verge raised credible doubts about that claim.
Please let Elon know we can’t join.
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) August 13, 2024
Musk framed the livestream as an appeal to undecided voters to support Trump’s run for the presidency. Musk — the world’s richest person — pledged to donate $45 million a month to a pro-Trump Super PAC. He said the livestream would be unscripted, with “no limits on subject matter.”
During a rambling conversation that lasted nearly two hours and garnered more than a million listeners, Musk and Trump touched on the assassination attempt against the former president, immigration and inflation.
Musk pitched the idea of a “government efficiency commission” to cut “government overspending,” which he blames for inflation.
“And I’d love to help out on such a commission if it was formed,” Musk said.
“You’re the greatest cost-cutter in the world,” Trump replied.
Since taking over Twitter in 2022 and rebranding it as X, Musk has laid off 6,000 employees, roughly 80% of its staff.
Musk’s support of Trump is part of a wave of Silicon Valley tech executives who have thrown their support behind the former president, a shift from a traditionally liberal industry. Prominent tech billionaire David Sacks held a Trump fundraiser in June — complete with mini hamburgers with American flags in them — which raised $12 million for the former president’s campaign.
The interview comes after Musk moved X’s headquarters out of San Francisco and into an office space shared with xAI.
Trump returned to X just days before the interview, with his first post in nearly a year calling on users to support his run for the presidency.