A striking feature of Trump’s performance in 2024 is weakness. Now, the former president no longer shares the stage with 81-year-old Joe Biden, who looks and sounds the same as he does at 78.
During Trump’s lengthy interview with Elon Musk at X Spaces on Monday night, he slurred and slurred in a manner familiar to anyone who has spoken to a family member whose dentures are not fully set. He rambles about the beauty of Vice President Kamala Harris, about oil drilling and the dangers of “nuclear warming.”
Musk and Trump spoke for about two hours. It was a freewheeling conversation dominated by the former president and his strange obsessions. The presentation was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET, but like all of Musk’s other high-profile appearances on “Everything App,” it was a late start to the tech disaster.
When the two finally emerged, 40 minutes after eight o’clock, Musk blamed it on a DDOS attack. According to The Verge, he’s probably lying.
Musk began the interview by praising Trump for not dying when an assassin’s bullet grazed his ear. Trump called it a miracle and said it happened because he turned his head and looked at a chart.
“It all started because I drew an immigration chart that showed such huge numbers. I like that chart better now,” he said.
Trump immediately looked unhappy. His speech was slurred and he appeared to have a lisp. If it weren’t for the fact that someone from Trump’s team was filming the call, you could consider this a technical difficulty related to X. Strange lisps also occur in people.
Video of Trump hunkering down and slurring his words on Twitter space. pic.twitter.com/V0hDakkJFA
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) August 13, 2024
Much of the two-hour conversation was stuff we’d all heard before. He repeatedly praised Elon while complaining about energy prices.
“This is the price of gas,” he said. “Now your car doesn’t need a lot of gas, so you can’t… You have a great product, I have to say, I have to be honest with you. I don’t think that means everyone should have it An electric car. But these are the little details. Your product is incredible.
Trump’s brand of economic populism doesn’t resonate much when it’s filtered through 20-year-old political memes and expressed with a slight inarticulateness.
“But gasoline, Elon, that’s the cost of energy,” Trump said. “It’s not just gas, it’s the cost of heating the house. And cooling. As that number starts to go down, it goes up 100, 150, 200 percent. This has to come down. When that comes down. We gotta practice, baby , practice. You know, they stopped drilling and then started drilling again because they went back to Trump’s policies.
He said Harris was not smart enough to lead, but she seemed fascinated by her appearance on the cover of Time magazine.
“She looks like the most beautiful actress who has ever lived. It’s a painting, in fact, she looks very much like our great first lady Melania,” he said.
Trump said he saw Kamala Harris in Time magazine today. He said she looked beautiful, but then said it was painting. Then he said she looked like Melania Trump. pic.twitter.com/pW9ctsCt0r
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 13, 2024
Trump then veered off topic on how he believes climate change occurs, sparking discussion of nuclear weapons.
“The biggest threat is not global warming. Over the next 400 years, sea levels are going to rise 1/8 of an inch, and you’re going to have more oceanfront property,” he said, misunderstanding what will happen to coastlines as sea levels continue to rise. “The biggest threat is not this, the biggest threat is nuclear warming. Because we now have five countries with powerful nuclear forces, we cannot allow anything to happen to stupid people like Biden.
There are nine countries in the world with nuclear weapons, not five. The threat of “nuclear warming” is indeed serious. Even limited use of nuclear weapons could radically alter Earth’s weather patterns and lead to mass starvation. But the threats emanating from Trump’s slurred lips ring hollow, especially when delivered in a small, low-audio-quality X space.
The similarities between failed presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’ apocalyptic campaign and his failed campaign are hard to ignore. DeSantis appeared on X Space with Musk. Both were plagued by technical difficulties, sounded terrible, and made the candidates look weak and stupid.
“The DeSantis TWITTER launch was a disaster!” Trump said of DeSantis’ launch on failed social media site Truth Social. “His entire campaign will be a disaster! Watch!
