Former President Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of criticism on Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, and the current state of the nation in an interview with Elon Musk on Monday evening.
Former President Donald Trump spoke with tech billionaire Elon Musk in an overarching, lengthy interview Monday evening on X as Vice President Kamala Harris continues avoiding the media since landing on the top of the Democratic ticket for the White House.
"It's pretty sad when you think that somebody that does this for a living can't answer a question or is afraid to do an interview, and in her case, with a very friendly interview. She's got all friendly interviewers," Trump said of Harris Monday evening during his roughly two-hour interview with Musk on X Space.
Trump Unloads on Harris, Biden, and the Current State of the Nation in Interview with Elon Musk
Trump's comments come as Harris has avoided the media for 22 days. She has snubbed formal press conferences or sit-down interviews, including for a Time magazine cover story, since she emerged as the DNC's nominee for the White House after President Biden dropped out of the race last month.
"She is considered more liberal, by far, than Bernie Sanders. She's a radical-left lunatic. And if she's going to be our president, very quickly you're not going to have a country anymore. And she'll go back to all the things that she believes in. She believes in defunding the police. She believes in no fracking, zero," Trump added of Harris.
Trump Unloads on Harris, Biden, and the Current State of the Nation in Interview with Elon Musk
Trump's interview with Musk kicked off after 8:30 p.m. Monday, following a "massive" distributed denial-of-service attack on the platform that caused delays, Musk explained on X. More than 1 million people ultimately listened to the interview according to the live tracker throughout the discussion.
The two held a laid back interview, where Musk prompted Trump with topics before the 45th president was offered ample time to elaborate on policy issues such as immigration, the assassination attempt on his life last month, spiraling inflation and closing the Department of Education in favor of states taking the mantle on school systems.
Trump Unloads on Harris, Biden, and the Current State of the Nation in Interview with Elon Musk
"I want to close up Department of Education, move education back to the states. … Of the 50 [states], I would bet that 35 would do great. And 15 of them, or, you know, 20 of them, will be as good as Norway. You know, Norway is considered great," Trump said, while noting left-wing states such as California could struggle if he does eliminate the DOE.
The 45th president also spoke at length with Musk about the current state of immigration in the U.S.
Trump Unloads on Harris, Biden, and the Current State of the Nation in Interview with Elon Musk
"I believe it's over 20 million people came into our country. Many coming from jails, from prisons, from mental institutions, or a bigger version of that is insane asylums. And many are terrorists. And I'll tell you what, they're coming not just from South America. They're coming from Africa. They're coming from all over the world. They're coming from Asia. They're coming from the Middle East," Trump told Musk, who endorsed Trump earlier this year.
Trump said that despite Harris' recent rhetoric to address the spiraling migrant crisis at the border, she and Biden have had years to address migration but "won't do anything."
Trump Unloads on Harris, Biden, and the Current State of the Nation in Interview with Elon Musk
"She had three and a half years, and by the way, they have another five months that they can do something. But they won't do anything. It's all talk. She's incompetent and he's incompetent. And frankly, I think that she's more incompetent than he is, and that's saying something, because he's not too good," he said.
On the topic of immigration, Trump also credited a slide his campaign made showing immigration stats for saving his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month during a rally, when shooter Thomas Crooks attempted to assassinate him. The 45th president looked over to the slide on immigration data when Crooks opened fire, which narrowly saved his life as the position of his head had abruptly changed.
Trump Unloads on Harris, Biden, and the Current State of the Nation in Interview with Elon Musk
"That slide — illegal immigration saved my life," he told Musk. "The incredible thing is that the chart, I used it less than 20% of the time. It was just a moment.""It's always to my left, never my right, and it's always at the end of the speech," Trump added of the position of the slide.
"I'm going to sleep with that chart always," he joked.
Trump Unloads on Harris, Biden, and the Current State of the Nation in Interview with Elon Musk
Trump went on to rattle off a list of wars and world events the U.S. could have avoided if Biden were not in the Oval Office, while noting he was tough on nations such as Russia, China and North Korea and knows the countries' respective leaders "well."
"First of all, the Israeli attack would have never happened. Russia would never have attacked Ukraine, and we'd have no inflation, and we wouldn't have had the Afghanistan mess, if you think of it well … if you take a few of those events away, and we have a different world."
Trump Unloads on Harris, Biden, and the Current State of the Nation in Interview with Elon Musk
Trump also addressed Biden's exit from the 2024 race, saying it was a Democratic "coup" that pressured Biden to drop out. Biden dropped out of the running last month as concerns mounted surrounding his mental acuity and 81 years of age and Democrats and traditional allies of the party called on him to exit the race.
"This was a coup. This was a coup of a president of the United States. He didn't want to leave, and they said, ‘We can do it the nice way, or we can do it the hard way,'" Trump said.
"They just took him out back behind the shed and basically shot him," Musk added before Trump slammed Biden as "the worst president in history."
Trump also addressed rising inflation and the state of the economy.
"Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We're a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!" Trump posted earlier Monday amid a flurry of campaign ads.
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