NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump recounted his assassination attempt in vivid detail and promised the largest deportation in U.S. history during a high-profile return to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — a conversation that was plagued by technical glitches.
“If I had not turned my head, I would not be talking to you right now — as much as I like you," Trump told X’s owner Elon Musk. Musk, a former Trump critic, said the Republican nominee's toughness, as demonstrated by his reaction to last month's shooting, was critical for national security. “There’s some real tough characters out there," Musk said.
"And if they don’t think the American president is tough, they will do what they want to do.” The rare public conversation between Trump and Musk, which was overwhelmingly friendly, revealed little new about Trump’s plans for a second term. The former president spent much of the discussion focused on his recent assassination attempt, illegal immigration and his plans to cut government regulations.
Still, the meeting underscored just how much the U.S. political landscape has changed less than four years after Trump was permanently banned by the social media platform’s former leadership for spreading disinformation that sparked the Jan.
6, 2021, attack on Congress and undermined the very foundation of the American democracy. Such disinformation has thrived at X under Musk’s leadership, although it was largely ignored during his conversation.