Former President Donald Trump, left, and Elon Musk.— AP Photo Matt Rourke/File
Former President Donald Trump’s public conversation last week with X’s owner Elon Musk was plagued with technical glitches, right-wing views and disinformation.
The conversation that spanned more than two hours revealed little news about Trump’s plans for a second term, but the former president did use the platform to spread a series of lies.
CNN reports that “Former President Donald Trump delivered his usual bombardment of false claims — at least 20 in all — during a Monday conversation with billionaire supporter Elon Musk, which aired on Musk’s social media platform, X.
“Most of the falsehoods uttered by the Republican presidential nominee were claims that have been repeatedly debunked before, some of them for years. They spanned a broad range of subjects, from immigration to the economy to foreign policy to Trump’s record in office to Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent.”
The social media platform’s former leadership had permanently banned Trump for spreading disinformation that sparked the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.
But disinformation has thrived at X under Musk’s leadership.
A former critic of the former president, Musk formally endorsed Trump two days after the assassination attempt on him last month. Trump and Musk have now become allies.
During their conversation last week, Trump supported the idea of Musk joining his next administration to slash government programs. Musk volunteered to join a prospective “government efficiency commission.”
“You’re the greatest cutter,” Trump told Musk. “I need an Elon Musk — I need somebody that has a lot of strength and courage and smarts. I want to close up the Department of Education, move education back to the states.”
Musk has increasingly turned toward the right in his posts and actions on the platform, also using X to try to sway political discourse in the U.S. and around the world. He rants against what he calls the “woke mind virus” and has amplified false claims that Democrats are secretly flying in migrants to vote in U.S. elections.
Like many on the far right, Musk has engaged in or enabled disinformation on his platform that goes beyond the presidential election, including reinstating previously banned accounts such as the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was kicked off the platform then known as Twitter two days after the Jan. 6 violence, with the company citing “the risk of further incitement of violence.”
The tech billionaire has used his platform to influence political discourse around the world.
Musk has falsely accused a political party in his native South Africa of “openly pushing for genocide of white people.”
“Last week, the British government called on Elon Musk to act more responsibly after the tech billionaire used X to unleash a barrage of posts that risk inflaming violent unrest gripping the country,” reports The Associated Press.
“Justice Minister Heidi Alexander made the comments after Musk posted a comment saying that “Civil war is inevitable” in the U.K. Musk later doubled down, highlighting complaints that the British criminal justice system treats Muslims more leniently than far-right activists and comparing Britain’s crackdown on social media users to the Soviet Union.”
Social media users, especially followers on X, should be aware of the extremist views and disinformation being spread on the platform.
Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune
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