Donald Trump exhausted his list of conspiracy theories in a chaotic conversation with his ultra-rich backer Elon Musk that was initially interrupted by what the tech titan said was a technical glitch.
In a very one-sided conversation on X, Trump spoke of the "zombie apocalypse" of immigration, repeatedly branded President Joe Biden a "stupid" and mused about developing a new missile defense system based on the one that protects Israel.
The Republican standard-bearer also dismissed climate change, whose rising sea levels he says will simply create more real estate opportunities.
"The biggest threat is not global warming, where the ocean will rise an eighth of an inch over the next 400 years," he told Musk.
"You're going to have more oceanfront property, right? The biggest threat isn't that. The biggest threat is nuclear warming, because we have five countries right now that have significant nuclear power, and we shouldn't let anything happen to stupid people like Biden."
What was billed as a "no holds barred" conversation between the two billionaires started more than half an hour late, with many in attendance unable to listen live.
Musk, the world's richest person according to Forbes, said the platform, formerly known as Twitter, had experienced a cyberattack.
The talk was intended to help revive Trump's stifling campaign, which has slowed since Biden dropped out of the race, replaced by upstart Kamala Harris.
Young men who see Musk as a hero are a valuable target for Trump, whose followers tend to be older.
Musk, who has said he previously voted for Democrats, stood behind Trump after a gunman tried to kill the Republican at a rally last month.
The apparent technical difficulties came after Musk fired much of the platform's staff. In addition, they recalled that the Tesla boss once supported Trump's rival Ron DeSantis, whose campaign on the platform was also beset by problems.
When things finally started to happen, Musk said that "the massive attack shows that there are a lot of opponents of people just hearing what President Trump has to say."
Trump was banned from Twitter after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in January 2021, but Musk reinstated it when he took over the platform and renamed it.
The South African-born billionaire has become a major voice in American politics but has been accused of turning X into a megaphone for right-wing conspiracy theories.
He is one of the fiercest critics of Democrats, using his X audience of 194 million to attack liberal efforts to promote diversity and inclusion — what he calls the "woke mind virus" — and the actions of the White House in relation to the southern border.
"We have people flocking here," Musk told Trump, comparing the border to the "zombie apocalypse" depicted in the movie "World War Z."
"It's just not possible for the United States to take in, you know, everybody from Earth," Musk said, describing himself as a "legal immigrant."
In his "conversation" with Musk, Trump often returned to his favorite subject -- bragging about his relations with autocrats like Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping and insisting that America will be safer under his leadership.
"One of the things we're going to do is build an Iron Dome," he said, referring to Israel's missile defense system.
"We're going to have the best Iron Dome in the world... because it only takes one geek to start something."
Musk reiterated his strong support for Trump, saying the former president "was the path to prosperity, and Kamala is the opposite."
At one point, he also appeared to be in the running for a job in a future Trump administration, suggesting he would like to serve on a spending-cutting committee.
"I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission to look at these things and make sure that the taxpayers' money ... is being spent in a good way," he said. "I would gladly assist in such a committee."
Trump seemed to agree with the job request.
"You're the biggest cutter," he told the man who laid off much of the staff months after taking over Twitter. | BGNES
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