Elon Musk’s interview with Donald Trump on Monday has been viewed or heard a billion times. By comparison, the typical audience on Fake Tapper’s CNN is less than a million viewers.
“I heard them talk about the border extensively, and I heard them talk about the economy extensively. And that is why Trump resonates with so many people because he’s speaking to the issues,” the popular black podcaster Charlamagne tha God said about Trump’s interview.
Contrast that with Kamala Harris, who has gone 7 weeks now without answering questions from the media. When Harris does speak, she makes stilted comments that avoid the real issues and instead resort to identity politics, as if harping on her gender and mixed race would make everyday Americans forget the abysmal record of the Biden-Harris administration.
But rather than call on Kamala to give a similar interview, which Elon Musk has offered to her, liberals and foreign countries attempt to censor this quintessential freedom of speech. The Leftist-controlled United Auto Workers (UAW) filed a labor complaint against both Musk and Trump, merely because Trump quipped about telling workers something similar to “you’re fired,” the familiar catchphrase of his hugely successful TV show.
Advertisers and even an advertising trade group have unlawfully boycotted X, as Musk documented in a lawsuit he filed last week in Texas. The trade association, which the House Judiciary Committee recently found had engaged in illegal anti-competitive practices, quickly disbanded after Musk took them on in court.
A Washington Post reporter asked the White House press secretary what the Biden administration was doing to censor this political interview, which was not fully answered. “What role does the White House or the president have in sort of stopping that or stopping the spread of that or sort of … intervening in that?” The clear, easy answer should have been, “None.”
The London police chief vows to extradite and jail Americans for comments on X, while European countries sought to censor this Trump interview by threatening Musk with penalties for “amplification of harmful content” that could “generate detrimental effects on civic discourse.” With all the loose talk about interference by foreigners in U.S. elections, why would we allow a European bureaucrat to censor an interview of an American presidential candidate?
Trump was undeterred. “I know the European Union very well. They take great advantage of the United States in trade” while “we protect them” through NATO. “And yet, if you build a car in the United States, you can’t sell it in Europe.”
“The same thing with our farmers. Our farmers find it very difficult to do business” in Europe, with which we have a trade deficit of $250 billion.
Musk is a former Democrat who supported Obama. But he rattled off six reasons for endorsing Trump: making cities safe, securing our borders, reducing government overspending that is causing inflation, deregulating, exciting new projects, and less vilification of oil and gas.
Trump stated that we would not have a country anymore if Kamala Harris were to win in November. “You don’t have a country … if they get in, you will have 50 to 60 million people from all over the world, not South America only.”
Trump pointed out that “Kamala was the border czar. Now she’s denying it.” Kamala Harris has the power to close the southern border right now, yet fails to.
Trump spoke about the many criminals crossing over our open southern border due to Harris, adding that there are hordes of “nonproductive” illegals coming in, too. “They are just nonproductive, I mean, for whatever reason. They’re not workers or they don’t want to work or whatever,” Trump explained.
Trump added that the U.S. has already spent at least $250 billion on the Ukraine-Russia war, while European countries have spent only about $71 billion. Europe is much closer to that border dispute and has far more at stake, yet has spent less than a third of what we have committed, although Europe has roughly the same economic strength as the U.S.
When the interview turned to the topic of education, Trump vowed to shut down the Department of Education and return to the states their ability to make their schools great again. We are far behind countries like Norway in the quality of our schools.
Kamala Harris is “a radical left lunatic. And if she’s going to be our president, very quickly you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump observed.
“She believes in defunding the police. She believes in no fracking, zero. … If they got in, the day she got in, she’ll end fracking,” which is essential to Pennsylvania’s economy.
“In many cases, the people from within are more dangerous for our country than the Russia’s and the China’s,” Trump observed.
John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.