In Elon Musk’s interview with Donald Trump, the presidential candidate highlighted how governments in Africa and Latin America regularly empty their prisons of murderers, rapists and other violent criminals – and then send them to the United States.
– 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.
Many had been looking forward to Elon Musk’s conversation with Trump, which was to be broadcast on the X platform – but when the time came, the broadcast was marred by technical problems and, according to Musk, a so-called ddos attack.
Thousands of users soon encountered error messages and problems when trying to log in to listen via the platform’s audio feature, Spaces, but eventually the interview was able to begin about 40 minutes after the scheduled time.
The two-hour conversation covered topics such as Trump’s goals if elected president for a second time, the recent assassination attempt against him, his opponent Kamala Harris, and how Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have destroyed the United States.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
Among other things, Trump said that the assassination attempt led to a stronger faith in God and how his life was saved by the fact that he happened to have his head turned at a particular angle when the shot was fired, something he describes as “a miracle“.
“They’re coming from all over the world”
Promoted in advance as the “interview of the century”, the focus was on immigration policy – of which Trump has long been highly critical.
He insisted that illegal immigration must be stopped and accused the Democrats of creating an unsustainable situation where “you have millions of people coming in a month”.
The presidential candidate also accused other countries – including Venezuela – of emptying their jails of violent criminals and “exporting” them to the US.
– Venezuela – their crime is down 72%. They’re taking their drug dealers. They’re taking – frankly, their prisoners, they’re emptying out their prisons. They’re taking their criminals, their murderers, their rapists and they’re delivering them.
– 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, he continued, referring to illegal immigration during Biden’s presidency.
The Elon/Trump Interview: Must-See Moments
All the key takeaways in under 5 minutes.
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— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) August 13, 2024
“Murderers from Congo”
– From Africa, from the Congo they’re coming, from the Congo. And, 22 people came in from the Congo recently and they’re murderers. And they drop ‘em. They take ‘em out of jails – which is very expensive, you know, to maintain the jails – they don’t do too much maintaining, I can tell you. But they take ‘em out of jails, prisons. They take ‘em out, and they bring them to the United States, he explained.
According to Trump, previous US administrations also proved weak and failed to pressure Latin American countries to “take back” their violent criminals – which is why they often stayed in the US instead.
He stressed that many of them have no interest in contributing to American society by working, and that it is important to ensure that undesirable migrants are stopped at the border.
The EU’s threat to Elon Musk
It’s also worth noting that prior to the interview, the EU Commissioner for the Internal Market publicly “warned” Musk, stating that he has a “legal obligation” to ensure that “all proportionate and effective mitigation measures are put in place regarding the amplification of harmful content in connection with relevant events, including live streaming”.
Typical EU tyrant trying to stifle free speech under the guise of 'responsibility.' We won't bow down to your censorship. Free speech is non-negotiable, Breton. Stay in your lane.
— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) August 12, 2024
The “call” was interpreted by many as an implicit threat, and the EU bureaucrat was quickly accused by users of being an enemy of free speech, an “EU tyrant” and “the embodiment of everything that threatens a free Europe”.
“Why are you afraid of Free speech? You’re trying to interfere with OUR elections? Are you out of your mind?” asks one user.
Despite widespread technical glitches and reports of denial-of-service attacks, the interview and various edited summaries of it have received tens of millions of views so far.
