Donald Trump and Elon Musk covered all manner of interesting topics as they sat down with Sean Hannity for an interview broadcast on Fox News on Tuesday.
During the pre-recorded (and relatively softball) interview the world’s two most powerful men touched on subjects including lawsuits, “abandoned” astronauts, and insults thrown at them online.
Here are some of the weirder and more awkward moments:
Twitter settlement
It was a bit of an awkward start, with Hannity bringing up the recent lawsuit settled between the two men, after Trump sued Twitter (now X and owned by Musk) for taking his account down following the events of January 6. In the wake of the Capitol riot, Trump was banned from several social media platforms for fear he would foment more violence.
X agreed to pay the president about $10 million to settle the suit that was originally brought against Twitter, and its CEO Jack Dorsey in July 2021.
In the interview, Trump said Musk had gotten “a big discount.”
“I sued long before he had it,” the president said, as Musk looked sheepish. “And, I mean, they really did a number on me. You know, I sued, and they had to pay, they pay ten million settlement… I was looking to get much more money than that.”
Musk and Hannity compete to flatter Trump
Moving swiftly on and the interview quickly became a competition: Who, out of Hannity and Musk, could flatter Trump the most?
Musk went first. “I love the president, I think President Trump is a good man,” he gushed. “The president has been so unfairly attacked in the media, it’s really outrageous. And at this point, I’ve spent a lot of time with the president, and not once have I seen him do something that was mean or cruel or wrong, not once.”
Hannity responded: “I’ve known him for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anybody take as much as he’s taken.”
Musk added that he was going to endorse Trump for president “anyway” but seeing the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July had “speeded up” the process of going public with his backing.
The media tries to break up the band
Next, the trio engaged in one of their collective favorite things – bashing liberal media outlets. Hannity told Trump and Musk that outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and late-night variety shows “want you two to start hating each other.”
“They threw everything at you… They want a divorce,” Hannity said. “And they try all, ‘President Elon Musk’, for example. You do know that they’re doing that to you?”
He added that Musk had been referred to as “the street vernacular for a male body part” online but did not elaborate.
Trump then revealed that the speculation over their relationship prompted the Tesla CEO to call him. “Actually, Elon called me. He said, ‘You know they’re trying to drive us apart,’” Trump recalled. “I said, ‘Absolutely.’”
He added: “It’s just so obvious. They’re so bad at it… I used to think they were good at it. They’re actually bad at it, because if they were good at it, I’d never be president.”
‘Two brothers’
The next awkwardness came after Trump and Musk fought to speak over one another. “This is going to be hard,” Hannity chuckled. “I feel like I’m interviewing the two brothers.” Trump briefly looked down, perhaps reacting to the inherent suggestion that he and Musk were on the same level.
“You’re the richest man in the world,” Hannity then said to Musk, before adding to Trump, “You may not like that part. You’re pretty competitive, but that’s why, but he’s on your team.”
“That’s why I became president,” Trump responded.
NASA astronauts were left in space ‘for political reasons’
In one of the most bizarre moments in the interview, Musk claimed that two NASA astronauts currently stuck in space, had been left there by the Biden administration “for political purposes.”
SpaceX, also founded and owned by Musk, has been contracted to bring Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home. Musk said the rescue attempts would be being made in less than a month.
“They were left up there for political reasons, which is not good,” he said. “Okay, it’s not good…Well, we don’t want to be complacent, but we have brought astronauts back from the space station many times before, and always with success.”
Trump chimed in “they didn’t have the go ahead with Biden. He was going to leave them in space.”
Neither man explained what political advantage they thought Biden might have been seeking by leaving astronauts stranded in space.
The return of ‘Tump Derangement Syndrome’
The world’s richest man later revived one of the president’s favorite made-up illnesses: Trump Derangement Syndrome – even comparing it to rabies.
“I used to be adored by the left, less so these days,” he said. “They call it Trump Derangement Syndrome, and you don’t realize how real this is until … it’s like you can’t reason with people.”
Musk went on to describe attending a friend’s birthday dinner “a month or two” before the election, where everyone was enjoying their evening until Trump’s name was mentioned.
“A nice, quiet dinner and everyone was behaving normally,” said Musk. “And then I happened to mention the president’s name, and it was like they got shot with a dart in the jugular that contained like methamphetamine and rabies.”
Competence and caring
Musk then proposed an interesting strategy on how to get a better deal for the American taxpayer. “In order to save taxpayer money, it comes down to two things, competence and caring,” he said.
“When the president was shown the outrageous bill for the new Air Force One and and then negotiated it down – if the president had not applied competence and caring, the price would have been 50 percent higher, literally, 50 percent higher.
“The president cared. The president was competent. The price was not 50 percent as a result. And so when you add more competence and caring, you get a better deal for the American people.”
Conflict of interest
Finally Hannity addressed perceptions of a conflict of interest between Musk’s work with the Department of Government Efficiency, and his own businesses, which already hold billions of dollars in government contracts.
On Monday, a team from SpaceX visited the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia, as part of a plan to overhaul the U.S. air traffic control systems.
Both Trump and Musk vehemently denied that there would be a conflict of interest. “I haven’t asked the president for anything ever,” Musk said.
Pressed by Hannity on how it would be handled should such a conflict arise, Trump butted in. “He won’t be involved.” Musk added, “Yeah, I’ll recuse myself if it is.”
