Donald Trump, Elon Musk interview sounded suspiciously like a job application to join the White House

Neither riveting nor revealing, what was billed as an interview between the United States’ two most famous right-wing figures ended up sounding suspiciously like a job application from a servile Elon Musk to join Donald Trump’s next White House.

The concept of two of America’s most famous and potentially powerful identities talking frankly with each other for two hours had great promise.

Sometimes the most dangerous territory for a politician is when they are amongst their own.

Driven by a desire to impress their fans, and goaded by the cheerleading, they can go too far and forget that what lands well with their die-hard supporters can be a disaster to everyone else.

But Trump made no real mistakes during his lengthy exchange with Musk. If anything, the encounter failed to live up to its potential because the levels of sycophancy were too much.

“You have definitely got a fertile mind,” Trump told Musk at one point.

Whether out of politeness or total slavishness, Musk was unable to restrain Trump’s stream of consciousness and keep him from rambling and rehashing the campaign lines and falsehoods he raises at his rallies.

At least then there are visuals and the interaction with the crowds to sustain the length and break up the flow. With just audio and a tepid interviewer, the snooze-o-metre was high.

The mutual love-in reached its peak when Musk directly asked Trump for a job, after failing after three attempts to get the President to commit to establishing a commission to raze government spending, should he reclaim the White House.

“I mean, I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and just ensures that the taxpayer’s hard-earned money is spent in a good way,” Musk said.

“And I’d be happy to help out on such a commission,” Musk said.

“I’d love it for you. You’re the greatest cutter,” Trump said, praising the billionaire for firing Tesla workers who went on strike.

Notably, while he flattered his acolyte, he didn’t commit to the commission.

The rare better moments between the pair came when Elon Musk gently pushed back against Trump on climate change and nuclear power.

They were the more compelling moments because Trump appeared to be listening and open to being persuaded.

It was a reasonableness that the public doesn’t see but a quality that those who have worked with Trump first-hand, such as Joe Hockey, Australia’s former Ambassador to the UK, have said is one of his lesser-known traits.

On nuclear power, Trump rightly argued that it has a “branding problem,” citing the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters, claiming people could not occupy the land for another “2000 years.”

“No that’s not true, it’s actually not that bad,” Musk politely corrected Trump, describing how he’d been to Fukushima and eaten fruit and vegetables grown in the area to prove the point.

“Yeah but you haven’t been feeling so well lately,” Trump said, almost affectionately, and added, “I’m only kidding, only kidding.”

“It’s not as scary as people think, basically,” Musk said.

But these moments were rare. When it wasn’t thoroughly dull, the pair spewed nonsense, particularly when they furiously agreed with each other about so-called “migrant crime.”

Trump, without evidence, claimed that countries from all around the world were essentially driving down their own crime rates by sending their criminals to the United States for resettlement.

“The people coming in, it’s Earth, the rest of Earth and America and is only about four or five per cent of the population – it would only take a few per cent of the rest of Earth to overwhelm everything,” intoned Musk.

“We’re already overwhelmed,” agreed Trump.

It was an insight into the effects of self-radicalisation.

Musk pushed his own interests, inviting Trump to berate the European Union which had issued him a letter on X hours before the interview warning him not to spread misinformation on his platform.

This gave Trump a fresh opportunity to revive fresh criticisms about NATO and the security umbrella the US-backed alliance offers Europe.

Both agreed it was not fair and Trump hinted again that he could withdraw support for Ukraine — “Well you know when you talk about cost-cutting and savings and everything else,” — Trump said.

Musk claimed that he’d been historically a moderate voter although not overly political until now. Trump agreed and said he’d always thought the Tesla owner was left.

This election Musk has endorsed Trump and has become a poster boy for the far-right, having amplified tweets and misinformation from far-right sources about the UK’s recent riots, including directly baiting the country’s new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

But mostly this interview will be remembered for the embarrassing technical difficulties that delayed the start of the interview by 40 minutes.

Musk blamed a denial of service attack and suggested that it may have been a deliberate attempt by their opponents to shut down their chat.

This is hard to believe as it is not the first time that X, under Musk’s ownership, has failed at the Republicans’ expense.

Last year, Florida Governor Ron De Santis hoped to launch his Presidential campaign on an X space - an audio livestream.

Then Space failed and derailed De Santis’ start in the race Trump ultimately won.

“Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER!” Trump said at the time.

Tonight he was more gracious about the glitches, flattering Elon that in the end more than 60 million people had tuned in to listen.

The actual figure was 1.3 million, not that Musk attempted to correct the man he’s hoping will be his new boss.