Trump and Musk's greatest sin? They're boring and derivative . . .

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Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more ​ The Trump-Musk Snoozefest​ Even Trump’s usual ghoulishness couldn’t keep a glitch-filled conversation interesting.​ William Kristol and Andrew Egger Aug 13 ​ (Composite by Hannah Yoest / Photos via GettyImages / Shutterstock.) The Farce of it All​ —Andrew Egger Last night’s much-ballyhooed X “interview” of Donald Trump by Elon Musk involved two of the biggest villains and personalities of the MAGA pantheon—the felonious, megalomaniacal, deteriorating ex-president and the internet-poisoned, race-war-curious gajillionaire mogul. So why was it all so boring? The talk started half an hour late due to widespread glitches; many of the million-odd people trying to tune in were unable to get into the space. Musk theatrically blamed the issues on scurrilous hackers, darkly suggesting that “there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say.” (As the New York Times drily put it, “the attack could not immediately be verified.”) Things finally got going, but the vibes stayed off. Trump’s audio was oddly distorted, making him sound as though he were lisping throughout. And Musk frequently seemed unable to steer a conversation, desperately interjecting with an ineffectual “yes” or “sure” in hopes of moving on to another topic. At other times, he seemed more interested in doing his own pontificating than in trying to get good answers out of Trump: “I should probably say something about my views on climate change and oil and gas, because I’m probably different from what most people would assume,” he offered at the beginning of a lengthy soliloquy about an hour in. The pair eventually meandered through a laundry list of topics. Trump, who said last month at the Republican National Convention that he would never again retell the story of the attempt on his life “because it’s too painful to tell,” told that story with relish. He expounded at length on his usual moonbat fables about how countries around the world are emptying their prisons and mental institutions to send their convicts and lunatics to the United States. He insisted that every foreign policy problem facing the world today could be traced back to his having to leave office; nobody acted out when he was in charge. “I said to Vladimir Putin, I said, ‘Don’t do it. You can’t do it, Vladimir. You do it, it’s gonna be a bad day. You cannot do it,’” Trump said. “And I told him things, what I’d do. And he said, ‘No way.’ And I said, ‘way.’” Usually, a Trump interview involves some pushback from the interviewer. This is often true even in friendly settings like Fox News, where anchors frequently try to coax or trick Trump into walking back some of his more insane utterances to make their jobs of shilling for him easier. Not so much here: To Trump’s obvious pleasure, Musk just vibed with anything he had to say. “You know, we’re having a great conversation right now,” Trump said. “Kamala wouldn’t have this conversation—she can’t, ’cause she’s not smart. She’s not a smart person, by the way.” Musk just giggled along. Occasionally, the bizarre and vindictive sides of Trump’s personality flashed through. He kvetched that the pencil sketch of Kamala Harris on the latest cover of Time was too attractive. “She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live . . . She looked very much like a great first lady, Melania,” And he accused Joe Biden of tempting Putin into invading Ukraine: “The stupid threats coming from his stupid face that he was using—I said, this guy’s gonna cause us a war.” But those asides weren’t enough to spice up what was ultimately a snoozefest. There was no friction, no direction, no insight as the pair rambled along for two hours, each plainly unsure by the end how to end the conversation. The only thing it illuminated was how highly the two of them think of themselves. The MAGA faithful treated the entire affair like it was some historical gathering of intellectual heavyweights—the public having been magically transported back in time to hear Thomas Edison and Teddy Roosevelt talk shop over a beer. But it’s hard to imagine anyone who isn’t already slugging the Kool-Aid coming away with their minds changed much—let alone the sense that they’d just been on a livestream with the bull moose himself. Trump is looking for a way to reset the narrative in a presidential race that he now appears to be slightly losing. After last night’s Space, he’s still looking.​