Editorial: Future schlock

Earlier this week, two of the supposedly most powerful men in the world, and self appointed members of the mutual admiration society of narcissists — X/Twitter Chief Elon Musk, and former US President Donald Trump planned a much-anticipated rendezvous, via an audio-only interview on the social media platform. However, the much bandied about meeting of the archenemies turned bumchums, for which over a million people had tuned in, was delayed by over 40 minutes due to technical difficulties, that was zeroed on to an alleged distributed denial-of-service or DDoS attack. The goof-up offered the democratic camp some much needed cannon fodder to troll the Republican presidential nominee, who was once kicked off the platform two days after the January 6 Capitol attack.

Following the interview, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign responded by saying, “Trump’s entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself — self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024.” It was an uber-sharp repartee, so to speak, as team Harris had only a few weeks ago, pulled off a veritable fundraising coup. Just a little over 44,000 attendees raised $1.4 mn in a matter of three hours for Harris’s campaign, on that little ditty of a platform that served as the beacon of human connectivity during the pandemic — Zoom.

Running a successful livestream telecast might have been low on Team Trump’s list of priorities as the reality TV showman switched to shamanic storyteller mode and made a series of unsubstantiated claims that went without challenge during the conversation with Musk. US media outlets pointed out as many as 20 false claims during this fireside chat. Trump alleged that prisons, jails and mental institutions around the world are being emptied out to send inmates to the US to destroy the country.

Referring to his plans to control the inflow of illegal immigrants, Trump boasted about carrying out the largest deportation in the history of this country. The message was not lost on Musk, an immigrant from South Africa himself, who sought a nuanced approach to the problem. Trump also issued a foreboding message that unless he is elected, the US was destined for a depression (or rather, a Great Depression in Trumpspeak), and that the world was undoubtedly bracing for World War III. And Trump alone happens to be the cure for these cancers.

Trump’s rambling rampage of non-sequiturs seems to be a gag reflex on account of the results of several polls that now show Harris leading Trump by 5-8%. Many political observers had pointed out that Trump’s relentless assaults on good taste are now beginning to dent his poll numbers, especially with the youthful demographic, and more particularly women, who are beginning to sense the derisive tone employed by the presidential hopeful when referring to his political adversary Harris.

It’s quite telling that Trump opted for Elon Musk to be his interviewer during this session. Long before he endorsed Trump, Musk described himself as a Democrat until a few years ago. But lately, he has gravitated to the right — amplifying falsehoods and misinformation through his platform, which he also weaponised to try to sway political discourse around the world. Needless to say, it’s anybody’s guess as to who needs who more than ever, in a milieu where information has the power to topple regimes at the drop of a hat.