At around 1:45 PM EST on X, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sat down with former President Donald Trump for an interview that was delayed for 45 minutes because of technical issues. The interview was streamed live on X Spaces and drew over a million listeners who enjoyed a wide-ranging discussion including talk about the attempt to assassinate Trump, Joe Biden’s retirement from the 2024 presidential race and Kamala Harris’ cover in Time magazine.
However, some users took to social media to question how Trump sounded when he spoke. Specifically, discussions on X had people asking whether Trump’s speech problems were due to his teeth, with comments like “‘dentures fell out’” or “he practically cannot say anything”.
As one listener put it, “I don’t want to be mean but I will anyway.. why does Elon sound autistic while Trump left his dentures off for this interview?” Another user stated that there are only two options available saying “Either his dentures are falling out or he has just suffered a stroke. Guy can’t pronounce words at all.” A third said this; “Trump sounds like he got a lisp LMAO every time he says S—is it his dentures which aren’t well fitted right?”
During its airing, keywords such as “slurring” and “dentures” trended highly on X amounting up to 20,000 posts and 15,000 posts respectively.
Kamala Harris’ campaign used the opportunity to criticize Trump’s speech by accusing him of belittling climate change and rising sea levels.
Steven Cheung dismissed the criticism as misunderstanding in response saying that “Must be your hearing.”
Moreover, during the course of the conversation between the two leaders it became clear that Donald is grateful for receiving Musk’s support since he said ‘your endorsement means a lot to me’. To this, Musk responded ‘It really matters that you win for our country.’ It was a conversation where personal health and political discourse overlapped leading to mixed public reactions of curiosity and criticism.
