The first hour was dominated by Trump, with topics ranging from assassination attempts to immigration, and the broadcast was delayed by about 42 minutes due to technical issues.
Here’s how prominent business and political leaders responded to the conversation.
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban (left) and former President Donald Trump (right). Michael Reeves via Getty Images, Joe Raedle via Getty Images
In a post on X, billionaire Mark Cuban asked, “Is anyone tracking how much each participant in this Spaces ‘conversation’ is talking?”
The use of quotation marks around “conversation” seems to indicate that Musk is pitching the space as a conversation, not an interview.
“I use the word conversation on purpose,” Musk said on Monday, adding, “No one is themselves in interviews, so it’s hard to understand what they’re really like.”
But Cuban’s question seemed to allude to the fact that Trump spent most of the show talking, with Musk only speaking occasionally in between Trump’s long, rambling responses.
“Perhaps most conversations could be a bit more balanced — both participants asking each other questions instead of just one person asking questions,” Cuban wrote in a follow-up post.
Gavin Newsom
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has a tense relationship with Musk, criticized both the X CEO and the Republican candidate.
“Glitch. Technical issues. Uncomfortable silence. Total launch failure. And it’s just the candidates’ problem,” Newsom tweeted, along with a screenshot of the X Livestream error message.
Newsom’s message was a verbatim quote from a Trump spokesman about the disastrous performance of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s election livestream on X in May 2023. That livestream marked the beginning of a failed presidential campaign for Gov. DeSantis, which was marred by long silences, multiple false starts and repeated crashes.
Aaron Levy
Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Box CEO Aaron Levie made a request to Musk during the conversation.
“@elonmusk please explain your Hannibal Lecter reference,” Levy said in a post on X, referring to Trump’s habit of invoking the fictional cannibal made famous by the 1991 film “Silence of the Lambs” during his speeches.
Levy has since deleted the post.
Mark Pincus
Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga, the gaming company behind FarmVille, praised the former president during his conversation with Musk.
“Trump is strong in conversation. Hate me for stating the truth!” Pincus said in X’s post.
But Pincus had even harsher words for the Tesla CEO, writing in a second post: “Elon, it sounds like you’re talking to an NPC. We all know that happens all the time when you try to talk to politicians.”
David Sachs
David Sachs, a venture capitalist at Craft Ventures and former CEO of Yammer, responded to an X post asking users to describe Musk and Trump’s conversation in one word, offering a simple, positive takeaway from the night:
“I’m delighted,” Sachs wrote.
Sachs and Musk had previously bonded over their shared distrust of Democratic politicians, and over dinner in the Hollywood Hills in April they discussed strategies for beating Biden in the next election.
He has since hosted a major fundraiser in support of Trump, raising about $12 million.
Harris’ campaign
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign slammed both Musk and the Trump campaign in a statement about X shortly after the livestream ended.
“Donald Trump’s extremism and dangerous Project 2025 plan are a feature, not a flaw, of his campaign, and that was made perfectly clear to those unfortunate enough to tune in tonight on X.com,” the statement said.
“The Trump campaign is run by self-centered rich people like Elon Musk and Trump himself who have betrayed the middle class and won’t be able to live stream in 2024,” the campaign added.
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