We all know that Trump always praised Elon Musk for his role in advancing electric vehicles with Tesla and pushing forward space exploration through SpaceX. Both men have a shared vision, that of promoting American industry and reducing regulations to spur business growth. Their preferred sectors are manufacturing and energy.
Musk was also part of Trump’s advisory groups, but he quit after Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017. This did not align with Musk’s vision of the world, and this is why he took this decision.
Musk tweeted at the time, “I am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.” This marked a split in their relationship, but here we are after a two-hour discussion between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, in which the former president made a number of questionable and false claims that need to be challenged.
So, let’s verify his claims and separate the facts from fiction! Is Trump lying or not? What is Musk’s role in all of this?
1. How many people crossed the border?
CLAIM: Trump goes back to one of the main themes of his campaign, immigration. He claims that “I think 20 million people have come across the border… I think millions are coming every month.”
FACTS: If we look at current official data, we can easily notice that this is an exaggeration. While there has been a significant increase in border crossings during Biden’s presidency, the actual numbers fall short of the claim.
Since January 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has reported approximately 10.1 million “encounters” with illegal migrants. What are these encounters? These are incidents when the border officers come across individuals attempting to cross the border, and of all of these encounters, more than 8 million were along the southern border.
But there is a really important thing that people generally miss. Not all of these encounters mean that the individuals successfully encountered the US. Many of the migrants are caught immediately and turned away or deported.
In July 2023, U.S. Border Patrol caught around 57,000 migrants along the southern border, which was the lowest monthly figure since September 2020. So, saying that millions of migrants are still crossing the border every month is definitely a false claim.
2. Are there hundreds of miles of border wall built by Trump?
CLAIM: Trump claims that he managed to build hundreds of miles of border wall to protect the southern border.
FACTS: First, let’s see what happened during Trump’s presidency. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 458 miles of border walls were constructed, all of them across the U.S.-Mexico border. What is included in this number? Both new sections of the wall and the replacement or reinforcement of existing barriers.
Out of the 458 miles of border wall constructed, only 85 miles were entirely new sections built under Trump. The rest of the 373 miles were mainly repairs and strengthening existing structures.
When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, one of the first things he did was to suspend further construction of the wall. But later on, in 2022, he approved the construction of 20 miles of wall along the southern Texas border.
As we can remember, the border wall was one of the key promises from Trump’s 2016 campaign. He claimed it was all to stop illegal immigration and enhance national security.
3. Are sea levels rising uncontrollably or not?
CLAIM: The former president claims that the sea levels will rise only one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years.
FACTS: By recent statistics, sea level rose between 2014 and 2023 by 4.8 millimeters per year (0.19 inches), according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This is already greater than the one-eighth of an inch (0.13 inches) that Trump talks about.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has a few scenarios for future sea-level rise based on greenhouse gas emissions. By 2100, the IPCC estimates that the sea levels will rise approximately 11 inches to 3.3 feet. This greatly depends on how quickly the world reduces carbon emissions because this controls how fast the ice sheets will melt.
What we can say about this is that Trump’s claims about minimal sea-level rise are not supported by any scientific evidence. Even more, the actual data contradicts what the former president is saying and predicts substantial increases by the end of the century.
Climate change is a real threat, especially for coastal regions, and we all should be aware of it.
4. How much are you paying for bacon?
CLAIM: Bacon now costs four or five times more than it did just a few years ago.
FACTS: It is true that many goods cost now more than they used to because of inflation, but the claims of former president Trump are false, and we want to take a closer look at this and explain to you how things really are.
During the first two years under President Biden’s administration, inflation spiked and piked in mid-2022 when it reached 9.1%. This is the highest rate ever reached in the last 41 years. Trump claimed that this was the worst inflation we had in 100 years, but as you can see, the reality is different.
Also, there are some events that have led to this rise in inflation that would have affected it no matter who was administering the country at that time. The COVID-19 pandemic and the economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are the two major ones. And they have affected the price of food, energy, and various commodities all over the world, not just in the United States.
Now regarding Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, there are economists who say it is contributing to inflation because a large amount of money was injected into the economy in 2021. However, since mid-2022, inflation has been falling steadily, and in June 2024, the reported rate was 3%.
Now, getting back to bacon, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the price of a pound of sliced bacon in January 2021, when Trump left office, was $5.83. Now the price is $6.83, which means an increase of 17%, not the four- or fivefold increase that Trump claimed in the chat with Musk.
This chat Trump had with Musk over the X platform was meant to help the former president reach potentially millions of voters directly. Also, the chat did not go as planned because there were some technical problems and it was glitchy.
More than 878,000 users waited over 40 minutes after the scheduled start time for the interview to begin, and also many of them received the message “Details not available.”
Trump’s team clarified that the “interview on X is being flooded with listeners trying to log in.” When the session started, Musk also apologized for the delay, and he attributed it to a “massive attack” that overloaded the platform’s system.
If you want to learn more about the former president and discover how he has become one of the most successful presidents in history, then this is the perfect book for you: The Case for Trump
What are Trump’s promises for his second turn? If you want to know more about them and, more importantly, find out how they will affect those who don’t have too much money, then you should definitely read the following article: Trump’s 5 Second-Term Promises: How Will They Impact the Poor?
