Elon Musk's live conversation on X, his social media platform, with former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, as of this writing has 258.5 million views on the post sharing it and leaves no doubt of shared agreement on a wide range of important policy issues.
Some of Musk's outspoken viewpoints may seem very surprising for an individual who voted for former President Barack Obama, who hasn't previously endorsed a political candidate, and who is an iconic entrepreneur legend whose many successful enterprises include electric vehicles, battery and solar technologies, rocketry, and AI development.
A Self-Described Left-Leaning Liberal
Elon described himself: "And just if you look at my record, it's, I've actually been, I'm not, like somebody tried to paint me as like a far-right guy, which is absurd because I like making electric vehicles and, you know, solar and batteries, helping the environment. And I actually, I, you know, I supported Obama.
"I'm actually — I call myself, you know, historically a moderate Democrat. And now I feel like we're really at a critical juncture for the country.
"And, you know, I think a lot of people thought, you know, the Biden administration would be a moderate administration, but it's not. And, obviously, we're just going to see an even further left administration with [Vice President] Kamala [Harris]."
Musk opined that we're witnessing an "overnight propaganda attempt to rewrite history and make it sound like Kamala is moderate, when she, in fact, is not moderate" based on her record.
Responding to Trump's assertion that her vice presidential pick, Tim Walz, affirms her far-left ideology, Musk said, "I think we're in massive trouble, frankly, with a Kamala administration. And that's my honest opinion.
"And I think really it's essential that you win for the good of the country this election. And, I mean, that's understating my opinion."
Immigration Policy
In response to Trump's statement that the Biden-Harris administration has created the country's worst border invasion in history, Musk responded that "you're really not a country unless you have a secure border" and that without a real border "our central services are being overwhelmed in a lot of cities."
He later said, "And if we have another four more years of open borders, it's going to be even worse. With another four more years, it's going to be even worse than it's been for the past three and a half years. I'm not sure we've got a country."
Agreeing with Trump that the border invasion isn't just a Mexico matter, Musk observed that no, it's "an everywhere on Earth thing ... It's just not possible for the United States to absorb everyone from Earth or even a few percent of the rest of Earth. It's just not possible."
Economy and Inflation
Regarding burdensome U.S. inflation, Musk said, "A lot of people just don't understand where inflation comes from. Inflation comes from government overspending, because the checks never bounce when it's written by the government. So if the if the government spends far more than it brings in, that increases the money supply."
Volunteering to serve on a Trump administration "efficiency commission," to determine where government can cut spending waste, he said, "We’re currently adding, I think, a trillion dollars to the deficit roughly every hundred days.
"And, you know, the interest payments on the national debt have now exceeded the defense budget. It's on the order of a trillion dollars."
Climate and Energy
Pointing out that his views on climate change and oil and gas drilling are likely "different from what most people would assume, because my views are actually pretty, I think, moderate in this regard," Musk said he doesn't think "we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy, without which it would collapse and we would all be starving."
Musk added that since the world depends upon oil and gas, "it's probably better if the United States provides that than some other countries. And it would help with prosperity in the U.S."
"And at the same time," he said, "obviously, my view is, is like, we do over time want to move to a sustainable energy economy, because eventually you do run out of, I mean, you run out of oil and gas."
National Leadership and Security
Musk underscored the growing risk of nuclear war and said adversarial countries think twice "about invading or doing bad things when they're thinking about that, they're thinking about, 'OK, what's the American president going to do?'"
He observed, "And they obviously have not been at all intimidated by [President Joe] Biden. And they certainly will not be intimidated by Kamala."
On the other hand, he said, "they would rightfully be" intimidated by Trump.
"I mean, you know, look at the footage of the [attempted] assassination. They're like, 'OK, you know, President Trump is, like, don't mess with me.'"
Emphasizing the stakes of choosing the right U.S. leadership, Musk warned, "I think people underrate the risk of World War Three. And it's just that, you know, when looking at the risk of global thermonuclear warfare, it's game over for humanity.
"And, you know, it's something that people have, I think, after the end of the Cold War, people have become complacent about."
Let's seriously consider that advice in November.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.