America PAC Town Hall — Harrisburg, PA October 19, 2024 At a Dauphin County town hall near Harrisburg, Musk announced his $1 million-a-day giveaway to registered swing-state voters who sign America PAC's petition for free speech and the right to bear arms.
At a Dauphin County town hall near Harrisburg, Musk announced his $1 million-a-day giveaway to registered swing-state voters who sign America PAC's petition for free speech and the right to bear arms.
Transcript Audience Member
Hi, everyone. All right,
Elon Musk
Well, I'm guessing this is a pro elon crowd somehow. Thanks, guys. Well, thanks for coming tonight and it's an honor to be here and be able to speak to you. And I look forward to questions and comments. It's always interesting to have that Q and A and hear what people's concerns are and answer questions. And, you know, I think these, these, these things are great.
Elon Musk
One of the things that has been concerning me for, you know, for a while, but particularly it's ramped up this year, is that there's, there's increasingly attacks on the Constitution, and specifically there are attacks on your right to freedom of speech. There are attacks on your right to bear arms. And you know, without the right to bear arms, the Second amendment is there to protect the First Amendment. So. And you have to say, you know, why these, why were these the first and Second Amendments? It's because the countries that people came from, if you spoke your mind, you could get imprisoned or you could get killed. That's why they said, we've got to make sure we have freedom of speech. And then, well, how do we ensure that we have freedom of speech? Well, right to bear arms. So, I mean, the founders of the Constitution must have been saying to themselves, this country is going to be lit. So. And I believe everyone here has actually signed the petition in support of the. Yeah,
Elon Musk
So one of the things we're doing is we want to try to get over a million, maybe 2 million of voters in the battleground states to sign the petition in support of the first and Second Amendment. Because I think this sends a crucial message to our elected politicians to, you know, who care about the outcome in battleground states say, okay, wow, people in these states really actually care about these things. It's a big deal. So. And we really want to try to get as many people as possible to sign this petition. So I have a surprise for you, which is that we are going to be awarding a million dollars to randomly to people who have signed the. Signed the petition every day from now until the election.
Elon Musk
you know, one of the challenges we're having is like, well, how do we get people to know about this petition? Because the legacy media is won't report on it. You know, not everyone's on X. So I figure, how do we get people to know about it? Well, this news, I think, is going to really fly. So. So every day between now and the election, we'll be awarding a million dollars, starting tonight. All right, so tonight's person is John Dreher. All right, thank you. So by the way, John had no, no idea. So anyway, you're welcome.
Elon Musk
so the only thing we ask for the million dollars is that you be spokesperson person for the petition. And that's it. Really? That's the whole. That's it. And yeah, that's it. So wait, do you want to say anything? Yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Audience Member
Thanks, Elon, this is great.
Elon Musk
I'm really ecstatic.
Audience Member
I want to congratulate you on your rocket catch last week. Big curveball.
Elon Musk
But yeah, I've been following you for 10 years.
Audience Member
Got your biography 10 years ago and been watching ever since and big fan.
Elon Musk
So thank you. All right, well, cool.
Elon Musk
Yeah, so I think this is kind of fun and you know, it's, it seems, seems like a good use of money basically. So. And you know, we really need to go all out to protect the Constitution. The Constitution is there for a reason. There was great wisdom in that, in that document and if anything, you know, we would, I just, it is what will save us from tyranny. And. Yeah, Well, let's see. So. I don't actually have any, like, as you can see, there's no teleprompter or anything. I'm just like, what should I say next? I don't know. But you know, it's worth reiterating why I'm supporting Donald Trump for president. And you know, there's, I think, important things that need to happen. I mean, I think we want, we essentially want the sensible basic things. We want safe cities, we want secure borders. We want obviously support for the Constitution. We want, I think, less government sort of overreach and you know, really, I think we want to restore freedom to the people, you know, so that your individual levities are prized and you get to do what you want to do and you're not sort of over regulated to death, which is kind of what's happening. You know, it's sort of shocking that I think there's something like 428 federal agencies, that's almost two agencies per year since the founding of the country and more being created. And so I call this like sort of strangulation by overregulation. And this is crazy. So I think with a Trump presidency, we have real opportunity to, to reduce the size of government, to have a sensible regulation and really free the American people to do what they want to do. Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure like these are sort of right wing values. They seem like sensible values. I mean, like, in fact, I find it strange that These are even question marks, frankly. So it's just obvious things that should happen. So. Well, you know what? Let's go straight into Q and A, because I feel like a lot of things you've kind of heard before or people out there have heard before, and if I keep repeating myself, it's going to be kind of boring. So better to have questions, and then the questions can lead to interesting discussions. One note I should make with respect to questions or comments, the kind of questions or comments you want to have are things that you think the public would be interested in hearing. So it's sort of what would people out there be interested in hearing me answer or hearing you say? And that's the way to kind of think about the framing of the questions. Please go ahead.
Audience Member
Hey, Elon. B.J. worzen. Absolute honor to meet you tonight. First, I just want to say thank you for your leadership. We all really appreciate what you're doing. It's absolutely amazing that you're even out here doing this.
Elon Musk
Absolutely. Well, you know, really appreciate that. I mean, the reason that I'm doing this is because I really think we're at a fork in the road of destiny. And this, this election is an absolutely crucial one. I haven't been. I have not been politically active before, and I'm politically active now because every instinct that I have tells me that this, this is a fork in the road of destiny.
Audience Member
So. So you obviously are interested in Pennsylvania, and there's even a rumor that you might want to invest in Pennsylvania.
Elon Musk
That's the, that's, that's true, actually. I spoke with. Yeah.
Audience Member
So. Well, well, my first question is, would you want to go halfsies with me on the Pittsburgh Pirates? We could really piss off Mark Cuban now. Now, the real question. You're a numbers guy. You're. You're looking at the numbers.
Audience Member
What are you seeing here in Pennsylvania and others that's giving you encouragement, and what are you concerned about?
Elon Musk
Well, I'm very much encouraged by the enthusiasm that I see, obviously, in the crowd tonight is incredible energy and enthusiasm. It's like, It's really heartening. It encourages me because sometimes I wonder, is there enthusiasm? Is there energy to make things happen? Because sometimes our biggest issue is often apathy, you know, is that if the people that, if the people that could vote just actually voted, then Trump would win for sure.
Elon Musk
So a lot of it is, I think, convincing people who sometimes feel like the vote doesn't matter or it's all rigged or whatever, that actually the vote does matter. And if there's any election in their lifetime that they're going to vote, they should vote in this one, this one. It really is a big deal. So, you know, I really want to encourage people out there to, you know, this is a one time ask, just go out there and talk to your friends and family and acquaintances and people you meet in the street and convince them to vote. Make obviously got to get registered, make sure they're registered and then. And make sure they vote. This, this one, this is a big one. This, this, this is a really big one. And I've never said that before, so I, I. This, this one, we, you got to go all out, you know. All out. Yeah.
Audience Member
Elon, I'm Senator Greg Rothman.
Elon Musk
Welcome to central Pennsylvania.
Audience Member
We're so glad you're here.
Elon Musk
Thank you. So you've been in Pennsylvania at least the last week or so. Anything surprises you about this state, our commonwealth?
Audience Member
What have you noticed?
Elon Musk
What have you seen that's been a surprise to you? Well, you know, I did live here for three years, so I'm not like a total stranger. I went to college in Pennsylvania. So, you know, I'm not like some, you know, guy, just like, what is the state? What's it like? I lived here for three years. So no, it's a great state. I really enjoyed my time here. And it's. And I think actually Pennsylvania is really, it's the linchpin in this election, you know, and so it's how Pennsylvania goes, I think, is how the election goes. And yeah,
Audience Member
yeah. Elon, my name is Chandi. I'm one of the pastors here. Thank you for hosting your town hall here at Life center in Pennsylvania. My question for you is, would you hold an official position in the Trump administration? If so, what would it be? Would you create a new role for you to help save our nation?
Elon Musk
Well, yes. So I've had many conversations with President Trump, who is very much aligned in thinking that we need significant government reform. We need to get the government out of people's lives, really, and have America be the land of liberty, which is, that's, that is what has made America great, is the land of liberty and opportunity, you know, so you've maximized people's personal freedom. And we make sure that getting ahead is a function of hard work and talent and, you know, an honest day's work, that's really what should get people ahead. And that's the only thing, you know, so.
Elon Musk
Elon Jerrell with Genuine Assets. Welcome to Pennsylvania again. My, my question for you, Elon, is The biggest obstacle that you've had in life and how you turn that obstacle into an opportunity. Well, I guess I've had a lot of obstacles. I certainly didn't expect to, you know, get the things done that I have gotten done. Quite frankly, I expected failure. So it was really just that I wanted to be. To do something that was as useful as possible. I wanted to be as useful as possible, and that was it really. So. So I didn't even really actually originally intend to even start a company. I tried to get a job at Netscape after graduating from Penn and Marc Andreessen's a friend of mine, but they didn't respond to my resume that I mailed in. So I was like, okay, well, I guess I'll try writing software. I've been writing software since I was a kid. So I'll write some illustration Internet software and see if I can do some useful applications on the Internet. And I ended up writing the first maps and directions and yellow pages and white pages on the Internet back in 95. And it was just really because nobody would give me a job on the Internet. So that was it. If they'd given me a job, I guess I would have just worked at Netscape or something. But my best advice really is just like, you know, try to do an honest day's work and try to be as useful as possible to your fellow human beings. Try to give more than you take. And I just have a lot of respect for people who do an honest day's work. You know, that's what really matters. How's it going, Elon?
Audience Member
Good to see you. My name is Josh. I'm worried about kids in a big way. I grew up in Wyoming county up north, small town area, real conservative. Got a education at Penn State Economics. And it really turned me away from my father and our small business that we had. I was basically raised to take it over, and I did once I graduated, but it kind of imploded afterwards about a year. And I. I moved to California and I didn't know what really happened. We got in a big argument and I just. I had to go, you know, it was freeze. So flight happened next. Explored homosexuality, considered transitioning to a female.
Elon Musk
And, well, this is quite the journey.
Audience Member
Yeah. And I think that there's. There's a big problem with education that is having people. I guess my question is, what are other things we can do besides the impact that we can have on the Department of Education to help confused children that are trying to know who they are and how they can Fit into their community and be productive. Sure.
Elon Musk
Yeah. Well, I think there's, what I think, I mean what I see is that there's, there's like a tremendous amount of propaganda being pushed on kids in schools and it's, I think it's just messing with kids heads, you know, I mean anyone that goes through puberty, it's going to be an identity crisis. You know, going through puberty, like it's normal kind of to have an identity crisis really. And I think we should, you know, tell kids like, yeah, you know, if you're confused, that's okay. It's like it's coming of age, you know, we shouldn't like steer them in a particular direction or convince them of something that's, that they're not. It's just, it's okay to go through an identity crisis. Everyone does. And, but I think what I see in schools is that they tend to send kids down paths that they, you know, they wouldn't actually go down because they're being pushed down that way by the teachers, you know, and by the propaganda that's pushed in the schools. So. I think it's, we need to tell kids it's okay to live with uncertainty, that it's, that it's normal to have uncertainty and it'll settle down over time and you know, and don't make any permanent decisions, you know, like decisions that can't be reversed can't be reversed. So, you know, I think we definitely should not have any sort of sterilization of kids, you know, below 18. That's no good. There's an age of consent for a reason. And you know, we don't let kids get tattoos until they're 18 and we don't, you know, alcohol is technically illegal until 21, although that's, you know, observed in the breach. So. But we just want people to not make decisions when they're young that make them unhappy as an adult. That's really what it comes down to. And I think you want to say we want to optimize for people's long term happiness. But that means like making sure, like I said, that there are no irreversible changes during a kid. When a kid has an identity crisis, which every kid has. And that's totally cool. And so my opinion is we should just tell kids if, when they're going through puberty and an identity crisis that's totally normal and don't get too stressed about it and things will settle out how they settle out and you know, that's the right thing to do.
Audience Member
Hello. Thank you very much, Mr. Elon Musk. My name is Lenka White. I'm a legal immigrant from the Czech Republic. We are all very grateful for X. I think it's the only platform where we can find the truth, and not only here in the United States, but in places like Europe. My question is, what is your vision on the future of the media under Harris vs under Trump? How it would look like, and can the legacy media still earn the trust back? And what would happen to X? Of course. Thank you so much.
Elon Musk
Sure. Well, it's a great question because there's a. I mean, there's. I think what we'll see is a lot of censorship under sort of the Kamala regime. You know, Kamala is really just. She's just a puppet, frankly. I mean, you know, if the teleprompter breaks, doesn't know what to say. So it's, you know, I just call it the machine, you know, the kind of big government machine, essentially. And you sort of have a face on the big government machine. And when the Biden puppet, you know, was not working out, they sort of got a new puppet. But it's still the same machine, obviously, and it's extremely undemocratic, what was done. You know, It's bizarre and hypocritical to claim that Trump is somehow a danger to democracy when what happened with Biden being removed as the candidate was incredibly undemocratic.
Elon Musk
So it doesn't make sense, but there's clearly a strong push for censorship under the guise of disinformation. And.
Elon Musk
But really, disinformation is a propaganda word. It's. It's not a.
Elon Musk
Well, who's. Who's going to decide what's disinformation? The government. That's crazy. You know, so that. That's, you know. Yeah. So I think we'll see. This is like a very. This is why we have this petition in support of freedom of speech and right to bear arms is that it's under siege, it's being attacked. But really, we should have the free marketplace of ideas. People can propose an idea, people can discuss an idea, and they can make a statement. People can rebut that. You can have the sort of. The people can decide. And, you know, I think it's. It's far better for information to sort of bubble up from the voice of the people than to be decided by a handful of editors and chiefs of newspapers. You know, that's. Yeah. I mean, the sort of. The biggest point of manipulation that occurs in the media is not when the media says something that's false or misleading, but because they do that. But their choice of narrative, what are they going to talk about is that. That's. By choosing to focus on one thing and not focus on another thing, there are sort of steering what information the public receives. Whereas I think the right thing is that the narratives that are important should be the narratives that the people as a whole think are important, not what a few media oligarchs think is important.
Elon Musk
but they sure like controlling information. So I think we're. If the Kamala machine wins, then we'll see. I think severe censorship is what's going to happen, and that's why I think this is the last election.
Audience Member
Yeah. Thanks to you, Kamala is not going to win. I'm Chet. My name is Chet Beiler. I'm from right here in central Pennsylvania. And I don't think that was an overstatement. Thanks to you, Kamala will not win. I have two questions regarding the election itself and what you believe can be done to create not only a victory, but a strong victory.
Audience Member
I'm now convinced that, again, thanks to you, we're going to sweep the seven states that we must win. But I also hope we could pick up New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Virginia. So I wonder what your thoughts are as to how decisive the victory could be. And then number two, as was referenced earlier, we and all of America is very enthused about you working with Donald Trump to make our government appropriately smaller and more effective. So. Because that message is so compelling, I wonder if your super PAC could be a little more clear about that point as it relates to you affecting that upgrade to this grid. Great country.
Elon Musk
Certainly, I'm happy to clarify that. You know, I. You know, I think a lot of the things I say, I feel like I'm just stating the obvious. But. But sometimes the obvious isn't what happens or is that if. If America is not strong, if the west is not strong, then nothing else matters. Like, you know, the companies that I run, they don't matter. Like, basically, America is the central pole holding up the tent that is Western civilization. And if that poll fails, nothing else matters. Nothing else matters. So, you know, and I've tried to encourage a lot of people in, you know, business and technology to say, like, hey, you just got to think long term. You don't. You don't even need to be altruistic. You just got to think long term and say, if America fails, what good is your business? It doesn't matter. So America must be strong and, and the, the central pole that holds up the 10 of Western civilization must be firm as an o.
Audience Member
Hi, Elon. My name is Josel, and thank you for saving free speech. My question is, what would you expect to see when you head the Government Efficiency Department? What are your strategies and priorities to curb government spending?
Elon Musk
Well, I've had some exposure to government spending because, you know, SpaceX has, does have a lot of government contracts. There's a lot of work for NASA and for DoD intel and whatnot. And so I've actually seen just the level of waste that that happens. And if you talk to people in the government, they actually agree, yes, this is very wasteful and inefficient. And I'm like, well, why don't we do something about it? But really, in order to do something about it, it has to be a mandate from the top. And if the president is, you know, if we have a great president like Donald Trump who's willing to make major changes and it's difficult because the system will fight you. You know, the system's not going to be like, oh, yeah, no, totally, we're totally happy being smaller. That will not be like the sort of antibody reaction of the system will be quite severe. You know, I don't think it's going to be. They're not going to, you know, like it, basically. So. But you have to have that mandate from the president. And we need a real president, not a puppet, you know. You know, the thing that's scares the system, that scares the machine, is that Donald Trump is not a puppet. He's a real person, you know, and he's not beholden to anyone. And that's why you see sort of, you know, they're trying to kill him, you know, and, you know, I mentioned as a joke, I meant it as a joke that no one's even bothering to try to kill Kamala, you know, because there's no point. There's no point is what? I just get another puppet, you know, so I'm not suggesting someone should try to kill her. It's pointless. But I'm just saying, I'm just making an observation. Nobody's bothered. Why is that? Because it doesn't matter.
Elon Musk
Assassinating a puppet is pointless. So, yeah.
Audience Member
Hi, Elon, I'm Chad Wick from Westchester, Pennsylvania, and I think more people are voting for Trump than ever before. It's historically been Democratic. I wear my Trump hat and walking around, people come up to me all the time, all races, all sexes, and they're like, cheers, let's go. I was just like, let's go.
Elon Musk
Yeah, maga. Exactly. All right, so maga, loud and proud. Let's go.
Elon Musk
I encourage people to put Trump Vance signs on their lawn and wear MAGA merch because a lot of it is like, people, you know, a lot of people, like, they will, like, they actually would like to support Donald Trump, but they aren't sure if anyone around them does too. And a lot of people, so you got to sort of, you know, if you sort of kind of plant the flag, then people like, yeah, you know, I see other people are doing it, then maybe I will too. So, yeah, thanks for doing what you're doing.
Audience Member
100%. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for standing up for Trump and putting your voice out there, because it's really important, seeing your face. The richest person in the world, that's you. So thank you for that.
Elon Musk
I mean, I decided I built some companies that are doing a lot of useful things and as a result, the stock's worth a lot. So that's what, that's kind of what happens. It's like, you know, but in terms of personal expenditures, I do not live a particularly, you know, I don't have like a yacht or any or islands or anything like that. I just work, you know.
Audience Member
Good evening, Elon. My name is Jared. It's a pleasure and honor to meet you here in Pennsylvania.
Elon Musk
And it's honor and pleasure to meet all you guys. Yeah, you guys rock. I mean, this is, this is firing. I mean, seeing the level of enthusiasm is just. I mean, this is firing me up big time. This is awesome. Yeah, me too.
Elon Musk
Usa. Absolutely.
Audience Member
I have a two part question. Part A. I admire your authenticity as well as Donald Trump and truly wanting to make America great again. Giving up whatever you need to just do the right thing, even if it's unpopular.
Audience Member
With all the government spending that you keep talking about on X, do you believe that in combination with the Department of Government efficiency, with Donald Trump's policies, do you think we can reduce the US national debt that's currently at under $36 trillion? And part B is that after you
Elon Musk
do it, we have to, like, if we, if we don't do something about the debt, it's going to like, this is like, for some reason, you know, just the legacy of mainstream media just ignores the fact that America is going bankrupt like crazy. It's like at a rate that is unprecedented. And the reality is that all government spending is, is, is taxation. So even so People, I think, well, this government spending and taxation are somehow separate, but they're not. All government spending is taxation because the deficit is what results in inflation. And so inflation is a de facto tax because it causes oil prices to rise and makes, you know, who will try to just live their lives have a lot of difficulty. But inflation throughout history has been used as a pernicious tax tax because it's one degree removed. So people don't feel it directly, they sort of. And then the politicians will try to blame it on something else. But it's all about government spending. Government spending is what drives inflation. So the key is we've got to reduce the government spending and if we don't, we're going to go bankrupt as a country. End of story. Just like a person, if a person spends beyond their means, they go bankrupt and we're spending beyond our means and we're spending on, like, silly stuff that doesn't actually benefit the public.
Audience Member
Part two to that. I believe you're going to do that with Donald Trump. I'm just telling you that it's not if, it's when, because I am confident you and Donald Trump are going to truly make America great again.
Elon Musk
Well, thank you. But I do want to caution against complacency is the only thing. So it's like we just need to be super hardcore about getting every possible
Audience Member
vote confidence you have. Not complacency.
Elon Musk
Yes, exactly. You want to be confident but not complacent. And so that's why it's like we've got to just be total evangelists about the voting. And really, every vote counts. And just make sure everyone you know is registered. The deadline for registration in Pennsylvania is Monday. Yeah, Midnight Monday. Like, you can register online. It's super easy. But, like, hound everyone you know to get registered because after, after midnight on Monday, you can't. It's, it's no good.
Audience Member
And this is a silly question, but when you cut the government spending and all you have a stack of all these deregulations, can you live stream on X and use not a flamethrower and burn that.
Audience Member
To the ground? Yeah.
Elon Musk
I think a bonfire of nonsense regulations would be epic. Yeah. And, you know, sometimes people, sometimes people are concerned, like, well, what if there's some regulation that's actually really important and we get rid of that and say, well, you know what? We'll put it right back. Problem solved. So.
Audience Member
All right, Mr. Musk, thank you for speaking directly with the voters of the United States.
Elon Musk
Pretty great view yeah, absolutely.
Audience Member
Removing yourself from the equation, what does it say about the Biden, Harris administration and the would be Harris administration that she had that they haven't worked with such great American Companies such as SpaceX twice put Tesla and then even speak out against X.
Elon Musk
Yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's pretty weird, you know. Yeah, because it's, it's, it was kind of, kind of a surprise because it's like, you know, Biden, you know, for example, had that like electric vehicle summit at the White House six months after getting upgraded and specific, specifically excluded Tesla. Even though Tesla makes more electric cars. Yeah, it was not cool. And then credited GM with driving the electric vehicle revolution. And that was the second event. And then in that quarter GM shipped 26 electric cars and Tesla shipped 300,000. So I'm like, And you know, Tesla's at this point about 140,000 people. It's, it's really, it's like there's a lot of blood, sweat and tears from 140,000 people working hard to make great, great electric cars. And you know, to be sort of cold shouldered like that for no reason, it's like what's the deal? You know, that's wrong. So yeah, and then there was like that crazy thing where SpaceX competed for the rural Broadband initiative, which, and by the way, I'm actually generally against subsidies and incentives, you know, like we should let taxpayers keep their money is my opinion. But they had this like $42 billion thing and we competed and we won and we would have actually been able to supply a lot of Starlink terminals to, to the states that were affected by the hurricanes and they revoked the award. It's messed up. Like why? And then to date that 42 billion program, total number of citizens that have received broadband from that $42 billion allocation is zero. Now that's if you want to. $42 billion for zero, I would call that waste. Yeah, that's waste. That is not a good use of money. You know, so there was also a big government initiative, I think $7 billion, something like that for nationwide network of electric superchargers and I think they made like 10. I'm like, this is the most egregious waste of money. And there's so many situations like that. So you know, it just goes like bureaucrats and consultants and nothing gets done and it's wasting your money, which is crazy. So what I'm saying is like this is the opportunity to reduce government waste is actually I think easy because there's so much of it, you know, it's
Elon Musk
they just don't care about your money, which is messed up. And so I think the Department of Government Efficiency is going to face a target rich environment for reducing costs.
Audience Member
Hi Elon. I've been waiting years for you to join the MAGA movement, so we're so glad you did.
Audience Member
I guess my question is you keep repeating that most of these things we believe in are common sense. And I really feel like they are. Yeah. Do you have any WOKE friends and how do you deal with them?
Elon Musk
Well, I mean, I have been red pilling my friends like crazy lately,
Elon Musk
fewer and fewer WOKE friends. At least they're still friends, but they're not woke. So, you know, they, I think where, you know, where the sort of,
Elon Musk
sort of good interpretation of the WOKE movement is that we want to have empathy for our fellow human beings and of course we want to have empathy for our fellow humans. I strongly believe we should care about humanity and we should care about the future, but we need to have empathy that is deep, not shallow. You know, shallow empathy is caring about criminals, but deep empathy is caring about the victims of the criminals. You know, and so, you know, why do we have, you know, violent, repeat violent offenders released on the streets, often with no bail? It's crazy. And they prey upon people, innocent people, you know, and then our streets are not safe. And how can America be the greatest country in the world and we don't even have safe streets? You know, this is crazy. You know, I was talking to my mom and she was saying like, just this year, like three of her friends have been assaulted in New York, you know, and it's. And I said, well, it. Was anyone arrested? No, they didn't even try. This is, we can't have this. You know, people deserve to, you know, perhaps safe cities and secure borders and the basic stuff like that, you know. Yeah, so I think, I think it's, I do feel that there's, there's a shifting of, you know, shifting of perception and I think we, I think, I hope I'm not being too optimistic, but I'm a naturally optimistic person, obviously. But I, I do feel as though that there's a shift in the national mindset and a shift to more just common sense and not believing everything that the media tells you. And I think actually in the US people are starting to realize that the legacy media is just a propaganda machine. In Europe, they still believe the news. So we got to work on Europe. They still think the news is real. But you know, here, you know, thanks to X and just people being, I think maybe a bit more aware and having an actual free speech constitutional amendment has helped Americans, you know, understand what is actually real. And I mean, I do find it remarkable like the just how sort of coordinated the legacy media is in their talking points. It's absurd. And kudos to those who put together the compilations of, you know, where all of the talking heads will say the same thing word for word. Yeah. And they'll say the exact same thing, you know, but I mean, I think the propaganda is not even good, frankly. It's not even entertaining. And you know, so, you know, a week before the Biden Trump debate, you know, every media organization was saying that Biden show off his attack, you know, the exact same words Shaw's attack shop over and over again. Then it became obvious to the public that he was indeed not a sharper's attack. But then immediately the legacy media pivoted to knifing Biden and anointing a successor. So we see this over and over again and. Yeah, so anyway, but that's why we need to have the voice of the people. And that's why I felt it was necessary to acquire Twitter. And you know, The whole point of acquiring Twitter was to restore the voice of the people. And it's important to note that while the far left activists that used to control Twitter obviously did extreme censorship of voices on the right, there has been no censorship of voices on the left. They suspended a sitting president. Twitter suspended a sitting president, which is insane. But there's been no suspension or censorship or shadow banning or anything of anyone on the left. So, you know, it's a level playing field. But I think that the reason that the sort of far left activists want unanimity in all social media platforms and in all legacy media is, is that their ideas do not stand the light of day. That is the reason they actually don't stand up. And so unless everyone is parroting the same thing, their ideas will fail.
Audience Member
Hello, Mr. Musk. My name is Zion Thomas and you know, I was going to ask for a million dollars, but my parents told me to keep it professional, so.
Elon Musk
Well, it's actually still possible that you may win that.
Audience Member
But yeah, so you taking over Twitter was awesome. I want to know what other radical ideas you have to save our nation while working with Trump.
Elon Musk
Yeah, well, I try to be as literal as possible. So, you know, the value stated on the at America, you know, the America PAC website and X account try to be just as straightforward and literal as possible. You know, so that's why it's sort of safe cities, secure borders, sensible spending to protect the Constitution, especially the right to free speech. And these are old, like I said, things that seem very obvious and, frankly, normal, but they're not being done, and they're in severe danger if the Kamala machine wins.
Audience Member
Hi, I'm Nikki, and I've been working with voter registration, and a lot of people are concerned about the escalation in the US military in Israel because there's over 100 troops there on land now. What do you think of this idea? A boring company offering to build an island off the coast of Israel and call it Palestine. They can finally have their nation state like Cyprus. It's been done in China, Dubai and the Philippines, and we can finally end these endless wars. Could there be enough rubble in Gaza to do it? Thank you.
Elon Musk
Well, that. I mean, Gaza is a thorny problem indeed. You know, the Middle east has been an area of contention, well, for thousands of years. I would say that I do not know the solution to that difficult situation there. So I'm not sure there is. I'm not sure there is a good solution. There may be, but. But I think we need to make sure that America is solid. So I'm like, let's just make sure America is strong.
Elon Musk
you know, there's. I mean, I do think we interfere too much in what other countries do, and. And a lot of our attempts at regime change. In fact, the success of the State Department in achieving regime change is terrible. I mean, you know, so there's all this effort spent, all this money spent trying to affect regime change in various countries, but failed in Cuba, failed in Iran, failed in North Korea, failed in Russia. What. Where were the successes? But a lot of people died and a lot of money was spent, but what good has come of it? So I think we should interfere with other countries a lot less.
Audience Member
Hi, Elon. My name is Luke. I'm a local liberty lover who lives just across the river. Actually. I find the idea that basically everything that we care about is dependent on a single federal election to, for lack of a better word, be unacceptable. So what I and some colleagues of mine have talked about is decentralization and localism, specifically nullification at the state and local level of the federal leviathan. Yeah, at the state level. The 10th Amendment center has done great work. The basis of nullification is the 10th Amendment. The idea that no power is.
Elon Musk
I mean, I agree. The federal government should get off people's backs.
Audience Member
Yeah, absolutely. And do you believe that nullification is a viable path forward to getting that done.
Elon Musk
Well, I can't speak to whether that is legally, would legally stand up or not. I mean, but I think if there's an executive branch and we also need to try to win the Senate and the House, but if there's a consensus that the federal government should do less and restore power to the states and to the communities, which I think should be the case, then I think we can make that happen.
Audience Member
Yeah. Hi, Elon, My name is Edward. And one of the really great things about going to these rallies are the people that you meet. Tuesday at the J.D. vance rally. I spoke to some young students and they wanted to be healthcare professionals. And the hardest thing for them to deal with was a financial obligations of doing it, trying to get an apartment and everything else. And I mean, I went to Germany and college is free over there. So there's no one in the world that can tell me that America can't do it better. Can you help those Rileys of the world out, please?
Elon Musk
Well, I think there are a lot of issues with college education. It's gotten very expensive because the administrative portion of colleges and universities has grown dramatically compared to the educational portion. So you say like how much is actually spent on teaching people?
Audience Member
Very little,
Elon Musk
You know, so I think you've got these sort of administrative groups that are far outnumber the actual number of professors. And like there isn't actually a need for college to be so expensive. It should be far less expensive. But the sort of bureaucratic creep and the administrative burden have grown dramatically over time and that is what has caused college to be so expensive. It doesn't make any sense. So.
Elon Musk
but there is. I mean, if we do sort of make college free, we have to be careful about that because it's then it's open season for wasteful spending at universities and like then, however bad it is now is going to be even worse in the future. I think we need new universities to compete with the existing ones because what actually matters is how good is your education, not how much was spent on administrative bs. You know, I also think that like the value of a college education is somewhat overweighted, you know, and I think it's too many people actually spend four years, accumulate a ton of debt, and then often don't have useful skills that they can apply afterwards. And I think I have a lot of respect for people who work with their hands. And we need electricians and plumbers and carpenters and, you know,
Audience Member
that's a lot
Elon Musk
more important than having incremental political science majors, I think. You know, so I think we should not have this idea that to be successful you need to have a four year college. That is simply not true.
Audience Member
Hello, my name is Beam. It's a pleasure to meet you. My question is, as we near the election, I know you're covering a lot of ground going to battleground states. How important do you think ad buys will be this election? Because in 2020, Mike Bloomberg, we know, spent a vast amount of money trying to get Biden into the White House. So are you looking into that? And yeah, that's my question.
Elon Musk
Well, actually, I'm not sure. I mean, the amount of money spent on advertising in the battleground states is truly staggering. And in fact, the Democrats are outspending Republicans dramatically, depending on how you count it. I think it's like two or three times more money is being spent by Democrats and Republicans. And in addition, they have legacy media on this side and they have a whole bunch of Hollywood celebrities on the side. So it's remarkable that election is in contention at all given that they have really, you know, all that on their, on, on their side. So, but, but I guess you got to, you got to reach people with a message somehow. So I think probably, you know, we do need to do more advertising just so that people hear the message. But, but in my opinion, the thing that's actually most important is getting friends, family, acquaintances, anyone you run into to register to vote and then to actually vote.
Elon Musk
it's, and this election could be decided by, you know, 1,000 people, 100 people. It could be a very tiny margin. So every incremental person makes a difference. And I've seen some pretty wild numbers where there's, I think even right now there's a lot of people that have requested, a lot of Republicans that have requested absentee ballots, but they have not mailed them in. I'm like, guys, mail it in. Come on, just mail in your ballot. You can do it. You have it in your house. Mail it in. Now would be a good time. And if you're worried about the mail, you can bring it in person. So, yeah, I think it's very important to encourage people to vote. Like I said, I'm really emphasizing this registration point because we've only got a couple days left for registration. So that's why the top priority is get people registered before Monday night and then make sure they vote. And I would recommend voting early and then you can check to see if your vote's been received. You know, that's, I think There should be a lot more Republicans voting early.
Audience Member
Hi, Mr. Musk, it's a pleasure to be able to speak to you. Thank you so much for pushing the world forward in every industry and I'm sure you'll be doing the same now in politics. So my question is, given the recent hacking of Donald Trump, how important do you think it is for the tech industry and government to back platforms that prioritize privacy and secure communications, such as signal? And do you see an opportunity for your companies to partner with this platform or to better protect user data or even safeguard government communications?
Elon Musk
Yeah, I mean there's always this debate between, you know, privacy and security, but I think the bias should be towards privacy. You know, I think we should not trust the government really and we just shouldn't.
Elon Musk
And I'd say even if, even if I'm in the government, don't trust the government. Like that's, it's just, you know, we, we've got to protect the privacy of citizens and you know, and make sure that people really have their liberty and they're not being spied on or, you know, manipulated. So, you know. Yeah, so I think we need to make sure that there are not like backdoors and weird things where the government can, you know, spy on and potential, you know, take action against people.
Audience Member
Yeah. Hey Elon, my name's Ron Blauk, I'm from Harrisburg. Before I ask my election question, I just have to tell you that I accidentally caught the launch and catch of both sections of Starship on live and it was breathtaking, which I know everyone in here knows. But I want you to be acknowledged for the level of inspiration that you're creating worldwide. I was cheering in my office like watching this thing go down and so thank you for that.
Elon Musk
You're most welcome. I mean, I think it's, it was, yeah, I mean it certainly inspired me and that's, it's a, that's a testament to the incredible work by the SpaceX team. Very talented, super hard working team and you know, the making rockets fully and rapidly reusable is really what's going to open up space for humanity and enable us to have a base on the moon and build a city on Mars and be a space bearing civilization. So a lot of people don't realize like the difference between like an expandable rocket and a reusable rocket is like 10,000% at least you can think of it. Just the difference between, you know, what does it cost to know, fill up a car versus buy a car? It's the same difference for rockets, you know, do you. If you have to, if a new rocket is needed, every flight, that's super expensive and difficult, but if you only have to refill the rocket, it's dramatically cheaper, just like it is for a car or an airplane. Understood.
Audience Member
Pulling that off and doing the catch and the landing in the ocean was just so stellar. Yeah. All right, so my, my question is, on election night 2020, I sat down to watch the returns and I watched them steal the election. All right. I saw it live, watched it all night.
Audience Member
If you were watching it, then you knew at 9 o' clock when Fox declared Arizona that it was going down. That was the moment. Okay. But even worse than that was over the next months, watching the courts and the shenanigans in the courts and the lack of good representation that Trump had and just nothing happening because there was obviously a problem, nothing seemed to be happening in the courts at all. And between that day and now, it doesn't look like anything has changed. And so we're about to. I think the votes matter, but the count is what matters. And if the courts are corrupted, not going to get anywhere. And so do you have, are you participating in that? It seems as though you're aware of that. How can you help solve that issue so that we don't have that problem again?
Elon Musk
Yeah, well, I mean, the, if the margin of victory is high enough, then I think any, it can exceed any sort of cheating that may take place. So we've got to aim for just a massive margin. That's the key. It's really aim for a margin that it is impossible to have any shenanigans. But on the X platform, I certainly would invite people to. If there's any voting issues, if people think there's fraud, then they then post the images, post the videos, post the evidence, and let's shine a bright light on. And the brighter the light, the harder it will be to cheat.
Audience Member
Hi, Elon, It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Thank you for the work you're doing for humanity. There are a lot of changes happening in our world right now, a lot of changes happening in our own country. And these changes are being perceived as chaos. But I always say that if it wasn't for chaos, we wouldn't be able to experience peace. If it wasn't for chaos, we wouldn't be able to experience growth and evolution. And with AI being the new kid on the block and advancing at an incredible pace, I guess my question is, how do you foresee the election of President Donald Trump influencing technological advancements and societal transformation.
Elon Musk
Well, I think the reducing the sort of strangulation by overregulation is a super big deal. The rocket that we were just talking about, it was sitting on the launch pad for two months waiting for paperwork to be processed. And it's just insane that the SpaceX team can build a giant rocket faster than the government can move paperwork from one desk to another. Like, that's just crazy. And the problem is that's getting worse and worse every year. So if that train continues, it's just going to be illegal. You know, we just won't be able to get anything done. So the, this, that's why I call it like this, this extreme over regulation, where there's just new agencies being created every year. And the difficulty of getting anything done is like the square of the number of agencies involved. So if there's one agency, it's like one, but if there's like three agencies, it's like nine times harder because they all have to meet with each other. And, you know, we get crazy things. Like SpaceX got fined $140,000 for dumping potable drinking water on the ground
Elon Musk
Starbase, where we launched the rocket, because we cool the launch pad with water. And in an excess of caution, we said, you know, we're going to bring in drinking water just to be sure and we're going to cool the pad with that. We didn't know there was like a permit needed for that. Water falls from the sky all the time. You know, Starbase is in a tropical thunderstorm area. It rains so much that the roads get flooded. Why are we getting fined for a tiny amount of water on the ground? But EPA said they're not going to process any future applications for launch unless we pay those fines. So we just got, you know, held for ransom, basically. And that's tip of the iceberg. I mean, I got a bunch of sort of nutty stories. You know, some of them are, I guess, like, kind of funny. This, you know, we had to do this, SpaceX had to do the study to see if starship would, would hit a shark. And I'm like, it's a big ocean, you know, there's a lot of sharks. It's not impossible, but it's very unlikely. And said, well, you have to, you know, this is, I think from National Marine Fisheries, one of the, you know, nymph it's called. And you know, they were like, well, you have to do the study on whether you're going to hit a shark. We're like, what? And then we said, okay, fine, we'll do the analysis. And then, well, can you give us the shark data? They're like, no, we can't give you the shock data. Well, okay, well then we're a bit of a quandary. How do we solve this difficult, this shock probability issue? And they said, well, we could give it to our western division, but we don't trust them. And I'm like, am I in a comedy sketch here? They're worried about the shock density data, like the people who hunt sharks for shark fins somehow getting their hands on this shock dense, the shock data. And so eventually I think we got the data and we could run the analysis to say like, yeah, the sharks are going to be fine. But they wouldn't let us proceed with launch until we did this crazy shark data. And then we thought, okay, now we're done. And they said, but what about whales?
Elon Musk
when you look at a picture of the Pacific, what percentage of the surface area of the Pacific do you see as whale?