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Elon Musk: evaluation

2 Aug 2024 Lex Fridman Podcast #438 – Elon Musk: Neuralink and the Future of Humanity

“Well, I think people tend to take, say, an endorsement as, well, I agree with everything that person has ever done their entire life 100% wholeheartedly, and that’s not going to be true of anyone.”

— Elon Musk

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Everything needed to verify it.

Speaker
Elon Musk
Attribution
Verified speaker
Claim type
evaluation
Recorded
2 Aug 2024
Publisher
Lex Fridman Podcast

Transcript context

…There was, tragically, an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. After this, you tweeted that you endorse him. What’s your philosophy behind that endorsement? What do you hope Donald Trump does for the future of this country and for the future of humanity? Well, I think people tend to take, say, an endorsement as, well, I agree with everything that person has ever done their entire life 100% wholeheartedly, and that’s not going to be true of anyone. But we have to pick. We’ve got two choices, really, for who’s president. And it’s not just who’s president, but the entire administrative structure changes over. And I thought Trump displayed courage under fire, objectively. He’s just got shot. He’s got blood streaming down his face, and he’s fist pumping, saying, “Fight.” That’s impressive. You can’t feign bravery in a situation like that. Most people would be ducking because there could be a second shooter. You don’t know. The president of the United States have got to represent the country, and they’re representing you. They’re representing everyone in America. Well, I think you want someone who is strong and courageous to represent the country. That is not to say that he is without flaws. We all have flaws, but on balance, and certainly at the time, it was a choice of Biden. Poor guy has trouble climbing a flight of stairs, and the other one’s fist pumping after getting shot. So, there’s no comparison. I mean, who do you want dealing with some of the toughest people and other world leaders who are pretty tough themselves? I mean, I’ll tell you one of the things that I think are important. I think we want a secure border. We don’t have a secure border. We want safe and clean cities. I think we want to reduce the amount of spending, at least slow down the spending, because we’re currently spending at a rate that is bankrupting the country. The interest payments on US debt this year exceeded the entire defense department spending. If this continues, all of the federal government taxes will simply be paying the interest. And you keep going down that road, and you end up in the tragic situation that Argentina had back in the day. Argentina used to be one of the most prosperous places in the world, and hopefully with Milei taking over, he can restore that. But it was an incredible fall from grace for Argentina to go from being one of the most prosperous places in the world to being very far from that. So, I think we should not take American prosperity for granted. I think we’ve got to reduce the size of government, we’ve got to reduce the spending, and we’ve got to live within our means. Do you think politicians, in general, politicians, governments… Well, how much power do you think they have to steer humanity towards good?…

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