It was uncooked and sometimes tense.

The former tv anchor Don Lemon’s wide-ranging, testy interview with Elon Musk was launched on-line on Monday morning, touching upon matters together with politics, notably the billionaire’s latest assembly with former President Donald J. Trump; Mr. Musk’s reported drug use; hate speech on X, the social media platform previously often known as Twitter that he now owns; and extra.

The interview was supposed to be the debut episode of a brand new discuss present in a partnership between Mr. Lemon and X, however Mr. Musk called off the deal a day after filming the hour-plus interview at Tesla’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. The first episode of “The Don Lemon Show” was streamed on YouTube and posted to Mr. Lemon’s account on X.

In the interview, Mr. Musk mentioned that earlier this month he was having breakfast at an unnamed buddy’s residence in Florida when Mr. Trump got here by.

When requested what was mentioned, Mr. Musk mentioned that Mr. Trump did a lot of the speaking and that the previous president didn’t ask for cash or a donation towards his marketing campaign. Mr. Musk additionally mentioned he wouldn’t mortgage Mr. Trump cash to pay his authorized payments.

While Mr. Musk mentioned he wouldn’t donate to any candidate, he mentioned he would contemplate endorsing one within the last stretches of the race.

“I don’t know yet, I want to make a considered decision before the election,” he mentioned, and famous that he was leaning away from President Biden. “I’ve made no secret of that,” he added.

If Mr. Musk endorses a candidate, he mentioned, he would make an in depth rationalization for his selection.

Elsewhere within the interview, Mr. Musk was adamant that he doesn’t abuse medication, and spoke about his prescription for ketamine for a “negative chemical state.”

“If you’ve used too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done, and I have a lot of work,” he mentioned. He famous that 16-hour workdays have been “normal” for him, and he not often took weekends off.

Mr. Musk appeared visibly aggravated by a direct line of questioning about him showing to endorse an antisemitic conspiracy idea on X.

“I don’t have to answer these questions,” he mentioned. “I don’t have to answer questions from reporters. Don, the only reason I’m doing this interview is because you’re on the X platform and you asked for it. Otherwise, I would not do this interview.”

Mr. Musk additionally appeared to skirt questions on whether or not he had a accountability to reasonable hate speech on the platform, and why sure posts had not been eliminated.

“If something is illegal, we’re going to take it down,” Mr. Musk mentioned. “If it’s not illegal, we’re putting our thumb on the scale and we’re being censors.”

The present arrived Monday morning after a heavy promotional push from Mr. Lemon, who teased the interview in a number of locations final week, including “The View,” within the days after Mr. Musk abruptly scrapped X’s partnership with the previous CNN host.

Before its launch, the boys have been at odds over how the interview went.

Mr. Lemon said in a statement final week that his questions have been respectful and lined many topics. “We had a good conversation,” Mr. Lemon mentioned. “Clearly he felt differently. His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me.”

Mr. Musk, then again, felt in another way. In a submit on X, Mr. Musk said that Mr. Lemon’s show lacked originality.

“His approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media,’ which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying,” Mr. Musk wrote.

While X had initially agreed to financially assist Mr. Lemon’s present, Mr. Musk’s choice to cancel the partnership blindedsided salespeople at X, and it was the most recent self-inflicted enterprise disruption at X in latest months.

In November, Mr. Musk boldly told advertisers not to spend on his platform, utilizing an expletive to dismiss them, and accused them of “blackmail” after he appeared to endorse an antisemitic conspiracy idea on X, which Mr. Lemon resurfaced throughout Monday’s present. Mr. Musk’s inflammatory feedback triggered quite a few firms to pause their advertising campaigns on X.