7 Reactions to the Trump-Musk Sit-Down

So how did Donald Trump's Monday night sit-down with Elon Musk go, after its start was delayed due to technical glitches? Not all that well, at least according to the reactions published thus far in the mainstream media. A sampling:

• USA Today calls it an "unmitigated disaster," starting with the more than 40-minute delay. "It was amateur hour, the last thing a campaign struggling to project competence needed," writes Rex Huppke, who adds that Musk made Trump "look stupid" with his terrible interview skills, doing little other than cheering on a "rambling, babbling" Trump who was "badly slurring his words" and seemed "disoriented."
• The Washington Post agrees with the assessment of Musk's interview skills, and says Trump fielded only "softball questions" on "comfortable topics," making the chat little more than a version of a Trump campaign rally.

• At the Hill, Brett Samuels agrees with that rally assessment, but adds that at least Trump "managed to focus on issues, inflation in particular, and avoided making the type of inflammatory, controversial comments that have plagued his recent public appearances."
• But, while Samuels says Trump avoided any major missteps, at the Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz vigorously disagrees. The talk was "every bit as unhinged and worthless as you would expect," he writes, calling it "boring," "nuts," and "frankly embarrassing." He also mentions the apparent "lisp" Trump had, and notes much was made of that on social media.
• Politico is, like many other outlets, pointing to the technical issues as a big embarrassment for X. The Wall Street Journal says the glitches were a "setback" for the social network.
• From NPR's headline: "Light on news, heavy on personality."
• And from the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign, per NBC News: "Donald Trump's extremism and dangerous Project 2025 agenda is a feature, not a glitch of his campaign, which was on full display for those unlucky enough to listen in tonight during whatever that was on X.com," the campaign said in a statement. "Trump's entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself—self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024."

(More Election 2024 stories.)