In an interview with billionaire Elon Musk that was broadcasted on X, former President Donald Trump made numerous false claims, totaling at least 20. These statements included familiar debunked narratives spanning various topics such as immigration, economy, foreign policy, and even Vice President Kamala Harris.

One of Trump's false assertions was that crime rates are skyrocketing. However, contrary to his claim, crime rates have actually dropped significantly in both 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. The FBI-published data from local law enforcement agencies shows a decline in violent crime and property crime during these periods compared to previous years. Although there are limitations to this data due to its preliminary nature and potential errors, other sources confirm the overall decline in crime rates. For instance, the preliminary FBI data for 2023 indicates a decrease of approximately 13% in murders and about 6% in overall violent crime compared to 2022. Furthermore, the first quarter of 2024 saw an even more significant drop in murders and violent crime rates compared to the same period in 2023. Crime data expert Jeff Asher highlighted that if the final figures for 2023 show a decline in murders by at least 10% from 2022, it would mark the fastest decline ever recorded in the United States. Asher also noted that crime data collected from various independent sources points to an even larger decline in property and violent crime rates, including a substantial drop in murders, for the year 2024 compared to 2023.

Trump also made baseless claims about inflation rates, stating that they are the worst in 100 years. However, this statement is incorrect in two ways. Firstly, even when inflation reached its peak under Biden's administration at 9.1% in June 2022, it was still far from reaching levels seen 100 years ago or even 48 years ago. Secondly, inflation rates have significantly decreased since June 2022, and as of July 2024, the most recent available data shows an inflation rate of 3.2%. This rate is not only lower than the peak experienced under Biden but is also a rate that has been exceeded in recent years prior to the Biden presidency, such as in 2011.

In addition to these false claims, Trump also downplayed the threat of global warming and rising sea levels. He argued that nuclear war poses a greater threat than climate change and claimed that sea levels will only rise an eighth of an inch over the next 400 years. However, this statement is factually incorrect as global average sea levels are currently rising more than an eighth of an inch per year. NASA reported in March that the current global average sea-level rise in 2023 is approximately 0.17 inches per year, more than double the rate observed in 1993. Furthermore, a World Meteorological Organization report this year indicated that the rate of sea level rise between 2014 and 2023 was about 0.19 inches per year. NASA also found a jump of 0.3 inches between 2022 and 2023. Experts have criticized Trump's previous similar claims about sea-level rise, describing them as "out of touch with reality." Sea level rise is expected to have severe consequences for many coastal properties and communities, including increased flooding and infrastructure damage.

During the interview, Trump also made an exaggerated claim about the number of people listening to the conversation, stating that it was around 60 million or so. However, public data from X at the time showed that only 1.1 million accounts were actively listening to the conversation. It appears that Trump may have been referring to the number of views on his own X post sharing the "space" where the conversation was played, but it is important to note that the vast majority of accounts that viewed the post did not actually listen to the conversation.

Lastly, Trump falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris wants to release all prisoners in detention centers. However, there is no basis for this statement, as Harris has not expressed any intention to release all prisoners. The claim appears to be based on news stories from conservative media outlets that reported Harris' stance on closing privately-run immigration detention centers during her unsuccessful run in the Democratic presidential primary in 2019.