Kamala Harris ‘beautiful’ on Time cover, says Donald Trump

The former president attacks his political rival on policy issues but is complimentary about her appearance in an interview with Elon Musk

Donald Trump has complained that Kamala Harris is getting a “free ride” from the media, saying Time magazine made her look like “the most beautiful actress ever” on its front cover.
In a two-hour long conversation with Elon Musk broadcast on X, Trump said Ms Harris was “terrible” but had not faced enough scrutiny on her views since becoming the Democrats’ presidential candidate.
“She’s terrible, but she’s getting a free ride,” Trump said. “A picture of her on Time magazine today… she looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live.
“She looked very much like our great first lady, Melania,” Trump told Mr Musk, as they discussed the cover image of Monday’s issue.
“She didn’t look like Kamala but of course, she’s a beautiful woman, so we’ll leave it at that.”
Ms Harris declined to be interviewed for the article and her reluctance to engage with one-on-one media interviews – since replacing Joe Biden as the Democrats’ presidential candidate – has been seized upon by Republicans.
Trump hit out at his political rival for being “afraid to do an interview”, claiming that she would be guaranteed a “friendly interviewer”.
The Time piece said Ms Harris had “pulled off the swiftest vibe shift in modern political history”, praised her “work ethic and political dexterity”, and called her an “overnight sensation”.
The occasionally rambling talk between Trump and Mr Musk began 45 minutes late after the X owner claimed his platform had been hit by a “massive” cyber attack.
The former president attacked Ms Harris as a “San Francisco liberal” who had tried to pretend she was “more Trump than Trump” since she entered the race.
Ms Harris made a rare policy announcement on the weekend when she announced she would copy Trump’s policy of ending tax on tips – a move that drew a furious rebuke from the Republican on his Truth Social platform.
Trump told Mr Musk that the vice-president was trying to copy “everything I do”, complaining: “No tax on tips, and all of sudden, she’s making speeches, and there will be no tax on tips. I said that months ago.”
“She is a radical-Left San Francisco liberal, and now she’s trying to pretend, she’s looking like she wants to be more Trump than Trump, if that’s possible,” he added. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
Trump accused Democrats of waging a “disinformation campaign” as he hammered Ms Harris on her immigration record.
He claimed Ms Harris had been Joe Biden’s “border tsar” and that she was responsible for 20 million people coming into the country illegally, disparaging her recent promises to tighten security at the US-Mexico border.
“You people can’t allow them to get away with their disinformation campaign. Now she’s trying to say that she wasn’t really involved, and the whole thing is horrible,” Trump said.
“She was totally in charge. She could have shut the border down without [Mr Biden]. He didn’t know what he was doing anyways.”
Trump launched into a monologue about solar panels when Mr Musk, chief executive of electric car company Tesla, made the case for tackling global warming and pollution.
“I’m sort of waiting for you to come up with solar panels on the roofs of your cars, and on the trunks of the cars,” the former president, who rarely engages on environmental issues, said.
“And it just seems like something that at some point you will come up with. I’m sure you’ll be the first,” he continued. “It would seem that a solar panel on surfaces might be good at least in certain areas of the country.”
He then admitted that the issue is “not my world” and tried to steer the conversation back towards nuclear proliferation.
Trump, whose main business is property development, joked about the potential financial benefits of rising sea levels.
“The biggest threat is not global warming, where the ocean is going to rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years,” he told Mr Musk.
“You’ll have more oceanfront property, right? The biggest threat is not that. The biggest threat is nuclear warming, because we have five countries now that have significant nuclear power, and we have to not allow anything to happen with stupid people like Biden.”
Trump suggested he would move to Venezuela if he were to lose the election in November because it would “be a far safer place to meet than our country”.
He claimed that the South American country had cut its crime rate by “emptying out” its prisons, sending dangerous criminals to cross the border into the US.
“They’re taking their criminals, their murderers, their rapists, and they’re delivering them… this is a massive scale,” he told Mr Musk.
“If something happens with this election, which would be a horror show, we’ll meet the next time in Venezuela, because it’ll be a far safer place to meet than our country,” he added.
“You and I will go, and we’ll have a meeting and dinner in Venezuela.”
Mr Musk repeatedly tried to pitch ideas to Trump for his second term, but had little success in steering the conversation with the 78-year-old.
Trump pushed back when the billionaire said he had made “some progress” with deregulation during his first term in office, but could be “radical” if he returned to the White House.
“We set a record,” he insisted. “We said we did more deregulation and more restrictions on all of the different businesses than any other president.”
Mr Musk struggled to interest the Republican in a proposal for a “government efficiency commission” to ensure taxpayer money was spent properly. The Republican eventually said he would “love” the billionaire’s help when he brought up the subject three times.
Trump, who frequently sought to flatter Mr Musk throughout their talk, praised him for sacking workers who went on strike.
“You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’” the former president said. “I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, ‘That’s ok, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.’”
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which has endorsed Ms Harris in the presidential race, filed a federal complaint against the pair for attempting to “threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves”.
It is unclear precisely what Trump was referring to, but Tesla has previously denied that it sacked 27 employees in New York because they attempted to form a union.
Mr Musk has a reputation as a ferocious job cutter, claiming to have slashed X’s workforce by 80 per cent since taking it over. Earlier this year he announced plans to cut 14,000 jobs at Tesla.