It’s mating season on X, as Musk courts Trump | Stewart Lee

The tech boss's overtures were possibly made with one eye on favourable regulation, but doesn't he know what happens when you swim with sharks?

The dorsal fin of the tiny remora fish conceals a suction mechanism, enabling it to cling to sharks, which are full of urea and can live for many years. And on Monday, the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and Elon Musk, the billionaire playman and galactic space-lord of the decomposing social media channel Twitter (currently X), revealed the depth of their mutual admiration in an eider-soft and incompetently livestreamed interview. Trump said horrible things for two hours and Musk giggled. TV executives wanting to reboot Top Gear, with that classic Jeremy Clarkson/Richard Hammond chemistry, need look no further.

The shark-remora relationship is mutual. The remora consumes leftovers dropped by the shark and eats parasites that live in its mouth. This delights the shark - parasites can be irritating - and predators that might harm the remora are deterred, as the shark gives it a ride through the dangerous oceans. Could Musk help peck clever black women out of Trump's mouth? Would Trump's election deliver Musk free passage through the choppy seas of communication regulation? Just how hard can Musk's remora suck?

Stewart Lee's Basic Lee is streaming on Now TV. He appears in a benefit for War Child headlined by Idles at the Bristol Academy this Saturday 24 August, curates and hosts the Komedia stage at the Brighton Psych Fest on 30 August, and his 2025 tour, Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf, begins at London's Leicester Square theatre this December

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