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| Trump and Musk engage in a friendly discussion on X following a delay caused by technical issues. |
On Monday, former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk engaged in a friendly conversation on X, which was delayed by over 40 minutes due to technical issues.
The delay highlighted the Trump campaign's ongoing challenges as it seeks to regain momentum following the Democratic Party's solidarity around Vice President Kamala Harris. This also marked another setback for Musk, who previously faced difficulties during a high-profile X Space event with another presidential candidate.
This discussion, which marked Trump’s return to X after nearly a year of inactivity on the platform, featured the former president celebrating Musk’s endorsement. Trump's last post prior to this interview was his mugshot taken during his booking in the Georgia election subversion case last August. Since resuming his activity, Trump has gained around 900,000 new followers.
Throughout their conversation, Musk posed soft questions that allowed Trump to reiterate key points related to immigration and the economy without challenge. The two praised each other, with Musk stating, “I think we’re at a fork in the road of the destiny of civilization, and I believe you’re the right path.” Trump expressed that Musk’s endorsement was particularly meaningful to him, stating, “Not all endorsements matter much, but yours meant a lot.”
Musk also suggested that Trump should establish a new presidential commission focused on improving government efficiency, to which Trump enthusiastically replied, “I’d love it.”
The conversation began with Trump recounting how he survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, commending local law enforcement and the Secret Service for their swift actions during the incident.
Their discourse spanned a wide range of topics, including energy policy, climate change concerns, immigration—with Trump promising the “largest deportation in the history of this country”—and federal spending, with Musk proposing a commission to explore potential cuts. Trump made unsubstantiated claims about Democrats attempting to unseat President Joe Biden, commented on Harris’ cover appearance on Time magazine, and criticized Biden’s mental acuity, suggesting that Jewish voters for Democrats should “have their heads examined.”
Near the end of their conversation, Trump remarked, “We can talk about tunnels and rockets and electric cars, so many things. And now you’re into the AI, and that’s going to be another beauty.”
Throughout the interview, some observers noted that Trump’s speech seemed slurred or had a lisp, drawing significant online attention. When queried about this, Trump’s campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, dismissed the concerns with, “Must be your hearing.”
The Harris campaign characterized Trump and Musk as “self-obsessed rich guys,” stating, “Trump’s entire campaign caters to people like Elon Musk and himself—self-absorbed individuals who will betray the middle class and who can’t even manage a livestream in 2024,” according to campaign spokesman Joseph Costello.
Delayed Start
The interview's start was significantly delayed, with Musk attributing it to a purported distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack overwhelming X’s servers. However, it was unclear whether this was due to malicious actions or simply an influx of users attempting to join the conversation. Musk posted, “There appears to be a massive DDoS attack on 𝕏. Working on shutting it down,” mentioning that they would continue with a reduced live audience or post the discussion later.
A DDoS attack involves overwhelming a website with fake traffic to disrupt its normal operations. Musk further noted that X had tested its system with 8 million concurrent listeners earlier that day.
The problematic start of this audio-only interview called to mind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ troubled campaign launch last year, which faced significant delays and technical issues, resulting in a significantly smaller audience than the anticipated 500,000 participants. At that time, Trump had mocked DeSantis’ launch, declaring it a “DISASTER!” and predicting, “His whole campaign will be a disaster.”
The Harris campaign highlighted Trump’s previous comments regarding DeSantis in its own Truth Social account as Trump’s event with Musk faced delays.