Musk-Trump X-Chat Hit by Tech Glitches
Elon Musk’s much-anticipated X-chat with Donald Trump was marred by technical issues.
The conversation, in which Elon Musk asked friendly questions on subjects such as immigration and inflation, began more than 40 minutes late as many users struggled to gain access.
The event was billed as an interview but the Republican candidate made a series of unsubstantiated claims that went without challenge.
Elon Musk repeated his endorsement of Donald Trump, who faces a resurgent new Democratic candidate, VP Kamala Harris, in November’s election.
He blamed the glitches on a cyber-attack.
The conversation on X comes as Donald Trump, the former president and Republican presidential nominee, is trying to reset his re-election campaign.
The entry of Kamala Harris after President Joe Biden stepped aside has tightened the race for the White House.
Elon Musk meanwhile has become an increasingly influential voice in politics.
He has recently become involved in a new political committee supporting Trump’s campaign.
“America is at a fork in the road and you are the path to prosperity and I think Kamala is the opposite,” said Elon Musk in one exchange.
The two men touched on a range of issues, from the assassination attempt on Trump last month at a Pennsylvania rally, to his wanting the US to get an “Iron Dome” missile defence system like the one in Israel as well as immigration, a key plank of his campaign.
Donald Trump also mused about closing the federal Department of Education and moving that responsibility to the states as one of his first acts if he wins the election in November.
The relationship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump has shifted over the years and they have traded online barbs in the past.
Donald Trump, who has been skeptical of electric vehicles and previously vowed to roll back federal subsidies, praised car-maker Tesla, which Elon Musk also owns.
He recently said he had “no choice” but to support EVs because of Elom Musk’s endorsement and called the Tesla product “great” on August 12.
Many observers detected a difference in Trump’s voice which sounded like he had a lisp, but a spokesman for the Trump campaign said it was no different from normal.
However the Musk-Trump conversation got off to a less than auspicious start.
As many users struggled to access the livestream, Elon Musk blamed “a massive DDoS attack on X” for the problems in a post.
Distributed denial of services attacks – or DDoS attacks – are attempts to overload a website to make it hard to use or inaccessible.
The glitchy beginning was reminiscent of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ entry into the White House race in May 2023, which was held on X and saw the livestream malfunction.