Elon Musk and Donald Trump X Interview: Technical Glitches and Political Insights

The highly anticipated Elon Musk Donald Trump X interview on the billionaire’s platform X was marred by significant technical issues, impacting its reception. The discussion, in which Mr. Musk posed questions to the Republican presidential candidate on topics such as immigration and inflation, faced a delay of over 40 minutes as numerous users encountered difficulties accessing the live stream.

Billed as an interview, the Elon Musk Donald Trump X interview allowed Trump to make several unverified claims that went unchallenged by Mr. Musk. During the conversation, Musk reiterated his endorsement of Trump, who is facing competition from the resurgent Democratic candidate, Vice-President Kamala Harris, in the upcoming November election. The technical issues were attributed by Mr. Musk to a cyber-attack, though an expert cited by the BBC expressed skepticism regarding this explanation.

The Elon Musk Donald Trump X interview coincides with Trump’s efforts to reset his re-election campaign. The recent entry of Ms. Harris, following President Joe Biden’s decision to step aside, has intensified the race for the White House. Meanwhile, Musk has increasingly become a significant figure in the political arena, recently aligning with a new political committee supporting Trump’s campaign.

Musk remarked during the interview, "America is at a fork in the road, and you are the path to prosperity, while Kamala represents the opposite." The two men discussed a wide range of issues during the Elon Musk Donald Trump X interview, including an assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last month, his desire for the United States to implement an "Iron Dome" missile defense system similar to Israel's, and immigration, a cornerstone of his campaign. Trump also contemplated abolishing the federal Department of Education and transferring its responsibilities to individual states as one of his first acts should he win the November election.

The relationship between Musk and Trump has evolved over time, with the two having previously exchanged barbs online. However, Monday's conversation was notably cordial, marked by mutual admiration. Trump, who has been skeptical of electric vehicles and had vowed to eliminate federal subsidies, praised Tesla, a company owned by Musk. Recently, Trump acknowledged that he had “no choice” but to support electric vehicles due to Musk’s endorsement and lauded Tesla as a "great" product during the interview.

Observers noted a perceived change in Trump’s voice, which seemed to have a lisp, although a spokesman for the Trump campaign stated that his speech was normal. Despite the cordial exchange, the interview was overshadowed by technical issues. As many users struggled to access the live stream, Musk attributed the problem to "a massive DDoS attack on X." Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks involve overwhelming a website with a large volume of signals to render it difficult to use or completely inaccessible.

Anthony Lim, Director of the Centre for Strategic Cyberspace and International Studies in Singapore, explained to the BBC that a DDoS attack sends a vast number of signals to an online target to disrupt it. He noted that it is unlikely for such an attack to affect only one specific service or feature on a website. Mr. Lim also mentioned that the influx of users attempting to listen to the event could have temporarily crashed the service. However, Andrew Hay from IT firm Damovo suggested that the problems could indeed have been caused by a cyber-attack.

The problematic beginning of the Elon Musk Donald Trump X interview was reminiscent of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' entry into the White House race in May 2023, which also took place on X and faced similar technical difficulties.

Monday’s event marked a partial return to X for Trump, who was removed from the platform shortly after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Despite a series of campaign advertisements posted on Trump’s account on Monday, he had only posted once—his mug shot and a link to his campaign site—a year ago after Musk reactivated his X account in 2022. It remains unclear whether Trump, who frequently posts on his Truth Social site, will continue to post more regularly on X.