Former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of X, engaged in a cordial discussion on the platform Monday after a delay of over 40 minutes due to technical issues.
This interruption marked yet another challenge for the Trump campaign as it seeks to regain traction following the Democratic Party’s support of Vice President Kamala Harris. Additionally, it was the second occasion where Musk faced a setback while attempting to host a notable X Space event with a presidential candidate.
The dialogue, which welcomed Trump back to X after nearly a year, came after his previous post, a mugshot from his booking related to the Georgia election subversion case in August of the prior year. As of Monday night, Trump had gained approximately 900,000 new followers since reactivating his account.
During the conversation, Musk posed gentle questions that allowed Trump to emphasize his main themes regarding immigration and the economy. Trump reiterated parts of his campaign speeches without challenge on any misleading statements he made. The two exchanged compliments, with Musk stating, “I think we’re at a fork in the road of destiny of civilization, and I think you’re the right path.”
Trump expressed that Musk’s endorsement was significant to him, remarking, “Not all endorsements mean that much, to be honest. Your endorsement meant a lot.” Musk suggested the creation of a presidential commission on “government efficiency,” to which Trump reacted positively.
The former president recounted his experience surviving an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. He commended local law enforcement’s and the Secret Service’s quick actions during the incident.
Their conversation spanned various issues, including energy policy, climate change, nuclear threats, immigration—which Trump claimed would involve “the largest deportation in the history of this country,” and suggestions for reducing federal spending.
Trump made unsubstantiated allegations regarding Democrats attempting a coup against President Joe Biden and criticized Biden’s mental fitness, including comments on Jewish voters supporting Democrats.
As the dialogue progressed, Trump’s speech occasionally appeared to be slurred, which sparked discussion online. When asked for clarification, Trump’s campaign spokesperson suggested the issue was a hearing problem.
Harris’ campaign referred to Trump and Musk as “self-obsessed rich guys,” criticizing their priorities and technical difficulties during the livestream.
The late start of the conversation was attributed by Musk to a potential distributed denial-of-service attack disrupting X’s servers, although it was unclear if this was indeed caused by malicious actors or simply a result of high traffic.
In his post about the issue, Musk mentioned that X had successfully tested its system with eight million concurrent listeners prior to the event.
The problematic start of the audio-only interview echoed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ unsuccessful campaign launch last year, which faced similar technical glitches. Trump publicly mocked DeSantis at the time for that failure, and the Harris campaign referenced his earlier critique during the delay of Monday night’s event.