Former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk had a lighthearted discussion on X on Monday, although their highly anticipated interview faced a delay of over 40 minutes due to technical issues.
The postponement added to the challenges faced by Trump’s campaign as it seeks to regain traction following the Democratic Party unifying around Vice President Kamala Harris. This incident also marked another technical mishap for Musk during a high-profile interview with a presidential candidate.
Trump’s talk with Musk, who has publicly endorsed him, was significant as it marked the former president’s return to X after nearly a year of inactivity. His last post on the platform featured his mugshot from a legal matter in Georgia in August of the prior year, and since resuming activity on X, Trump gained approximately 900,000 new followers.
During their conversation, Musk posed supportive questions that allowed Trump to reiterate his campaign themes on immigration and the economy. Trump used the opportunity to deliver segments of his campaign speech without facing any pushback on his disputed claims.
Both figures praised each other throughout the chat, with Musk stating, “I think we’re at a fork in the road of destiny of civilization and I think we need to take the right path, and I think you’re the right path.” Trump reciprocated by expressing how much Musk’s endorsement meant to him.
Musk also suggested that Trump should establish a new presidential commission aimed at improving “government efficiency,” to which Trump enthusiastically agreed.
The discussion included a detailed recount of how Trump survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. He commended local law enforcement and the Secret Service for their quick response to the incident.
A range of topics was covered during their exchange, from energy policy and climate change to immigration, with Trump vowing to execute “the largest deportation in the history of this country.” He also discussed federal spending, echoing Musk’s proposal for a commission aimed at cuts, and made unsubstantiated claims about Democrats attempting to remove President Joe Biden from the ballot.
Trump criticized Biden’s mental acuity and expressed controversial views about Jewish voters who support Democrats. Towards the end of their conversation, Trump remarked to Musk about various technological advancements, including artificial intelligence.
Throughout the interview, some observers noted that Trump’s speech appeared atypical, leading to online speculation. When approached for clarification, a Trump campaign representative suggested that the issue might be related to the listener’s hearing.
The Harris campaign responded to the conversation, describing Trump and Musk as “self-obsessed rich guys.” A spokesperson for Harris criticized Trump’s campaign, suggesting it serves the interests of wealthy individuals rather than the middle class.
Technical issues at the start of the conversation occurred when Musk reported a possible distributed denial-of-service attack on X’s servers. The exact cause of the problem remained unclear, with Musk indicating it could have resulted from excessive user traffic.
Musk noted on X that they had tested the system with 8 million concurrent listeners prior to the event. The delay echoed a prior incident with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who experienced similar technical difficulties during his campaign launch on Twitter Spaces last year. Trump had later mocked DeSantis for that mishap.
The Harris campaign highlighted Trump’s previous comments about DeSantis in response to the delays experienced during the Trump-Musk event.