Trump and Musk Face Technical Issues Before Discussing Key Issues on X.
Former President Donald Trump’s conversation with Elon Musk on the social media platform X was delayed by nearly an hour Monday night due to technical difficulties. The event, which was meant to cover topics such as illegal border crossings, the pandemic, and Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, faced unexpected challenges before the two could connect.
Listeners who managed to access X Spaces during the delay were met with hold music for about 40 minutes. Musk later tweeted that the platform appeared to be experiencing a “massive DDOS” (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, contributing to the disruption.
Finally, around 8:45 p.m. ET, Musk initiated the conversation. He began by praising Trump for his handling of an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month. Musk referenced Trump’s defiant gesture of raising his fist after the incident, which Trump described as a moment of relief for his supporters. “When I put the fist up, they were just relieved and happy and thrilled, and the place went crazy,” Trump recalled, as the two discussed the event for over 20 minutes.
Throughout the conversation, Trump reiterated familiar themes, including his admiration for authoritarian leaders, criticism of President Joe Biden, and negative comments about immigrants.
A point of disagreement between Musk and Trump arose when the topic of climate change came up, with Musk referring to it as “global warming.” While Musk advocated for sustainable energy, Trump remained steadfast in his support for fossil fuels, expressing concern instead about “nuclear warming.”
“I’ve heard, in terms of the fossil fuel, because even to create your electric car and create the electricity needed for the electric car, you know, fossil fuel is what really creates that, at the generating plants,” Trump argued after Musk spoke about potential future air quality issues.
Musk countered, saying he wasn’t suggesting an immediate crisis but emphasized the importance of moving toward sustainable energy without vilifying the oil and gas industry or causing short-term hardships.
Trump, however, downplayed the significance of climate change, joking about the potential increase in oceanfront property due to rising sea levels. “The biggest threat is not global warming, where the ocean is going to rise one 1/8 of an inch over the next 400 years… The biggest threat is nuclear warming because we have five countries now that have significant nuclear power,” Trump claimed.
Both Musk and Trump also criticized Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Trump attacked her stance on border control, neglecting to mention his own role in advising GOP members to oppose a recent immigration bill co-authored by GOP Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford.
“She’s saying she was strong on the border. ‘We’re going to be strong.’ Well, she doesn’t have to say [it]; she could close it up right now,” Trump stated.
During the discussion, Trump repeated his unsubstantiated claim that President Biden’s potential exit from the race would be a “coup.” He also took the opportunity to criticize Harris’s recent TIME magazine cover, suggesting that she had received a media makeover.
“She is terrible. She’s terrible, but she’s getting a free ride… She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live. It was a drawing and actually looked very much like our great first lady, Melania,” Trump remarked, mispronouncing Harris’s name.
As the conversation wrapped up, Musk praised Trump for the audience size of their Spaces chat, which reportedly peaked at around 1.3 million listeners. Musk reaffirmed his support for Trump, stating, “I think we’re in massive trouble, frankly, with a Kamala administration… I think, really, it’s essential that you win for the good of the country this election.”
In response to the chat, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign criticized the pair, describing them as “self-obsessed rich guys” and condemning Trump’s campaign as catering to the wealthy while ignoring the middle class. The spokesperson also mocked the technical issues that delayed the interview, comparing it to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s glitch-ridden presidential campaign launch on X last year.
The DeSantis event, like Trump’s, was marred by repeated technical problems, leading to a delayed start and disrupted audio. Musk later attributed those issues to server strain and scaling challenges due to the high volume of users.