Elon Musk’s highly anticipated discussion with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Musk’s platform, X, was marred by technical issues.
The conversation, during which Musk asked friendly questions on topics such as immigration and inflation, began over 40 minutes late as many users struggled to gain access.
Billed as an interview, the event saw Trump making a series of unsubstantiated claims that went unchallenged.
Musk reiterated his endorsement of Trump, who is facing a resurgent Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the upcoming November election.
Musk attributed the glitches to a cyber-attack, but one expert told the BBC that this was unlikely.
The conversation on X comes as Trump, the former president and current Republican presidential nominee, seeks to reset his re-election campaign.
The entry of Kamala Harris, following President Joe Biden stepping aside, has tightened the race for the White House.
Meanwhile, Musk has become an increasingly influential voice in politics.
With over 190 million followers on X, he frequently engages in political controversies and has recently become involved in a new political committee supporting Trump’s campaign.
The discussion touched on a range of issues, including the assassination attempt on Trump last month at a Pennsylvania rally, his desire for the US to acquire an “Iron Dome” missile defense system like Israel’s, as well as immigration, a key aspect of his campaign.
Trump also discussed his intention to close the federal Department of Education and transfer its responsibilities to the states as one of his first acts if he wins the election in November.
The relationship between Musk and Trump has shifted over the years, with the two exchanging online barbs in the past. However, Monday’s conversation was amicable, marked by mutual praise.
Trump, who has been skeptical of electric vehicles and previously vowed to roll back federal subsidies, praised Tesla, which Musk owns. He recently stated he had “no choice” but to support EVs because of Musk’s endorsement and described Tesla’s products as “great” on Monday.
Musk mentioned his willingness to assist a Trump administration with a proposed “government efficiency commission.”
Despite the friendly tone, the conversation encountered technical difficulties. Many users struggled to access the livestream, prompting Musk to blame “a massive DDoS attack on X” in a post. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks aim to overload a website, making it difficult to use or inaccessible.
“A DDoS attack sends a very large number of signals to an online target to disrupt it,” Anthony Lim, Director of the Centre for Strategic Cyberspace and International Studies in Singapore, told the BBC.
“It is unlikely it would affect only one single service or feature on a website.”
Mr. Lim suggested that a large number of people attempting to listen might have temporarily crashed the service.
However, Andrew Hay from IT firm Damovo indicated that the issues could have been caused by a cyber-attack.
The glitchy start was reminiscent of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ entry into the White House race in May 2023, which was also held on X and experienced livestream malfunctions.
Monday marked a return to X/Twitter for Trump, who was removed from the platform shortly after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Aside from a flurry of campaign advertisements on his account on Monday, Trump had only posted once—a year ago, sharing his mug shot and a link to his campaign site—after Musk reactivated his X account in 2022.
It remains unclear whether Trump, who frequently posts on his Truth Social site, will start posting more frequently on X.
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