Elon Musk’s interview with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was disrupted by technical issues that the tech billionaire attributed to a cyber attack. The extensive conversation, intended for “open-minded independent voters,” started more than 40 minutes late as many users faced difficulties accessing it.
Musk, who owns X (formerly Twitter), stated that a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack “saturated all of our data lines.”
As the two-hour discussion neared its conclusion, Musk reaffirmed his support for Trump and urged moderate voters to back the Republican’s campaign. “Here’s to an exciting, inspiring future that people can look forward to and be optimistic about what happens next,” he remarked.
The conversation got off to a rocky start; over 20 minutes after it was supposed to begin, Musk cited “a massive DDoS attack on X” as the reason for the livestream access issues in a post. DDoS attacks aim to overload a website, rendering it difficult to use or inaccessible.
Once the interview commenced, Musk claimed that the alleged cyber attack indicated resistance in the US to hearing Trump’s message. However, the exact cause of the technical difficulties during the X audio conversation and the identity of any potential attackers remain unclear.
“A DDoS attack sends a very large number of signals to an online target to disrupt it,” said Anthony Lim, Director of the Centre for Strategic Cyberspace and International Studies in Singapore, in an interview with the BBC.
He noted that it is unlikely for such an attack to affect only a single service or feature on a website. Lim suggested that a surge of listeners trying to access the stream could have temporarily crashed the service.
Musk mentioned in a follow-up post that the system had been tested with “8 million concurrent listeners” before the live chat. During the conversation, X Spaces displayed around one million people listening in.
The rocky start to the event echoed the livestream malfunction that occurred during Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ entry into the White House race on X in May 2023.
This conversation takes place as Trump, the former president and Republican nominee, seeks to revitalize his re-election campaign. Opinion polls indicate that the race has tightened since Vice President Kamala Harris secured the Democratic nomination after President Joe Biden dropped out last month.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, could gain additional momentum from the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The Trump campaign has criticized Harris for avoiding interviews and limiting her interactions with the press since her nomination. On Monday, Trump expressed appreciation for having “a forum like this” on X, where he could share his thoughts at length.
Musk, who hosted the event, has become an increasingly significant voice in politics, amassing over 190 million followers on X and frequently engaging in political discussions. He has also recently aligned himself with a new political committee supporting Trump’s campaign.
The relationship between Musk and Trump has evolved over the years, with the two previously exchanging online criticisms.
However, Monday’s conversation was friendly and non-confrontational. Trump, who has expressed skepticism about electric vehicles and previously vowed to reduce federal subsidies, praised Tesla, the car company owned by Musk. He acknowledged that he felt he had “no choice” but to support electric vehicles due to Musk’s endorsement, calling Tesla’s products “great.”
Musk also indicated his willingness to assist the Trump administration with a proposed “government efficiency commission.”
Before the high-profile discussion on the social media platform accessible to European users, EU industry chief Thierry Breton sent a letter to Elon Musk, stating that he must adhere to EU digital content laws. The EU is concerned that X may be violating its regulations regarding illegal content and disinformation.
In response, X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino criticized the EU’s stance, calling it “an unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the US.” She also suggested that it patronizes European citizens by implying they are incapable of listening to a conversation and forming their own opinions.
Monday marked a return to X/Twitter for Trump, who was banned from the platform shortly after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Apart from a series of campaign advertisements on his account that day, he had only made one post—a link to his campaign site along with his mug shot—since Musk reactivated his account in 2022.
It remains uncertain whether Trump, who frequently posts on his Truth Social platform, will increase his activity on X. During the interview, he addressed various topics, including the assassination attempt on him last month at a rally in Pennsylvania, his desire for the US to adopt an “Iron Dome” missile defense system like Israel’s, and his campaign’s focus on immigration.
Trump also mentioned the possibility of closing the federal Department of Education and transferring its responsibilities to the states as one of his first actions if he wins the election in November. He further commented on President Biden’s decision to exit the race after a poor debate performance and pressure from vulnerable Democratic lawmakers, calling it “a coup.”
In a weekend interview with CBS, Biden stated that he withdrew from the race to avoid the intraparty conflict over his candidacy becoming “a real distraction” ahead of the election.
Following the event, the Harris campaign issued a statement labeling Musk and Trump as two “self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024.”
