Donald Trump’s interview with Elon Musk on X hit by tech glitches

Washington, August 13

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sat on Monday for a friendly two-hour interview with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Musk’s social media platform X, after technical problems delayed the start of the event for more than 40 minutes.

Musk, who has endorsed Trump, blamed the difficulties on a distributed denial-of-service attack, in which a server or network is flooded with traffic in an attempt to shut it down, though his claim could not be verified.

A counter on X showed as many as 1.3 million people were listening at times during the lengthy conversation.

Ahead of Monday’s event, Musk had written: “Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation.” X did not respond to requests for details or evidence of the alleged cyberattack.

The two men exchanged praise repeatedly, with the Tesla chief lauding Trump for his bravery during the attempt on his life last month, and Trump congratulating Musk for his willingness to fire workers demanding better conditions.

The chat with Musk offered Trump an unfiltered chance to air his usual mix of grievances, personal attacks and overstated or false claims.

The talk was Trump’s latest effort to seize the spotlight from his Democratic rival Kamala Harris. Trump referred to her as “third rate”, “incompetent” and “a radical left lunatic.” But then he praised her looks. “She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live,” Trump said about a photo of Harris on the cover of Time magazine. — Reuters