Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s event on X causes site to crash, Tesla CEO blames cyberattack

Elon MuskHighly anticipated interview with former president Donald Trump On social media platform X, Technical failure in the first few minutes of the scheduled start time on Monday evening.

Social media users who tried to log in to the event reported that they were unable to join X’s live streaming platform for the event, which was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET.

Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, blamed the screen freeze on a cyberattack just after 8:20 p.m. He said the company had tested the system earlier Monday with 8 million listeners tuning in simultaneously to prevent any technical errors and ensure X’s live streaming capabilities could handle the event.

As the night wore on and the platform worked to resolve technical issues, Musk said the interview would resume at 8:30 ET and any user who managed to join the livestream would be able to join in. He added that “unedited audio” would be released immediately after the interview.

After nearly an hour of troubleshooting, the conversation finally began around 8:45 p.m. ET. According to X Spaces, at least a million people tuned in to watch the interview.

Musk began the interview by apologizing for the delay and blamed a hack on the company’s servers, though there were no obvious signs of an attack and the rest of X remained operational.

“This massive attack shows that many people object to hearing from President Trump, but I’m honored to have this conversation,” Musk said.

In response to CNBC’s request for comment on the technical delay, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung pointed to Musk’s X post blaming a potential cyberattack.

The glitch was reminiscent of the 2023X technology disaster that derailed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign launch announcement.

The interview was hailed as a hit news event designed to help the Trump campaign win back supporters during a turbulent period three weeks after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

Musk teased the event in a Sunday X post: “This event is unscripted and unthemed, so it should be a lot of fun!”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.