Trump’s interview with Musk postponed due to technical issues

Elon Musk’s interview with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was marred by technical problems, which the tech billionaire blamed on a cyber attack.

Musk said the lengthy conversation was aimed at “open-minded independent voters” and started more than 40 minutes late because many users had difficulty accessing it.

Musk, owner of Company X, formerly Twitter, said the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack “saturated all our data lines.”

Towards the end of the two-hour talk, he doubled down on his support for Trump and called on moderate voters to support the Republican campaign.

“It’s an exciting, inspiring future that people can look forward to and be optimistic and excited about what’s next,” Musk said.

The conversation didn’t get off to a good start.

Many users were still having trouble accessing the live stream more than 20 minutes into the conversation, with Musk attributing the problems in a post to a “massive DDOS attack on X.”

A distributed denial of service attack (or DDoS attack) attempts to overload a website to make it difficult to use or inaccessible.

After the two began their conversation, Musk said the alleged cyberattack showed that there was opposition within the United States to listening to what Trump had to say.

It is not clear what caused the technical problems with X Audio Talk, or who was behind the alleged attack.

“A DDoS attack sends a flood of signals to an online target in order to disrupt its service,” Anthony Lim, director of Singapore’s Centre for Strategic Cyberspace and International Studies, told the BBC.

“It’s unlikely that it would affect just one service or feature on the site.”

The opening gaffe was reminiscent of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential run in May 2023, when Live streaming is not working on X.

The conversation on X comes as former President and Republican presidential candidate Trump attempts to restart his re-election campaign.

Polls show the race for the White House has become more intense with the Democratic nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris’ campaign has gained momentum as she became the Democratic standard-bearer after U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the race last month.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz, could gain further support next week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Since accepting the nomination last month, the Trump campaign has criticized Ms. Harris for not granting interviews and rarely answering questions from reporters.

On Monday, Trump said he was “very happy to have this forum at X” where he could give a lengthy speech.

Musk, the platform that hosted the event, has become an increasingly influential voice in politics.

He has more than 190 million followers on X and often engages in political controversies there.

He also recently joined a new political committee supporting Trump’s campaign.

The relationship between the two has changed over the years and they have attacked each other online in the past.

But the conversation between the two on Monday was intimate and not confrontational.

Trump, who has been skeptical of electric vehicles and has previously vowed to eliminate federal subsidies, has praised Tesla, the automaker owned by Musk.

He recently said he had “no choice” but to support electric vehicles because of Musk’s support, and on Monday called Tesla’s products “terrific.”

Musk said he was willing to offer help to the Trump administration in setting up its proposed “Government Efficiency Commission.”

The high-profile conversation on the social media site, which is accessible to European users, came after European Union industry chief Thierry Breton told Musk in a letter that he must comply with EU digital content laws.

The EU suspected X of violating its regulations in areas such as combating illegal content and false information.

In response, X CEO Linda Yaccarino called it “an unprecedented attempt to extend laws meant for Europe to political activity in the United States.”

“It also treats European citizens condescendingly, assuming they are incapable of listening to the conversation and drawing their own conclusions.”

Monday marked Trump’s return to X/Twitter, after he was removed from the platform shortly after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

Aside from a series of campaign ads posted on Trump’s account on Monday, he has posted only once since Musk reactivated his X account a year ago in 2022 — a mug shot of him and a link to his campaign website.

It is unclear whether Trump, who frequently posts on his “Truth Social” site, will continue to post on X more frequently.

Monday’s interview covered a range of issues, from the assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last month to his desire for the United States to have an Iron Dome missile defense system like Israel has and immigration, a key plank of his campaign.

Trump has also considered closing the federal Department of Education and shifting that responsibility to the states as one of his first actions if he wins the November election.

The Republican nominee also addressed Biden’s decision to drop out of the race following his poor debate performance and pressure from Democratic lawmakers, calling it “a coup.”

Biden said in an interview with CBS over the weekend that he left because he was concerned that the intra-party fighting over his candidacy would create a “real distraction” ahead of the election.

João da Silva contributed to this report