WASHINGTON: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's interview with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk finally got underway on Musk's social media platform X on Monday evening, following a lengthy delay caused by technical problems that kept many users from accessing the live stream.
Musk, who has endorsed Trump, began the event at 8:42 p.m. (0042 GMT Tuesday), more than 40 minutes after the scheduled start time. He 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 was not confirmed.
More than 1.3 million people were listening about 45 minutes into the conversation, according to a counter on X.
Trump sought to turn the problems into a positive, congratulating Musk on the number of people trying to tune in.
The former president sounded at times as if he had a lisp, many listeners on X pointed out. Some said it made him sound like a cartoon character, others suggested it could be due to audio compression issues.
The technical issues recalled a similar event on X in May 2023, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suffered a chaotic start to his bid for the Republican presidential nomination due to glitches on the platform.
At the time, Trump mocked DeSantis on his own, social media platform, Truth Social. "My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!)" Trump posted, "Yours does not."
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.
Musk spent much of the early part of the interview lauding Trump for his bravery during the attempt on his life on July 13, when his ear was struck by a bullet.
Musk, the world's richest person, announced his support for Trump shortly after the shooting. He backed Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020 but has tacked rightward since.
Trump said he plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the attack, for a rally in October.
As the conversation unfolded, Trump delivered his usual mix of grievances, exaggerated claims and personal attacks, with Musk offering occasional encouragement.
Trump claimed without evidence that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he were still president and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - all authoritarian strongmen - as at the "top of their game."
He also expressed anger that Vice President Kamala Harris had been swapped in for Biden on the Democratic ticket.
"She hasn't done an interview since this whole scam started," Trump said, claiming falsely that Biden dropping off the ticket was a "coup." Trump had been leading Biden in many polls of battleground states likely to be critical to the outcome of the Nov. 5 election, but is now trailing Harris in some of the same states.
In an interview that was light on policy detail, Trump also appeared to praise Musk for firing workers.
"You're the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in, you just say: ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike - I won't mention the name of the company - but they go on strike. And you say: 'That's okay, you’re all gone.'"
The interview provided an opportunity for Trump to seize the limelight at a time when his campaign is facing new headwinds.
Harris has erased Trump's lead in opinion polls and energized Democratic voters with a series of high-energy rallies since she replaced Biden as the party's candidate three weeks ago. Her momentum could get another boost from the Democratic National Convention next week in Chicago.
Trump returned to X, formerly known as Twitter, with a series of posts on Monday for the first time in a year, reviving an account that had served as a main method of communication in previous campaigns and his four years in the White House, including his followers' Jan. 6 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump's access to his account, @realDonaldTrump, was restored a month into Musk's ownership of X after being suspended by the platform's previous owners following the Jan. 6 attack, citing concerns he would incite violence.
Trump frequently posts on his Truth Social platform, which was launched in February 2022, but his posts there reach a much smaller audience than on X.
Musk, who heads electric car company TeslaTSLA.O, has echoed Trump's false claims about voter fraud and Biden's immigration policies.
Musk has started an external super PAC spending group to support Trump's campaign. The political action committee is now under investigation in Michigan for possible violations of state laws on gathering voter information.
Trump, a longstanding critic of electric vehicles, shifted gears after Musk's endorsement.
"I'm for electric cars. I have to be, because Elon endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice," Trump said at an early August rally.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fein, campaigning in support of Harris, called Trump a "sellout."
The Biden administration has worked to popularize electric vehicles through tax breaks and other support as part of its broader goal of reducing carbon emissions blamed for climate change.
Republicans in Congress, including Trump's running mate Senator JD Vance, have opposed those subsidies.
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