The much-awaited Donald Trump-Elon Musk interview got off on a rocky start after tech issues delayed it for about 40 minutes. Many users who tried to log in were unable to access the live stream, with X a message stating that the Spaces audio feed was unavailable.
Musk blamed it on a cyber attack, posting "a massive DDOS attack on X. Working on shutting it down." A DDoS (distributed denial of service attack) is a malicious attempt by a low-skilled hacker to make the service unavailable to users by disrupting the services of a host connected to a network. He, however, did not give any proof.
The incident was reminiscent of Musk's interview with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign. Interestingly, Trump had then mocked the delayed launch, posting on his social media Truth social: "The DeSantus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!" Trump wrote in May last year.
When the interview finally began, the duo spent the first 20 minutes discussing the assassination attempt on Trump at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I think a lot of people admire your courage under fire,” Musk added. To this Trump said: "It was amazing that I happened to be turned just at that perfect angle." He was talking about how the bullet grazed his ear.
Trump also remembered Corey Comperatore, the firefighter who died during the shooting. "We lost somebody that was firefighter, a great Trumper," Trump said, adding, "He was a just a fantastic family [man] and a fantastic man."
The Republican nominee then hit out at the Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris calling her candidature a scam. "She hasn't done an interview since this whole scam started," Trump said, adding that Biden dropping off the ticket was a coup.
He also praised Musk for firing workers for dismissal of workers in Tesla during organizing efforts. "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."
On illegal immigration, Trump repeated the false claim regarding Congo that the country was releasing people from jail into the US. "Elon, what’s happened is unbelievable. You have from Africa, from the Congo. They’re coming from the Congo and 22 people came in from the Congo recently, and they’re murderers," Trump said.
"They take them out of jails, prisons, they take them out and they bring them to the United States. They deposit them in the United States and say, don’t ever come back, or you’re going to be executed."
On illegal immigration, Trump once again criticised Harris on border issues, claiming she was a “border czar” and “in charge” of the border. He also hit out at Harris, calling her "a San Francisco liberal" who "destroyed" California.
"She’s going to be worse than him," Trump said, referring to Joe Biden.
"She is a San Francisco liberal who destroyed San Francisco, and then as attorney general, she destroyed California," he then said of Harris.
Trump also spoke about artificial intelligence, discussing its significant need for electricity. "This is shocking to me, but AI requires twice the energy that the country already produces for everything," Trump said.
"You’re gonna need a lot of electricity, you’re gonna need tremendous electricity, like almost double what we produced now for the whole country, if you can believe it," he added.
On the Ukraine war, he said he could have stopped the invasion if he had been the president. "You know, Russia defeated Germany with us, and they defeated Napoleon. You know, they’ve been around a long time. They’re a big fighting force and it’s very unfair. And Ukraine now doesn’t have enough men, they’re now using young men and very old men to fight, and … we’re in a very bad position. And I’m not going to blame, exclusively, but I can tell you, I could have stopped that, and a smart president could have stopped that."
He also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as at the "top of their game."