Elon Musk, Donald Trump talk about assassination attempt, immigration during X interview
FILE - Side-by-side image of former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. (Credit: Getty Images)
Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump recounted his assassination attempt and his promises of the largest deportation in United States history during an interview on X Monday evening.
The rare public conversation between Trump and Musk, a former Trump critic, was overwhelmingly friendly, revealed little new about Trump’s plans for a second term. The former president spent much of the discussion focused on his recent assassination attempt, illegal immigration and his plans to cut government regulations.
Musk claims interview delay caused by DDoS attack
Musk claimed a cyberattack was behind technical issues which wouldn’t allow many users to join a scheduled live conversation between himself and Trump on Monday.
"There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X. Working on shutting it down. Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later," Musk wrote.
Trump and Musk were slated to speak at 8 p.m. Eastern Time to have an "unscripted" conversation "with no limits on subject matter," Musk said.
There were 878,000 users connected to the conversation more than 40 minutes after the scheduled start time, but no interview was being broadcast. Many users received a message reading, "Details not available."
Trump's team posted that the "interview on X is being overwhelmed with listeners logging in."
What is a DDoS attack?
DDoS stands for "distributed denial of service," according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website.
A DDoS attack "targets websites and servers by disrupting network services in an attempt to exhaust an application’s resources," according to Microsoft.
Musk asks Trump about attempted assassination
Once the interview began at 8:41 p.m. ET, Musk began by asking Trump about the assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally in July.
Musk praised Trump, saying the former president showed "strength under fire."
Trump said the incident was "not pleasant" and that he didn't know he "had that much blood."
The former president went on and blamed the incident on "a lack of coordination."
"If I had not turned my head, I would not be talking to you right now — as much as I like you," Trump said. "There was a lack of coordination. ... Everybody understands that building should have been covered."
Trump asks for donations
About 30 minutes before the interview began, Trump’s campaign account on X called on "TEN MILLION Patriots" to donate to his campaign.
"This is the biggest interview in history, and now, we’re asking YOU to make this President Trump’s BIGGEST FUNDRAISING DAY EVER! Before the interview is over, we’re calling on TEN MILLION Patriots to donate ANY AMOUNT and proudly say, I STAND WITH TRUMP!" the post read.
Musk backs Trump
Musk described himself as a Democrat in the past. He backed President Joe Biden in 2020 but has steadily changed his stance, leaning right.
Musk publicly endorsed Trump following the Republican candidate’s attempted assassination in July.
Long before he endorsed Trump, Musk turned increasingly toward the right in his posts and actions on the platform. He's gotten in a dustup with a Brazilian judge over censorship, railed against what he calls the "woke mind virus" and amplified false claims that Democrats are secretly flying in migrants to vote in U.S. elections.
Trump backs EVs after Musk endorsement
Following Musk’s endorsement, Trump softened his previously negative tone on electric vehicles.
During a campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia, last weekend, Trump said he was "for electric cars. I have to be because Elon endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice," according to a Politico report.
Meanwhile, in May, Trump devoted a good chunk of his speech during a rally in Wisconsin to attacking electric vehicles and made false claims about their functionality.
"Well, I like Elon, but the car … I’m all for them if you want to go to the candy store, buy yourself a little candy and come back home," Trump said, according to a Politico report. "But if you want to take a trip to a place like Mar-a-Lago to say hello to me, you better get yourself a different mode of transportation."