Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's interview with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk finally took place on Elon Musk's social network X on Monday evening, after a long delay caused by technical issues that prevented many users from accessing in the live broadcast.
Mr. Musk, who has announced his support for Mr. Trump, began the interview at 8:42 p.m., almost 40 minutes after the scheduled start time. He said the cause was a cyber attack, but this claim was not confirmed.
After about 45 minutes of conversation, more than 1.3 million people were listening to the interview, according to data on the X network.
Mr Trump tried to turn the problems into a positive, praising Mr Musk for the high number of people trying to follow the conversation.
The former president occasionally sounded like he had trouble speaking and at times his voice sounded like a cartoon character, some listeners said, suggesting audio problems may have been the cause.
Mr. Musk spent much of the early part of the conversation praising Mr. Trump for his bravery on the day he was assassinated, on July 13, when a bullet grazed his ear.
Elon Musk, the world's richest man, announced his support for Mr Trump shortly after the assassination attempt on the former president. He supported Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020, but has since leaned to the right.
Mr. Trump said he plans to return to the site of the assassination, in Butler, Pennsylvania, for a campaign rally in October.
During the conversation, Mr. Trump claimed that Russia would not have attacked Ukraine if he were president and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, all authoritarians, as “doing it very good their work”.
He also expressed anger that Vice President Kamala Harris was put in place of Joe Biden as a candidate for President.
“Since this fraud scheme started she has not done any interviews”Mr. Trump said, claiming without evidence that Mr. Biden's departure from the presidential race was a “coup”. Mr. Trump was ahead of Mr. Biden in some polls in those states expected to be critical for the Nov. 5 election, but now ranks behind Ms. Harris in some of the same states.
During the interview, Mr. Trump appeared to praise Mr. Musk for laying off employees.
“You are great. See what it does. He goes and asks, do you want to quit? They go on strike, I don't want to mention the name of the company, but they go on strike. And you say to them “Okay, you are all rested”.
Trump returns to the X network
The interview gave Mr. Trump a chance to gain attention at a time when his campaign is facing new challenges.
Ms. Harris has erased Mr. Trump's lead in the polls and energized Democratic voters with a series of high-energy campaign rallies since she replaced President Biden as the Democratic nominee three weeks ago.
This new momentum can be further fueled at the Democratic National Convention next week in Chicago.
Mr. Trump returned to the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time in a year, making a series of tweets on Monday that appeared to return his account to what had served as the main campaign communications network. his previous and 4 years as President, including communication with followers after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Mr. Trump was able to regain access to his @realDonaldTrump profile a month ago after Elon Musk took ownership of the network. The Twitter platform had suspended his account after the January 6 attacks, citing concerns that he could incite violence.
Mr. Trump posts frequently on his Truth Social platform, which went public in February 2022, but his posts on the network reach a much smaller audience than on the X network.
Elon Musk supports Donald Trump
Mr. Musk, who runs the electric vehicle company Tesla, has given more voice to Mr. Trump's unsupported claims of election manipulation and Mr. Biden's immigration policies.
He has set up an outside political committee to raise funds to support former President Trump's election campaign.
The former president, an early critic of electric vehicles, changed his stance after receiving public support from Mr. Musk.
“I am in favor of electric cars. I have to be because Elon is strongly supporting me. I have no other way”he said during an election rally in early August.
The president of the Manufacturing Auto Workers Union, Shawn Fein, who is campaigning in support of Democrat Harris, called Mr. Trump a “sellout.”
President Biden's administration has tried to promote electric vehicles through tax breaks and other incentives.
Republicans in Congress, including Mr. Trump's nominee for vice president, Sen. JD Vance, have opposed the subsidies.
