Former President Donald Trump‘s live “unscripted” interview with Elon Musk on X on Monday evening was plagued by a cyberattack, according to the social media platform’s owner.
The technical difficulties prevented at least some users from accessing the conversation, instead being shown an image saying that the space was not available.
Nearly 20 minutes after the interview was set to start, Musk claimed in a post on X that the event was plagued by a “massive DDOS attack” and that the platform was working on shutting the X Space down.
“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.”
The interview started around 40 minutes after the originally scheduled time after the platform launched a new Space, with about 1 million people tuning into the event.
The interview’s technological problems are reminiscent of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) botched presidential campaign rollout last year during a Twitter Spaces interview, leading to Trump and his allies mocking his campaign.
“Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster,” Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social. “WATCH!”
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign poked fun at Trump by reposting the former president’s original post, which the Democrat’s campaign recently joined.
Before the event was relaunched, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) was among the people who voiced concern online that he was unable to access the event. He posted shortly after that he was “finally in now. Funky hold music playing,” though other users still reported issues at the time.
Trump’s interview with Elon Musk tonight appears to be having technical difficulties.
When trying to access the X space users are met with a screen that says the space is “not available.” pic.twitter.com/RuekmzLU8G
— Hailey Bullis (@HaileyBullis1) August 13, 2024
On Monday morning, Trump posted to X for the first time since Aug. 24, 2023, when he shared a picture of his mugshot after he was processed and released from an Atlanta jail in the aftermath of a state indictment over allegations he attempted to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
The 2 1/2-minute video post touted his first administration’s legacy before featuring media reports on Trump’s federal indictments and the FBI’s search at his Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022.
“They’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you, and I just happen to be standing in their way, and I will never be moving,” Trump is heard saying in the ad. “On Nov. 5, 2024, justice will be done. We will take back our country, and we will make America great again!”
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The Harris campaign slammed Musk as Trump’s “billionaire sugar daddy” in an email sent out two hours before the live interview.