What happened in Elon Musk's interview with Donald Trump? (2024)

Donald Trump compared his opponent Kamala Harris to his wife, said illegal immigration saved his life, and criticised the European Union during a delayed, two-hour conversation with controversial billionaire Elon Musk live-streamed on X on Monday night.

The interview, due to start at 1am local time on Tuesday, was put back by more than 40 minutes due to technical problems, with Musk blaming a cyber attack on the platform.

The interview marks a new political move for Musk, who generated controversy in recent weeks by predicting that British unrest would erupt into ‘civil war’ and sparring with prime minister Sir Keir Starmer on X.

Musk made no mention of his disagreement with Starmer, but did raise an open letter posted by EU internal market boss Thierry Breton’s asking him not to spread disinformation when interviewing the former president.

Meanwhile, Trump took the opportunity to hit out at US president Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, whom he blamed for a rise in illegal immigration.

He also trumpeted his good relationships with Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim-Jong Un, questioning whether Harris was tough enough to stand up to overseas leaders. “There’s some real tough characters out there,” he said. “And if they don’t think the American president is tough, they will do what they want to do.”

Trump also referred to last month's assassination attempt at a campaign rally, pledging to return to the Pennsylvania town of Butler where a bullet hit his ear.

Towards the end of the conversation, he asked if 60 million people had tuned in to listen to him, and the listener count showed 1.2 million tuning in live. A post to X advertising the conversation was viewed 93 million times.

Where was the interview streamed?

The interview was streamed live on X Spaces, a platform used for live-streamed online events.

Trump’s account - @realdonaldtrump - was previously banned on Twitter following the 6 January attack on the US Congress by rioters.

Ahead of the interview, Trump had only posted once since Musk restored his access to his account, showing a defiant mugshot of his arrest in August 2023 and directing users to his website.

But ahead of Monday night's conversation, his X account posted a series of tweets for the first time in almost a year.

What did Trump say?

On usual form, the presidential hopeful hit all of his usual talking points - immigration, the economy, and criticism of his rivals, as well as addressing the recent assassination attempt on his life.

Trump told Musk "illegal immigration saved my life", as he described how he turned to look at a chart documenting illegal immigration at the same moment a bullet whizzed past him - hitting his ear rather than his face.

Speaking about the moment after the shooting, when he raised his fist in the air and told the crowd to "fight, fight, fight", Trump said: "When I stood up before the hand, before the, you know, the fist in the air, they didn't know if I was alive. Nobody did.

"And when I put the fist up, they were, they were just relieved and happy and thrilled, and the place went crazy."

The former president also compared his rival Harris to his wife Melania, commenting on the vice-president's Time magazine front cover: "She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live."

He added: "It was a drawing, and actually, she looked very much like a great first lady, Melania."

Outside of commenting on his rival's appearance, Trump praised Musk for being "the greatest cutter" when tackling workers asking for better compensation.

"I mean, I look at what you do," Trump said. "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.'"

During the two-hour interview, listeners suggested that Trump appeared to be lisping, with some questioning whether it was the sound quality or the former president's speech.

Why did the interview happen?

Trump hopes to reach new audiences beyond those who watch his appearances on Fox News and attend his rallies.

Musk stated when he acquired Twitter that he hoped it would be a ‘common digital square’, and hosting such a high-profile political event could move X towards that goal.

Previous live events on the platform have had technical problems: with Ron DeSantis’s political launch video plagued by broken feeds and lost connections.

Musk wrote on X this week, "Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation.”

But the interview started late with people logging on to the online space initially greeted with music or silence rather than a conversation between the two men.

Musk blamed an attack on X’s system for preventing access, posting: “There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X. Working on shutting it down.”

A distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack is an attempt to disrupt the traffic of a server or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic.

Why is Elon Musk becoming so political?

Musk previously backed president Biden and has admitted to voting Democrat in previous elections.

He once wrote of Trump: “I don’t hate the man but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset.”

But in recent weeks, he has enthusiastically backed Trump’s campaign – including sharing a deepfaked video of his rival Kamala Harris.

He also falsely accused Biden and the Democratic Party of opening US borders to undocumented immigrants in a ploy to boost the number of potential Democratic voters.

Musk’s changed views on the incumbent US president came amid a backdrop of federal investigations over employment practices at his companies, along with claims around Tesla’s autopilot feature.

Trump, who previously was critical of electric vehicles, said at an August rally, "I'm for electric cars. I have to be, because Elon endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice.”

Advertisers have fled X since Musk bought it in 2022. Musk subsequently reduced content moderation, which has resulted in a dramatic increase in hate speech, civil rights groups have said.