(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Now that’s a comeback.
President Donald Trump’s live conversation with Elon Musk captured the spotlight on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The interview, conducted through X Spaces, lasted over an hour and drew over one million listers, with views surpassing surpassing 1 billion.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
Trump, who had been permanently banned by the platform’s previous executives following the Jan. 6, 2021, protests, is back on X.
During the interview, Trump delved into topics ranging from foreign policy, the economy and illegal immigration to censorship, his assassination attempt and faith.
Trump specifically opened the discussion by recounting his experience surviving an assassination attempt.
“A lot of people don’t believe in God … Now, I’m more of a believer now,” Trump said, saying that he is alive because of a miracle.
Trump also described a bullet grazing his right ear and leaving his face covered in blood. The attempted assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 22, was killed at the scene.
President Trump on the July 13th assassination attempt: "I knew immediately that it was a bullet. I knew immediately that it was at the ear… For those people that don't believe in God, I think we all have to start thinking about that."#TrumpOnX pic.twitter.com/RQeHNbxX5s
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 13, 2024
The X space faced technical difficulties, expected given Trump’s popularity on social media platforms. Thousands of potential listeners were unable to access the conversation due to a cyber-attack.
Musk confirmed that X experienced a massive DDOS attack, which disrupted the live stream.
“There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X. Working on shutting it down,” he wrote. A distributed denial-of-service attack makes a network unavailable to the public, several tech websites explain.
President Trump opens his historic X interview with @elonmusk:
“I see you broke every record in the book with so many millions of people — IT’S AN HONOR.” #TrumpOnXpic.twitter.com/ah9gZnumsm
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 13, 2024
To address the attack, Musk proposed a solution: “Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.”
He also mentioned that the prior test involved up to 8 million listeners.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
Once the interview was underway, Trump joked that illegal immigration had saved his life.
A second before Crooks began firing, Trump turned his head as he described a chart that compared border crossings during his presidency to those under President Joe Biden.
Trump also criticized Congo, a country in Central Africa, for allegedly facilitating illegal immigration into the U.S., remarks which have previously triggered the leftist media’s fact-checkers.
Of course, these are the same fact-checkers who despite reality, claimed Vice President Kamala Harris was never appointed “border czar.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “We have millions of people coming in a month and then [Kamala] gets up and tries to pretend she’s gonna do something. She had 3.5 years and they have another 5 months but they won’t do anything.”#TrumpOnX pic.twitter.com/F29K7pOf70
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 13, 2024
This is a developing story. Please check back later for more updates and specific quotes from Trump.
Editor’s Note: This article now includes the full video of Musk’s interview with Trump and the total viewers. It previously stated Twitter had “censured” Trump but has been updated to note that Twitter permanently banned Trump, the then-sitting president.
