NEW YORK  –  Elon Musk’s much-anticipated discussion with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on the billionaire’s platform X was marred by technical issues.

The conversation, in which Mr Musk asked friendly questions on subjects such as immigration and inflation, began more than 40 minutes late as many users struggled to gain access. The event was billed as an interview but Trump made a series of unsubstantiated claims that went without challenge.

Mr Musk repeated his endorsement of Trump, who faces a resurgent new Democratic candidate, Vice-President Kamala Harris, in November’s election. He blamed the glitches on a cyber-attack but one expert told the BBC that was unlikely. The conversation on X comes as Trump, the former president and Republican presidential nominee, is trying to reset his re-election campaign.

The entry of Ms Harris after President Joe Biden stepped aside has tightened the race for the White House. Mr Musk meanwhile has become an increasingly influential voice in politics.

He has recently become involved in a new political committee supporting Trump’s campaign.  “America is at a fork in the road and you are the path to prosperity and I think Kamala is the opposite,” said Mr Musk in one exchange.

The two men touched on a range of issues, from the assassination attempt on Trump last month at a Pennsylvania rally, to his wanting the US to get an “Iron Dome” missile defense system like the one in Israel as well as immigration, a key plank of his campaign. Trump also mused about closing the federal Department of Education and moving that responsibility to the states as one of his first acts if he wins the election in November.

The relationship between Mr Musk and Trump has shifted over the years and they have traded online barbs in the past. But Monday’s conversation between the two was chummy and there was a lot of mutual praise. Trump, who has been sceptical of electric vehicles and previously vowed to roll back federal subsidies, praised car-maker Tesla, which Mr Musk also owns. He recently said he had “no choice” but to support EVs because of Mr Musk’s endorsement and called the Tesla product “great” on Monday.

Many observers detected a difference in Trump’s voice which sounded like he had a lisp, but a spokesman for the Trump campaign said it was no different from normal. However the Musk-Trump conversation got off to a less than auspicious start.

As many users struggled to access the livestream, Mr Musk blamed “a massive DDoS attack on X” for the problems in a post. Distributed denial of services attacks – or DDoS attacks – are attempts to overload a website to make it hard to use or inaccessible.

“A DDoS attack sends a very large number of signals to an online target to disrupt it,” Anthony Lim, Director of the Centre for Strategic Cyberspace and International Studies in Singapore, told the BBC. (BBC)…[+]

Photo: Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. (AFP)