On the evening of Aug. 12, Elon Musk hosted a more than two hour conversation with Republican Presidential Nominee, Donald Trump, on his social media platform, X.
The conversation was originally scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET, however, according to Musk, the stream experienced a “massive DDOS attack” when Musk attempted to launch the conversation.
A DDOS attack, or Distributed Denial of Service attack, is when multiple systems flood an online target, like a website, with fake traffic in an attempt to slow down or crash the target. DDOS attacks can be carried out by multiple bad actors, or a single actor using a specifically designed software tool.
Following the attack, would be listeners were met with messages like “service is unavailable” or their screens simply froze when attempting to gain access to the livestream.
Musk said he had load tested the system prior to launching the conversation and that the system could accommodate upwards of eight million listeners.
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However, shortly after the conversation was scheduled to begin Musk posted to X, “There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X. Working on shutting it down,” adding that, “Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.”
Initially, not everyone was barred from entering the “space” — the name X uses for audio live streams — including popular podcasters, Benny Johnson and Tim Pool, who streamed the conversation live on their respective platforms on Rumble and YouTube.
After a roughly 40-minute delay the attack appeared to have been addressed and listeners started to freely flood into the space and the conversation remained glitch free until the end.
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The conversation
The conversation that unfolded was strictly between Musk and Trump, no other speakers were present, nor were invited unlike other spaces held on X.
The conversation began with Trump speaking at length about the attempt on his life one month ago at a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a lone gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, managed to obtain a clear line of sight on Trump from a nearby rooftop despite a heavy security presence.
Crooks managed to fire multiple shots at Trump, grazing Trump on his upper right ear, killing one rally attendee and seriously injuring two others, before being shot and killed by a U.S. Secret Service’s Counter Sniper Team.
For the remainder of the conversation, Trump spoke on topics ranging from illegal immigration, energy policy, climate change, and “lawfare.”
Trump spoke consistently with his published platform, expressing his desire to crackdown on illegal border crossings, deport illegal migrants — particularly those with criminal backgrounds — unleash America’s energy potential, breath new life into shuttered pipelines and strengthen and modernize America’s military,
During the conversation, Musk and Trump butted heads at times over issues including climate, electric vehicles, nuclear energy, and oil reserves, but kept things civil.
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By the numbers
Despite the rocky start, at its peak, the conversation attracted upwards of 1.4 million live listeners.
According to the popular X account, The Rabbit Hole, approximately 10-hours later, the conversation had attracted 16.4 million listeners, 84 million views, 319,000 comments, 374,000 likes and 46,000 bookmarks.
Shortly after the conversation Musk posted to X, “Combined views of the conversation with @realDonaldTrump and subsequent discussion by other accounts now ~1 billion.”
Legacy media blasted the conversation, with what Musk called a “wall of negative headlines,” including a USA Today headline that read, “Trump rambles, slurs his way through Elon Musk interview, it was an unmitigated disaster,” a CNN headline that read, “Like watching ‘Grumpy Old Men’: Columnist on Trump’s X conversation with Musk,” and a Reuters headline that read, “Rambling Trump, Musk interview marred by tech issues.”
Musk lashed back, posting to his social media platform, “A wall of negative headlines was so predictable. They’re such NPCs. All this does is drive even more people to listen to the conversation themselves and realize how much the legacy media lies to them!”
