Musk questions Trump at X: Putin praise and a warning from Europe

On Monday evening, Donald Trump conducted a highly anticipated interview with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on his social media platform X. In the conversation, which according to X was watched by more than 1.3 million people at times, the Republican presidential candidate commented on the attack on him and the war in Ukraine. He also attacked the current US government. The start of the event was delayed by more than 40 minutes because many users were unable to access the livestream due to technical problems.

Musk praises Trump, Trump praises Putin

At the beginning of the conversation, Musk praised the former president for his bravery during the assassination attempt in July, in which Trump was hit by a bullet in the ear. The Tesla boss, who announced his support for Trump after that incident, praised the former president several times for his steadfastness and courage. Trump announced that he would return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the attack, in October for a rally.

Trump later claimed, without evidence, among other things, that Russia would not have attacked Ukraine if he were still president. He praised authoritarian leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

During the conversation, Trump expressed his displeasure that Vice President Kamala Harris will run as the Democratic nominee for November’s presidential election instead of President Joe Biden. He falsely labeled this a “coup” and claimed that Harris has not given an interview since the “deception” began. Trump had overtaken Biden in many polls in the battleground states that are expected to be crucial to the outcome of the November 5 election, but now trails Harris in some of those states.

Interview begins with problems

Technical difficulties delayed the start of the interview, which Musk attributed to a suspected distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. “There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X,” the billionaire wrote on X. DDoS attacks are cyberattacks aimed at overloading servers. However, such an attack has not yet been confirmed.

Before the interview, the EU Commission had warned Musk about violating the European law against hate speech and calls for violence online. The provisions of the DSA law also apply to the entrepreneur himself as a user with 190 million follower accounts, emphasized EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton in a letter to Musk. Breton specifically referred to the recent riots in Great Britain, after which Musk gave reach to posts by right-wing extremists.

Breton stressed that contributions on X are also accessible to users in the EU. That is why Brussels is monitoring the risks posed by the dissemination of contributions that promote “violence, hatred or racism”. He also referred to the connection with political or social events around the world, “including debates and interviews in the context of elections”.