Elon Musk-Donald Trump Interview: Former United States President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's interview with billionare Elon Musk began on social media platform X on Monday after a long delay due to technical issues.
As the interview began, the first question the X owner asked was about the assassination attempt on Trump. While answering the question, Trump claimed that he "knew immediately that it was a bullet".
The interview of the former US President by Elon Musk on the social media platform X that the latter owns was way behind schedule because of technical issues. “There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X,” Musk posted on X 18 minutes after the scheduled start time of 8 p.m. US Eastern “Working on shutting it down”. “Worst case,” he added, “we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.”
A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is a type of cyberattack in which an attacker overwhelms a website, server, or network resource with malicious traffic, according to one explanation.
While speaking to Elon Musk on X, Trump said, "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".
During the interview, Trump heaped praise on Russia, China, and North Korea, saying that they are at the top of their game. Trump took a swipe at US President Joe Biden and said that Washington needs a strong president to tackle Russia, China, and North Korea.
"(Vladimir) Putin, Xi (Jinping), and Kim Jong Un are at the top of their game," Trump said during the interview with Musk. Dubbing Biden "sleepy Joe," the former US president also claimed that Moscow wouldn't have invaded Ukraine if it hadn't been for Biden.
In an audio interview on X, Trump and Musk discussed a wide range of issues from immigration to the economy, education, climate change, Russia and Ukraine, the relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping in the context of the 2024 presidential election.
The X owner has endorsed the former president against his Democrat rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Russia Would Not Have Invaded Ukraine If Biden Were Not President, Says Trump
Trump claimed that Moscow would not have invaded Kyiv if Joe Biden were not president. During the interview with Musk, the former US President also stated that his strong relationship with the Russian President could have prevented the conflict.
"I got along with Putin very well, and he respected me," Trump stated, adding that he often spoke with Putin about Ukraine, describing it as "the apple of his eye." Trump claimed he had warned Putin against taking action, saying, "But I told him, don't do it," Trump said. The Spece X founder agreed to his assertions and said, "You've made an excellent point."
Trump also recounted advising Putin against invading Ukraine: “I told him, ‘Don’t do it. You can’t do it, Vladimir.’” According to Trump, Putin responded with “no way,” to which Trump replied, “way.”
Trump Corners Biden Administration Over Iran-Israel, Afghanistan Situation
During the interview with Musk, Trump criticised Biden and labelled him as "the worst president" in U.S. history.
The Republican presidential candidate cited the ongoing Iran-Israel crisis and the mishandling of the Afghanistan situation as the two important reasons for his assessment. He asserted that these issues could have been avoided under different leadership.
Illegal Immigration Saved My Life: Trump
During the interview, Trump recalled that he had turned his head towards a chart on illegal immigration and that might have saved his life, agreeing with Musk. “Illegal immigration saved my life. You're right."