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Donald Trump and Elon Musk interview on X 2024.

Elon Musk Interview With Donald Trump

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Updated Aug 13, 2024 at 04:51PM EDT by Aidan Walker.

Added Aug 12, 2024 at 06:17PM EDT by Mateus.

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Overview

Elon Musk Interview With Donald Trump refers to an interview hosted by X (formerly Twitter) owner and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk with his guest former President Donald Trump in August 2024, which took place on the Spaces feature of X. Shortly before the interview, Trump returned to the social media platform after a year-long hiatus. During their discussion, Musk announced his endorsement of Trump regarding the upcoming United States Presidential Election and asked a series of questions on subjects such as immigration and inflation, among other topics. The interview quickly sparked numerous jokes, memes and debates across multiple social media platforms after it took place, including a significant amount of discourse surrounding technical difficulties that disrupted it. Musk claimed the issues with the Spaces stream were the result of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack.

Background

On August 11th, 2024, X[1] owner and businessman Elon Musk announced a live conversation and interview with former United States President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (seen below), scheduled for August 12th, 2024, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. The post amassed more than 235,000 likes and 44,000 reposts in a day and quickly generated both press coverage and discourse online.


Elon Musk @elonmusk Follow Live conversation on X with @realDonaldTrump & me at 8pm ET tomorrow 8:55 PM - Aug 11, 2024 X

Developments

Donald Trump's First Tweet After Leaving X

A few hours after Elon Musk announced the interview with Donald Trump,[2] the presidential candidate returned to the platform and posted a promotional video asking for votes and donations for his campaign. Prior to this, his most recent post to X was on August 24th, 2024, which was about his mugshot photo. The tweet (seen below) amassed over 24 million views and 460,000 likes in a few hours since uploaded on August 12th, 2024.


Thierry Breton Open Letter

On August 12th, 2024, The European Union's digital enforcer Thierry Breton wrote an open letter for Elon Musk ahead of the planned interview with Donald Trump, reminding him of the EU’s rules on promoting hate speech, writing, "With great audience comes greater responsibility #DSA," which amassed more than 11,000 likes and 11,000 reposts in a few hours. (seen below) .


EUROPEAN COMMISSION Thierry Breton Member of the Commission Brussels, 12 August 2024 Dear Mr Musk, I am writing to you in the context of recent events in the United Kingdom and in relation to the planned broadcast on your platform X of a live conversation between a US presidential candidate and yourself, which will also be accessible to users in the EU. I understand that you are currently doing a stress test of the platform. In this context, I am compelled to remind you of the due diligence obligations set out in the Digital Services Act (DSA), as outlined in my previous letter. As the individual entity ultimately controlling a platform with over 300 million users worldwide, of which one third in the EU, that has been designated as a Very Large Online Platform, you have the legal obligation to ensure X's compliance with EU law and in particular the DSA in the EU. This notably means ensuring, on one hand, that freedom of expression and of information, including media freedom and pluralism, are effectively protected and, on the other hand, that all proportionate and effective mitigation measures are put in place regarding the amplification of harmful content in connection with relevant events, including live streaming, which, if unaddressed, might increase the risk profile of X and generate detrimental effects on civic discourse and public security. This is important against the background of recent examples of public unrest brought about by the amplification of content that promotes hatred, disorder, incitement to violence, or certain instances of disinformation. It also implies i) informing EU judicial and administrative authorities without undue delay on the measures taken to address their orders against content considered illegal, according to national and/ or EU law, ii) taking timely, diligent, non-arbitrary and objective action upon receipt of notices by users considering certain content illegal, iii) informing users concerning the measures taken upon receipt of the relevant notice, and iv) publicly reporting about content moderation measures. In this respect, I note that the DSA obligations apply without exceptions or discrimination to the moderation of the whole user community and content of X (including yourself as a user with over 190 million followers) which is accessible to EU users and should be fulfilled in line with the risk-based approach of the DSA, which requires greater due diligence in case of a foreseeable increase of the risk profile. As you know, formal proceedings are already ongoing against X under the DSA, notably in areas linked to the dissemination of illegal content and the effectiveness of the measures taken to combat disinformation. As the relevant content is accessible to EU users and being amplified also in our jurisdiction, we cannot exclude potential spillovers in the EU. Therefore, we are monitoring the potential risks in the EU associated with the dissemination of content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political or societal events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections. Let me clarify that any negative effect of illegal content on X in the EU, which could be attributed to the ineffectiveness of the way in which X applies the relevant provisions of the DSA, may be relevant in the context of the ongoing proceedings and of the overall assessment of X's compliance with EU law. This is in line with what has already been done in the recent past, for example in relation to the repercussions and amplification of terrorist content or content that incites violence, hate and racism in the EU, such as in the context of the recent riots in the United Kingdom. I therefore urge you to promptly ensure the effectiveness of your systems and to report measures taken to my team. My services and I will be extremely vigilant to any evidence that points to breaches of the DSA and will not hesitate to make full use of our toolbox, including by adopting interim measures, should it be warranted to protect EU citizens from serious harm. Yours sincerely, Cc: Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X Thierry Breton Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË

Elon Musk[3] replied to Breton's open letter that day, posting a meme from the movie Tropic Thunder with the text, "Take a big step back and literally, fuck your own face!" and the caption, "I really wanted to respond with this Tropic Thunder meme, but I would NEVER do something so rude & irresponsible!" The post amassed more than 264,000 likes and 47,000 reposts in a few hours.


Elon Musk @elonmusk. Follow X To be honest, I really wanted to respond with this Tropic Thunder meme, but I would NEVER do something so rude & irresponsible! TAKE A BIG STEP BACK AND LITERALLY, F--- YOUR OWN FACE! quickmeme

Livestream of Interview

The Elon Musk interview with Donald Trump faced a lengthy delay caused by technical problems, as X users posted memes and jokes about it. For instance, on August 12th, 2024, X[6] user @camhashoes posted a Guy Looking At Server meme, captioning it as, "Elon Musk trying to figure out how to get his app to work correctly for the Donald Trump interview😭😭." The tweet (seen below) amassed more than 830 likes and 100 reposts in a day.


Hoodie Cam @camhashoes. Follow X Elon Musk trying to figure out how to get his app to work correctly for the Donald Trump interview 8:21 PM Aug 12, 2024

Musk notably announced his endorsement of Trump during the interview, saying, "I think this is to people out there who are in the moderate camp to say, I think you should support Donald Trump for president." On August 13th, 2024, X[7] user @AdrianDittmann (a rumored sockpuppet account of Musk) shared a clip showing Elon Musk's quote (seen below), amassing roughly 5 million views and 4,200 likes in a few hours.


DDoS Attack Allegations

Following the technical issues, Elon Musk claimed the technical problems at the start of the interview occurred due to a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack on X.[8] His tweet (seen below) amassed more than 306,000 likes and 65,000 reposts in a day.


Elon Musk @elonmusk Follow There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X. Working on shutting it down. X Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later. 8:18 PM - Aug 12, 2024

According to sources interviewed by The Verge,[9] the publication reported that there wasn’t a denial-of-service attack, alleging "another X staffer said there was a '99 percent' chance Musk was lying about an attack."

Online Reactions

The Elon Musk and Donald Trump interview quickly grew as a viral topic on the internet, sparking debates and memes in mid-August 2024. For example, on August 12th, 2024, a few hours before the interview, X[4] user @DisavowTrump20 asked people to boycott the interview using the hashtag "#TwitterBlackout" (seen below, left), which amassed more than 4,100 likes and 1,900 reposts in a few hours.

On the same day, X[5] user @ajalexander944 posted an AI-generated picture of Elon Musk and Donald Trump kissing (seen below, right) paired with the caption, "These IDIOTS are the WORST things ever happened to this country. Fuck these CLOWNS. 🤡🤡," amassing more than 290 likes and 100 reposts in a few hours.


Protect Kamala Harris @DisavowTrump20. Follow Don't give Trump and Elon Musk attention they don't deserve. #TwitterBlackout 4:58 PM - Aug 12, 2024 TWITTER BLACKOUT 8:00 PM Eastern X

Donald Trump On The Phone With Elon Musk


Smooth Dunk @Smooth Dunk • 16h DAILY Daily Caller @DailyCaller 6m CALLER Trump during his discussion with Elon Musk: 52 [ 31 186 ill 6.2K 口 tz 2.1K 41K ili 1M

Donald Trump On The Phone With Elon Musk refers to a photo taken of Donald Trump during his X Spaces conversation with Elon Musk on August 12th, 2024. The photo, which showed Donald Trump smiling while looking intently at his smartphone, turned into an exploitable format with users recaptioning it to represent different situations. It also become the subject of fan art, with some drawing embellishments and extensions of Trump's body.

Search Interest

External References

[1] X – elonmusk

[2] X – realDonaldTrump

[3] X – elonmusk

[4] X – DisavowTrump20

[5] X – ajalexander944

[6] X – camhashoes

[7] X – AdrianDittmann

[8] X – elonmusk

[9] The Verge – The Elon Musk / Donald Trump interview on X started with an immediate tech disaster

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