Elon Musk's big X interview with Trump kicked off with major technical difficulties
- X malfunctioned on Monday ahead of Elon Musk's live interview with Donald Trump.
- The technical difficulties are reminiscent of Ron DeSantis' disastrous campaign launch on X last year.
Elon Musk's livestream interview with former President Donald Trump ran into technical difficulties before the conversation even got started on Monday.
The Musk-owned social media platform broke as thousands of X users attempted to join the live space ahead of the discussion, which was scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.
The platform malfunctioned for many users despite Musk saying Sunday that he conducted several system scaling tests ahead of the conversation.
Several X users responded to the space, saying they were unable to join the discussion. Some people received a message that said "this space is not available."
The technical complications harkened back to Musk's disastrous campaign interview with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year. DeSantis' attempt to launch his 2024 presidential bid was delayed by almost 30 minutes after X — then Twitter — crashed while trying to handle nearly 500,000 listeners.
On Sunday, Musk live-streamed himself gaming twice in preparation for the discussion with Trump, drawing in 2.1 million views and 1.3 million views, respectively.
Musk advertised the conversation with Trump as an "unscripted" discussion "with no limits on subject matter."
In previous elections, Musk made an effort to stay out of politics. But the Tesla CEO has taken an increasingly far-right turn in recent months, officially endorsing Trump for president in July.
Since he bought Twitter in October 2022 and turned it into X, Musk has upped his political posting, often sharing right-wing theories and crusading against anti-wokeism.
This story is breaking. Please check back for updates.