Ex-president and presidential contender for the Republicans, Donald Trump, set a new record on X, formerly Twitter, with his extremely publicized interview with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on August 14.
The conversation between Elon Musk and Trump for two hours long, brought in a record 1.3 million live listeners and more than 90 million views despite technical problems that pushed the start time back over 40 minutes.
The interview, hosted on Musk’s platform X, was disrupted as the app crashed due to an overwhelming influx of people trying to join the live stream. Musk had openly endorsed Trump and blamed a distributed denial-of-service attack for the problems, though this cannot be confirmed at this stage.
Not deterred by the technical glitches, Trump congratulated Musk for the huge viewership and spun the situation to make the event positive. Through it all, Trump was given the chance to pontificate on a myriad of grievances, personal attacks, and often controversial views on some inaccurate immigration and economic statements.
Still, Elon Musk was simply a prop for the conversation, allowing Trump’s statements to go unchallenged—including saying other countries were sending criminals across the U.S. border and exaggerating the rise in the price of bacon.
He touched on some familiar themes, such as immigration, where he said that though many of those who cross the border are not “bad people,” he believes they all must still meet high levels of scrutiny before being let into the country.
This record-breaking event underlines Trump’s unbroken influence and the colossal reach that the Musk platform, X, holds in shaping public discourse as the presidential race for 2024 gathers momentum.