Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump attempted to hold a joint X Spaces event on August 12, 2024, but the event experienced significant technical issues, causing it to crash before it could begin. The event, which was scheduled to start at 5:00 PM PT, was intended to be a live conversation between the two prominent figures, marking Trump’s return to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. However, when users tried to join the Space at the scheduled time, they were met with an error message that read, “This Space is not available,” leading to widespread frustration among participants.
The conversation finally began at 5:42 PM PT, over 40 minutes later than planned. Despite the delays, the event was highly anticipated, with Trump promoting it on his X account, which he had just resumed using that morning after a long hiatus. This was Trump’s first post on the platform since January 2021, when he was banned following the Capitol riot. Since then, Trump had primarily posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social, although his account on X had been reinstated by Musk in November 2022, shortly after Musk acquired the platform.
The event, widely referred to as the “Trump Musk interview,” attracted attention not just because of the figures involved but also due to its symbolic significance. Elon Musk, who has frequently interacted with political figures, including Trump, has been a polarizing figure in his own right. The technical difficulties encountered during the event raised questions about Musk’s ability to maintain a stable platform, especially for high-profile interactions like this one.
Musk later claimed that the crash was due to a “massive DDOS attack on X.” A distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack occurs when a server is overwhelmed with artificial traffic, rendering it unable to function properly. Musk suggested that the attack was an attempt to prevent people from hearing what Trump had to say, implying that there was significant opposition to the former President’s message. He stated, “As this massive attack illustrates, there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say, but I’m honored to have this conversation.”
This technical failure is not the first time an X Space event involving a political figure has encountered issues. In May 2023, a similar situation occurred during Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s 2024 campaign announcement on the platform. That event, which also featured Elon Musk and venture capitalist David Sacks, was plagued by technical glitches that interrupted the broadcast and led to widespread criticism. The ongoing challenges faced by X, especially in politically charged situations, have drawn attention to the platform’s reliability under Musk’s leadership.
The difficulties experienced during the Elon Musk X event with Trump have raised further questions about the platform’s ability to handle high-profile live events. The incident highlights ongoing challenges for X as it seeks to establish itself as a reliable platform for live audio conversations, particularly in a highly polarized political environment where technological disruptions can be seen as politically motivated. Despite the issues, the event eventually proceeded, drawing attention to both Trump’s return to the platform and the technical vulnerabilities of Musk’s social media venture.
