A source at X says the Donald Trump interview crash was not the result of a DDoS attack; another X employee said there was a “99 percent” chance Musk was lying

Elon Musk's “conversation” with former President Donald Trump got off to a rocky start.

The Verge 2024-08-13

Context & Ripple Effects

The disruption was already reported as technical glitches at the scheduled start, while a separate recap put the delay at 42 minutes and described an audience that at times exceeded one million listeners. This report matters because it challenges the explanation offered for a highly visible platform failure.

The event also sits within a documented political connection between Musk and Trump, including their prior political discussions and an unconsummated Truth Social acquisition inquiry. That makes the reliability of X's public account consequential beyond routine service troubleshooting.

First-order effects

X faces an immediate credibility problem: an internal denial of the DDoS explanation conflicts with Musk's public attribution of the outage.
The interview's technical failure becomes a question of operational transparency, rather than solely an external attack, for listeners and political participants using X Spaces.

Second-order effects

Future high-profile hosts and campaign teams may demand clearer contingency plans and incident explanations before relying on X for live events.
The conflicting accounts increase pressure on X to distinguish verified incident findings from executives' initial public claims, particularly after a delay that had already drawn attention.

Third-order effects

If executive statements repeatedly outrun internally supported incident evidence, trust in owner-led platform communications can become a competitive liability for live-audio and real-time information products.
The episode points to a broader tension in politically important platforms: resilience and post-incident accountability increasingly shape whether public figures treat them as dependable event infrastructure.

The trend: High-stakes live events are turning platform reliability and credible incident disclosure into core features of political-media distribution.

Discussion

@reckless1280 Nilay Patel on threads
Elon is lying about a DDOS, of course. Immediate scoop from @kylie.robison -> https://www.theverge.com/... [image]
@danseifert Dan Seifert on threads
my wife: why didn't you do that yard work I asked you to do this weekend me: massive DDOS attack
@karissabe Karissa on threads
Trump: AI, and this is shocking to me, but AI requires twice the energy that the country already produces for everything Musk: sure ... *changes the subject*
@reckless1280 Nilay Patel on threads
Elon is coming off as a pure coward in this pathetic attempt to placate Trump on climate change
@reckless1280 Nilay Patel on threads
Trump is talking about summary executions for street fights and Elon is all “yeah right,” it is frankly incredible
@technicallymims Christopher Mims on threads
Kind of wild to hear how well Musk and Trump are getting along. They sound like a mutual admiration society.
@technicallymims Christopher Mims on threads
Musk just said we “don't need to rush” on the energy transition and averting the worst of climate change. Things get bad at 1000ppm of CO2 because you get headaches and nausea, he allows. “My view is if you look at the ppm increments every year... it's problematic if it acceler…
@brianstelter Brian Stelter on threads
If the X listener data can be believed, which is a big if, Trump's chat with Musk on this platform has roughly the same size audience as his phone call to “Fox & Friends” last week. The main difference is that this exchange is a whole lot longer.
@fredericl Frederic Lardinois on threads
A non-adversarial interview with Trump just means listening to Trump ramble and Elon saying ‘sure’ and ‘yeah.’ Good stuff.
@crumbler Casey Newton on threads
Not the first Space-X crash https://www.npr.org/...
@anidealhusbando.bsky.social Adrian Randall on bluesky
Sounds like a great place to work
@howelloneill.bsky.social Patrick Howell O'Neill on bluesky
Blessed are the meme makers for they make the internet good when this dumb shit happens [embedded post]
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on 𝕏. Working on shutting it down. Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.
@robrousseau Rob on x
In fairness to Elon, the technology to allow a few thousand people to listen to an audio broadcast simply does not exist yet
r/inthenews r on reddit
Musk claims there was a DDOS attack on X — but The Verge is told there was not.
r/EnoughMuskSpam r on reddit
Xitter staffers tell The Verge there was a “99% chance Elon was lying” about DDOS attack
r/politics r on reddit
The Elon / Trump interview on X started with an immediate tech disaster
@snazzyq Quinn Nelson on threads
Elon really was destined to be a c-suite executive. Being able to dodge personal accountability and place the blame on an external, conspiracist “dark hand” that doesn't exist is truly a skill few have.
@moskov Dustin Moskovitz on threads
I'm guessing that the massive “DDOS attack” is just a high level of real concurrent users trying to watch the heavily promoted live stream. That often *looks* just like a DDOS attack internally as e.g. your webservers keep trying to reconnect to a database that has become overlo…
@mac_ryan_ Ryan Mac on threads
Here is Musk agreeing with Zynga founder Mark Pincus, who suggested without evidence that the “attack” on X was due to the Democrats trying to stop Musk and Trump from speaking.
@seancolarossi Sean Colarossi on threads
Okay, this is hilarious. First, Elon's interview with Trump crashed before it even began. They blamed an “attack,” though the rest of the site worked just fine. Then, when it did eventually come online, Trump appears to be slurring throughout the discussion, or speaking with a…
@reckless1280 Nilay Patel on threads
Elon's big idea that you learn more from someone in a non-confrontational interview is being disproven so, so quickly
@matthewfacciani Matthew Facciani on threads
Fascinating to watch pro-Trump accounts on X claim the interview crash was some sort of attack by “elites.” In their worldview the richest man in the world and the last president of the US are not “elites.”
@mattnavarra Matt Navarra on threads
Musk is now claiming the live Spaces event on X was hit by major DDoS attack causing it to break 😂 The dude has a conspiracy theory for everything. Much like most X users
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
We tested the system with 8 million concurrent listeners earlier today
@x @x on x
Between 7:47 PM and 10:47 PM ET, President Donald Trump's Space post received 73 million views. During the same period, there were 4 million posts about Elon Musk and President Trump's conversation on 𝕏, generating a total of 998 million views.
@u_n_l_0_c_k_e_d Keys on x
Wow, a DDoS attack so advanced it's somehow able to target one specific Twitter Space while leaving the entire rest of the platform completely unaffected. A skeptic might call that impossible but the deviousness of these woke deep state leftists truly knows no bounds. [image]
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
Combined views of the conversation with @realDonaldTrump and subsequent discussion by other accounts now ~1 billion
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
It's unclear what the cause is, but worth noting Musk has a history of blaming outside forces for company problems. After one of his SpaceX rockets blew up in 2016, he suggested someone fired bullets at the rocket. The issue was later attributed to a faulty oxygen tank. [image]
@levynews Ari Levy on x
The half hour when nobody could get on was by far the highlight Elon Musk, Donald Trump event on X crashes site, Tesla CEO blames cyberattack https://www.cnbc.com/...
@u_n_l_0_c_k_e_d Keys on x
What's wrong Elon, are the bots you made to auto engage with any of your activity giving you problems?
r/NewsOfTheStupid r on reddit
Elon Musk, Donald Trump event on X crashes site, Tesla CEO blames cyberattack
r/CyberStuck r on reddit
Elon Musk, Donald Trump event on X crashes site, Tesla CEO blames cyberattack
r/uspolitics r on reddit
Elon Musk, Donald Trump event on X crashes site, Tesla CEO blames cyberattack
r/democrats r on reddit
Elon Musk, Donald Trump event on X crashes site, Tesla CEO blames cyberattack
r/USNewsHub r on reddit
Elon Musk, Donald Trump event on X crashes site, Tesla CEO blames cyberattack
r/NewsAndPolitics r on reddit
Elon Musk, Donald Trump event on X crashes site, Tesla CEO blames cyberattack
r/inthenews r on reddit
Elon Musk, Donald Trump event on X crashes site, Tesla CEO blames cyberattack
r/politics r on reddit
Elon Musk, Donald Trump event on X crashes site, Tesla CEO blames cyberattack
@chickenpuppet.bsky.social @chickenpuppet.bsky.social on bluesky
Dear God a million is sad, he got beat by generic Fox News programming [embedded post]
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
Almost all of legacy media will trash the Trump conversation, thus driving total listeners probably past 200+ million 😂
@danieldimartino Daniel Di Martino on x
Elon Musk might be the most positive influence Trump has. In the space so far he has advanced: - Cutting government spending - Legal immigration - Deregulation - High speed transit - Nuclear energy - Sensible approach to climate change
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
All I need to know about how badly Kamala is beating Trump in the polls is that he's come crawling back to Twitter. [image]
r/ethtrader r on reddit
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