Elon Musk promised that entertainment was guaranteed and Donald Trump described it as "the interview of the century".
But the highly touted interview, which was to be broadcast via X's audio function Spaces during the night to Tuesday, became somewhat of an anticlimax.
Major technical problems hit X and thousands of users were met with error messages when they tried to log in.
Elon Musk wrote in a post before the interview began that it "seems like" the platform had been subjected to an overload attack, a so-called ddos attack. However, this was questioned by many users, since the rest of the platform was functioning as usual.
40 minutes late
The interview finally began 40 minutes after the scheduled time, with over a million logged-in listeners according to X.
The whole thing started with a long conversation about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Pennsylvania in July.
I didn't know I had so much blood, said Trump about the injury and added that his faith in God is stronger after the event.
Elon Musk asked critical questions about the security service Secret Service's actions during the assassination attempt, but Trump largely responded by praising their efforts. A cautious questioning did, however, arise regarding how the shooter was able to get to the roof from which he fired the shots.
Reiterated stances
The over two-hour-long conversation provided few new insights into Trump's plans for a potential second term. Instead, it largely dealt with topics that the former president had previously spoken about.
He attacked, among other things, Vice President Kamala Harris for her immigration policy, criticized President Joe Biden for not being able to prevent the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and insisted that the USA was a better country when he was president.
Trump also repeated unfounded claims that other countries would deliberately send violent criminals to the USA.
Elon Musk, who had previously emphasized that he wanted the meeting to be more of a conversation between him and Trump than a regular interview, seemed to stick to that. He largely agreed with what Trump said in the conversation, which was characterized by a friendly tone throughout.
After Musk bought Twitter (later renamed to X) in 2022, Donald Trump's account was reactivated after the former president was banned following the storming of the US Congress in January 2021.
In 2020, Elon Musk gave his support to President Joe Biden, but he has since moved towards the political right. In July this year, he instead backed Donald Trump.
