In a highly anticipated virtual event, the joint X Spaces session between Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump experienced a significant disruption on Monday afternoon. Scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. PT, the conversation was eagerly awaited as it marked Trump’s return to the social media platform now known as X, following a nearly three-year hiatus.
The Anticipated Event
The X Spaces event, which was expected to be a major talking point, was promoted heavily by both Musk and Trump. The session was designed to allow Trump to speak directly to his audience on X, a platform where he had been banned since January 2021. Trump’s return to X earlier in the day included posts promoting the upcoming conversation and sharing campaign-related content.
Despite the high-profile nature of the event, users encountered a frustrating error message when attempting to join at the scheduled start time. The message displayed was: “This Space is not available,” leaving many unable to participate in what was expected to be a significant dialogue.
Technical Glitch and Claims
The live event eventually commenced at 5:42 p.m. PT, though it faced substantial delays. Musk attributed the crash to what he described as a “massive DDOS attack” on X. A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attack occurs when a server is inundated with excessive traffic from multiple sources, potentially overwhelming its capacity and causing outages.
Musk suggested that this attack was a deliberate attempt to hinder the conversation between himself and Trump. “As this massive attack illustrates, there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say,” Musk stated as the Space began. He emphasized his commitment to having the conversation despite the technical challenges.
Past Technical Issues
This incident is not the first time X has faced technical difficulties during politically significant events. In May 2023, a similar situation occurred when Twitter—now X—had issues during Ron DeSantis’s 2024 campaign announcement, which was also conducted on the platform. These recurring problems have raised questions about X’s capacity to handle high-profile events smoothly.
Trump’s Return and X’s Platform Dynamics
Donald Trump’s reappearance on X marks a notable shift from his exclusive use of Truth Social, his own social media platform, since his ban from Twitter. Although his X account was reinstated in November 2022 following Musk’s acquisition of the platform, Trump had largely remained active on his own network.
Trump’s Monday posts included promotional content for the X Spaces event and links to his campaign website, signaling a strategic use of multiple social media outlets to reach his audience. The technical issues experienced during the X Spaces event highlight ongoing challenges in managing high-traffic events on social media platforms.
The crash of the Elon Musk and Donald Trump X Spaces event underscores the technical hurdles that can arise in the digital age, especially during high-profile political engagements. While Musk and Trump managed to eventually proceed with their discussion, the initial failure to deliver the event as planned has drawn attention to the reliability issues that can affect even the most anticipated online interactions.
As X continues to host major events and political discussions, addressing these technical challenges will be crucial for maintaining credibility and user engagement. The incident serves as a reminder of the complexities involved in managing large-scale digital platforms and the importance of robust infrastructure to support high-stakes conversations.