Former President Donald Trump returned to X today, his first big string of posts since getting booted from the site in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in 2021.
The impetus for it was a primetime interview with X owner Elon Musk who, in Trump and his fans’ eyes, took the shackles off the site and turned it into a free speech haven.
If, that is, you can actually use it. Since Musk took over, the site’s been stripped for parts and frequently struggles with basic functionalities.
So it was no surprise that Trump and Musk’s big X Spaces conversation, set for tonight at 7pm CT, didn’t kick off.
Visitors to Musk’s page, to Trump’s page, and to links on the site all returned an error.
On the site’s trending bar, topics like “Crashed,” “NOT WORKING,” and, best of all “Go to YouTube” racked up tens of thousands of tweets.
The YouTube link that got shared, however, went to an AI-generated Elon Musk talking about crypto, another fitting example of the site’s devolution into a grifter paradise.
Musk blamed a DDOS attack (sure) and claimed that the test for the Spaces worked just fine earlier in the day.
And while Musk will probably brush off the criticism, some on the site tried to brand Trump with an insult that he probably won’t appreciate.
“Big DeSantis energy,” joked more than a few.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) kicked off his 2024 bid with a Musk X Space that infamously flopped, as people struggled to get into the audio room, eventually starting nearly 30 minutes late.
Trump, at the time, shared a meme putting Hitler into the conversation and roasted it on Truth Social.
Wrote Trump at the time “Wow! The DeSantus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!” he wrote.
DeSantis later claimed he broke the internet. But his much-heralded campaign flamed out months later.
Musk later announced the interview would kick off at 7:30pm CT, finally starting at 7:42pm.
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