US election 2024 live: Donald Trump joins Elon Musk for X interview

Donald Trump described the America he wants to fix as he attacked Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, after listeners questioned what happened to his voice in an interview with Elon Musk that was hit by a "massive" cyber attack. 

Donald Trump has rated global leaders from Russia and North Korea, and accused Kamala Harris of being a 'third-rate phony' as he attacked inflation and said what America must do to keep its citizens safe in a high-profile interview with billionaire Elon Musk.

The former president said he wants the US to have an Iron Dome, similar to Israel, and in a very one-sided conversation, Trump vented about a “zombie apocalypse” of immigration, repeatedly blasted President Joe Biden as “stupid”.

The Republican standard-bearer also dismissed climate change, whose sea-level rises he said would simply create more real estate opportunities.

“The biggest threat is not global warming, where the ocean is going to rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years,” he told Mr Musk.

“You’ll have more ocean front property, right? The biggest threat is not that. The biggest threat is nuclear warming, because we have five countries now that have significant nuclear power, and we have to not allow anything to happen with stupid people like Biden.”

He also questioned Joe Biden's IQ, claiming he was "close to vegetable stage" when he could not lift a chair on a beach on the weekend in Delaware. 

"I looked at him today on the beach, and I said, Why would anybody allow him? The guy could barely walk. Why would anybody allow him?", Mr Trump said.

He also recalled the assassination attempt that left him shot in the ear and how he managed to survive by "turning his head at the last second" and  "had to take his hat off" to the Secret Service counter-sniper who saved his life at the Pennsylvania rally on July 13.

He also confirmed he would be going back to Butler on the campaign trail, and said "illegal immigration" saved his life in relation to the chart he turned his head to look at the day Thomas Crooks fired his shots.

Mr Trump's voice was the talk of social media, after many questioned if he had developed a lisp.

“Is it just me….. What is wrong with trumps voice??” another wrote. “Sound like he has a lisp??” The Trump campaign denied he had one.    

While Mr Trump was meant to join Mr Musk for the virtual interview at 10am AEST, the interview was delayed for 40 minutes after Mr Musk confirmed his X platform was hit by a "massive DDOS attack".

A DDOS attack is a distributed denial of service attack and it occurs when a computer is infected with special malware, known as a “botnet”, which attack a server to stop it from operating until it finally collapses.

Mr Musk managed to get an audio feed on his platform, after a live stream was abandoned.

The former president’s return to posting on X as his Democratic opponent, vice president Kamala Harris, surges ahead in the polls.

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