...
By Maya Mehrara
News Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Donald Trump has claimed that 1 billion people tuned in to the livestream of his interview with Elon Musk on X, formerly Twitter, on August 12.
The August 13 edition of "Palm Beach Playbook," a newsletter from the Trump campaign, referred to the interview as "the most successful X interview in history" and added that "in less than a day, over a billion people 'tuned in' to hear President Trump speak. President Trump's post alone has generated over 200 million views and over 630,000 likes, while X app downloads reached an all-time high."
It continued, "President Trump, meanwhile, gained nearly a million new followers after his first X posts in nearly a year."
Read More on News
The newsletter went on to slam Kamala Harris and highlighted "must-hear moments" from the interview.
According to a link to the recording on Trump's X profile, 27.7 million people have so far "tuned in" to the two-hour interview. This figure is much closer to that listed on the Republican National Committee's website, which says 24.1 million people watched. It is unclear what the 1 billion figure is referencing.
...
The former president announced he would take part in an interview with Musk less than a week before it was conducted.
Despite running technical tests before his interview with Trump, Musk's two-hour conversation with the former president faced technical difficulties and began 40 minutes late.
As attendees reported issues getting on to the livestream or hearing the audio, Musk tweeted, "There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X. Working on shutting it down."
Trump and Musk discussed climate change, immigration, the economy, and more.
Trump has repeatedly bragged about the size of his audience throughout the campaign.
At a press conference in Mar-a-Lago on August 8, Trump compared the crowds at his rally prior to the January 6 attack on the Capitol to the crowds listening to civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963.
The January 6 committee's 2022 report estimates that crowds at Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally numbered 53,000, while there were approximately 250,000 attendees at the civil rights activist's speech according to the National Park Service.
Trump also posted on Truth Social that photos of the crowds at Vice President Kamala Harris' rally in Detroit, Michigan were doctored using AI, which the Harris campaign has denied.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email.
Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines