Donald Trump told Elon Musk that "illegal immigration saved my life" in a much-anticipated X conversation that was delayed due to technical issues.
The site showed that the page was "not available" shortly after the scheduled start time of 8pm Eastern Time (1am UK time) for some users, though more than 115,000 people appeared to have joined successfully.
Mr Musk then tweeted: "There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X. Working on shutting it down."
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack is designed to force a website, computer, or online service offline.
This is done by flooding the target with many requests, consuming its capacity and rendering it unable to respond to legitimate requests.
The event started around 40 minutes late with Musk opening the chat talking about the assassination attempt on Mr Trump.
Analysis:
Musk is now a Trump fan - but will endorsem*nt be decisive?
The tech billionaire could be heard laughing through large sections - no more so than when Mr Trump claimed "illegal immigration saved my life".
The Republican nominee told how he had turned his head to look at an illegal immigration chart during the rally on 13 July - meaning gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks missed.
At a glance: What Trump told Musk
• Mr Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - all authoritarian strongmen - as at the "top of their game";
• He spoke of his good relationship with Kim Jong Un, claiming the North Korean leader told him he doesn't like "stupid man" Joe Biden;
• If "something happens" with the election, Mr Trump told Mr Musk they'll meet next time in Venezuela as "it will be a far safer place to meet than our country";
• He also said if he loses the election then "you're not going to have a country anymore";
• Mr Trump said one of his first acts as president would be to close the Department of Education and return responsibility to individual states - adding "out of 50 [states] I bet 35 would do great";
• "I didn't know I had that much blood," Mr Trump said of the attempt on his life, adding he is now "more of a believer in God";
• Mr Trump insulted rival Kamala Harris several times, referring to her as "incompetent" and "a radical left lunatic", before praising her looks - "she looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live" and compared her to his wife, Melania;
• Mr Trump repeated debunked claims, including the theory "the Congo" had emptied its prisons of murderers and sent them to the US.
He went on to criticise Democrat rival Kamala Harris's immigration record, claiming she oversaw a huge rise in unauthorised crossings after being put "in charge" of the Mexico-US border.
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Ms Harris co-ordinated with foreign countries to address poverty and security issues driving people into the US but was not directly responsible for border policy.
There was one moment in the conversation with Musk where Mr Trump said he saw Ms Harris on the cover of Time magazine. "She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live," he said. "It was a drawing, and actually she looked very much like a great first lady, Melania. She didn't look like Kamala. But, of course, she's a beautiful woman."
Be the first to get Breaking News Install the Sky News app for freeMr Trump complained extensively about undocumented immigrants making their way to the US.
"Elon, what's happened is unbelievable," he told 1.2 million X listeners during his chat.
"They're coming from the Congo, and 22 people came in from the Congo recently, and they're murderers."
The pair also discussed government efficiency, nuclear power and tax cuts in the two-hour broadcast.
Musk is now a fully signed up Trump fan - will his endorsem*nt be decisive?
Martha Kelner
US correspondent
Once the interview did finally get under way, a love-in between two of the most powerful people in the world began.
Musk opened by saying this forum wasn't going to be "adversarial". It was going to be a "conversation" aimed at "open-minded, independent voters", he said. It was, in fact, a Donald Trump sermon, punctuated by occasional murmurs of assent from Musk.
For more than 20 minutes, he spoke about the attempted assassination, with few interjections. Mr Trump retold how he had narrowly escaped death because he turned his head at the last moment to refer to a chart behind him showing levels of border crossings.
"Illegal immigration saved my life," he declared, to girly laughter from the world's richest man. This was not incisive political interviewing. It wasn't even particularly interesting.
There was not much new insight into Mr Trump's views. The evolution of Musk's political stance continues, though, to fascinate.
Read the full analysis here.
The technical issues will bring back bad memories for Elon Musk from May 2023, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suffered a chaotic start to his bid for the Republican presidential nomination due to glitches on the platform.
The hour-long broadcast lost sound for extended stretches, and thousands of users were either unable to join or were dropped.
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At the time, Mr Trump mocked Mr DeSantis on his own social media platform, Truth Social.
"My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!)" Trump posted.
"Yours does not."
