Donald Trump and Elon Musk staged a rambling “conversation” in which the Republican White House candidate aired his views unchallenged for two hours after a technical delay that drew mockery from his Democratic rival.

The glitch on X (formerly Twitter) held up the online appearance by more than 40 minutes, to the outspoken frustration of prominent Republicans and donors who were trying to tune in. Mr Musk, who owns X and Tesla, blamed a cyber attack but offered no evidence of that.

When it did begin, the 78-year-old former president dwelt on his attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania a month ago. He appeared at times to be speaking with a lisp. It was unclear whether that was due to audio issues, but it attracted online memes likening him to Mike Tyson or Daffy Duck.

Among a series of false claims that drew no rebuttal from Mr Musk, Trump claimed that 22 “murderers” had been released from prison in “the Congo” and deposited in the United States. He also suggested that 60 million people were listening in. A running count on the site showed a live peak of 1.2 million.

The Republican claimed that Joe Biden, 81, was forced to withdraw from the presidential election race in a “coup” and insulted his new opponent, vice-president Kamala Harris, as “third rate”, “incompetent” and “a radical Left lunatic”. In a surreal turn, he also appeared to liken her looks favourably with his wife Melania’s, after Time magazine featured the Democratic candidate on its...

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