Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump has responded to criticism he was slurring throughout his two-hour friendly chat with tech titan Elon Musk.

Trump sparked concerns for his health after his chat on Musk’s social media platform X on Tuesday (Australian time) was marred by technical problems.

The issues caused a 40-minute delay that frustrated listeners, and then continued as Trump appeared to slur his words.

The bizarre audio – with Trump appearing to have a lisp throughout the loved-up conversation – overshadowed the content of his discussion with Musk, which hit on his attempted assassination, immigration, “ssstupid people”, and the US presidential election being a fork in the road in history.

Any of the media that suggested Biden had Parkinson’s or dementia—based on a cold & lifelong stutter—better damn well have that same energy for Trump after this incoherent slur-fest.

— jill 🌺🐝🍦 (@JillyM98) August 13, 2024

On Wednesday, Trump responded with a post on his Truth Social platform – despite having returned to X for his conversation with Musk and his own posts earlier this week.

“My conversation with Elon last night was heard by a RECORD audience, and was really something special, as Elon himself is very special – and I thank him for such a strong Endorsement!” he wrote.

“Unfortunately, because of the complexity of modern day equipment, and cellphone technology, my voice was, in certain areas, somewhat different and strange. Therefore, we have put out an actual, and perfect, recording of the conversation. ENJOY!!!”

Musk, who has endorsed Trump, initially blamed the difficulties on a distributed denial-of-service attack, in which a server or network is flooded with traffic in an attempt to shut it down. His claim could not be verified, and no other parts of X were affected.

Ahead of the talk with Trump, he wrote: “Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation.”

X did not respond to requests for details or evidence of the alleged cyber attack.

Trump sought to turn the problems into a positive, congratulating Musk on the number of people trying to tune in. At one point, he claimed that added up to 60 million people.

A counter on X showed it was more like 1.3 million.

Moments after Trump’s statement, Musk predicted that 100 million people would listen to the problem-plagued interview “over the next few days [and] weeks”.

Trump’s Truth Social post on Wednesday. Image: X

Musk let Trump lead the conversation and did not challenge inaccurate statements, including the assertion that other countries were sending criminals from their prisons across the southern US border, or that bacon prices had risen four or five times.

Studies show immigrants, including those in the US illegally, do not commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans.

The talk was Trump’s latest effort to seize the spotlight from his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, whose 11th-hour entry into the race has galvanised her party and boosted Democratic fundraising.

Trump insulted Harris several times, referring to her as “third rate”, “incompetent” and “a radical left lunatic”.

Then he praised her looks.

“She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live,” Trump said about a picture of Harris on the cover of Time magazine.

“It was a drawing, and actually, she looked very much like a great first lady, Melania,” he added, referring to his wife.

He also expressed anger that Harris had replaced President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket for November’s presidential election.

“She hasn’t done an interview since this whole scam started,” said Trump, claiming falsely that Biden dropping out of the election race was a “coup”.

A long-standing critic of electric vehicles, Trump has shifted gears since Musk’s endorsement. On Monday, he described the electric cars made by Tesla as “incredible”.

He also 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”.

-with AAP