Donald Trump has told Tesla CEO Elon Musk that he is “more of a believer” in God after surviving an assassination attempt last month.

The Republican presidential candidate spoke with the billionaire CEO of social media platform X in a livestream hosted on the site. The interview was delayed by 40 minutes, which Musk said was due to an “attack” on X’s servers.

The interview began with Musk asking Trump about the assassination attempt which took place at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on 13th July.

Trump laughed: “It was not pleasant… I knew immediately that it was bullet. I knew immediately that it was at the ear.

“The miracle was that I turned my head… I’m now more of a believer, I think.

“For those people that don’t believe in God, I think we all have to start thinking about that.”

The former president said he would return to Butler – which is in the key Battleground state of Pennsylvania – by opening a rally with: “As I was saying”.

Further in the interview, Trump claimed he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the invasion of Ukraine. “I told him don’t do it,” Trump said, “it’s gonna be a bad day if you do it, and I told him things that I do, and he said ‘No way’, and I said ‘Way’. And that’s the last time we had the conversation.”

“I get along well with him,” Trump said of the Russian leader, “I hope to get along well with him again.”

This week, Premier Christian News has been told of increased Christian persecution at the hands of Russian authorities, which has seen an orthodox preacher facing prison for an alleged social media post, questioning whether Jesus would support the war in Ukraine. 

The interview raises questions about the political potency of media platforms such as X. Elon Musk took over and rebranded the social media giant, formerly Twitter in October 2022. The tech billionaire used the interview to endorse Trump saying: “America is at a fork in the road and you are the path to prosperity and I think Kamala is the opposite.”