Donald Trump jokingly claimed 'illegal immigration saved my life' - while also describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a 'good negotiator' and the EU as 'bad' - as he and X owner Elon Musk held a two-hour discussion on the social media platform on Monday.

Before they began talking, Musk claimed the 'late start' was due to a "massive distributed denial of service attack against our servers". He then asked Trump about the shooting at the rally in Pennsylvania, which the Republican candidate admitted was "not pleasant, I have to be honest".

"We had bullets flying right over my head after I went down. So I'm glad I went down. The bigger miracle was that I was looking in the exact direction of the shooter," he said, relating that he had turned to look at an immigration chart.

"I love that chart even more now," he said, as Musk suggested it could be 'a sign'.

"That slide, that slide saved your life," the tech billionaire said, while Trump replied: "Illegal immigration saved my life."

Trump also claimed the American needed a strong leader that China, the DPRK and Russia would respect.

"They're at the top of their game," he said. "They're tough, they're smart, they're vicious, and they're gonna protect their country. Whether they love their country, they probably do. It's just a different form of love, but they're gonna protect their country. But these are tough people at the top of their game. And when they see a Kamala, or when they see Biden, Sleepy Joe, they can't even believe it."

Trump also suggested Joe Biden was to blame for the Ukraine conflict, and alleged that he had a 'very low IQ'.

"Biden did something with Russia. There was no chance of him (Putin) ever going in," he said. "They started forming big armies on the border with Ukraine, right? And I looked at that and I thought he was doing that because Putin's a good negotiator. I thought he was doing that to negotiate."

"But then Biden started saying such stupid things," he added. "For instance, he said that it (Ukraine) can be a NATO country. Now, Russia, for as long as there's been NATO, has said, we're never gonna agree to that."

"He (Biden) said things that were so stupid that that war had zero chance of happening if I were there, zero chance," Trump continued, while Musk replied that he thought "people underrate the risk of World War III."

Moscow has previously claimed that NATO expansionism fuelled the Ukraine conflict, which Kiev and the White House have strongly denied.

On NATO funding, Musk questioned "why… the United States [is] paying disproportionately more to defend Europe than Europe", while Trump also praised Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky as 'honourable'.

"There's nobody that feels worse about the Ukraine situation than I do because I know it would have never happened," he added.

Musk also brought up a letter he had received from the EU Commission, "saying to not have disinformation during this discussion that we're having."

"I know the European Union very well. They take great advantage of the United States in trade, as you know," Trump replied. "We have a deficit with them of $250 billion, which people don't know. It sounds so nice, the European Union, but let me tell you, they're not as tough as China, but they're bad. And I let them know it. And that's probably why they notified you."

Ahead of the interview, European Commissioner Thierry Breton claimed X could face 'penalties' if it didn't address 'illegal content', referring to both reports around the recent UK riots and the Musk-Trump conversation.