Former President Donald Trump, left, during a rally at Minden Tahoe Airport in Minden, Nevada, Oct. 8, 2022, and Elon Musk in Wilmington, Delaware, July 12, 2021.
AP
Elon Musk will interview former President Donald Trump Monday afternoon on social media platform X, the latest collaboration between two men whose unlikely alliance could be a major factor shaping the final weeks of the presidential race.
“This is unscripted with no restrictions on subject matter, so it should be a lot of fun!” Musk, the billionaire CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, he wrote in a Sunday post on X. The event is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET and will be streamed on X, which Musk owns.
Hours before the interview, Trump posted one campaign advertisement to X’s staff account. It was the first time since August 2023 that Trump had posted anything on X.
The former president typically limits his social media activity to Truth Social, the conservative-friendly platform owned by his eponymous media venture. Trump Media & Technology Group.
Trump helped create Truth Social and later made it his primary platform after being banned from then-Twitter and Facebook following the January 6 Capitol riot.
As part of his contract with the new company, Trump agreed to stop posting content on Twitter, now X, that he hadn’t already posted on Truth Social. However, the deal has a loophole: Trump is always allowed to use his personal X and Facebook accounts for any posts that are political in nature or related to the campaign, according to the financial statement of the company.
Trump’s return to X on Monday revived the prospect that he might start posting more regularly on the platform that has been so instrumental to his political rise — now owned by a Musk friend.
Shares of Trump Media fell about 4% on Monday ahead of the conversation with Musk.
Musk posted on X that he planned to perform “some system scaling tests” to gauge the streaming capabilities of the X platform before the event with Trump.
The tests are intended to prevent a repeat of the disastrous May 2023 live launch of Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis’ presidential campaign that took place on the social media platform. Webcast glitches derailed the much-anticipated event.
Musk jumps into politics
The Trump interview is Musk’s latest high-profile foray into the 2024 presidential race.
Earlier this year, Musk created the America PAC, a pro-Trump political action committee that Musk reportedly planned to fund with up to $45 million a month. Musk later denied that he ever intended to give away that much.
The PAC started to to mobilize 800,000 voters for Trump in critical swing situations. But after a rocky start and high turnover, CNBC reported that the PAC is facing questions from state election officials about how it collects and uses voters’ personal information.
While the fate of the PAC is unclear, Monday night’s conversation could provide a welcome boost for Trump at a critical time for the Republican presidential nominee.
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz appear together on stage during a campaign rally at Girard College in Philadelphia, Aug. 6, 2024.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
Just three weeks after Vice President Kamala Harris’ surprise entry into the race, the Democrat erased Trump’s lead in the polls and changed the dynamics of a contest that at one point looked like Trump would lose.
A crowded event with Musk could help reinvigorate voters in Trump’s base.
A complicated relationship
It could also go the other way. Trump and Musk are both polarizing figures who have a complicated relationship with each other and with politics.
It wasn’t until 2022 that it was Musk and Trump public enemies, they trade insults on social media and at political rallies.
“I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail off into the sunset,” Musk wrote on social media in July 2022.
The next day, Trump clapped back at Musk on Truth Social:
“When Elon Musk came to the White House… I could have said ‘get down on your knees and beg’ and he would have done it…” Trump wrote.
Two years later, the two seem to have buried the hatchet.
Musk endorsed Trump in July, hours after an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania left the former president with a minor bullet wound to his ear and killed an audience member.
In turn, Trump appears to have changed his tune about Musk. He has even softened his criticism of electric vehicles.
“I love Elon. He’s great,” Trump said at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville last month. “He approved me, and a lot of support and everything. But not everyone has to have an electric car.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
