Former President Donald Trump, left, throughout a rally on the 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 on Monday night on social media platform X, the newest collaboration between two males whose unlikely alliance might be a major issue shaping the ultimate weeks of the presidential race.
“That is unscripted with no limits on subject material, so needs to be extremely entertaining!” Musk, the billionaire CEO of each Tesla and SpaceX, wrote in a Sunday put up on X. The occasion is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET and can be streamed on X, which Musk owns.
Hours forward of the interview, Trump posted a marketing campaign advert on his private X account. It marked the primary time since August 2023 that Trump has posted something on X.
The previous president sometimes restricts his social media exercise to Fact Social, the conservative-friendly platform owned by his eponymous media enterprise, Trump Media & Expertise Group.
Trump helped to create Fact Social and later made it his major platform, after he was suspended from then-Twitter and Fb following the Jan. 6 Capitol revolt.
As a part of his contract with the brand new firm, Trump agreed to cease posting content material on Twitter, now X, that he had not already posted on Fact Social. However the settlement has a loophole: Trump is all the time allowed to make use of his private X and Fb accounts for any posts which might be political in nature or campaign-related, in response to an organization monetary submitting.
Trump’s return to X on Monday revived the prospect that he would possibly begin posting extra usually to the platform that was so instrumental to his political rise — now that it’s owned by a pleasant Musk.
Shares of Trump Media had been down 5% at Monday’s market shut forward of the dialog with Musk.
Musk posted on X that he deliberate to carry out “some system scaling checks” to gauge the X platform’s streaming capabilities forward of the occasion with Trump.
The checks are meant to forestall a repeat of the disastrous Could 2023 dwell launch of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ presidential marketing campaign, which was held on the social media platform. The webcast glitches derailed the extremely anticipated occasion.
Musk jumps into politics
The Trump interview is Musk’s newest high-profile foray into the 2024 presidential race.
Earlier this 12 months, Musk created the America PAC, a pro-Trump political motion committee that Musk reportedly had deliberate to bankroll with as a lot as $45 million a month. Musk later denied that he ever meant to present that a lot.
The PAC got down to mobilize 800,000 voters for Trump in vital swing states. However after a rocky begin and excessive turnover, CNBC reported that the PAC is going through questions from state election officers about the way it collects and makes use of voters’ private data.
Whereas the destiny of the PAC is unclear, the dialog Monday evening might present a fine addition for Trump at an important second for the Republican presidential nominee.
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz seem on stage collectively throughout a marketing campaign occasion at Girard Faculty in Philadelphia, Aug. 6, 2024.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Photos
Simply three weeks after Vice President Kamala Harris‘ shock entry into the race, the Democrat has erased Trump’s polling lead and shifted the momentum of a contest that had appeared, at one level, prefer it was Trump’s to lose.
A buzzy, newsmaking occasion with Musk might assist to reinvigorate Trump’s base voters.
A sophisticated relationship
It might additionally go the opposite manner, too. Trump and Musk are each polarizing figures who’ve an advanced relationship with each other and with politics.
As just lately as 2022, Musk and Trump had been public enemies, buying and selling insults on social media and at political rallies.
“I do not hate the person, but it surely’s time for Trump to hold up his hat & sail into the sundown,” Musk wrote on social media in July 2022.
The subsequent day, Trump clapped again at Musk on Fact Social:
“When Elon Musk got here to the White Home … I might have mentioned, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have accomplished it …” Trump wrote.
Two years on, the 2 seem to have buried the hatchet.
Musk endorsed Trump in July, inside hours of an assassination try at a Pennsylvania rally that left the previous president with a minor bullet wound on his ear and killed an viewers member.
In flip, Trump seems to have modified his tune on Musk. He has even softened his critiques of electrical autos.
“I like Elon. He is nice,” Trump mentioned on the Bitcoin Convention in Nashville final month. “He endorsed me, and nice endorsement and the whole lot else. However not everyone has to have an electrical automobile.”
It is a growing story. Examine again for updates.
