Donald Trump has returned to the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter—at least for a few tweets—ahead of an interview with Elon Musk, the website’s owner who has endorsed the Republican former president.
On Monday, hours before the interview was scheduled to stream, Trump posted several times on X, the current name of the platform he frequently used during his presidency.
“Are you better off now than you were when I was president?” a tweet read. “Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We’re a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!”
It was the first time he had used the platform since Aug. 24, 2023, when he posted a photo of his mug shot after he surrendered at an Atlanta jail on charges he conspired to overturn his election loss in Georgia.
Also on Monday, European Union official Thierry Breton sent a letter to Musk warning about the bloc’s online-content rules in the context of events including the interview, though the letter referred to a “US presidential candidate” and didn’t name Trump. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, has been investigating X over its handling of illegal content and disinformation, and Breton in the letter said Monday’s interview is of interest to EU officials because users in the EU can watch it.
X Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino responded on X, posting: “This is an unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the US. It also patronizes European citizens, suggesting they are incapable of listening to a conversation and drawing their own conclusions.”
The forthcoming discussion, which Musk described Sunday as “unscripted with no limits on subject matter” that “should be highly entertaining” comes as the tech mogul further involves himself in politics with the goal of ensuring Trump is re-elected president. Musk said he would solicit questions from X users.
On Monday, Musk said the platform had been conducting “system scaling tests” in anticipation of a flood of participants and listeners. The interview was slated to take place on X’s Spaces service, which is a live-audio feature.
Musk offered his endorsement of Trump within hours of the assassination attempt against the GOP presidential nominee last month at one of his rallies in western Pennsylvania. But Musk’s first major foray into presidential politics came in May, when he created America PAC, which is supporting Trump’s re-election campaign. Musk had told others he planned to contribute around $45 million a month into the PAC, The Wall Street Journal previously reported, though Musk later said on X that he is donating at a “much lower level.”
On Thursday, during a press conference at his Florida resort, Trump hailed the support.
“Great endorsement. I respect Elon a lot. He respects me and not easy for him to endorse,” Trump told reporters.
He added: “Elon is a very different kind of a guy. He’s a very big believer in the country, but he’s very worried about the country.”
Recently, including after Musk’s endorsement, the former president has softened his tone on electric vehicles, citing Musk’s support. Trump had previously criticized the Biden administration for pushing the market more toward electric vehicles, and said the administration was “spending hundreds of billions of dollars to give $7,500 tax credits to rich people who buy electric cars.”
Trump, this month at his rally in Atlanta, said: “I’m for electric because I have to be, you know, because Elon endorsed me very strongly.”
Musk, who has said he used to vote for Democrats, has increasingly embraced the right in his posts and actions on X. He reinstated many previously banned accounts, including Trump’s, who was kicked off the platform two days after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. At the time, the company cited “the risk of further incitement of violence.”
After Musk bought the company in October 2022, Trump’s account was reinstated, though he seldom uses it. Instead he has chosen to post virtually everything—from campaign videos to stream-of-conscious rants—on his own social-media site, Truth Social, which launched in February 2022.
He did, however, use the platform last August when he chose to skip the first Republican primary debate to sit for a taped interview that aired on X with former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson.
When Musk acquired Twitter, he pledged to turn the social-media platform into an “everything app” that would eclipse what the long-struggling business had accomplished since its founding in 2006. So far, much of Musk’s grand vision has yet to play out, with the company struggling on a number of metrics, including attracting users, according to third-party data.
