Elon Musk is positioning X behind the new Trump presidency

SAN FRANCISCO: Since Donald Trump won the presidential election, Elon Musk has gone all-in on the social network X to promote the incoming administration.

Musk, who owns X, posted on the platform about politics more than 400 times between Tuesday and Friday, celebrating Trump’s victory and talking about the causes that the president-elect should take up in office.

Musk’s posts included a photo of himself and his son X Æ A-Xii Musk surrounded by Trump and his family at Mar-a-Lago – Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Florida – as well as another photo of himself with Trump that was captioned “Novus Ordo Seclorum”, a Latin phrase that appears on the dollar bill and means “a new order for the ages”.

Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO, also chimed in. In reply to a post this past week about the platform’s role in driving political conversation, she wrote, “Reporting for duty.”

Their comments show how Musk is increasingly positioning X as the platform behind the new Trump presidency. Since the election was called Wednesday, Musk has used X to talk up how bright the future will be under the president-elect.

In addition, he has urged X’s users to replace the news media and report on Trump’s triumphant return to office, and has promoted the platform as a go-to destination for continuing conservative conversation.

That comes on top of how Musk has used X as a battering ram for months to support Trump’s campaign. Musk, who endorsed Trump in July, held a wide-ranging audio conversation with him on X in August. That same month, Trump started using his reinstated account on the platform regularly.

On Tuesday, Musk held an audio town hall on the site urging his more than 203 million followers to vote for Trump. The president-elect credited Musk on Wednesday for helping secure his win. “A star is born – Elon!” Trump said in his victory speech.

Musk has “turned X into the church of the conservative movement”, said Steven Livingston, founding director of the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics at George Washington University. “It’s gone from that public sphere to a bullhorn.”

Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, echoed Musk’s criticisms of the news media but did not comment directly on whether X had influenced the outcome of the election.

Musk and X did not respond to requests for comment.

Musk’s transformation of X into a right-leaning platform began when he bought the social media company in October 2022. Within weeks, he dropped the site’s content moderation guidelines in the name of free speech.

Last year, Musk had engineers add a line of code to promote his own account, which quickly propelled him to become the most followed person on the site. Engagement with his posts has since mushroomed, according to X’s metrics, making him the loudest voice on the platform.

Musk also reinstated thousands of accounts that had been banned for sharing hate speech, inciting violence or spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic. The reinstated accounts included those of Trump and far-right provocateur Alex Jones.

Musk, who also leads Tesla and SpaceX, was not initially a fan of Trump’s. But after a meeting with him in March, Musk began exploring ways to support his campaign and endorsed him after an assassination attempt against the Republican nominee in July.

Musk, the richest man in the world, threw his financial support behind the Trump campaign and funded a super political action committee focused on Republican turnout. In total, Musk donated nearly US$120mil.

Trump had primarily posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social, even after his X account was reinstated in late 2022. But Musk drew Trump back to the platform in August for the livestreamed conversation, during which the two men talked for more than two hours, often showering each other with compliments.

“You’re an interesting character,” Trump mused to Musk at one point. Trump also praised Tesla, saying Musk had created an “incredible” product.

X soon became a constant source of campaign support for Trump. Beyond Musk’s hundreds of posts lauding Trump, X said in May that it would host video interviews with Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who was also running for president, although the interviews never materialised.

Musk’s super PAC also set up a group on X to track claims of election fraud, to potentially challenge a win by the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.

By Election Day, users on other social media platforms popular with the far right, including Gab, Parler and Truth Social, were turning to X for election news.

“Trust Elon to tell us what is happening,” a user posted on Gab.

Some users in a far-right militia channel on the messaging app Telegram urged one another Wednesday morning to congratulate Trump on X after his win.

“Take the celebration to X, show up for our man,” a member of the channel said. “X is where the party is,” another posted in response.

Since then, Musk, who Trump has said may lead a new “government efficiency” commission, suggested that a “major housecleaning” was needed in government agencies overseeing health and the pandemic response. He also posted that Trump’s presidency would help SpaceX reach Mars.

On Thursday, Musk posted an electoral map of the United States that was almost all red.

“They say red light helps you sleep better,” Musk wrote.

X has become a home for Trump propaganda, said Gita Johar, a professor at Columbia Business School who studies consumer behavior.

“There’s no question that it is going to be identified as Trump’s X,” she said. “That’s what it is now.” – ©2024 The New York Times Company