The interview could give the former president a crucial opportunity to regain the spotlight at a time when his campaign appears to be losing momentum.
Meanwhile, his Democratic opponent for the November 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, has overtaken Trump in opinion polls and has energized Democratic voters with a series of dynamic rallies.
This interview on Musk’s platform could offer Trump a chance to connect with a broader audience beyond the conservative base that typically attends his rallies and watches his interviews on Fox News. However, similar events on the platform have faced technical difficulties in the past.
“Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation,” Musk wrote on the platform, previously known as Twitter.
The interview will be streamed live using Trump’s official X account, his campaign announced on Sunday. Trump’s access to his account, @realDonaldTrump, was reinstated a month after Musk took ownership of X, following its suspension by the platform’s previous management after the January 6, 2021, attack on Congress by his supporters.
Trump continues to post regularly on his Truth Social platform, which launched in February 2022. On Monday morning, Trump returned to X for the first time in a year, sharing an ad that emphasized his claim that the four criminal cases against him are politically motivated.
His previous post on X before Monday was in August 2023, where he appealed for donations and shared a mugshot after being booked at an Atlanta jail related to felony charges connected to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Musk could make for an unconventional interviewer. Despite backing Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020, the world’s richest person has since shifted to the right, even endorsing Trump following an assassination attempt on him in July.
Musk, who leads Tesla Inc., also launched a fundraising organization to support Trump’s campaign. However, this political action committee is currently under investigation in Michigan for potential violations of state laws concerning voter information gathering.
Trump, a known critic of electric vehicles, changed his stance after Musk’s endorsement. “I’m for electric cars. I have to be, because Elon endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice,” Trump declared at a rally in early August.
Shawn Fein, President of the United Auto Workers and a supporter of Harris, labeled Trump a “sellout.”
The Biden administration has been actively promoting electric vehicles through tax incentives and other measures as part of a broader strategy to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change.
Republicans in Congress have opposed these subsidies. Senator JD Vance, Trump’s running mate for vice president, criticized the Biden administration’s policy, claiming it merely subsidizes wealthy individuals who buy electric cars.
Since Musk acquired X in 2022, advertisers have pulled away, citing a reduction in content moderation that civil rights groups claim has led to a surge in hate speech.
Musk has also found himself in several other controversies. He has falsely accused Biden and the Democratic Party of opening U.S. borders to undocumented immigrants to increase the number of potential Democratic voters, despite non-citizens being ineligible to vote in federal elections.
In November 2023, Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on X, claiming that members of the Jewish community were inciting hatred against white people. He defended his actions by stating that the user was “speaking the actual truth.”
Musk has also clashed with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), accusing the organization, without evidence, of causing a decline in advertising on X. The ADL is a nonprofit dedicated to combating antisemitism.
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