Trump to speak to Musk on X in ‘interview of the century’
Washington, Aug 12 : Former US President Donald Trump will be interviewed by X owner Elon Muck on the social media platform on Tuesday morning (IST) for what the Trump campaign has called the 'interview of the century'.
Musk has endorsed Trump’s re-election bid and has been a vocal supporter of the Republican presidential nominee.
“It will be the interview of the century,” the Trump campaign said on X.
The former President was permanently suspended from X in January 2021, when the social media platform was known as Twitter. The ban was lifted by Musk after he bought the platform. Trump returned in August 2023 and has posted just one message since. He remains active, however, on Truth Social, the look-alike social media platform that he launched after being banned from Twitter.
It was not immediately clear if the interview will mark the beginning of a more active return for the former President, whose account shows he has 88 million followers on X, which is 80.5 million more than the 7.5 million he has on Truth Social.
X gives Trump a much bigger platform, which according to Musk has 600 million monthly active users (other estimates put it at 540 million).
Truth Social is much smaller - it had only 5 million monthly active users according to papers it filed during its IPO in March 2024, as reported by Axios.
The vast difference in the reach of X and Truth Social won’t be lost on Trump, who pays a lot of attention to the size of the crowd for his election rallies and events.
Musk is a supporter of Trump and is likely to be a friendly interviewer, but the former President is known to be both a showman and unpredictable, so the interview will be closely followed by his allies and the Harris campaign alike.
The Trump campaign needs a bump. Trump had the upper hand in the 2024 presidential elections till President Joe Biden was in the fray. The race has changed since Biden dropped out and endorsed his deputy Kamala Harris.
Harris has energised the Democratic party, raised more funds and has taken the lead in polls, even in the key battleground states.