Donald Trump & Elon Musk
Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images; Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Donald Trump was one of the most notorious X (formerly Twitter) users during his presidency, and beyond, before being banned from the platform in the last few years. He will make his return this week for a live interview with the application’s owner, Elon Musk.
The official X account for his campaign shared a graphic of the two polarizing figures on Monday morning (Aug. 12). “President Trump will be interviewed by Elon Musk TONIGHT at 8 pm Eastern on X,” they wrote. “Like this post to be notified when the interview begins. IT WILL BE THE INTERVIEW OF THE CENTURY! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! #TrumpOnX.”
Trump and Musk also promoted the event using alternate graphics with similar details. “ENJOY!” the former President wrote in his caption. The X owner solicited fans for questions, claimed that entertainment is guaranteed, and even posted a meme about the conversation. In the meme, a person is whispering “Donald Trump is back on X” to someone else, and beneath them is a photo of the hair being raised on someone’s arm, signaling their excitement.
https://twitter.com/TeamTrump/status/1822992218803540433
Before promoting this event, Donald Trump’s last tweet came on Aug. 24, 2023. He shared a photo of his mugshot with the phrase “ELECTION INTERFERENCE NEVER SURRENDER! DONALDJTRUMP.COM” written underneath. His mugshot infamously came from his arrest in Fulton County due to allegations of intent to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump was previously permanently banned from X after the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol. Two specific tweets were used as justification for removing him from the platform. The first was when he wrote “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” X claimed that his post “suggested” that “he plans to continue to support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election.”
The other tweet was him revealing that he would not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration later that month. X stated that he could be insinuating that the 2020 election results were illegitimate, and that violence could break out if he didn’t attend.
The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021
To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021
Donald Trump’s campaign to regain the presidency recently included a trip to the National Association of Black Journalists convention at the end of July. There, he questioned Kamala Harris’ Blackness and claimed he has been the best President for Black people.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black,” he said about the Democratic candidate. “So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black? She was Indian all the way, and all of a sudden she made a turn, and she became a Black person.”