Last Updated on August 12, 2024
Elon Musk is slated to interview 45th President Trump live on X at 8:00 PM Eastern Time on the evening of August 12th, in what Musk says will be an “unscripted” conversation with “no limits on subject matter.” The interview will serve as a new high-water mark in Trump’s reconquista of the platform formerly known as Twitter, from which he was infamously banned in January of 2021, as the finishing touches were put on the 2020 election coup.
On the night of August 11th, Elon Musk announced in a post that’s been viewed tens of millions of times that he’d scheduled a “live conversation” between himself and 45th President Trump, for 8 PM the following evening. Furthermore, Musk assured X users that the interview will be “unscripted with no limits on subject matter” and promises to be “highly entertaining!”
The interview will give X users the chance to interface with Trump, and Musk (who recently endorsed Trump for President) has encouraged users to submit their own “specific questions & comments” for the 45th President and 2024 GOP White House nominee.
As mentioned, Musk’s planned interview with President Trump marks a massive shift when it comes to X, the big tech platform formerly known as Twitter – a name that became synonymous with various forms of censorship and the targeted silencing of American citizens deemed “right-wing.”
That all began to change, albeit slowly, when Musk purchased the platform in 2022, restoring President Trump’s account that November.
As National File reported at the time:
Former President Trump was formally reinstated by Twitter (X) on Saturday evening after Elon Musk put the matter up to a simple, yes-or-noTwitter poll. The poll — which ran from Friday through Saturday evening — received a little over 15 million votes, with “yes” pulling out a narrow victory with 51.8% of the total.
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Trump was previously banned from Twitter by the recently fired former head of the company’s trust & safety, Vijaya Gadde, over accusations of “inciting” violence on January 6, 2021. The company had for years become notorious for one-sided, politically motivated terms of service enforcement by the time Trump was banned.
Numerous authoritarian heads of state — including representatives of the North Korean and Iranian governments — were allowed to remain on Twitter while Trump was barred.
A recent bombshell report from The Intercept revealed that Gadde held regular meetings with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in order to combat the “spreading of misinformation.”
Though Trump’s X account was reinstated, he has chosen not to make frequent use of it and continues communicating directly with the American People through his Truth Social platform.
Since his account’s return to X in November of 2022, Trump has made just one post, providing a link for his supporters to purchase his iconic “NEVER SURRENDER” t-shirts featuring his Fulton County, Georgia mugshot.
