AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Former President Donald Trump’s official X account posted paid ads on Monday ahead of the former president’s sit-down with the platform’s owner Elon Musk.
Trump’s ads appeared on the platform in users’ feeds on Monday, but did not show up on Trump’s account’s page, which is normal for paid advertising. Furthermore, while the ads were not labeled as such on desktop, they did have an “Ad” label on the top right when viewed on mobile.
While Musk has very publicly endorsed Trump in recent weeks, the Trump campaign running ads on Musk’s platform serves as a show of mutual support as Musk has vowed to sue advertisers boycotting the platform.
The first ad, posted at 2:54 am, included a voiceover from Ronald Reagan and was captioned, “Are you better off now than you were when I was president? Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We’re a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!”
Another ad was published at 3:00 am and read, “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you. I just happen to be standing in their way and I’m never moving. We will Make America Great Again!”
Musk and Trump will talk live on X at 8 pm ET and Musk has already addressed the technical issues that have plagued past events – including the glitchy of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) presidential campaign last spring.
“Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation,” Musk wrote on X ahead of the event.
Trump had been banned from Twitter, which Musk bought for a staggering $44 billion and renamed X, after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, which many observers accuse Trump of fueling with his rhetoric – including his Twitter posts calling for supporters to come to DC on Jan. 6th to protest the transfer of power.
Trump has only posted once since Musk restored his Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, as the former president reserves his social media usage for Truth Social, which he owns. In August of 2023, Trump post his Fulton Country jail mugshot with a link soliciting donations.
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