How Elon Musk has turned X into a pro-Trump machine

Analysis by Clare Duffy, CNN

New York (CNN) — Nearly two years after Elon Musk bought Twitter and turned it into X, the billionaire is leveraging its power as a source of real-time news for millions of users to try to sway the outcome of the 2024 presidential election in favor of former President Donald Trump.

Musk has already asserted his voice in the political sphere for months. He’s pushed racist conspiracy theories about the Biden administration’s immigration policies, obsessed over the “woke mind virus,” a term used by some conservatives to describe progressive causes, and warned of the country’s impending “doom” if a “red wave” does not materialize in November.

But now Musk, who is not only the owner but also the most followed user on X, has shifted to more direct campaigning for former President Donald Trump. It’s an unusual move for one of the world’s richest men and the leader of a mainstream social network.

Social media platforms have played a role in past elections: campaigns have used them to build support, foreign actors have used them in efforts to interfere in election outcomes and the industry was criticized in 2020 for restricting access to reports of Hunter Biden’s laptop. And some tech leaders have spoken out about their preferred candidate for the White House. But the major platforms themselves, and especially their owners, typically do not try to affect how users will vote, save for ensuring people have basic, accurate information about voting and removing influence operations that seek to covertly manipulate people.

Musk, by contrast, has turned the platform he purchased for $44 billion into his own personal, political messaging machine, seeking to influence his more than 190 million followers and, in some cases, sharing false claims from the very top.

Musk announced his official endorsement for Trump in a post last month that received 2.3 million likes. And on Monday, he hosted Trump for a friendly, 2-plus-hour livestreamed conversation on X, in which he allowed the former president to make at least 20 false claims about everything from crime and immigration to tax cuts, without pushback.

Trump used the conversation to fundraise, with his campaign team posting on X ahead of the event that “we’re asking YOU to make this President Trump’s BIGGEST FUNDRAISING DAY EVER!” X used the opportunity to send a notification – which featured Trump’s profile photo – to users encouraging them to buy a subscription to the platform.

CNN has reached out to X and the Trump campaign for comment.

“I spent 2 1/2 hours last night talking to Elon, a fantastic guy, getting all-time record Views/hits, and all the Fake News wants to report is that the servers crashed (because of the tremendous volume!), and the show opened a little late. What they should be reporting was the incredible number of people that were listening. I absolutely HATE the Fake News Media. So bad for our Country!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social Tuesday.

‘Potent set of tools to deploy to promote disinformation’

The conversation built on Musk’s other efforts to support Trump, whom the billionaire allowed back on the platform shortly after acquiring what was then Twitter. More recently, Musk has shared misleading content about Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and donated to a political action committee working to get Trump elected.

Musk’s false or misleading claims about US elections on X have been viewed 1.2 billion times, according to an analysis published last week by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a social media watchdog group that advocates for tighter regulation of platforms that Musk unsuccessfully tried to sue last year for its critical reports about hate speech on the platform.

He has, for example, raised questions about the security of voting machines and falsely claimed that undocumented immigrants can vote in US elections.

“Democracy depends on people’s trust in the integrity of (election) outcomes and their willingness to trust those outcomes even when their favored candidate doesn’t win,” Wendy Weiser, vice president for democracy at the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, told CNN, calling Musk’s voting claims “deeply damaging.”

Musk also shared a video that used AI to make it appear that Harris had said things she, in fact, did not — in an apparent violation of X’s manipulated media policy and with only a laughing face emoji to suggest to followers that it was fake. Weeks after it was posted, the video is not labeled with a “community note,” X’s community fact-checking feature that Musk used as justification for slashing the company’s trust and safety team.

The billionaire’s political posts come as X is under fire for letting false claims about immigration in the United Kingdom run wild, with Musk himself saying that “civil war is inevitable.” Members of the British government alleged that the chatter on the platform helped fuel violent, far-right riots across the country — a reminder that online rhetoric, especially from one of the world’s richest and most powerful people, can have real-world impacts.

“The more prominent and trusted the person spreading misinformation, the bigger the damage,” Weiser said. “(Musk) has a giant platform, he has a giant pocketbook, and he has a giant name right now and that is a potent set of tools to deploy to promote disinformation and conspiracy theories.”

Following Monday night’s conversation with Trump, Musk said he was “happy” to host a similar event with Harris, who has not sat down for an interview since becoming the Democratic nominee for president. Musk told Trump that he believes “we’re in massive trouble, frankly, with a Kamala administration … I think, really, it’s essential that that you win for the good of the country.”

X’s changing culture

Beyond his own posts, many of Musk’s changes as the owner of X have contributed to a broader, rightward shift in the platform’s culture, including his reinstatement of White supremacists and conspiracy theorists. He also moved to make it easier for politicians and political candidates to qualify for newsworthiness exemptions from the platform’s rules, when they would otherwise have had their content restricted or removed.

What’s more, X also twice labeled as spam and locked the account for “White Dudes for Harris,” a group that had been fundraising and rallying support for the vice president’s campaign — raising questions about the platform’s commitment to Musk’s stated goal of “free speech” and whether it was cracking down on viewpoints that differed from Musk’s.

And Musk’s AI chatbot Grok, which users access via X, was blasted last week by a group of secretaries of state for providing “false information” about Harris’ supposed ineligibility to appear on the 2024 presidential ballot in several battleground states. In a letter, the secretaries urged Musk to “immediately implement changes” on the X platform.

“I’m old enough to remember when we, at Twitter, took the industry-leading step to stop taking political ads. (Because) freedom of speech didn’t entitle you to freedom of reach actually wasn’t just a catchy slogan, we meant it,” Lara Cohen, the platform’s former vice president of marketing who left the company after Musk’s takeover, said in a Threads post on Monday ahead of the Trump event. “Cut to tonight’s informercial for the Trump campaign. It’s pathetic to see the platform and it’s (sic) owner sink lower and lower and lower every single day.”

Seeking a role in Trump’s administration

For Musk, the potential privilege of whispering in Trump’s ear, should he win reelection, could give the billionaire even more power on the global stage. And it could benefit his business empire, which is largely reliant on government contracts and favorable policies.

The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Musk and Trump had discussed a potential role for the billionaire in Trump’s administration if he’s reelected, although Musk pushed back on the report at the time.

But on Monday night, Musk offered to take a role in the potential future Trump’s administration helping to rein in government spending.

“I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and just ensures that the taxpayer money, the taxpayers’ hard-earned money, is spent in a good way,” Musk told Trump in the X conversation. “I’d be happy to help out on such a commission.”

Trump said he would “love it” if Musk were involved, noting the billionaire is a “great cutter,” referencing cost-cutting measures he has taken at his companies.

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