In the hours leading up to the X Spaces conversation, this appeared to be the case: Trump posted 10 times on X, his first posts on the platform since August 2023 and his first sustained period of activity since he was notoriously banned from the platform for his involvement in spreading election conspiracies prior to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
But Trump, who also remained online for hours after the event, returned to Truth Social, the platform he built after being kicked off X. He shared more than a dozen updates (or “truths”) encouraging his followers to get out and vote in the primaries in Minnesota and Wisconsin for candidates he backed.
At around 1:20 a.m. Tuesday morning, hours after the event had ended, Trump finally posted a link on Truth Social to a recording of the conversation with Musk. But instead of a direct link to the recording on X, Trump posted a link to a recording of the event from his own YouTube channel. Trump later posted another link to the conversation, this time to a recording on the video-sharing site Rumble.
While Trump has many more followers on X than on Truth Social (90 million versus 7.5 million), there are other considerations to take into account.
Trump owns a 60 percent stake in Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social. As part of his deal with the company, he is Forced to publish on Truth Social before posting on any other platform, with exceptions for campaign and political content.
TMTG’s share price also fell on Monday After Trump started posting on Xwhich could also be a consideration for Trump, given that he has to wait until Sept. 19, when a six-month lockup period expires, before he can sell any of the shares he owns in the company.
Musk knows that keeping Trump happy and on his platform is arguably key to revitalizing X. But at the end of the day, Musk is still looking out for himself: During Monday’s conversation, just after agreeing with Trump’s views on electric vehicles and U.S. oil drilling that would seem to directly contradict Musk’s own business interests, Musk proposed that he would take a role in a potential second Trump administration on a “government efficiency body.”
“I would love to,” Trump replied.