Musk and Trump additionally met earlier this month in Palm Seaside, Florida, with a gaggle of Republican donors.
A part of the Sequence
Donald Trump
Elon Musk
social media
Reality Social
Final 12 months, former President Donald Trump reportedly tried to promote his social media web site, Reality Social, to Elon Musk, the world’s second-richest individual and the present proprietor of X, the location previously generally known as Twitter.
Trump made the proposal to Musk in the summertime of 2023, in line with a report from The Washington Submit, which cited two sources with data of their assembly.
The thought appeared to have been Trump’s. Though no deal was made on the web site, the reporting reveals that the 2 have communicated way more than was beforehand recognized, notably on enterprise issues however doubtlessly on points referring to politics as nicely.
Past the proposed sale of Reality Social, Musk and Trump met earlier this month in Palm Seaside, Florida. The small print of that assembly are murky, however there may be some hypothesis that it concerned the 2024 presidential election ultimately, as well-known Republican donors additionally took half.
Unsubstantiated rumors on X suggesting that Musk was going to endorse or donate to Trump’s marketing campaign quickly unfold, leading to Musk posting on the location that he was not planning to donate to both of the most important events’ candidates for president.
Reality Social has confronted issues since its inception. Initially billed as a supposed bastion of free speech, the far proper, MAGA-friendly social media web site has been mired in quite a few controversies, together with at one level banning accounts merely for being essential of Trump.
Financially, the location has arguably fared even worse. In newer experiences on its efficiency, Reality Social introduced that it misplaced tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} within the first 9 months of 2023 alone.
In the meantime, in line with Buffer, a web site that measures social media analytics, Reality Social doesn’t rank in any respect on its record of the highest 23 social media websites. The one factor maintaining the location related seems to be the truth that Trump makes use of it as his major social media.
Though X is doing much better, Musk appears to be hampering the platform reasonably than bettering it. Within the fall of 2022, Musk bought the location, then generally known as Twitter, for $44 billion (with the assistance of rich backers, together with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud), after spending a number of months criticizing its guidelines on banning harmful and false content material. After shopping for the platform, Musk restored a number of far proper accounts, together with that of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Musk himself has additionally disseminated antisemitic content material on the location. Regardless of Musk claiming to be a supporter of absolute free speech, the platform often suspends accounts essential of him.
On account of Musks’ management, X has seen its values go down considerably, with a report in January 2024 discovering that the location’s value has dropped by 71.5 p.c since Musk took over.
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