Musk wants to do a live interview with Trump on Monday night.
The Republican Trump, who has recently found himself on the defensive in his dispute with his presidential rival Kamala Harris and her Democratic Party, is likely to have ample opportunity for uninterrupted self-promotion in the interview. Musk, a Trump supporter, officially expressed his support for Trump's re-election campaign shortly after the July 13 shooting in which Trump was injured by a bullet.
The tech pioneer announced that the interview would be conducted in an "improvised" format with an unlimited range of topics. "So it should be highly entertaining!" he wrote. Musk encouraged X users to post their questions and comments about the interview on the platform.
Trump has expressed enthusiasm over Musk's support. For the CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla, the Republican's re-election candidate has even softened his stance on electric cars, which he had mocked for years. "I'm for electric cars - I have to be, you know, because Elon has supported me very strongly, so I have no choice," Trump recently said at a campaign event.
Meanwhile, Musk has been moving further to the right politically in recent years and has allowed the unfiltered spread of far-right conspiracy theories and rhetoric on the platform X (formerly Twitter), which he took over in 2022. Experts also say that Musk himself spreads a large number of misleading posts about the U.S. election campaign on his X account.
According to a study published last week by the non-profit organization Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), Musk's misleading posts have already been viewed nearly 1.2 billion times this year. He has over 193 million followers on X.
The CCDH identified 50 X posts by Musk about the election since January that have been debunked by independent fact-checkers as false or misleading. For example, Musk claimed that Democrats are deliberately promoting irregular immigration to gain voters, or that the U.S. election system is vulnerable to fraud.
However, Musk has denied reports that he is providing significant financial support to Trump's campaign. He dismissed a report by the "Wall Street Journal" that he plans to donate $45 million (about $41 million) a month to a Trump-aligned campaign organization as "ridiculous" at the end of July.
Despite Musk denying financial support to Trump's campaign, he stated, "I'm not going to," publicly endorse any candidate in the upcoming election. The interview between Musk and Trump, with its improvised format and wide range of topics, is anticipated to be an exciting event for their supporters.
