Elon Musk spent billions to destroy Twitter. Now he’s unleashing Trump on X

Elon Musk has spent billions of dollars for this moment.

In 2022, the world’s wealthiest man bought Twitter for $44 billion, then crudely reshaped the platform into X by slashing attempts to stop disinformation and conspiracy theories from flooding the platform and welcoming the return of previously banned users to set the tone.

He has created his own personal echo chamber that now reaches tens of millions of users daily, priming the platform for Donald Trump’s return to promote his presidential campaign.

Trump fired off several X posts on Monday morning — just hours before his scheduled “interview” with Musk on the platform at 8 p.m. ET. His return to a platform he once used as his daily megaphone comes as his 2024 presidential campaign struggles against his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, and as Musk fails to win over advisertisers while also suing them for leaving.

The former president’s account was “permanently suspended” from the influential social media platform in the wake of the January 6 attack, out of fear that his posts would incite more violence after he failed to stop a mob of his supporters from storming the Capitol to prevent his election loss.

Twenty-two months later, in November 2023, Musk opened up a poll that asked users to click “yes” or “no” on whether he should reinstate Trump.

“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk wrote, adding, “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” the Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people, the voice of God.”

Trump has not made any indication that he plans to return to the platform full-time — he has his own multimillion-dollar investment in Twitter clone Truth Social, where he has an audience of more than 7.5 million followers.

But he posted his mugshot on X after he