The News
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talked with X CEO Elon Musk live on the platform Monday, speaking at length about the economy and immigration.
The conversation, which was beset with technical issues at the start of the broadcast, sparked immediate backlash from some groups, with the United Auto Workers labor union filing a complaint on Tuesday alleging Musk and Trump had intimidated and threatened workers engaging in protected activities, including strikes. As CEO of electric vehicle company Tesla, Musk is avowedly against unionized labor.
Meanwhile, reports suggest Musk’s foray into right-wing politics could hurt his businesses, particularly Tesla sales. And before the conversation aired, the European Commission’s digital regulator issued a warning to Musk not to disregard the bloc’s hate speech laws and their application to X.
SIGNALS
Musk working closely with Trump’s campaign
For months, Musk has dedicated time to working with the Republican campaign, with the goal of delivering more than 800,000 voters to Trump in swing states ahead of the election, The Wall Street Journal reported. Musk seemingly wanted to keep his involvement with a super political-action committee — AmericaPAC, that he helped found — quiet, but decided to go public after the failed assassination attempt against Trump in July. AmericaPAC has suffered multiple setbacks since its founding in May: Musk reportedly signed off on the firing of several contractors initially involved in the PAC, and is starting much of its work again with less than 100 days to go.
X offers ‘perfect venue’ for Trump’s campaign
Twitter — the social media platform purchased by Musk and rebranded to X — was a vital platform for Trump heading into the 2016 presidential election. Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist, has dismantled many of the checks Twitter once had that limited the proliferation of conspiracy theories on the platform, or its use to promote misinformation. In doing so, X now offers “a perfect venue for the ex-president to escape the constraints of traditional media and to spin his web of alternative reality — which is hugely popular among his millions of supporters,” CNN’s Stephen Collinson wrote.
Musk’s support for Trump is hurting his businesses
In Europe, a pharmacy chain has announced that it will no longer purchase Teslas, with a spokesperson explaining the decision was made after Musk voiced support for the former president. “Trump has repeatedly described climate change as a hoax—this attitude is in stark contrast to Tesla’s mission to contribute to environmental protection through the production of electric cars,” the spokesperson said. In the US, former Tesla fans are turning away from the company because they do not want to be associated with Musk and his politics, The Washington Post reported. Industry analyses “suggest that Elon Musk’s increasingly right-wing politics do alienate a significant number of shoppers,” one consultant told the Post.