Topline
Billionaire X owner Elon Musk on Friday appeared to confirm reports the social media behemoth will host a town hall event with former President Donald Trump, just one day after the 2024 GOP nominee was convicted on all 34 criminal charges in his New York hush money case.
No date or location has been set for the town hall events with former President Donald Trump and … [+]
Key Facts
Musk appeared to confirm reports by Axios and The Wall Street Journal that X plans to hold live town hall events with Trump, as well as long-shot Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ahead of the November election, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Musk, the world’s richest person, reposted a New York Post story on the town hall events Friday morning, saying briefly: “This will be interesting.”
No date has been given for those events, though they fall into X’s push for increased political coverage, with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson launching a new show on the platform last year and ousted CNN host Don Lemon briefly bringing his show to X earlier this year.
News Peg
A jury of 12 New Yorkers convicted Trump on all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records after six weeks of a high-profile trial in New York that included salacious details of Trump’s alleged affair with former adult film star Stormy Daniels and an alleged catch-and-kill scheme to hide negative stories about Trump ahead of the 2016 election. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges and pledged to appeal his conviction. The former president still faces another 54 felony charges across three criminal indictments: his federal election interference case, Georgia election interference case, and federal classified documents case. Trial dates for those cases have not yet been set.
Surprising Fact
Musk defended Trump after the guilty verdict, saying Friday morning that “great damage was done” to the “public’s faith in the American legal system.”
Tangent
Musk, who previously donated to political campaigns from both parties, including former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said in March he will not donate to “either candidate” in the 2024 presidential race, though in recent months he has become an outspoken critic of Biden. Musk controversially reinstated Trump’s account on the platform after he was banned following the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. His name was also floated for a possible cabinet seat if Trump wins in November, with Musk serving a potential advisory role, though Musk denied those reports, saying: “there have not been any discussions of a role for me in a potential Trump presidency.”
