Donald Trump makes surprise social media U-turn

Former US President Donald Trump returned to posting on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday after a break of nearly a year.

Trump’s return to a platform that had previously banned him came just hours before the Republican frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election was to be interviewed by X’s owner, Elon Musk. The billionaire reinstated Trump’s account shortly after purchasing the platform in 2022.

Trump’s first post was a two-and-a-half-minute-long advertisement titled ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’ covering his rise to the presidency and his subsequent legal battles. The post garnered more than 4.8 million views in less than an hour, with more than 50,000 reposts and 21,000 comments.

He followed up by issuing a post criticizing US Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival in this year’s presidential election.
 

Trump also reposted a message from his campaign’s official X account promoting his interview with Musk, which will was aired live on his official account at 8pm EDT (midnight GMT).
 
“It will be the interview of the century!” the all-caps post read.

Musk publicly endorsed Trump’s re-election bid last month, shortly after the failed assassination attempt against the former president.

The “live conversation” with Trump will be “unscripted with no limits on subject matter,” Musk wrote on Sunday, adding it “should be highly entertaining” and encouraging users to post questions and comments.

Monday marked just the second time Trump has posted on X since his account was suspended in the wake of the January 6 events and subsequently reinstated the following year. His only other post since then was on August 24, 2023, when he shared an image of his mug shot after surrendering to authorities in Atlanta on felony charges related to his efforts to overturn his election defeat in the state of Georgia in 2020.