President Donald Trump’s first term revolutionized the online relationship between the president and the public, but self-proclaimed “White House Tech Support” Elon Musk is ushering a chronically online generation into Trump’s second term.
Trump has been using Truth Social in his second term like he used Twitter during his first, blasting off posts at all hours of the day to roll out policy announcements and comment on his favorite – or least favorite – news shows. Truth Social reads like Trump’s own stream of consciousness, and most Truth users are loyal Trump supporters who use the social media platform to rally around his policies.
Musk’s X account reads more like a political debate. Buried in the steady stream of memes and AI edits, “special government employee” Musk uses X as a way to meet Americans where they are – confirming and denying information about his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in real time.
It is easy to get lost in Musk’s 69,000 posts, but the richest man in the world does not miss a beat. This week, as an unrelenting news cycle focused on DOGE’s United States Agency for International Development (USAID) investigation, Musk used X to confirm reporting as misinformation circulated.
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“All @DOGE did was check to see which federal organizations were violating the @POTUS executive orders the most. Turned out to be USAID, so that became our focus,” Musk explained in a post on Monday.
On Wednesday, Musk confirmed reporting by the Wall Street Journal that DOGE is investigating the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, posting: “Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening.”
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Musk invites his followers to engage in the Democratic process right through the app, asking,”Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?” Musk asked his X followers in an X poll on Friday morning.
Musk polled his followers on Tuesday as well, asking if DOGE should audit the IRS.
Between the polls and DOGE confirmations, Musk floods his account with political commentary and quick reactions to trending posts. Musk simply responded with a bullseye emoji when an X user posted, “If you’re more angry that a handful of 22 year old software engineers are writing code to uncover fraudulent government spending than at the people who are fraudulently spending your hard earned taxes, it’s time to do some soul searching.”
Musk also embraces his platform as a vehicle to spark political debate with Democratic leaders.
In recent days, Democrats in Congress have unleashed attacks on Musk, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who said, “Elon Musk is a Nazi nepo baby, a godless lawless billionaire, who no one elected” at a rally outside the Treasury Department, where protesters were speaking out against DOGE.
“Elon, this is the American people. This is not your trashy Cybertruck that you can just dismantle, pick apart, and sell the pieces of,” she continued.
“We are gonna be in your face, we are gonna be on your a–es, and we are going to make sure you understand what democracy looks like, and this ain’t it,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said at the same rally.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was also in attendance and told the crowd that Musk’s DOGE efforts are “taking away everything we have.”
The official DOGE account has a more formal tone and often doubles down on Musk’s posts to verify new information. DOGE has over 3 million followers on X.
As the owner of X, Musk is the most followed person on the app with a staggering 216.4 million followers. Musk has more followers on X than Trump has on Truth Social (8.83 million) and X (100.4 million) combined.
These days, Trump follows a Truth Social first media strategy. During his presidential transition, Trump announced his cabinet nominations on Truth Social before the transition team hit send on the press release. The press release that arrived several minutes later simply directed reporters back to the Truth Social post.
Musk’s constant posts landed him at odds with Trump last week when Musk said OpenAI does not have the money for The Stargate Project’s $500 billion investment in AI over the next four years. Musk said he had it on “good authority” that “SoftBank has well under $10B secured” for the investment, soon after Trump finished a press conference announcing the project.
Trump shrugged off Musk’s comments later that week, telling the press Musk “hates one of the people in the deal.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Musk have a long-standing legal feud.
While Trump is using X again, he is more likely to post a screenshot of his Truth Social post than break any news on Musk’s platform. Trump was banned from Twitter after Jan. 6 and launched Truth Social in 2022. His account was reinstated after Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X.
Musk said he bought Twitter to “help humanity” and committed to protecting free speech. While liberal ideology dominated Twitter, X is more likely to lean conservative. A Pew Research Center survey in 2023 found Republicans are more likely to view the site positively since Musk arrived on the scene, while Democrats are more likely to say X has a ne gativeimpact on American democracy.
Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report
