5 Things We Learnt from Elon Musk and Donald Trump's Interview

Last night, tech billionaire Elon Musk sat down – through the powers of the internet – with former president Donald Trump. 

Yes, the former US president who had been banned from the platform for “risk of incentivising violence in 2021.”

Donald's return to the platform – despite being unbanned in 2022 by Elon – wasn’t without its faults though with an apparent Cyber-attack delaying the talk by 30 minutes. 

I trawled through social media so you don’t have to. Here’s five things we learnt after Elon met Donald. 

1) Twitter (I mean X) isn’t what it used to be 

My cousin always used the analogy “if there was an incident on your street you’d go to X for immediate news and Instagram/Facebook for the aftermath,” in recent years we have added “and TikTok for the memes” to that analogy.  

X used to be the cultural and news head of social media, it was where conversations happened, memes sparked, and I regularly remember the comment “I can’t believe this website is free” used jokingly and often. 

Today much has changed, alongside the fact X isn’t free, the bird has flown the nest and yesterday’s tech issues highlighted that. 

Yes, you could argue it was a small blip caused by outside sources and the stream was only delayed by 30 minutes. But also, you could argue it is signs of ageing from a former King hellbent on regaining the throne. 

Under the Tesla founder’s ownership X is no longer the cultural driving force it used to be, in fact yesterday’s livestream error showed that X may have stalled in first gear. 

If TikTok hadn’t already claim the crown of the hub of social media activity, yesterday showed the former King doesn’t have much fight left in them. 

2) Have you tried turning it off and on again? 

Yesterday should have been a resounding success for Elon and his streamlined X crew. With 1 million concurrent listeners ready to listen to former President Donald Trump, the story should have been about Donald. 

Instead, X’s shortcomings are firmly in the limelight, and it is ugly in the cold light of day. For Elon, who wants to show the platform as a sustainable platform for advertisers, yesterday was the equivalent of a rude awakening. 

With a mass exodus of brands leaving the platform in the wake of the billionaire’s takeover, Elon should be trying to win them back; limit the hate speech, malicious agendas and explicit content. 

Put quite simply, make it a place that brands want to be in who ultimately keep the lights on for Elon and co.  

Instead, last night’s livestream proved he and his team seem too preoccupied with gaining headlines then making the platform a sustainable place for brands and users alike to post content. 

For brands that have seen a lion share of success on X in the past, it would be advisable converting your followers onto other channels if you haven’t already. 

3) WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME

Cast your mind back to 2018, or even 2020. X — let’s be honest we all still call it Twitter — was alive, it was buzzing and served as the proverbial water cooler of social media; a much loved meeting point between subcultures online. 

The Cyberattack on the platform proved that the once Romeo of the internet has fallen from Grace. 

X has become divisive with brands and users alike giving it the cold shoulder. It isn’t the fun, funny and Whitty corner of the internet like it used to be; now it is an echo chamber of which controversial opinion can be said the loudest. 

Yesterday’s issues caused by a Cyberattack proved that it has fallen out of favour and X have fallen out of favour with some subcultures of the internet. 

4) X has become Parliament 

Like it or not it seems former president Donald Trump is back on the platform much to the relief of Elon. However, for advertisers he returns to the platform like a bad X. 

For those brands who stepped back from the platform due to an excessive amount of political content, don’t expect that to diminish anytime soon. 

With a US election on the horizon and both Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and the Republican candidate Donald on X, expect a war of words on the platform.

Meanwhile, brands — like a child of divorce caught between a shouting match between two parents — will get caught in the crossfire. Brands don’t want to consider “should we advertise on this platform,” they want the decision to be easy and not question the integrity of the platform. 

So come Autumn, as temperatures go down and the US election hots up, expect to see a lot more political content on your feed on Twitter. Much to the dismay of brands everywhere. 


5) Double or nothing 

For those reading this in the UK, you’ll remember the events of last week and the ‘Farage Riots” as the internet has coined. A disgusting almost witch hunt for people of non-white origin in towns and cities across the UK by far-riot meat heads; who will hold the Sausage Roll up as an English institution even though its French.  

Whilst Instagram, Facebook and TikTok had some part to play, X was the social media account with its hand stirring the proverbial pot of hatred. 

Elon's livestream conversation with Donald may have showed that the far-right conversation on the platform is rife and shows no signs of stopping. This all means X has become even more divisive than it is already, in fact Elon's talk yesterday have  signalled he has almost double downed on far-right content/tolerance on X. 

For brands, social pausing on the platform has become frequent and seems to have no signs of slowing down. One that social media managers, marketeers, brands and strategists should be hyper aware of now and in the coming future.