US election campaign: Donald Trump returns to X

US election campaign:Donald Trump returns to X

US presidential candidate Trump has posted an election commercial and clips promoting his conversation with supporter Elon Musk on the news platform X.

Donald Trump has returned to X.

What: AP

After a long absence, Republican Donald Trump has spoken out again on the platform X. Almost a year after his last post there, the Republican US presidential candidate published a series of posts on his X account.

Trump releases campaign video and clips

He started with a campaign video. In it, his path from his first election victory in 2016 to his current presidential candidacy is portrayed as a constant battle against resistance from his political opponents – and as the heroic story of a man who does not let this get him down.

Several other clips and campaign posts followed – and advertising for Trump’s planned exchange with X owner Elon Musk on the platform on Tuesday night. The tech billionaire is openly supporting the Republican in the current presidential election campaign.The fear of Donald Trump and the collapse of democracy16.08.2024 | 37:37 min

Last post from Trump with police photo

Trump last posted something on his X account at the end of August 2023. At that time, he used his historic mugshot as an opportunity to return to Twitter’s successor platform, X. Trump posted the photo there, which had been taken shortly before in a prison in Atlanta. The Republican had turned himself in to law enforcement authorities there after charges were brought against him in the state of Georgia in connection with attempted election fraud.

Trump is the first former US president to be charged in multiple cases. And he is the first former US president to appear in prison and be immortalized in a police photograph. Before that, there had been more than two and a half years of radio silence on Trump’s account on the platform that he had used as a key communication channel during his time in office and which passed into the hands of Musk in 2022 and was later renamed.

The former US president is accused of attempted election fraud. Now his official police photo is going around the world. The impact on the election campaign is still uncertain. 08/25/2023 | 1:30 minTrump has always had a considerable number of followers there, currently more than 88 million. The Republican was blocked from major online platforms towards the end of his term in office after his supporters stormed the seat of the US Parliament in Washington on January 6, 2021. In his online messages before and after the Capitol attack, he openly showed sympathy for the rioters. The platform operators therefore feared that there could be new violence if Trump was not banned – and blocked his accounts.

Trump has access to all major online services

Trump has now regained access to all major online services. And he has also reported back on several channels. However, he has hardly used X at all so far – although its new owner Musk had it reactivated in autumn 2022. Instead, Trump himself had helped set up a Twitter copy, the Truth Social platform. Trump uses this intensively. However, he has a much smaller reach there with around 7.5 million subscribers.

EU Commission warns X

Shortly before Elon Musk’s interview with Donald Trump, the EU Commission warned Elon Musk’s online platform X against violating European law against hate speech and calls for violence online. The provisions of the DSA law also apply to Musk himself as a user with 190 million follower accounts, Thierry Breton emphasized in a letter.

The British police fear a “big day” of massive riots across the country. Over 100 right-wing extremist gatherings are expected. ZDFheute live provides an update.07.08.2024 | 30:40 min

Source: dpa