Donald Trump returned to X on Monday.
On Monday morning, at 11:19 a. m. Eastern Time, Trump tweeted for the first time in nearly a year. It was a two-and-a-half-minute crusade announcement. In the hours that followed, Trump tweeted several times.
But the big bang was an interview with X’s owner, Elon Musk, on Monday night. Although, let’s be clear, it was not an “interview”. It was Musk who urged Trump to say almost everything he wanted. It was a crusade speech in the form of an overly friendly verbal exchange between Trump and a flattering guy who endorsed Trump as president.
But even before it began, primary disorders emerged. Evoking embarrassing memories of Ron DeSantis’ disastrous presidential launch at X in May 2023, Trump’s interview was delayed due to technical problems.
After all, it started at 8:42 p. m. , 42 minutes after the scheduled start. Musk blamed this on a “massive” cyberattack on X and warned it was because some wanted to silence Trump’s voice.
Once that started, it temporarily became what you’d expect: softball talks. Not that we expected anything other than that. Musk, after all, is not a journalist, and what’s more, he obviously had no preference for pressuring Trump on anything substantial. He simply said, “Yes, yes,” after virtually everything Trump said, no matter what Trump said.
If you’re interested in what they’ve discussed, you can find it online.
But let’s talk about Trump, Musk, and X.
Trump has had a confusing relationship with X over the years. He tweeted constantly when he was president. With more than 80 million followers, Trump reportedly uses the social media platform to tweet dozens of times a day. Sometimes he made official announcements through the company then called Twitter, while other times he used it as a private complaint box to denounce his enemies and air his ever-growing list of complaints.
But his use of Twitter came to an abrupt halt when his account was suspended following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection for violating corporate regulations and risking inciting more violence. Its ban lasted until November 2022, when new owner Musk lifted it after achieving a poll of Twitter users.
However, Trump has rarely tweeted since.
So what happened? Why is Trump now back in X?
Attention. Lots of attention.
While presidential opponent Kamala Harris has dominated the media landscape in recent weeks, Trump has been left out of the spotlight — anything he’s not used to and obviously doesn’t like.
This comeback, specifically Monday night’s verbal exchange with Musk, put his voice in front of an audience he hadn’t noticed since the Republican National Convention in mid-July. Trump still has his Truth Social, but it’s nothing compared to X. He has less than 8 million fans on Truth Social. It has 10 times more in X.
He may also be more than just Trump. This can be a big blow to X.
Kate Conger of the New York Times wrote: “M. Trump’s return to The former president’s Truth Social X has also struggled to triumph over advertiser skepticism, especially after Musk sued an influential advertising coalition last week.
Musk hopes Trump’s return will give a boost to X, which Musk has used to express his personal politics, adding that he supports Trump as president.
In another Times article, Conger wrote, “Mr. Musk, more than ever, is X at publicizing his nonpublic political views. With more than 193 million followers, his account is the largest on the platform and M. Musk showered it with praise for the former president. He has also accelerated attacks on President Biden over the past year and has recently escalated his grievances against Vice President Kamala Harris. By endorsing a presidential candidate, Musk broke with other corporate social media executives, who usually control to avoid public endorsement. “
Faiz Siddiqui and Jeremy B. Merrill of the Washington Post wrote, “Musk’s blatantly partisan stake in the site he purchased in October 2022 reflects a broader evolution of his public persona, from a tech prodigy to a business genius in Brandon Right. He also raised questions about Musk’s performance. intentions for the social media site, which he said he bought to promote more relaxed speech and a more open exchange of ideas. In a way, the site has a private mouthpiece for its provocative political views.
And it’s not just about tweets and mentions.
The Wall Street Journal’s Dana Mattioli, Joe Palazzolo and Emily Glazer wrote about Musk’s involvement in a super PAC. They wrote: “The US PAC, Musk’s first major foray into presidential politics, is less groundbreaking than, say, sending other people to Mars. ” or implant microchips in their brains. But the billionaire’s no-holds-barred attitude toward Trump and the Republican Party has inflamed other high-profile donors. He also earned the gratitude of the Republican presidential candidate, who faces a newly assertive opponent: Vice President Kamala Harris. He approaches the election effort with the matter-of-fact style of his, echoing his acquisition of Twitter in 2022 and his early efforts to meet Tesla’s production goals.
Now we wait to see whether Monday night’s riots will aggravate Trump enough to make him hesitate to enact X, if that’s part of his long-term plans.
Trisha Thadani, Drew Harwell, and Faiz Siddiqui of the Washington Post wrote, “It’s unclear to what extent Trump will continue to use Musk’s platform, however, in a cross-email on Monday, the former president said, I’m back on X for a short time. “. ” Training'”
In a somewhat unexpected move, the New York Times editorial board announced Monday that it would no longer hold elections in New York.
Katie Robertson and Nicholas Fandos of The New York Times wrote, “The paper has no plans to take a position in the Senate, Congressional or State Congressional elections in New York this fall, or in next year’s elections in New York City, when Mayor Eric Adams is elected and seeks a second term against a growing number of rivals.
Kathleen Kingsbury, the Times’ opinion editor, did not give an explanation for the reason for the decision, but said in a statement that “the opinion will continue to provide attitude about the careers, applicants and issues at stake. “
The Times will continue until the presidential election.
The Times is not the first newspaper to reduce or eliminate its political support. In 2022, Alden Global Capital, which owns two hundred newspapers, in addition to the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News and the Denver Post, to avoid endorsing presidential, senatorial and gubernatorial candidates.
The Times has supported every election for mayor of New York City since 1897.
Robertson and Fandos wrote, “The Times’ decision to end local promotions is likely to make waves in the cutthroat world of New York politics, where the editorial board’s perspectives have been heavily watched by generations of applicants and voters. »
Ben Smith, co-founder of Semafor and former media columnist for The Times, tweeted: “What a terrible decision. The Times editorial board abdicated the one thing everyone was listening to and let New York politics continue to drift, more or less controlled. through small interest groups.
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers is seen before the start of an NFL preseason game Saturday in East Rutherford. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
A new e-book about NFL star quarterback and conspiracy theorist Aaron Rodgers will be released next week, and in it, Rodgers says he regrets telling the media in 2021 that he was “immune” to COVID-19.
Rodgers played for the Green Bay Packers in July 2021 when a reporter asked him if he had won the COVID-19 vaccine. Rodgers said, “Yes, I’ve been vaccinated. “
It wasn’t true.
In the upcoming e-book, “Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers,” written by Ian O’Connor, Rodgers said, “If there’s one thing I wish I’d done differently, it’s this, because it’s the only thing (the critics) may surprise me.
So wait. Is he sorry because he lied, but because the critics who called out his nonsense have something else to use against him?
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk wrote: “He remorse it, yet not because it gave other folks like me explanation why to query the credibility of someone like him. ” He remorse it because he intentionally misrepresented the situation, in the hope that it would save him from having to admit that he was not vaccinated. And he would have gotten away with it if he hadn’t tested positive in November 2021. ”
After testing positive, he had to remain inactive for 10 days because he was not vaccinated. Rodgers appealed the NFL rule that made him sit out, saying his homeopathic remedy regimen deserves to qualify him as vaccinated. The appeal was rejected.
Rodgers, now with the New York Jets, says in the upcoming book: “But if I could do it over again, I would have made the (expletive) call. I’ll just tell you that I’m allergic to PEG. I don’t understand Johnson & Johnson. I’m not going to get vaccinated.
The e-book would also explore Rodgers’ fraught appointments with his family, as well as many major points from his career that, like it or not, are Hall of Fame-worthy.
It’s now a race for the White House since Vice President Kamala Harris joined the race month.
Then Semafor’s Ben Smith asks: “Will Kamala Harris’ term end the ‘permanent campaign’?”
In general, do presidential elections last about two years?Smith explains the disadvantages of such a long career: “Your rivals attack you for months. You face constant pressure to conform to your party’s activist base. Journalists have several months to delve into their adventure and their life. The audience may get tired of you. Your colleagues may be fed up with each other.
Smith then added: “Harris accidentally demonstrates the alternative: She’s the hot new thing for August, tapping into temperament and goodwill six months after the peak of Super Tuesday fashion campaigns. When she holds a conference next week, it may not just be the end of a long, high-producing season. Viewers will appear to find out who she is and she will tell them. Important party figures such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton will speak about her candidacy for the first time, not for the umpteenth time. She has the chance to expand on what appears to be her biggest asset over Donald Trump at the moment: her skill at verbal exchange on social media and in the traditional media.
American presidential politics is unlikely to suddenly devolve into abbreviated campaigns, even if Harris wins. It’s a smart idea, but it proves unlikely, in part because of, as one Democrat told Smith, the media’s “love of horse racing. “
Boston Red Sox’s Jarren Duran at a game against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas, on Aug. 4. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Durán was suspended two games team-wide and major league-wide after he was caught on New England Sports Network microphones using an anti-gay slur at a fan in a game.
Durán was playing Sunday afternoon in a game against the Houston Astros at Fenway Park in Boston when a fan could be heard booing Durán because of his swing and lack of shot. The fan told him to use a tennis racket. He was heard telling the fan: “Shut up, you (anti-gay slurs). ” (Warning: the insult can be heard in the video. )
Duran posted a statement through the team after the game, saying, “During tonight’s game, I used a really terrible word when responding to a fan. I feel so bad about how many other people I have angry and disappointed. I apologize to the entire Red Sox organization and, more importantly, to the entire LGBTQ community. Our enthusiastic young people should be able to see me as a role model, but tonight I failed to fulfill that responsibility. I will take this opportunity to teach myself and my peers and grow as a person.
The Red Sox also posted a saying: “We echo Jarren’s apology to our enthusiasts, especially the LGBTQ community. We try to be an organization that welcomes all enthusiasts to Fenway Park and will continue to teach our employees, players, coaches and staff. “on the importance of inclusion.
It’s great to see the Red Sox and MLB punish Durán for his hateful comment, but one wonders if something wouldn’t have happened if NESN’s microphones hadn’t picked up what he said.
Duran also responded to his comments in that video, saying it was “bad timing. “The video also includes remarks from Red Sox CEO and president Sam Kennedy, Red Sox director of baseball Craig Breslow and Red Sox manager Alex Cora.
Do you have any comments or advice? Email Poynter’s Senior Media Editor, Tom Jones, at tjones@poynter. org.
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