Musk’s X Will Host Town Hall Events With Trump, RFK Jr.

(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk’s X will host live, town hall-style interviews with Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ahead of this fall’s presidential election, a chance for X to reassert itself as a key player in the world of US politics.

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X is partnering with the television network NewsNation to broadcast the live interviews. X users will be able to submit questions for the candidates, but the discussions will ultimately be led by moderators who have not yet been named, a person familiar with the arrangement said. Dates for the town halls have also not been announced.

X also extended an invitation to President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, the person said. A spokesperson for the Biden campaign confirmed the President will not participate.

The town halls are part of a broader strategy at X to lean more heavily into professionally produced video as a way to increase user engagement, and also give the company more places to run advertisements. X previously announced video deals with some high-profile media personalities, including former CNN star Don Lemon and sports broadcaster Jim Rome. The Lemon deal later fell apart.

It’s possible the town hall could persuade Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, to resume posting on the platform ahead of the 2024 election. The former President was once an avid user of X, then called Twitter, but has only posted once in over three years after being banned from the service following the Jan. 6 2021, riots at the US Capitol. (Musk reinstated Trump’s account in November 2022 soon after completing his takeover of Twitter.)

Despite not posting, Trump still has more than 87 million followers on X. Earlier this week, he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records, making him the first US president to become a convicted felon. He will be sentenced on July 11.

Axios first reported on the town hall news.

--With assistance from Laura Davison.

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