After Donald Trump’s landslide victory on Election Day, Fox News host Bret Baier asked if Elon Musk could be the “future” of the Republican Party. Indeed, Musk pushed his fate against Trump when he bankrolled some of Trump’s campaign through his America PAC, and entered the campaign himself as a surrogate for Trump at speeches and town halls.
Most importantly, how X, the social media platform that Musk bought in 2022 for $44 billion, helped Trump get his message out.
“Elon Musk’s IX was MAGA’s megaphone,” says communications expert Matt Navarra. “The US election exposed the Achilles heel of traditional media: that social media is a wildfire of influence that shapes the narrative faster than the old guard can look to counter it.”
Navarra says social media played a big role in helping Trump win his second election—even if it didn’t get him into the White House. Instead, he believes that social media, particularly X, has helped push the envelope of what is acceptable and unacceptable in politics. “Social media has become the front lines of influence, where trust is built or broken algorithmically, while traditional media adheres to the standard of looking at things that few people really care about,” he said.
It’s a view shared by others, including Musk, who said social media has replaced the media, saying X is a “symbol” of where society is headed.
That attitude may be a step too far, but it contains a grain of truth. “Elon’s relationship with Trump represents a convergence of right-wing politics and the tech industry that has been going on for years, but now it has reached new heights,” said Jess Maddox, associate professor of social media at the University of Alabama.
Maddox points out that the Musk-Trump relationship has gone to “new levels” that have never been seen before. “When the head of a major platform is invested in the victory of one political candidate, of course that platform will come to push features, content, and ads to serve their interests,” he said. (Republican-leaning advertisers accounted for 60% of major advertising spending on X from January 1 to November 1, according to data compiled by FWIW News. The Trump campaign was the single biggest spender, paying $1 million for ads.)
The ability to put a party’s voice forward without space or space for the opposition to respond is familiar, says Liam McLoughlin, who teaches social media and politics at the University of Liverpool, comparing it to TV commercials. “But for us to have a space that was previously known as the public sector and successfully turn it into a one-sided campaign platform, that raises real concerns about who owns the platforms, the influence these owners have on the community, and the lack of control,” he said. (UX did not respond immediately Fast companyRequest for comment.)
The transformation of what Musk called a “de facto public city” into a Trump campaign platform certainly helped. But it also has a long-lasting effect on social media. “IX has become increasingly unusable for those who don’t subscribe to right-wing beliefs, a technological and cultural shift that happened as soon as Musk took ownership,” Maddox said. And emboldened by the victory of his favorite candidate, that will not change.
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