The most expensive political ad of all time

In 2022, Elon Musk purchased Twitter, one of the world's largest social networks, for $44 billion. From a financial perspective, it has not worked out well. Over the last two years, the value of Twitter — which Musk renamed X — has plunged. Internal documents reveal that company executives believed it was worth less than half of what Musk paid for it by October 2023. In 2024, Fidelity valued the company at just $12.5 billion.

Musk's ownership of X, however, gives him full control over its algorithm. According to a report by The Verge, Musk "created a special system" that promotes his posts "to the entire user base." The new system initially "artificially boosted Musk’s tweets by a factor of 1,000 – a constant score that ensured his tweets rank higher than anyone else’s in the feed." Musk himself posted a crude meme mocking the ubiquity of his posts on the network after the algorithm change. Although the artificial boost to Musk's posts has been moderated somewhat, Musk continues to dominate the default "For You" feed of nearly everyone who uses X.

In recent weeks, Musk, who officially endorsed former President Donald Trump on July 13, has weaponized his account to flood millions of X users with pro-Trump and anti-Vice President Kamala Harris messages. Over the last month, Musk has published at least 173 posts supporting Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), or attacking their Democratic opponents. 

Meanwhile, several accounts on X that are supportive of Harris "have been labeled as spam or restricted." Musk also said he was involved in creating America PAC, a pro-Trump Super PAC. Musk says he will also donate an undisclosed amount to the group. 

Trump clearly appreciates Musk's efforts. At an August 4 rally, Trump announced he was reversing his longstanding opposition to electric cars because Musk also serves as the CEO of Tesla. "I'm for electric cars. I have to be because, you know, Elon endorsed me very strongly," Trump said. "So, I have no choice."

Tonight, Musk will take things to a new level. According to Trump, he will be "DOING A MAJOR INTERVIEW WITH MUSK" on Monday night. The conversation will happen on X. The Trump campaign is billing it as "THE INTERVIEW OF THE CENTURY." Numerous media outlets have framed Musk talking to Trump on X as some sort of journalistic endeavor. For example, this is how the Washington Post described the event:

On Tuesday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he would do a “major interview” with Musk on Monday, without providing further details. Musk appeared to confirm in a post on X that the interview would be streamed on his platform. A representative for the Harris campaign declined to comment about whether the candidate was offered a similar opportunity.

Musk is not interviewing Trump. He is using his $44 billion purchase of Twitter to create the most expensive political ad of all time. 

Musk is not a journalist and, when it comes to Trump, has no interest in being fair or accurate. Many of Musk's political posts on X — which are uniformly pro-Trump and anti-Harris — include false or misleading information. 

Musk falsely suggested Walz mandated that schools provide "tampons for boys in middle school"

Musk has used X to promote a mendacious attack on Vice Presidential nominee Governor Tim Walz (D-MN). The Trump campaign claimed, as Governor of Minnesota, "Tampon Tim put tampons in boys' bathrooms." Musk parroted the line in an August 8 post on X: "Tampons for boys in middle school? What?"

The law signed by Walz, however, "doesn't specify in which bathrooms the menstrual supplies must be located." Rather, it "requires school districts to develop plans to ensure all students who menstruate can access free tampons and pads." While the language was written to be inclusive to trans students, the law will primarily benefit girls who are unable "to afford pads and tampons." 28 states have similar programs. Nationwide, about one in four girls experience "period poverty."

Musk shared a doctored video of Harris calling herself "the ultimate diversity hire"

On July 26, Musk shared a doctored video featuring Harris' voice in which she calls herself "the ultimate diversity hire" and says if you criticize her, you are "sexist and racist." In the doctored video, Harris also says she "pretend[s] to celebrate Kwanzaa." Harris never said any of those things. The video is a "deep fake." 

X's rules require deep fakes to be labeled or removed. But weeks after Musk posted the fake video, it has not been labeled as manipulated or removed. 

Musk attacked Harris for identifying herself to an audience that included blind and visually impaired people

"I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, and I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit," Harris said at a July 2022 event at the White House. "Imagine 4 years of this," Musk commented above a video of Harris' remarks on X. 

What neither Musk nor the original poster mentions is that Harris introduced herself at an event "held on the anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act." The description of herself was an accommodation to the blind and visually impaired people at the event. The other speakers at the event identified themselves in the same way.

Musk said Harris should not be president because she does not have children

Musk agreed with a prominent right-wing pundit who said Harris should not be president because she doesn't have children and that being a stepmother "doesn't count."

Musk falsely claimed that Democrats are "importing vast numbers of voters"

Musk frequently amplifies Trump's false claim that undocumented immigrants vote in large numbers as part of a deliberate plot by Democrats to win elections through fraud. 

In a July 29 post, Musk responded to a misleading claim that more "illegal aliens" entered the country than "kids born to mothers in America." Musk commented that "The Biden-Harris Administration is importing vast numbers of voters."

First, undocumented immigrants are ineligible to vote. So the number of undocumented immigrants does not translate to new "voters." The number of confirmed cases of undocumented immigrants voting is vanishingly small. A study by the Brennan Center for Justice evaluating 23.5 million votes across 12 states in 2016 found 30 incidents of suspected non-citizen voting, 0.0001% of the 2016 vote in those jurisdictions. 

Moreover, the chart Musk is promoting compares births in America with encounters of undocumented immigrants. These statistics include many people who are turned away at the border. If someone is turned away at the border three times, that counts as three encounters. It also includes people who present themselves at a port of entry to enter the country legally. So the comparison is dishonest in several ways.