Musk to host Trump town hall after slamming NY verdict

RFK Jr. and Joe Biden were also invited, but the sitting US president has declined

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has confirmed reports that he would host a live town hall event with presidential candidate Donald Trump, after criticizing his felony conviction as politically motivated.

X (formerly Twitter), which Musk owns, has partnered with the TV network NewsNation to live-stream town halls with presidential candidates on both platforms, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an individual familiar with the matter. 

“This will be interesting,” Musk said on X Friday, linking to a New York Post story about the town halls. 

The idea is reportedly the brainchild of X CEO Linda Yaccarino. Musk apparently extended the town hall invitations to Trump, President Joe Biden, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Biden’s campaign reportedly declined, however.

According to the reports, X users will get to submit questions for the town hall, which will then be curated by moderators, who will include at least one NewsNation host. The date, location and moderators for the events have not yet been announced.

Earlier this month, the Biden campaign sent a debate offer to Trump to appear on two legacy TV outlets – CNN and ABC News, and with no audience in the studio. The Trump campaign accepted and the debates were scheduled for June 27 and September 10. The arrangement completely bypassed the Presidential Debates Commission.

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Musk and Trump in secret talks – WSJ

On Thursday, however, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on 34 charges of “falsifying business records,” related to his reimbursement of then-lawyer Michael Cohen for the alleged hush money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has denounced the trial and the verdict as politically motivated – as has Musk.

“If a former President can be criminally convicted over such a trivial matter – motivated by politics, rather than justice – then anyone is at risk of a similar fate,” Musk wrote on X, adding that the verdict did “great damage” to the Americans’ faith in their legal system.

The day before, the Wall Street Journal reported a rumor that Musk might become a White House adviser should Trump win the November election. The alleged connection has been widely interpreted as a sign that some Silicon Valley moguls were moving away from the Democrats.

Trump was a prolific user of Twitter and leveraged the platform to get his message out in 2016, when he beat the legacy media favorite Hillary Clinton. The company “permanently suspended” his account while he was still the sitting president in January 2021, following the US Capitol riot over the alleged irregularities in the 2020 election. Trump had called on his supporters to stand down, not break any laws and go home, but Democrats accused him of “inciting an insurrection” and he was banned by all major social media shortly thereafter. 

Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and restored Trump’s account last year, but the former president has chosen not to actively post on the platform.