Trump to Take Part in Town Hall on X, Elon Musk Confirms

(Left) Tesla head Elon Musk talks to the press near Berlin on Sept. 3, 2020. (Right) Former President Donald Trump arrives to give remarks during a Save America Rally in Illinois on June 25, 2022. Maja Hitij, Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images

Elon Musk confirmed that a town hall with former President Donald Trump is set to take place on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, drawing a contrast to the company’s prior management’s decision to kick the former president off the platform following the Jan. 6, 2021 incident at the U.S. Capitol.

While few details of the forthcoming town hall are available, including time and place, Mr. Musk confirmed reports of the event in a briefly-worded post on X.

“This will be interesting,” Mr. Musk said while sharing an article by The New York Post, which reported plans for the town hall that will include President Trump answering questions submitted by audience members during the livestreamed event.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino also replied, “The People’s Town Hall!”

The town hall will reportedly be broadcast in partnership with NewsNation.

The Epoch Times sent a request for comment to the Biden and Trump campaigns and to NewsNation.

News of the town hall comes in an election cycle that has seen some wrangling between the two presidential campaigns regarding debates.

Debates in Focus

This year, the two rival presidential campaigns have bypassed the traditional debate process run by the Commission on Presidential Debates and have arranged their own debate schedule.

The first debate, which will be the earliest televised presidential debate in history, is set to take place in the key battleground state of Georgia on June 27 and be hosted by CNN.

The second debate is set for Sept. 10 and will be hosted by ABC News, with a location still to be decided.

There has been some squabble between the two campaigns over the debates, with President Trump pushing for more dates as he seeks to oust the incumbent, while the Biden campaign has so far agreed to just the two.

As part of the discussions regarding holding the debates, the Biden campaign proposed changes that the Trump campaign agreed to. Those changes include an unusually early date for the first debate, limiting the number of debates to just two, and skipping the usual walk-on entry to the debate stage, instead starting with both candidates standing at the podium.

Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told The Epoch Times that he believes the debate timing is more likely to benefit President Biden.

“I think the Biden campaign decided they need to take a gamble and have Biden go one-on-one with Trump early in the race, not later in the race,” with the idea being that a strong performance by President Biden could build some momentum for his reelection campaign, Mr. Olsen told The Epoch Times.

Other Developments

Plans for the town hall on X come hot on the heels of the conclusion of President Trump’s business records falsification trial in Manhattan.

A jury found the former president guilty on May 30 on 34 counts of falsifying business records in order to conceal non-disclosure payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels as part of a bid to influence the 2016 presidential election in which he was a candidate.

The guilty verdict made President Trump the first former president in U.S. history to be convicted of a crime.

President Trump vowed to appeal the verdict and called the trial “very unfair.”

“This is a scam. This is a rigged trial ... this is a rigged judge,” President Trump said at a press conference on May 31, adding that a specific election expert wasn’t allowed to testify on certain issues related to the trial.

Republicans condemned the guilty verdict while Democrats and the Biden presidential campaign reacted to the verdict with satisfaction.

“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” Biden–Harris 2024 communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement.

White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a post on X: “We respect the rule of law, and have no additional comment.”

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) took to X to say that the “best way to fight back right now against the sham trial is to donate to the Trump campaign.”

Minutes after the jury returned the verdict, an avalanche of donations to the Trump presidential campaign caused the donation page to temporarily become unavailable.

The following day, the Trump campaign announced a record one-day fundraising haul of nearly $35 million.

Meanwhile, election reporting service Decision Desk released its first forecast for the 2024 presidential election on May 29, putting the odds of a win by former President Donald Trump at 58 percent.