X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, almost had a sister website, according to a new report. Former President Donald Trump met with Musk last summer to gauge the billionaire’s interest in buying his social media platform Truth Social, The Washington Post reports, citing two people with knowledge of the conversation. Musk had purchased Twitter — now X — less than a year and a half earlier for $44 billion.
While the conversation between the former president and Musk — who also owns SpaceX — did not lead to a deal, the conversation illustrates a closer relationship than previously known. The controversial duo met earlier this month in Palm Beach, Florida, along with what the Post describes as “a few high powered” Republican donors. After the meeting was reported by The New York Times, Musk wrote on X that “Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President.”
“We heard Trump and Musk were actually discussing buying the Washington Post but they decided it had no value,” Trump Media & Technology Group spokeswoman Shannon Devine told The Post in a statement, without commenting on the facts of the report.
When they met in summer 2023, Truth Social was locked in a two-year-long battle with federal regulators. In October 2021, Trump Media & Technology Group — Truth Social’s parent — said it would go public on the Nasdaq through a $300 million merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), a blank-check firm.
But in July 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) agreed to allow DWAC to pay an $18 million civil penalty to settle allegations that the companies had broken federal securities law in their merger talks. At the time, Trump Media had a dour financial position. DWAC, once priced at $175 per share, was trading at $20 per share and Trump Media was worth between $5 million and $25 million.
After more delays — including a shareholder vote that pushed the merger deadline back a year — the SEC last month approved the merger; DWAC stock currently trades at about $40 per share. Trump will own more than 78 million shares in the merged entity, which will net him billions of dollars at a time when he is desperate for cash.