X users were glued to the Musk v. Trump blowup. Could this be good for the platform?
By BARBARA ORTUTAY, Associated Press
The blowup between the president of the United States and the world’s richest man has played out on social media in real time, the latest, perhaps ultimate example of how X has become Elon Musk’s personal platform, his own reality show where anyone can tune in to watch the mercurial twists and turns of his unpredictable personality.
And tune in they did.
The feud has birthed countless memes, hot takes and speculation, with some X users bringing out the popcorn emojis while rejoicing that the site has returned to its “fun” roots — back when it was called Twitter. While it’s not yet clear if the feud will have any permanent effects on X’s audience size or advertising business, its owner reposted a meme late Thursday suggesting that, at least for now, it was good for getting active users to tune into the platform. CEO Linda Yaccarino agreed.
“X operates as a personality-driven platform, and Musk’s high-profile conflicts can fuel engagement at least in the short term,” said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute. “The platform has leaned into spectacle as a growth strategy, and controversy often drives traffic.”
President Donald Trump, of course, posted through the breakup on his own personal platform, Truth Social with three updates targeting Musk directly on Thursday. But Truth Social’s audience is just a fraction of X’s, and social media experts at this stage don’t see it siphoning the former Twitter’s user base as a result of the feud. Trump was banned from Twitter in 2021 following the Jan. 6 riots on the Capitol and he returned more than 2.5 years later after Musk reinstated his account. On X, he has nearly 106 million followers — compared with less than 10 million on Truth Social, where he’s continued to post following the feud — at least 10 times on Friday.
“It’s a niche platform with limited reach outside Trump’s core base,” Kreps said. “That said, if Trump were to fully re-engage there and disengage from X entirely, it could fragment the right-wing audience somewhat. But barring major user migration, X still dominates in political discourse.”
Trump hasn’t indicated that he’d leave X — and Musk hasn’t said he’d consider banning him — but the president has not posted on the site since June 3, although the official White House account has continued to send updates.
On BlueSky, meanwhile, many users seemed to delight in watching the drama unfold on the platform they (mostly) left behind, posting screenshots from X, Truth Social as well as their own share of memes and commentary. But the site, which has welcomed users disillusioned with Musk’s politics and policies on X, is unlikely to become a huge draw for Trump die-hards.
“It’s too early to measure any long-term shifts in user behavior, but political audiences on X have tended to be resilient, even in the face of controversy,” Kreps said. “Trump supporters are unlikely to abandon the platform en masse unless there’s sustained antagonism or a perceived shift in content moderation policy. Right now, this looks more like a personality clash than an ideological break so user migration feels speculative at this stage.”
As for X’s advertising business, Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg said she doubts the feud will have a material effect.
“Advertisers who were spending small sums on the platform due to Musk’s proximity to Trump may rethink their commitments,” she said. “At the same time, the breakup between Musk and Trump hasn’t eliminated the threat of legal or business repercussions given the FTC investigation into the alleged ad boycott, so there’s still incentive for those brands to stay.”
According to The New York Times, which cited unnamed sources, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether roughly a dozen advertising and advocacy groups violated antitrust law by coordinating boycotts among advertisers that didn’t want their brands to appear next to hateful or other objectionable content.
In the end, Musk “remains a divisive figure, regardless of his position in the White House,” Enberg said, and any efforts by X to make the platform less divisive — such as a recent program designed to elevate content that people agree on —“can only go so far with brands and consumers if he continues to use X as his own personal megaphone to amplify controversial content.”