Donald Trump is back on X, the social media platform that once banned him.
On Monday, he posted several messages, signaling his plan to use the platform in his campaign for the White House.
His return to X comes just before a scheduled interview with Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the platform.
Musk had publicly supported Trump’s re-election campaign last month, shortly after a failed assassination attempt on Trump.
Trump’s first post was a campaign video showing images of limousines, military planes, and other presidential symbols.
In the video, he claimed that people want to silence him, but he will not let that happen.
The video also showed scenes from the FBI’s 2022 raid on his Florida home and mentioned legal cases against him for mishandling classified documents and trying to overturn the 2020 election. Trump promised to “destroy the Deep State” in the video.
Within one hour, the post had more than 8 million views, according to X. Another post criticized Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival in the upcoming presidential election.
Trump’s reappearance on X comes as the presidential race becomes more competitive, with Harris now equal or even leading in some key states, according to recent surveys.
Trump had used X, previously called Twitter, a lot before and during his presidency. However, the platform banned him for life in 2021 after his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6. He had repeatedly broken platform rules, including those against promoting violence.
In his last tweet as president, Trump said he would not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration.
When Musk bought Twitter in 2022, he reinstated Trump’s account and relaxed the platform’s rules, allowing suspended and controversial users to return.
Musk, who calls himself a “free-speech absolutist,” has also started a group to fund Trump’s re-election campaign.
In an email to supporters on Sunday, Trump said he would return to X briefly to give an “interview of the century” with Musk on Monday.
Trump had only posted once on X since his account was reinstated by Musk. That post was on August 24, 2023, when he turned himself in to authorities in Atlanta on charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
After posting his mug shot on X, he received a large increase in small donations.
Trump launched his own social media platform, Truth Social, in 2022, to compete with Twitter. He had an exclusivity agreement with Truth Social, which required him to post there first before posting on other platforms.
However, that agreement ended last year. Trump has a much larger audience on X, with 88 million followers, compared to 7.5 million followers on Truth Social.
Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social, reported in their latest earnings that sales dropped from $1.19 billion to $837 million in the three months leading up to June.
The company also reported a net loss of $14.4 million. By Monday afternoon, shares in TMTG had dropped by more than 7% in New York.
