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How X Is Benefiting as Musk Advises Trump

Elon Musk’s social media platform has experienced a return of advertisers and new exposure as a source of government news under President Trump.

Pablo Delcan

Pablo Delcan

On a recent Thursday, journalists cramming into the White House press briefing room saw an unfamiliar face in a rotating seat designated for new media.

It was occupied by John Stoll, who had recently been appointed head of news at X, the social platform owned by Elon Musk.

“As you all know — you are all on X — it’s home to hundreds of millions of users, a large contingent of independent journalists and news organizations across geographies and political spectrums,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, by way of an introduction. She then directed Mr. Stoll to ask the first question.

The decision by the White House to grant X a position of power and visibility alongside news organizations was one of an increasing number of perks landed by the social media company, as Mr. Musk became omnipresent at President Trump’s side.

A profile view of John Stoll, wearing glasses, a jacket, a shirt and a tie. The faces and heads surrounding him are blurred out.
John Stoll, head of news at X, at the daily briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in February.Credit...Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

 

Since the election, the platform has become a go-to source for administration information, as Mr. Musk provides real-time updates about his Department of Government Efficiency and targets for federal cost-cutting to his more than 219 million followers. In February, at least a dozen government agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and Defense Department, established new DOGE-focused X accounts to seek tips about federal waste and fraud. Users seeking an audience with Mr. Musk have increasingly flocked to the site in hopes of catching his ear.

The positioning of X as a powerful government mouthpiece has helped bolster the platform, even as the company continues to struggle. It has scrambled to meet revenue and advertising goals in recent months, according to internal emails seen by The New York Times. It faces regulatory scrutiny abroad. And on March 28, Mr. Musk announced that he had sold X to his artificial intelligence start-up, xAI, combining a struggling company with a faster-growing one.

Even so, X’s heightened visibility under the Trump administration stands out — and has had a halo effect. Bankers have sold off billions in the company’s outstanding debt in recent weeks, aided by investor optimism about Mr. Musk’s alignment with Mr. Trump. Major advertisers such as Amazon and Apple have returned.

While it’s unclear how long X’s new momentum will last, and how much of it is a direct result of Mr. Musk’s proximity to Mr. Trump, the recent successes are notable after years of business woes.

“X is where everything happens in real time,” Linda Yaccarino, X’s chief executive, wrote on the platform last month. “Raw ideas and no filters with more truth and more voices.”

Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment. X and the White House declined to comment.

The changes for X follow a whirlwind few months in which Mr. Musk became one of Mr. Trump’s most influential advisers, including leading the Department of Government Efficiency. From an office suite next to the White House, Mr. Musk, who also leads the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX, has been instrumental in setting and enacting administration policy.

 

Elon Musk and President Trump, in front of a crowd, stare into each other’s eyes and shake hands. A woman next to them is clapping.
Elon Musk has become omnipresent by President Trump’s side.Credit...Eric Lee/The New York Times

 

X has faced hurdles since Mr. Musk bought it for $44 billion in late 2022. He dismissed more than 80 percent of the staff and removed content moderation rules that limited hate speech. Some advertisers departed, worried their brands would appear next to offensive content.

In December, Fidelity, which invested in Mr. Musk’s acquisition of the company, valued X at $12 billion.

But in February, X’s bankers were finally able to sell billions of dollars of debt to investors. Months earlier, investors were negotiating to buy that debt at a loss of 10 percent to 20 percent for the banks. “Some companies might be nervous about being seen as not being on board with the administration because they’re not involved in X,” said Jo-Ellen Pozner, an associate professor of management at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.

Still, X faced continued struggles. In January, Mr. Musk wrote in an email to employees that revenue was “unimpressive” and that the company was “barely breaking even.” As of early March, X had served $91 million of ads in the first quarter, another message said, well below its target of $153 million.

“The time to sprint to the finish line is now,” the email read.

The deal announced on March 28 by Mr. Musk valued X at about $33 billion and tethered its fortunes to xAI, which was valued at $80 billion.

“We don’t have great sense of what either of these companies are worth,” said Eric Talley, a professor at Columbia Law School specializing in corporate governance. “They almost have to rise and fall together.”

Mr. Musk, who has long bristled at media coverage of himself and his companies, has in recent months positioned X as a new media outlet, using his own news-making power to draw the spotlight to his platform.

“You are the media now,” he posted on Jan. 15, resharing a video of himself in which he pitched X as the future of citizen journalism. “The legacy media is controlled by a handful of editors in chief; that’s why I encourage people to write things on the X platform,” he said in the video.

As Mr. Musk slashed government costs, the DOGE initiative received an X account and a gray verification badge for official government accounts. The account now advertises the initiative’s accomplishments and pushes back on critics.

“He is transforming X as a platform into government media, without any kind of constraint,” said David Kaye, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, who studies online speech.

In February, X also added DOGE accounts for government agencies, including the Social Security Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission. While the agencies already have accounts on X, the new DOGE-themed accounts received the gray check mark badges normally reserved for government agencies. They have operated as tip lines for the cost-cutting project, encouraging users to share information about federal waste.

 

In February, X also added DOGE accounts for several government agencies.Credit...via X
In February, X also added DOGE accounts for several government agencies.Credit...via X

Conservatives have found that X is a direct pipeline to Mr. Musk, allowing them to influence federal policy. He has responded to viral complaints about the government on the platform, and his cost-cutting initiative has marked users’ concerns as “fixed.”

Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican of Iowa who has long focused on government cost-cutting, described herself in a November post as the “top watchDOGE” in the Senate. Mr. Musk responded with two American flag emojis.

“Thank you for your many years of hard work on improving government efficiency! Super helpful,” Mr. Musk wrote in a December exchange.

X created a head of news position to oversee the company’s partnerships with media companies that advertise or share their work on the platform and hired Mr. Stoll, a former editor at The Wall Street Journal, in January.

Shortly after Mr. Trump took office, the administration decided to shake up the White House press room. A prominent chair to the side of the press secretary’s lectern would be assigned to a reporter from “new media,” a term that includes podcasters, influencers and “news-related content” creators.

During Mr. Stoll’s only appearance in the press room so far, he said his presence was a testament to the White House’s “open-mindedness but also to innovation.”

He then asked about the “confidence in the competence of this administration to go toe to toe with Vladimir Putin.”

Ryan Mac contributed reporting.

Kate Conger is a technology reporter based in San Francisco. She can be reached at kate.conger@nytimes.com. More about Kate Conger

Author: Kate Conger

Source: N.Y Times

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