The Democratic Party’s political action committee, the “End Citizens United,” filed a complaint to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Tuesday (August 13th) regarding the interview between former President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk on Monday. The committee claimed that the interview was essentially a corporate donation, thus violating campaign finance laws.
Tiffany Muller, the chair of the committee, stated in a press release that the campaign event held on X platform was an act of providing illegal corporate donations to Trump’s campaign. She argued that such contributions undermine campaign finance laws and urged the FEC to investigate the matter.
The complaint also highlighted that federal campaign finance laws prohibit corporations from donating to federal candidates, and federal candidates are not allowed to accept such donations. The “conversation” between the former president and Musk was described in the complaint as “equivalent to a virtual campaign event for Donald J. Trump funded by X Corporation.”
The complaint document mentioned that although there is a media exemption in the law, the resources used by X Corporation to support Trump’s campaign event are not protected by this exemption.
It stated, “Here, X has devoted significant resources towards hosting Trump’s campaign event, including real-time staff specifically hired to address technical challenges for the campaign, as well as the time spent by X’s owners in participating in the event, all of which hold substantial value for the Trump campaign.”
On the evening of August 12th, Trump engaged in a conversation with Tesla CEO Musk on X platform, formerly known as Twitter, for approximately two hours. Their dialogue was delayed for over 40 minutes due to technical issues.
The live stream on the X platform showed a peak viewership of over 1.3 million people.
During the interview, they discussed a wide range of topics. Trump reiterated his stance on controlling illegal immigration and delved into discussions with Musk on issues such as the July 13 shooting incident, climate change, energy transition, and inflation.
This conversation was aimed at boosting Trump’s campaign and provided him with an opportunity to express his views freely, aiming to counter the strong momentum of Heather Kinley, the Democratic presidential candidate following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
As the CEO of Tesla, Musk announced his support for Trump in the 2024 presidential election shortly after Trump was shot. Currently, Musk has become one of the most vocal critics of the Democratic Party, utilizing his massive following of 194 million users on X to criticize and oppose the liberal advocacies of “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion.”
(This article referenced reporting from The Hill.)