Donald Trump asked billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk if he was interested in buying the ex-president’s social media platform, Truth Social.
The approach by Trump last summer didn’t lead to a deal, according to a Washington Post report on Tuesday, which cited people familiar with the matter. Musk bought Truth Social rival Twitter, which has since changed its name to X, in 2022 for $44 billion.
Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns the Truth Social platform, is going public through a long-delayed deal with SPAC Digital World Acquisition (NASDAQ:DWAC). Shares of DWAC rose 2% in pre-market trading on Tuesday.
A Trump Media spokeswoman didn’t address the facts of the Washington Post story but told the publication, “We heard Trump and Musk were actually discussing buying the Washington Post but they decided it had no value.”
When the Post asked Musk about the Truth Social call and other talks with Trump, Musk told the paper that he had “never been to Mar-a-Lago.”
Musk allowed Trump back on Twitter in November 2022 after the former president was banned from the social media platform following the attack on the U.S. Capitol in January 2021. Trump said at the time he didn’t plan to come back on the service and instead would use his own platform Truth Social to communicate.
