Former President Donald Trump reportedly offered to sell his conservative social media platform Truth Social to X owner Elon Musk last summer.
What Happened: According to The Washington Post, Trump tried, and failed, to convince Musk to buy Truth Social. But the two have remained in touch since.
Trump reportedly asked the Tesla CEO for campaign donations related to the 2024 election and pitched him about speaking at the GOP convention in July.
Musk has said he will support neither Trump nor President Joe Biden with campaign donations. He also told The Washington Post that he had "never been to Mar-a-Lago."
Trump was previously banned from Twitter in January 2021 related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. After Musk acquired Twitter, he lifted the ban on Trump's account. Trump made only one post since then: his mugshot and a link to his campaign website.
Why It's Important: The report comes as the SPAC merger between Digital World Acquisition Corporation DWAC and Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), continues to stall.
The situation is further complicated by litigation. Truth Social’s co-founders are suing Trump, alleging that the quadruple-indicted presidential candidate diluted their stock.
The stakes are high for Trump. The former president is saddled with legal fees relating to multiple criminal cases and likely sees TMTG as a financial lifeline.
Per the New York attorney general's office, Trump owes more than $450 million in penalties due to his losing a New York state business fraud case. He also owes over $83 million for losing a defamation case.
Trump owns a majority stake in TMTG, but will also face a lock-up agreement that won't allow him to sell shares for some time.
Musk, meanwhile, has been critical of Truth Social, saying that the social media company had a "terrible name."
Since buying Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, and changing the company to X, Musk has also pushed the social media company more into a free speech narrative, overturning bans on accounts and providing an outlet for people to share their thoughts and ideas. The moves by Musk could place X in deeper competition with Truth Social, which was previously a place for accounts that had been banned on Twitter to go.
And if the SPAC merger between Digital World and TMTG faces further setbacks or is not approved, Trump may need to convince other companies or billionaires to buy Truth Social.
DWAC Price Action: Digital World Acquisition shares trade at $38.27 versus a 52-week trading range of $12.34 to $58.72. Shares of the SPAC are up 123% over the last year, but have fallen over 14% in the last month.
Read Next: Trump Wins Super Tuesday, NFTs Rise In Value – Here’s How Much A Trump Digital Trading Card Costs
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