A Democratic political action committee has filed a complaint against former President Donald Trump and the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, alleging that an Aug. 12 interview between Trump and X owner Elon Musk violated Federal Election Commission regulations.
Trump and Musk spoke for roughly two hours on Monday evening during an event that was delayed by 40 minutes due to technical issues.
In his questioning, Musk, who endorsed Trump last month, allowed him to attack Democratic opponent Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden without any pushback on issues like the economy and tense foreign relations.
The PAC’s name is a reference to a controversial 2010 Supreme Court ruling known as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which opened the floodgates to unlimited campaign spending, often by anonymous groups, corporations and unions.
Read the full complaint: Maya Homan is a 2024 election fellow at USA TODAY who focuses on Georgia politics.
Former President Donald Trump and the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, are the targets of a complaint filed by a Democratic political action committee, which claims that an Aug. Federal Election Commission rules were broken in the 12 interview between Trump and X owner Elon Musk.
Tech problems caused the event to be delayed by forty minutes, but Trump and Musk managed to talk for almost two hours on Monday night. He was inquiring.
After endorsing Trump last month, Musk gave him carte blanche to criticize Democratic rival Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden on matters such as the state of the economy and the delicate diplomatic relations. On the campaign trail, Trump frequently reiterates the same narratives about his presidency.
Error lane: In the midst of X technical difficulties, Elon Musk converses with Donald Trump.
Repairing technological bugs is an unlawful contribution to a political party (PAC).
The End Citizens United PAC claims that Musk’s support of Trump’s campaign and his use of business resources to fix a technical issue with the livestream amounted to an unlawful corporate contribution to the campaign.
End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller urged the FEC to look into the event, saying in a statement that “the Donald Trump-Elon Musk campaign rally hosted on X wasn’t just an incoherent diatribe of lies marred by technical difficulties it was a blatantly illegal corporate contribution to Donald Trump’s campaign.”. “This blatant corporate contribution violates the laws governing campaign finance and would create a risky precedent for unrestricted corporate involvement in politics. “.
Corporate contributions to federal candidates are forbidden by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as is the candidates’ acceptance of the contributions.
The controversial 2010 Citizens United v. Supreme Court decision is referenced in the PAC’s name. Federal Election Commission, which allowed for massive amounts of money to be spent on elections by corporations, unions, and anonymous organizations. As per the Brennan Center for Justice, the ruling nevertheless forbids corporations from officially collaborating with political campaigns.
According to the complaint, “the Trump Campaign is significantly benefiting from the considerable resources of X to host Trump’s campaign event, including the time of its owner to participate in the event and real-time staff to address technical difficulties specifically for the campaign event.”.
Complaint states that X is not covered by the media exemption.
In addition, the complaint claims that X’s actions are not shielded by the legal exception for media companies.
The complaint states, “Even if X were a press entity, the owner’s hosting a livestream event with a candidate featuring express advocacy is a departure from these usual hosting-and-content-moderation functions.”.
The complaint goes on to say that because livestreaming campaign events is not “comparable in form” to X’s regular activities, “X was not acting in its legitimate press function.”.
A request for comment was not answered by X or the Trump campaign.
Go through the entire complaint here.
Georgia politics are the specialty of Maya Homan, a USA TODAY 2024 election fellow. On X, formerly Twitter, she goes by @MayaHoman.
