Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will announce his 2024 presidential marketing campaign in a Twitter Areas livestream with Elon Musk on Wednesday night, based on individuals acquainted with his plans.
DeSantis will communicate with the Tesla Inc. CEO at 6 p.m. ET and the marketing campaign will launch a launch video. The choice to launch his marketing campaign alongside Musk would appear to underscore how DeSantis plans to orient himself across the tradition battle points which have outlined his tenure as governor.
Musk has drawn criticism for his dealing with of Twitter since buying the social media large, together with lowering content material moderation and reinstating accounts — together with Trump’s — that had been beforehand banned.
Musk stated on the Wall Road Journal’s CEO Council Summit Tuesday that DeSantis can have “fairly an announcement to make” throughout the Twitter Areas session. He added that he doesn’t plan to endorse any specific candidate right now.
Nonetheless, Musk has cultivated ties with Republicans, together with Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and inspired his thousands and thousands of Twitter followers to vote for a GOP Congress forward of the 2022 midterms. A self-described impartial, Musk has indicated he doesn’t plan to assist President Joe Biden for an additional time period, regardless of voting for the Democrat in 2020.
Musk instructed Bloomberg Information final 12 months he intends to spend a “non-trivial” quantity of as a lot as $25 million within the 2024 presidential race via what he known as a “tremendous average super-PAC.”
It’s unclear whether or not Musk, price $182 billion within the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, will assist DeSantis straight. He hasn’t donated to a political marketing campaign since November 2020, when he gave the then most $2,900 contribution to 9 senators, 4 of whom had been Democrats. The final presidential candidate he supported was Hillary Clinton.
Musk praised South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who introduced his personal bid for the Republican nomination on Monday. Musk tweeted Scott’s first political advert of the marketing campaign, calling it a “nice assertion.”
Musk has beforehand hailed DeSantis because the GOP’s greatest hope to defeat Biden in 2024 and has stated Trump, 76, is “too outdated to be chief government of something” and will “sail into the sundown” somewhat than run once more.
Trump, in flip, has been important of Musk in speeches and on social media, calling him a “con artist” and saying Musk struck a nasty deal when he purchased Twitter.
Musk stays a polarizing determine. Whereas 36 % of Individuals stated that they had a positive opinion of the Tesla chief in a Quinnipiac ballot launched late final 12 months, 33 % stated that they had an unfavorable opinion. When Musk surveyed customers of his personal web site in December on the query of if he ought to step down, 57.5 % stated sure.
Musk introduced earlier this month that NBCUniversal government Linda Yaccarino would take over as CEO of the social community, although Musk will proceed to steer product design and new expertise.