Desperate Trump Returns to X as Poll Numbers Keep Tanking
Donald Trump made his return to X ahead of an expected interview with Elon Musk.

After being absent for nearly a year, Donald Trump returned to X (formerly Twitter) early Monday morning, posting a new campaign ad shortly before 3 a.m. E.T.
The post and campaign ad used a question taken from Ronald Reaganâs 1980 campaign for president, when he asked, âAre you better off than you were four years ago?â Trumpâs post makes this point by also claiming, âOur economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. Weâre a nation in decline.â
Are you better off now than you were when I was president?
â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2024
Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We're a nation in decline.
Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again! #TrumpOnX
Trump was banned from Twitter more than three years ago following the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Shortly after acquiring the microblogging service, Elon Musk reinstated Trump to the platform in November 2022. But Trump refrained from posting to the platform, except for posting his Georgia mug shot in 2023 after being indicted on election interference charges. Commentators have speculated that he was either deliberately focusing on his own social network, Truth Social, or he has some legal requirement to post on his own social network.
So why has he posted on X after so long? Perhaps heâs desperate after plummeting in the polls thanks to the surging Kamala Harris campaign. Heâs lost a lot of ground in the last month after President Biden withdrew from the race and after Harris chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Trumpâs selection of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate has done him few, if any, favors, inviting attacks from Democrats calling Republicans weird.
Trumpâs time on Twitter, from the start of his 2016 presidential campaign through his four years as president, was marked by belligerence, schoolyard insults against his opponents, and incitement of violence. From Trumpâs standpoint, his four years as president were probably the peak of his political career, so maybe heâs desperately trying to bring the old magic to revive his flagging fortunes and make himself feel better. Maybe Musk asked him to post again in advance of his interview with the egotistical tech mogul Monday night. Or maybe heâs returning to X because his own social network is losing a lot of money.