A Democratic political action committee has filed a lawsuit 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 about two hours Monday night at an event that was delayed 40 minutes due to technical issues.
Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump last month, allowed him to attack his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden without any resistance on issues such as the economy and strained international relations. Trump repeated many of the same stories about his presidency that he tells during the campaign.
Faulty junction:Elon Musk chats with Donald Trump amid X technical issues
PAC: Fixing technical issues = illegal campaign contribution
The PAC, End Citizens United, alleges that Musk’s advocacy for the Trump campaign and his use of company resources to fix the livestream technical issue amounted to an illegal contribution to the company’s campaign.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s campaign rally on X was not only an incoherent rant of lies marred by technical difficulties, it was a blatantly illegal corporate contribution to Donald Trump’s campaign,” Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, said in a statement urging the FEC to investigate the event. “This brazen corporate contribution violates campaign finance laws and would set a dangerous precedent for direct, unfettered corporate engagement in campaigns.”
The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 prohibits corporations from making contributions to federal candidates and prevents candidates from accepting such contributions.
The PAC’s name refers to a controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision known as the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commissionthat paved the way for unlimited campaign spending, often by anonymous groups, corporations and unions. However, the ruling still prohibits corporations from formally coordinating with political campaigns, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
“Here, X’s considerable resources in hosting the Trump campaign event, including dedicated real-time staff to troubleshoot technical difficulties specifically related to the campaign event and its owner’s time to participate in the event, are of significant value to the Trump campaign,” the complaint reads.
X not protected by media exemption, complaint says
The complaint also argues that X’s activity is not protected by the law’s exemption for media organizations.
“Even if X were a news entity, the owner’s hosting of a live event with a candidate making explicit advocacy constitutes a departure from its usual hosting and content moderation functions,” the complaint reads.
“X was not acting within the scope of his legitimate press function, as hosting live campaign events is not ‘comparable in form’ to X’s usual activities,” the complaint continues.
Neither the Trump campaign nor X responded to a request for comment.
Read the full complaint:
Maya Homan is a 2024 election researcher at USA TODAY focusing on Georgia politics. She is @MayaHoman on X, formerly Twitter.
