How X benefits as musk advises Trump

On a recent Thursday, journalists crowded in the reporting room of the White House press saw an unknown face in a rotating seat designated for new media.

He was occupied by John Stoll, who had recently been appointed news head in x, the social platform owned by Elon Musk.

“As everyone knows, everyone is in x, is home to hundreds of millions of users, a great contingent of independent journalists and news organizations in geographies and political spectra,” said Karoline Leavitt, press secretary of the White House, through an introduction. Then he ordered Mr. Stoll to ask the first question.

The White House decision to grant x a position of power and visibility along with news organizations was one of an increasing number of advantages landed by the social media company, since Musk became omnipresent next to President Trump.

From the elections, the platform has become a source of information for the administration, since MUSK provides real -time updates on its government efficiency department and objectives for the reduction of federal costs to its more than 219 million followers. In February, at least a dozen government agencies, including the Internal Tax Service and the Department of Defense, established new x -centered accounts to seek advice on federal waste and fraud. Users looking for an audience with Mr. Musk have come more and more on the site with the hope of catching their ear.

The positioning of x as a powerful government spokesman has helped reinforce the platform, even while the company continues to fight. He has rushed to meet the income and advertising objectives in recent months, according to internal emails seen by the New York Times. He faces regulatory scrutiny abroad. And on March 28, Mr. Musk announced that he had sold x to his artificial intelligence company, XAI, combining a company with difficulties with a greater growth.

Even so, the greatest visibility of x under the Trump administration stands out, and has had a halo effect. The bankers have sold billions in the company's pending debt in recent weeks, aided by the optimism of the investor on the alignment of Mr. Musk with Trump. The main advertisers such as amazon and Apple have returned.

While it is not clear how long the new impulse of x will last, and how much is a direct result of the proximity of Mr. Musk to Mr. Trump, the recent successes are notable after years of commercial problems.

“x is where everything happens in real time,” wrote Linda Yaccarino, executive director of x, on the platform last month. “Raw ideas and without filters with more truth and more voices.”

Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comments. x and the White House declined to comment.

The changes for x follow a whirlwind for a few months in which Musk became one of Mr. Trump's most influential advisors, including the leadership of the Government's efficiency department. From an office suite next to the White House, Mr. Musk, which also directs the electric car manufacturer, Tesla and the SpaceX rocket company, has been fundamental to establish and promulgate the administration policy.

x has faced obstacles since Mr. Musk bought it for $ 44 billion at the end of 2022. He dismissed more than 80 percent of the staff and eliminated the rules of moderation of content that limited hate speech. Some advertisers left, worried that their brands appear next to the offensive content.

In December, Fidelity, who invested in the acquisition of the company by Mr. Musk, valued x at $ 12 billion.

But in February, x bankers were finally able to sell billions of debt with investors. Months before, investors were negotiating to buy that debt with a loss of 10 percent to 20 percent for banks. “Some companies could be nervous for being seen such as not being on board with the administration because they are not involved in x,” said Jo-Sellen Pozner, an associated administration professor at the Leavey Business School at the University of Santa Clara.

Even so, x faced continuous struggles. In January, Mr. Musk wrote in an email to employees that revenues were “little impressive” and that the company was “barely breaking a balance point.” At the beginning of March, x had completed $ 91 million in the first quarter, according to another message, well below its $ 153 million objective.

“The time to run to the finish line is now,” said email.

The agreement announced on March 28 by Mr. Musk valued x at around $ 33 billion and connected its fortune to XAI, which was valued at $ 80 billion.

“We do not have a great sense of what any of these companies is worth,” said Eric Talley, professor at the Columbia Law Faculty who specializes in corporate governance. “They almost have to get up and fall together.”

Mr. Musk, who has long erected before the coverage of the media and his companies, has positioned x in recent months as a new means of communication, using his own news power to attract the center of attention to its platform.

“You are the media now,” he published on January 15, remodeling a video of himself in which he released x as the future of citizen journalism. “The inherited media are controlled by a handful of editors in chief; so encouragement people to write things on platform x,” he said in the video.

As Mr. Musk cut the government's costs, the Doge initiative received an x account and a gray verification badge for government official accounts. The account now announces the achievements of the initiative and goes back to critics.

“It is transforming x as a platform into government media, without any restriction,” said David Kaye, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, who studies online speech.

In February, x also added Doge accounts for government agencies, including Social Security Administration and the stock exchange and values. While the agencies already have accounts in x, the new accounts with Dux themes received by the gray check brand badges normally reserved for government agencies. They have operated as TIP lines for the cost reduction project, encouraging users to share information about federal waste.

Conservatives have discovered that x is a direct pipe for Mr. Musk, which allows them to influence federal policy. He has responded to viral complaints about the government on the platform, and his cost reduction initiative has marked user concerns as “fixed.”

Senator Joni Ernst, a Iowa Republican who has long focused on government reduction, was described in a November position as the “main guard dog” in the Senate. Mr. Musk responded with two American flag emojis.

“Thank you for your many years of hard work to improve the efficiency of the government! Super useful,” Musk wrote in an December exchange.

x created a news chief to supervise the company's associations with media companies that announce or share their work on the platform and hired Mr. Stoll, a former editor at the Wall Street Journal, in January.

Shortly after Trump assumed the position, the administration decided to shake the white house press room. A prominent president next to the press of the press secretary would be assigned to a “New Media” reporter, a term that includes podcasters, influencers and creators of “content related to news”.

During the only appearance of Mr. Stoll in the press room so far, he said that his presence was a testimony of the “open mentality of the White House but also of innovation.”

He then asked about “confidence in the competition of this administration to face face to face with Vladimir Putin.”

Ryan Mac Contributed reports.