X users were glued to the Musk v. Trump blowup. Could this be good for the platform?
Jun 6, 2025, 1:55 PM | Updated: 4:42 pm
The blowup between the president of the United States and the world’s richest man has played out on social media in real time, the latest, perhaps ultimate example of how X has become Elon Musk’s personal platform, his own reality show where anyone can tune in to watch the mercurial twists and turns of his unpredictable personality.
And tune in they did.
The feud has birthed countless memes, hot takes and speculation, with some X users bringing out the popcorn emojis while rejoicing that the site has returned to its 鈥渇un鈥� roots 鈥� back when it was called Twitter. While it’s not yet clear if the feud will have any permanent effects on X’s audience size or advertising business, its owner late Thursday suggesting that, at least for now, it was good for getting active users to tune into the platform. CEO Linda Yaccarino .
鈥淴 operates as a personality-driven platform, and Musk鈥檚 high-profile conflicts can fuel engagement at least in the short term,鈥� said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University鈥檚 Tech Policy Institute. 鈥淭he platform has leaned into spectacle as a growth strategy, and controversy often drives traffic.鈥�
President Donald Trump, of course, posted through the breakup on his own personal platform, Truth Social with three updates targeting Musk directly on Thursday. But Truth Social’s audience is just a fraction of X’s, and social media experts at this stage don’t see it siphoning the former Twitter’s user base as a result of the feud. Trump was banned from Twitter in 2021 following the Jan. 6 riots on the Capitol and he returned more than 2.5 years later after Musk reinstated his account. On X, he has nearly 106 million followers 鈥� compared with less than 10 million on Truth Social, where he’s continued to post following the feud 鈥� at least 10 times on Friday.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a niche platform with limited reach outside Trump鈥檚 core base,鈥� Kreps said. 鈥淭hat said, if Trump were to fully re-engage there and disengage from X entirely, it could fragment the right-wing audience somewhat. But barring major user migration, X still dominates in political discourse.鈥�
Trump hasn’t indicated that he’d leave X 鈥� and Musk hasn’t said he’d consider banning him 鈥� but the president has not posted on the site since June 3, although the official White House account has continued to send updates.
On BlueSky, meanwhile, many users seemed to delight in watching the drama unfold on the platform they (mostly) left behind, posting screenshots from X, Truth Social as well as their own share of memes and commentary. But the site, which has welcomed users disillusioned with Musk’s politics and policies on X, is unlikely to become a huge draw for Trump die-hards.
鈥淚t鈥檚 too early to measure any long-term shifts in user behavior, but political audiences on X have tended to be resilient, even in the face of controversy,鈥� Kreps said. 鈥淭rump supporters are unlikely to abandon the platform en masse unless there鈥檚 sustained antagonism or a perceived shift in content moderation policy. Right now, this looks more like a personality clash than an ideological break so user migration feels speculative at this stage.鈥�
As for X’s advertising business, Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg said she doubts the feud will have a material effect.
鈥淎dvertisers who were spending small sums on the platform due to Musk鈥檚 proximity to Trump may rethink their commitments,鈥� she said. 鈥淎t the same time, the breakup between Musk and Trump hasn鈥檛 eliminated the threat of legal or business repercussions given the FTC investigation into the alleged ad boycott, so there鈥檚 still incentive for those brands to stay.鈥�
According to , which cited unnamed sources, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether roughly a dozen advertising and advocacy groups violated antitrust law by coordinating boycotts among advertisers that didn’t want their brands to appear next to hateful or other objectionable content.
In the end, Musk 鈥渞emains a divisive figure, regardless of his position in the White House,鈥� Enberg said, and any efforts by X to make the platform less divisive 鈥� such as a designed to elevate content that people agree on 鈥斺�渃an only go so far with brands and consumers if he continues to use X as his own personal megaphone to amplify controversial content.鈥�
