Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will kick off 2024 presidential bid with Elon Musk on Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SpaceX Founder Elon Musk will help launch Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign into orbit Wednesday with an event on Twitter.

DeSantis will announce his presidential bid during the 6 p.m. Twitter Spaces event with Musk, the CEO of Twitter, according to four sources with knowledge of the event. Tech entrepreneur David Sacks will moderate.

“I will be interviewing Ron DeSantis and he has quite an announcement to make,” Musk said Tuesday during The Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit. “It will be the first time that something like this is happening on social media and with real time questions and answers, not scripted.”

DeSantis also is expected to formally file his presidential paperwork with the Federal Election Commission Wednesday and put out a campaign launch video. A campaign kickoff rally would come later.

 

Musk is one of the most famous people in the world, having founded iconic companies such as Tesla and SpaceX. He has 140 million Twitter followers, a huge audience to hear DeSantis’ opening campaign message.

And while Musk recently lost the top spot on Forbes’ list of the richest people in the world, he is still is second place with $180 billion and could be a pivotal financial backer if he puts his money behind DeSantis. Sacks is a DeSantis donor who hosted a 2021 fundraiser for him in San Francisco.

Musk said in June that he was leaning toward supporting DeSantis.

A source told NBC that Musk indicated in recent conversations with DeSantis that he doesn’t believe former President Donald Trump can win re-election.

“My preference, and I think the preference of most Americans, is really to have someone fairly normal in office,” Musk said at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit, drawing laughs. “I think we’d all be quite happy with that, actually. I think someone that is representative of the moderate views that I think most of the country holds, in reality.”

Musk added that he’s not formally endorsing DeSantis during Wednesday’s event, though.

DeSantis’ wife, Casey DeSantis, shared a media report about Wednesday’s Twitter Spaces event with her husband and Musk and wrote “Big if true.”

The DeSantis War Room Twitter account run by the governor’s political team changed it’s bio to Wednesday’s date.

Trump’s campaign mocked DeSantis’ planned Twitter event, calling it “one of the most out-of-touch campaign launches in modern history.”

“The only thing less relatable than a niche campaign launch on Twitter, is DeSantis’ after party at the uber elite Four Seasons resort in Miami,” the Trump campaign said, referencing DeSantis’ plans to meet with donors this week at the Four Seasons.

Democrats also joked about the DeSantis-Musk venue, and called it a play for the Trump/Make America Great Again vote.

Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, said that “launching a campaign for the dozens of people on Twitter Spaces is curious.”

He added: “What’s even more curious is how DeSantis thinks his MAGA agenda of ripping freedoms from Floridians, banning abortion before many women know they’re pregnant, making it easier for criminals to carry guns, or any other of his extreme planks will resonate with Americans when voters have rejected the MAGA agenda over and over.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Ron DeSantis announcement on presidential bid planned with Elon Musk