Trump campaign coordinated with X owner Elon Musk to suppress links to hacked data: report

Donald Trump's campaign coordinated directly with the social media platform X to suppress links to materials stolen from them by hackers, according to a new report.

Tech mogul Elon Musk, who purchased the company formerly known as Twitter, has involved himself in Trump's campaign in an unprecedented manner since endorsing the former president, including one favor that directly contradicts the free speech absolutism that he claims was the reason he bought the platform in the first place, reported the New York Times.

"The relationship has proved significant in other ways," the newspaper reported. "After a reporter’s publication of hacked Trump campaign information last month, the campaign connected with X to prevent the circulation of links to the material on the platform, according to two people with knowledge of the events. X eventually blocked links to the material and suspended the reporter’s account."

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Musk has poured $500 million of his own money into Trump's re-election campaign, according to a claim the former president told an associate, and he founded America PAC to organize door-to-door canvassers in battleground states, especially Pennsylvania – where the Tesla CEO has essentially moved his base of operations.

“I’m not sure there is a precedent in modern history to how Musk has inserted himself into the presidential race,” said Benjamin Soskis, a historian of the mega rich.

The Trump campaign has outsourced its voter contact operation to America PAC and other outside groups following new federal election guidance, and Musk's operation has spent about $80 million on those efforts so far, although his personal financial commitment won't be made public until later this month.

"Still, some people in Mr. Trump’s orbit are uncertain about how effective the outside efforts will be," the Times reported. "Some donors to the super PAC have groused that Mr. Musk is relying on the same team that formed the core of [Gov. Ron] DeSantis’s advisers when he attempted a similar effort in the Republican primaries, to no avail."

"Veterans of past campaigns argue that canvassing operations generally take months or even years to become effective machines," the paper added. "There is little precedent for successfully standing up a group of this scale just months before a presidential election."