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Ron DeSantis is scheduled to formally announce his entrance into the 2024 presidential race this evening. He’s doing so in a unique and somewhat risky way — on Twitter Spaces with the owner of Twitter itself, Elon Musk. Musk isn’t a journalist or a commentator (unless you count shitposting political memes, which some do). The move is a forward-thinking announcement that is also designed to rile up legacy media — two of their favorite targets, together in one space, demoting them to listeners. This is not a position highly-strung journalists like being in — and that has got to be a factor in why Musk and DeSantis are doing it.
The point is to circumvent traditional and biased media sources, while making it loud and clear that is why DeSantis is doing it. DeSantis is also being embraced by Silicon Valley and Musk ally David Sacks, signaling a drastic change in the world of tech as Twitter has been ripped away from journalists and speech authoritarians.
Much has already been made that the maneuver is “way too online” and the majority of the country will not witness it. However, DeSantis is also appearing on Fox News directly after with Trey Gowdy, another unusual choice (Gowdy could be a candidate to serve in a DeSantis administration). But the embracing of Twitter, once a bane to conservatives who were shadow-banned, suspended or banned outright for speech violations, is a bigger story, and it’s not without risk. Twitter Spaces is a live audio hosting room. Anyone on Twitter can join (for now), and a major presidential announcement may strain the technology and servers at Twitter, which is operating for better or worse, with a skeleton crew. To paraphrase one tweeter’s comments: Musk better have Scotty making sure the Enterprise can operate at Warp Speed.
A malfunctioning of Twitter Spaces could have lasting consequences — and is the kind of turnip moment that ends campaigns before they get off the ground. There is also the giant cloud of black nothingness hanging over Twitter known as the Trump factor.
Trump may be under contract with Truth Social with shareholders, but to act like he considers such things “contracts” would be misguided. Trump could make a much anticipated return to Twitter tonight in the middle of the announcement. If tonight’s Twitter Space works as they usually do, Trump’s people could perhaps even have him attempt to join the Space itself and demand to debate “Meatball Ron.”
What would Elon Musk do then? Allow him to speak, giving him the disruption he wants, or not allow him to speak and give Trump and his followers another censorious talking point? It’s one of many real possibilities that both Musk, and going forward, the DeSantis campaign, must contend with. We will learn a lot about Ron DeSantis not only tonight, but in the coming weeks, and we will learn it fairly quickly.
It’s also worth considering tonight’s event in the context of the future of Twitter and what this says for Elon Musk. Musk has stated that this Space is not an endorsement of DeSantis, but an endorsement of making Twitter relevant again. Musk has echoed support for DeSantis in the past, but this move is much more about what Musk intends Twitter to be in the future, and less about Ron DeSantis.
As I wrote in last week’s Bad Press, Musk seemingly is intending Twitter to become a longform streaming media platform, with live and original programming, starting with Tucker Carlson, and now adding Ben Shapiro and others.
This, of course, has been met with jeers and skepticism from technology reporters, many of whom are less journalists and more social-justice online gossip-mongers still upset that Elon Musk took their favorite toy away and escorted all of their sources out of Twitter’s headquarters.
Ultimately, the unorthodox DeSantis ploy won’t really matter in the long run, other than as a poke at legacy media outlets who hate him anyway. It is, however, a boon for Elon Musk and a signal to those outlets that Twitter does not belong to them anymore.
