Musk, other pro-Trump billionaires have helped shape shooting narrative

A chorus of right-leaning tech and business leaders, led by X owner Elon Musk, used their online megaphones in the wake of Saturday’s attack to criticize the Secret Service’s diversity initiatives, condemn Democratic donor Reid Hoffman, and make unsubstantiated allegations about the shooting.

The claims by powerful business leaders with large online followings helped influence the direction of platform itself, as well as the storylines viewed by millions of people. Musk’s post endorsing Trump after the shooting received the most engagement of any post on X related to the attempted assassination, said Graham Brookie, the Atlantic Council’s vice president for technology programs and strategy. The post received more than 118 million views and 332,000 retweets, surpassing a post from Barack Obama that said there was “no place” for violence in democracy. By Saturday night, the terms “Deep State” and “antifa” were among the top trending topics across X, formerly known as Twitter.