Former President Donald Trump has broken a one-year hiatus from X — the social media site formerly known as Twitter — by posting a new Hollywood-style campaign video that depicts him as the nation’s hero.
The video includes footage from the FBI raid at his Florida estate to recover classified documents and audio of Trump vowing to fight back and “obliterate the deep state.”
The Republican presidential nominee’s return to X comes ahead of an interview he has scheduled Monday night with the platform’s owner, Trump supporter Elon Musk. Trump shared a photo advertisement for the interview on his feed.
The last time Trump posted on X was Aug. 24, 2023, when he shared a photo of his mugshot after being indicted on charges that he conspired to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Trump was banned from X for nearly two years following the 2021 insurrection. He was allowed back on after Musk purchased the platform in late 2022, though by that time, Trump had established his competing platform Truth Social, which he now routinely uses despite having far fewer followers than he does on X (7.5 million followers on Truth Social versus 88 million on X, as of Monday).
Another video, labeled an ad, began circulating Monday morning on X that resembles a Trump post but is not featured on his feed.
The video features old footage of former President Ronald Reagan — a Republican darling in the years after his presidency ― and suggests Reagan, who died in 2004, would endorse Trump for president.
“Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Reagan asks in audio from his 1980 debate with then-President Jimmy Carter.
If the answer is no, Reagan continues, “then I could suggest another choice that you have.” The video then cuts away to showcase Trump as that choice.
A representative for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the use of the decades-old footage.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apologized in February after a super PAC backing his independent presidential run financed a campaign ad that closely resembles one created for his uncle, John F. Kennedy, during JFK’s 1960 campaign.
Some Kennedy family members were upset about the video, saying JFK would not have endorsed his nephew’s political views.
