‘Are You Better Off Now?’: Trump Returns To X With Flurry Of New Posts

Former President Donald Trump returned to X on Monday with multiple posts, including one where he directly appealed to voters.

Trump’s first post on Monday morning was a campaign video that showed moments from his 2016 race and his first term in office. Less than an hour later, he posted again, writing, “Are you better off now than you were when I was president? Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We’re a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!”

Four minutes later, the Republican presidential nominee posted a reminder of his interview with X owner Elon Musk, which will be live-streamed on the social media site at 8:00 p.m. Monday.

ENJOY! pic.twitter.com/un0WwfJlpw

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2024

Ten minutes after that post, Trump posted a link to his campaign website above another campaign video that included remarks from one of his speeches.

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“This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state, we will expel the warmongers from our government, we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists,” Trump says in the video. “We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will route the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.”

https://t.co/MlIKklPSJT pic.twitter.com/sVyrCxHqdt

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2024

Trump also posted a video highlighting Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ radical policies and record on immigration as vice president.

MEET SAN FRANCISCO RADICAL KAMALA HARRIS! https://t.co/MlIKklPSJT pic.twitter.com/lv4nGjNzae

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2024

Trump’s Monday X posts are an apparent shift in the former president’s social media strategy.

Before Monday, Trump’s last post on X came on August 24, 2023, when he shared a picture of his mug shot. Trump was locked out of Twitter as the sitting president following the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. He then launched his own social media platform, Truth Social, where he has been posting almost daily ever since.

Trump’s interview with Musk is set to take place less than a month after the X owner “fully” endorsed Trump.

Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) have gone on a recent media blitz, with Trump holding an hour-long press conference last Thursday, and Vance appearing on the Sunday shows.

Task Force Investigating Trump Assassination Attempt Demands Briefings With Secret Service, FBI

The House task force investigating the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump began its work on Monday by requesting documents and briefings from top Justice Department and Homeland Security officials. 

Task force chair Mike Kelly (R-PA) and ranking member Jason Crow (D-CO) sent letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe demanding all documents related to the assassination attempt. They requested that the departments set up briefings with the task force by August 16 to coordinate the investigation. 

The letters, obtained by Punch Bowl News, request that the officials “produce documents and information directly to the Task Force from this point forward, including any documents and information that are in process in response to pending requests.”

The task force was established last month with seven Republicans and six Democrats. Several committees in both the House and Senate have already begun looking into the attack that left Trump and two of his supporters injured and one rally attendee dead. 

In addition to Kelly, other Republican lawmakers on the task force include Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) and Reps. David Joyce (R-OH), Laurel Lee (R-FL), Michael Waltz (R-FL), Clay Higgins (R-LA),  Pat Fallon (TX). Democrats include Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Glenn Ivey (D-MD), and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).

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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that the task force would have subpoena authority and be handling all House inquiries into the Trump rally shooting. His office said that the panel’s goals are to “understand what went wrong on the day of the attempted assassination,” “ensure accountability,” and “prevent such an agency failure from ever happening again.”

There are still questions about who was responsible for the security failures at the July 13 Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.