Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is expected to announce he is running for president during a livestreamed conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday evening.
Musk shared the news, which was first reported by NBC News, on his own Twitter page, and addressed it in an interview at The Wall Street Journal’s London CEO Council Summit on Tuesday.
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The two men are expected to speak at 6 p.m. EST over Twitter Spaces, on a platform once domineered by DeSantis’ chief Republican rival, former President Donald Trump.
David Sacks, a tech CEO and supporter of DeSantis, will moderate the discussion, which will feature “real time questions and answers,” Musk said.
The Florida governor will then give an interview to Fox News at 8 p.m. EST, the network said.
Prior reports had suggested DeSantis would launch his 2024 bid for the White House this week.
Musk has been coordinating with DeSantis’ team for weeks out of the apparent belief that Trump cannot win another term, NBC News reported, citing a source familiar with the talks.
He said at the Journal event that he does not plan to endorse any one candidate.
“My preference… is really to have someone fairly normal in office,” Musk said Tuesday. “You know, I think someone that is representative of the moderate views that I think most of the country holds, in reality.”
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DeSantis, however, is anything but moderate. In the last two months, he signed an extreme six-week abortion ban and a slew of legislation cracking down on LGBTQ+ civil rights in Florida, all while overseeing a surge in book bans and fueling a fight with one of his state’s largest and most beloved employers.
DeSantis’ choice of venue also signals an alignment between a prime Republican presidential candidate and a tech giant at a time when other major platforms have established protocols intended to help them stay neutral in politics.
But Musk’s time at the helm of Twitter has been marked by a chaotic upending of established protocols. He has said he will soon hand over the reins at Twitter to a new CEO, former NBC Universal executive Linda Yaccarino, though an exact timeline has not been made public.
