Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will announce his 2024 presidential campaign in a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk, according to reports.
Mr DeSantis, who has long been seen as Donald Trump’s leading rival for the Republican nomination, will reveal his plans in an audio conversation with the owner of Twitter, according to The Associated Press.
Mr Musk, speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Summit event in London on Tuesday, seemed to confirm the news, saying Mr DeSantis would be making “quite an announcement’ on Twitter the next day.
“The first time something like this is happening on social media”, with real time questions and answers, he said.
“Big if true…” Mr DeSantis’ wife, Casey, posted on Tuesday on Twitter, linking to a Fox News story on the announcement and adding a smiley face.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Florida governor gave no hints of his 2024 plans during a short Cabinet meeting in Tallahassee where he discussed state business with agency heads. The media was barred from covering a subsequent Bill signing ceremony.
With this move, DeSantis is once again taking a page out of the playbook that helped turn his soon-to-be-rival, Donald Trump, into a political star.
Twitter was once Mr Trump’s most important megaphone — one he used to dominate his rivals in the 2016 primary and to command the news cycle for years.
Mr Trump was barred from the platform after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Though his access was reinstated shortly after Mr Musk took over, he has yet to tweet.
