Former President Donald Trump has a "live conversation" on X, and Vice President Kamala Harris pledges to take on taxes on tips.

Trump, Musk to have 'live conversation' on X, formerly Twitter, Monday night

Donald Trump is returning — at least for one night — to do a live interview Monday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, from which he was banned for nearly two years following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump and Elon Musk, X's owner, are slated to have what the tech titan has termed a "live conversation" at 8 p.m. Eastern Time that will be "unscripted with no limits on subject matter, so should be highly entertaining!" Musk is soliciting X users to pose their own questions.

The conversation serves not only as a way for the former president to reach potentially millions of voters directly. It's also an opportunity for X, a platform that relies heavily on politics, to redeem itself after some struggles.

X has already been the scene of some of the 2024 cycle's most memorable moments. As he skipped the first GOP presidential debate in August, Trump launched counterprogramming of his own, appearing in a taped interview with former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson, which aired on X. Last month, President Joe Biden broke the news of his departure from the campaign in a letter posted to the platform.

Also notably, in May 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used the platform as a way to officially announce his presidential bid, a disastrous rollout marred by technical glitches, and overloaded by the more than 400,000 people who tried to dial in.

Ahead of his conversation with Trump, Musk posted on the platform that X was conducting "some system scaling tests" to handle what's anticipated to be a high volume of participants.

Musk, who described himself as a Democrat until a few years ago, endorsed Trump's candidacy two days after the former president was wounded during an attempted assassination at a Pennsylvania rally last month.

Long before he endorsed Trump, Musk turned increasingly toward the right in his posts and actions on the platform, also using X to try to sway political discourse around the world. He's gotten in a dustup with a Brazilian judge over censorship, railed against what he calls the "woke mind virus" and amplified false claims that Democrats are secretly flying in migrants to vote in U.S. elections.

Musk has also reinstated previously banned accounts such as the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Trump, who was kicked off the platform — then known as Twitter — two days after the Jan. 6 violence, with the company citing "the risk of further incitement of violence." By November 2022, Musk had bought the company, and Trump's account was reinstated, although the former president refrained from tweeting until Monday, insisting that he was happier on his own Truth Social site, which he launched during the ban.

Hours ahead of his interview with Musk, Trump posted a two-and-a-half minute video to his X account, featuring video from his time in office, as well as audio of him saying one of his standard campaign lines referencing the legal cases that have mounted against him: "They're not coming after me, they're coming after you, and I just happen to be standing in their way, and I will never be moving."

But Trump's audience on X is legions larger than on Truth Social, which became a publicly traded company earlier this year. Trump has just over 7.5 million followers on Truth Social, while his mostly dormant X account is followed by 88 million. Musk's account, which will host the interview, has more than 193 million followers.

Trump's campaign didn't immediately respond to a message as to whether he would cross-post his interview with Musk via his own accounts, including on X.

The former president has most recently posted on X only once, with a photo of his mug shot after he surrendered at an Atlanta jail a year ago on charges he conspired to overturn his election loss in the state.

In Las Vegas, Harris attacks Trump on the border, vows to end taxes on tips

Vice President Kamala Harris promised Saturday to work to eliminate taxes on tips paid to restaurant and other service industry employees, echoing a pledge that her opponent, Republican Donald Trump, has made, and marking a rare instance of political overlap from both sides.

Harris made the announcement at a rally on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where the economy relies heavily on the hotel, restaurant and entertainment industries. Trump vowed essentially the same thing at his own rally in the city in June — though neither he nor Harris are likely to be able to fully do that without actions from Congress.

"It is my promise to everyone here that, when I am president, we will continue our fight for working families of America," Harris said. "Including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers."

Trump responded on his social media site a short time later, posting that Harris "just copied my NO TAXES ON TIPS Policy."

"The difference is, she won't do it, she just wants it for Political Purposes!," the former president wrote. "This was a TRUMP idea - She has no ideas, she can only steal from me."

Harris' campaign said afterward that as president she would work with Congress to draft a proposal that includes an income limit and other provisions to keep hedge fund managers and lawyers from structuring their compensation to try to take advantage of the policy. She also would push for the proposal alongside one to increase the federal minimum wage.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, came to Nevada as the final stop of a five battleground-state blitz in which their party has shown new energy after President Joe Biden exited the race and endorsed Harris. On Sunday, the vice president is holding a San Francisco fundraiser that has already raised more than $12 million, her campaign said, with House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi among those set to speak.

There were 12,000-plus people inside the campus basketball arena on Saturday and, before the event started, local law enforcement halted entry to the event because people were becoming ill while waiting outside in 109-degree heat to go through security. About 4,000 people were in line when the entrances were closed.

Walz referenced that during his speech, but turned it into an applause line by telling Nevada, "don't worry, we're going to be back a lot."

As part of the trip, Harris is hoping to build greater support among Latino voters. In 2020, Biden narrowly defeated Trump by 2.4 percentage points in Nevada.

The 60,000-strong Culinary Workers Union announced its endorsement of Harris. About 54% of the union's members are Latino, 55% women and 60% immigrants. The union also issued a statement supporting Harris' call for a higher minimum wage and to "ensure that there are no taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers."

Harris made her promise on eliminating tip taxation as part of a broader appeal to strengthen the nation's middle class, seizing on a theme that was a centerpiece of Biden's now-defunct reelection bid.

"We believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for America's families so they have a chance, not just to get by, but to get ahead," she said.

AP VoteCast found in 2020 that 14% of Nevada voters were Hispanic, with Biden winning 54% of their votes. His margin with Hispanic voters was slightly better nationwide, a sign that Democrats cannot take this bloc of voters for granted.

Scott lags in July fundraising totals

Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell reported receiving more than three times the campaign contributions that Republican Sen. Rick Scott received last month. That’s according to new campaign finance reports, the last such filings before the Aug. 20 primary in Florida.

In July, Scott raised just under $700,000 for his re-election campaign, while Mucarsel-Powell raised more than $2.2 million.

Both candidates are expected to win their party’s nomination for Senate after the primary.

The new reports show Scott’s campaign had $3.9 million in cash on hand, while Mucarsel-Powell ended July with $4.4 million.

“They’ve got about the same amount of cash on hand, so they can sort of play evenly. And early on in the campaign, fundraising can matter because it helps demonstrate the seriousness of the candidate, right? ‘I’m raising a lot of money. I’m a serious candidate,'" said George Washington University professor Peter Loge. "But ultimately, what matters is voters and there’s simply more Republican voters in Florida than there are Democratic voters. And that matters more."

Scott, who is reportedly one of the wealthiest members of Congress, gave nearly $9 million in loans to his campaign between the beginning of 2023 and the end of July.

Last week Scott launched a “seven-figure statewide tv ad” blitz.

Notably, the ads target Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats candidate for the White House, not Mucarsel-Powell or any of his other challengers.

Meanwhile, Mucarsel-Powell recently launched a “six-Figure Spanish radio ad buy across Florida” denouncing Scott on numerous issues, including reproductive rights.