In the run-up to Election Day, X users are reporting that a full-throated ad blitz from former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign is leaking through the site’s filters and opt-out mechanisms.
Despite options to remove and mute ads from your feed, users say Trump’s last-minute push is still clearly visible.
Even blocking the campaign doesn’t completely remove the ad, merely stripping an image from it.
Trump’s latest ad campaign is a Trend Takeover, where advertisers can be at the top of the site’s “Explore” page.
Ads like that can’t be removed despite the option to opt-out.
Clicking “Don’t want to see this ad” on the Explore page campaign briefly removes the ad.
Refreshing the page or navigating back to it serves the same takeover.
“This Trump ad literally won’t go away after refreshing and saying I don’t want it,” wrote one user. “Elon is desperate lmao.”
Multiple users have noted the advertisements cannot be hidden.
The Daily Dot has confirmed it can’t be removed for users across desktop and mobile applications.
“It doesn’t matter how many times I click ‘not interested in this’ it won’t go away,” wrote another user.
Using a VPN, the Daily Dot tested “Trend Takeover” campaigns in other countries and found similar results. Those types of campaigns also cannot be opted out of either, meaning the inability to remove the ad is not specific to Trump.
The advertisements are paid for by Team Trump, the official account of the Trump campaign, and have promoted two hashtags: #BringBackTrump and #FightForAmerica.
The former advertisement features a photo of Vice President Kamala Harris with the words “Trump will fix it,” and the latter is a video montage of Trump.
The video can be hidden if a user blocks the Team Trump account, but even then, the hashtag is still visible on the Explore page.
But it isn’t just the takeover ad that’s taking over the site.
Users have also complained that muting certain phrases does not hide Trump’s myriad ads.
“Hey @elonmusk why, if I muted the word Trump, am I still seeing these fucking political ads featuring he who should not be named?? Propaganda much??” wrote one user.
Others reported that attempting to block Trump ads took them to a sign-up page for X Premium, which they couldn’t navigate away from.
“when i clicked a link, and blocked an ad about trump, this is what came up. And i couldnt press ‘maybe later’ or go back. Feels a LITTLE not legal,” said another.
The ads come at the end of Musk’s unprecedented campaign to elect Trump.
As the owner and most publicly visible representative of X, Musk has repeatedly promoted Trump’s candidacy to his millions of followers. Musk’s political posts have generated more than 17.1 billion views after he endorsed Trump in July, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Since then, Musk’s posts have been viewed twice as much as all political ads on the platform combined, equating to around $24 million in campaign ad spending, the group told CNN. The Center for Countering Digital Hate counted at least 87 specific posts that promoted false and debunked claims about the 2024 election.
Musk also spent at least $119 million through his America PAC to help Trump and the GOP.
Musk’s involvement in pro-Trump get-out-the-vote operations has drawn scrutiny and legal challenges. America PAC was accused of violating California labor law in a class-action lawsuit filed by canvassers who allege they were not paid agreed-upon wages. His plans for a $1 million daily giveaway to voters in swing states prompted a lawsuit from Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner accusing Musk of operating an illegal lottery, trying to influence voters, and violating state consumer protection laws.
The Department of Justice also warned Musk’s PAC that the giveaway may be violating federal law, which states the government will prosecute anyone who “pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting,” including “lottery chances.”
The stickiness of the pro-Trump X advertisements promoted by “Team Trump” may not run afoul of the law like some of his other efforts, but his enthusiasm for the former president runs counter to commitments Musk made shortly after he first purchased the social media platform April 2022.
“For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally,” Musk wrote.
An X spokesperson did not address questions about the Trump ads when reached for comment.
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