WASHINGTON: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was back on social media platform X ahead of his interview with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Monday in an event that could inject more surprises into the turbulent US presidential election.

The interview, scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern Time (0000 GMT Tuesday), could give the former president an opportunity to seize the limelight at a time when his campaign is seen as sagging.

His Democratic rival for the Nov. 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, has erased Trump’s lead in opinion polls and energized Democratic voters with a series of high-energy rallies.

Meta lifts restrictions on Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts

On Monday morning, Trump returned to X for the first time in a year, posting a video that highlighted his claim that the four criminal prosecutions he faces are politically motivated. He quickly followed with a half-dozen other posts, a potential indication he will be more active on X going forward.

His last X post before Monday was one in August 2023 appealing for donations and showing a mug shot after he was booked at an Atlanta jail in relation to felony charges tied to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.

Trump’s access to his account, @realDonald Trump, was restored a month into Musk’s ownership of X after being suspended by the platform’s previous owners following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress by his supporters.

Trump frequently posts on his Truth Social platform, which was launched in February 2022, but his posts there reach a much smaller audience than on X.