Did Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. announce they have joined forces to create a new social media platform called "Trump Force One"? No, that's not true: Trump Jr. did ask Musk to create a new social media platform after Twitter and Facebook banned his father, former President Donald Trump, but there is no publicly available evidence that the SpaceX founder and Trump Jr. have announced they are doing so.
The claim appeared as a post (archived here) published on Facebook on February 2, 2021. It opened:
BREAKING NEWS: Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr. join forces to create a new Social Media platform to put Facebook out of business.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Feb 9 19:08:27 2021 UTC)
The whole meme read:
BREAKING NEWS: Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr. join forces to create a new Social Media platform to put Facebook out of business. Just announced "Trump Force One" will be launched via SpaceX within the next few weeks. On Jan. 20 at 8:02a.m. Elon Musk launched 60 Starlink satellites into orbit bringing the total number to 143. Hopefully this is "Checkmate" to Facebook & Twitter and all of "Big Tech."
Trump Jr. made the plea on his Instagram account on January 12, 2021, after his father was banned from Twitter and Facebook for violating community standards, following the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021.
"Why doesn't Elon Musk create a social media platform?" Trump Jr. says in the four minute video. "If you can put manned people into space, you can do Twitter much better."
There are no press releases from Musk or SpaceX about the pair creating a new social media platform after Trump Jr.'s public plea.
The name "Trump Force One" had been a nickname for Trump's private 757 plane before he became president.
