Trump's Twitter account reinstated after Musk poll

But the former US president says he will stick with his own Truth Social app for now

On Truth Social, a social media platform founded by Donald Trump after he was banned from Twitter, conversation is often limited to sycophantic memes and conspiratorial memes. Photo: Screengrab from Truth Social

Thomas Watkins

Washington

Nov 20, 2022

Donald Trump's Twitter account was reinstated on Saturday after a majority of respondents in a poll run by Elon Musk said they wanted him unbanned.

However, the former US president indicated that he had no immediate intention of returning to the social media platform.

In all, 51.8 per cent of more than 15 million respondents voted in favour in the poll, which simply asked: "Reinstate former President Trump".

In another tweet, Twitter's new owner wrote, "Vox Populi, Vox Dei," which means the voice of the people is the voice of God.

The people have spoken.

Trump will be reinstated.

Vox Populi, Vox Dei. https://t.co/jmkhFuyfkv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2022

Whether Mr Trump should be allowed back on Twitter has been a topic of ferocious debate since he was banned after the January 6, 2021 mob attack on the US Capitol for allegedly inciting violence.

But the conversation over the extent to which free speech should be protected even if it leads to violence appeared to be moot for the moment in Mr Trump's case, as he indicated he would not jump back on to Twitter.

Musk begins reinstating banned Twitter accounts

The former president, who is the subject of several legal investigationspreviously had more than 88 million followers and would tirelessly tweet everything from policy announcements to attacks on his rivals.

"I don't see any reason for it," the former president said when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting.

He said he would stick with his new platform Truth Social, the app developed by his own start-up, which he said had better user engagement than Twitter and was doing "phenomenally well".

Mr Musk reinstated Mr Trump's account moments after the poll closed. A scroll through the former president's final tweets before he was banned show how aggressively he was pushing his baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Those claims have been blamed for helping foment the violence on January 6.

They just happened to find 50,000 ballots late last night. The USA is embarrassed by fools. Our Election Process is worse than that of third world countries!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021

Mr Trump, who on Tuesday launched a bid to regain the White House in 2024, praised Mr Musk and said he had always liked the world's richest man.

Mr Trump also said Twitter suffered from bots, fake accounts and that the problems it faced were "incredible".

But how long the attention-craving former president will be able to resist the platform and its enormous bullhorn as he campaigns for the White House remains to be seen.