Donald Trump appears to snub Twitter as Elon Musk reinstates the former president
- Donald Trump has said that he sees no reason to rejoin Twitter, Reuters reported.
- Elon Musk reinstated the former president's account on Saturday night following a Twitter poll.
Former President Donald Trump has said he sees no reason to rejoin Twitter as Elon Musk reinstates his account.
Speaking, via video, to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas just hours before his account was unbanned, Trump said: "Truth Social is doing very well. I'll be staying there."
Trump praised Musk, who took control of Twitter in October, but told the annual leadership meeting that bots and fake accounts plagued the social media site. Addressing if he'd be rejoining Twitter, Trump said: "I don't see any reason for it. They have a lot of problems at Twitter. It may make it, it may not make it, but the problems are incredible," per Reuters.
The billionaire owner of Twitter restored Trump's account on Saturday night after he polled his followers with a simple yes or no response to the statement "reinstate Trump."
The result was a slender majority for reinstating Trump, with 51.8% of more than 15 million respondents voting yes.
"The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei," Musk wrote in a tweet, using a Latin phrase that translates to "the voice of the people is the voice of God."
The reinstatement comes nearly two years after Trump was banned from the platform following January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Trump's critics had speculated that if he did return to Twitter, he would use it as a megaphone to reenergize his baseless claims that he was the true winner of the 2020 election.
Trump's return to Twitter was widely anticipated following Musk's $44 billion deal to buy the company.
Musk previously told a Financial Times conference, "I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump," adding, "I think that was a mistake. It alienated the country and did not result in Donald Trump not having a voice. I think it was a morally bad decision and foolish in the extreme."
Musk has reinstated several accounts in recent days, including controversial boxer and influencer Andrew Tate, who had a five-year ban overturned, Jordan Peterson, a right-wing academic, and comedian Kathy Griffin who had an Elon Musk parody account.
According to The Guardian, Twitter's legal and public policy head Vijaya Gadde was most closely associated with the company's decision to ban Trump after the Capitol riot. She was fired by Musk shortly after the company purchase was finalized.
Correction: November 20, 2022 — An earlier version of this story mistakenly referred to former female Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde as he.