MSNBC primetime anchor Alex Wagner was duped into airing a fake statement on Thursday night wherein former President Donald Trump purportedly claimed that his Twitter account could be reinstated following Elon Musk’s takeover of the corporate.
Wagner referenced the fake Trump statement survive her show shortly after Musk closed the deal to purchase Twitter — noting that Musk’s pledge not to show the platform right into a “hellscape” could be put to the test.
“We’ll see about that ‘free-for-all hellscape’ promise and whether a certain Twitter account that after coined the term ‘covfefe’ is coming back,” Wagner quipped. “Side note, only a moment ago, Trump himself issued a press release congratulating Elon Musk on buying Twitter. He says his account might be back on Monday.”
The hoax statement attributed to Trump had circulated on Twitter prior to MSNBC’s mistake, with conservative creator Dinesh D’Souza amongst those that shared it.
“Congratulations to Elon Musk on his purchase of Twitter. Many persons are saying that change was needed, because the old management was too concerned with the woke agenda,” the fake statement said. “I actually have been told that my account might be back up and running on Monday – we’ll see. Completely satisfied to give you the chance to interact with an African-American owned business!”
Wagner’s team later apologized for the error on Twitter.
“In the frenzy of reporting on Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter we included some bad details about Donald Trump’s response to the deal. We regret the error,” Wagner’s team said in a press release posted to the show’s official Twitter account.
The Post has reached out to MSNBC for extra comment.
Musk intends to finish the practice of everlasting bans on Twitter accounts now that his takeover of the corporate is complete, Bloomberg reported. Still, the billionaire has yet to handle his plans for Trump’s account. It’s not clear whether Trump’s account might be reinstated within the near term, in keeping with Bloomberg.
In May, Musk indicated that he would reverse Trump’s everlasting suspension if he succeeded in buying Twitter.
“Everlasting bans ought to be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts which might be bots, or scam, spam accounts … I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk said on the time.
“I believe that was a mistake, since it alienated a big a part of the country and didn’t ultimately end in Donald Trump not having a voice.”
Trump’s Twitter account was permanently suspended following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Musk’s pledge to re-emphasize free speech at Twitter has prompted concern amongst his critics that Trump’s account may very well be reinstated.
Trump has since founded his own social media platform, Truth Social. The ex-president previously indicated he didn’t plan to rejoin Twitter even when his account was restored.
