Former U.S. President Donald Trump broadcasts that he’ll once more run for U.S. president within the 2024 U.S. presidential election during an event at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, November 15, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Donald Trump on Saturday said he had little interest in returning to Twitter whilst a slim majority voted in favor of reinstating the previous U.S. President, who was banned from the social media service for inciting violence, in a poll organized by latest owner Elon Musk.
Barely over 15 million Twitter users voted within the poll with 51.8% voting in favor of reinstatement.
“The people have spoken. Trump will probably be reinstated,” Musk tweeted.
Trump’s Twitter account, which had over 88 million followers before he was banned on Jan. 8, 2021, began accumulating followers and had nearly 100,000 followers by 10pm ET Saturday.
Some users initially reported being unable to follow the reinstated account on Saturday evening. Trump had appeared lower than keen earlier within the day. “I do not see any reason for it,” the previous president said via video when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel on the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting.
He said he would keep on with his latest platform Truth Social, the app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) startup, which he said had higher user engagement than Twitter and was doing “phenomenally well”. Twitter didn’t reply to a request for comment.
Trump, who on Tuesday launched a bid to regain the White House in 2024, praised Musk and said he had all the time liked him. But Trump also said Twitter suffered from bots, fake accounts and that the issues it faced were “incredible”.
Musk first said in May he planned to reverse the ban on Trump, and the timing of any return by Trump was closely watched – and feared – by a lot of Twitter’s advertisers.
The billionaire has since sought to reassure users and advertisers that such a call could be made with consideration by a content moderation council composed of individuals with “widely diverse viewpoints” and no account reinstatements would occur before the council convened.
He also said Twitter wouldn’t reinstate any banned users until there was a “clear process for doing so.” But this week, Musk reinstated comedian Kathy Griffin, who had been banned for changing her profile name to “Elon Musk” which violated his latest rule against impersonation without indicating it was a parody account. There was no latest details about process or the moderation council.
No reason to return
A no-show by Trump could reduce concerns amongst major advertisers, who’re already rattled by Musk’s drastic reshaping of Twitter. He has halved the workforce and severely cut the corporate’s trust and safety team, which is accountable for stopping the spread of misinformation and harmful content.
These actions and Musk’s tweeting have pushed major corporations to halt promoting on the positioning as they monitor how the platform handles hate speech.
On Saturday, Bloomberg reported Twitter could fire more employees in its sales and partnership divisions, citing unnamed sources, just days after a mass resignation of engineers.
If Trump returned to Twitter, the move would raise questions on his commitment to Truth Social, which launched on Apple’s App Store in February and Google’s Play Store in October.
Trump has some 4.57 million followers on Truth Social. Truth Social has been Trump’s principal source of direct communication together with his followers since he began posting on the app often in May. He has used Truth Social to advertise his allies, criticize opponents and defend his fame amid legal scrutiny from state, congressional and federal investigators. His agreement with the corporate, nonetheless, opens the door for Trump to have interaction extensively on other platforms.
Trump is obligated to present Truth Social a six-hour exclusive on any post – but is free to post “political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the vote efforts” on any site, at any time, based on a May SEC filing.
