A former United States president, Donald Trump, has maintained that he has no interest in returning to Twitter even after a slim majority voted in favour of reinstating him. The poll was organized by the new owner, Elon Musk after he was initially banned from the social media service for inciting violence.
It was earlier reported that over 15 million Twitter users had voted in the poll with 51.8% of them voting in favour of the reinstatement.
- Musk had after the poll tweeted, ‘’The people have spoken, Trump will be reinstated.’’
Trump declines reinstatement: However, in what appears like a response to the new development, Trump said that he doesn’t see any need to make a return to the social media network.
When asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, the former president said,
- “I don’t see any reason for it.”
He said he would stick with his new platform, Truth Social, the app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) start-up, which he said had better user engagement than Twitter and was doing “phenomenally well”.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s Twitter account, which had over 88 million followers before he was banned on January 8, 2021, began accumulating followers and had nearly 100,000 followers by 10 pm ET Saturday. Some users initially reported being unable to follow the reinstated account on Saturday evening.
Return could undermine Truth Social: Trump, at the launch of his presidential bid to regain the White House in 2024, praised Musk and said he had always liked him. But Trump also said Twitter suffered from bots, and fake accounts and that the problems it faced were “incredible”.
The return of Trump to Twitter could raise questions about 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 means of direct communication with his followers since he began posting on the app regularly in May. He has used Truth Social to promote his allies, criticize opponents and defend his reputation amid legal scrutiny from state, congressional and federal investigators.
Trump is obligated to give 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, according to a May SEC filing.
For the record: Trump had in April 2022 said he will not be returning to Twitter if his account is reinstated. Trump’s comments about Twitter came on the same day the company had announced that it accepted Elon Musk’s offer to acquire the publicly traded company at $54.20/share, valuing the social media platform at $44 billion.
Twitter permanently banned Trump in January 2021, citing concerns over the “risk of further incitement of violence” following the January 6 attack on the capitol. While Trump had previously broken the platform’s rules, the company had maintained his account under its special guidance for world leaders and information in the public interest.
