Musk had confirmed he would reinstate the former US president’s Twitter account after putting the decision to a controversial vote.
Trump’s account, which had over 88 million followers before he was banned on January 8, 2021, quickly started gaining followers. He had accumulated nearly 1.2 million followers by this afternoon. However, some reported being unable to follow his account that evening.
However, Trump has been fairly unenthusiastic about the idea.
“I don’t see any reason for it,” the former president said via video when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, Reuters reported.
Instead, Trump would stay with his new platform Truth Social, which was developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group.
He said Truth Social was doing has better user engagement than Twitter and was doing “phenomenally well”, noting Twitter’s problems included bots and fake accounts.
The controversial poll about Trump’s Twitter return began on Saturday and saw roughly 52 per cent voting yes, after Musk claimed the survey was receiving 1 million votes per hour.
“Fascinating to watch Twitter Trump poll!,” Musk tweeted.
The billionaire followed with a Latin Phrase “Vox Populi, Vox Dei”, roughly translated to “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”
Musk said in May he would consider removing Trump’s indefinite Twitter ban, after he was suspended in January 2021 in the wake of the Washington DC insurrection.
The tech billionaire also claimed the poll was being attacked by “bot and troll armies”.
“The bot attack is impressive to watch!” he said in a tweet
“Bot & troll armies might be running out of steam soon. Some interesting lessons to clean up future polls.”
After Trump’s account was restored, Musk posted: “Twitter is ALIVE”.
The decision to reinstate Trump’s account has caused a major divide on Twitter.
“Horror show ... I’m out,” another person commented.
“Then I am done with Twitter. More people voted against him for president. Do the math,” another said.
However, there were others who praised Musk for the move, thanking him for reinstating Trump and branding it a “good call”.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed he should have “never been banned in the first place”.
“Interesting it took a poll to decide to reinstate him,” she said. Donald Trump said he sees “a lot of problems at Twitter” and will stick to his own social-media platform, offering an initial response to Elon Musk’s poll on whether to reinstate the former president’s account.
“I hear we’re getting a big vote to also go back on Twitter. I don’t see it because I don’t see any reason for it,” Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Las Vegas via video link. “It may make it, it may not make it.”
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