Former President Donald Trump responded on Friday when asked if he would get back on Twitter if new CEO Elon Musk rescinded his lifetime ban.
In the months after Trump was kicked off the platform, he launched his own social media site, Truth Social, which is now reportedly worth north of $1 billion. His remarks came after Musk announced a new “council” to take a loot at who has been banned and see if they deserve to be reinstated.
“Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” he said.
Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.
No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
In May, Musk said that he thought Trump never should have been banned in the first place.
“TRUTH SOCIAL has become somewhat of a phenomena. Last week it had bigger numbers than all other platforms, including TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and the rest. It also looks and works better to my eye,” Trump noted on his own platform.
“I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country. Twitter must now work hard to rid itself of all of the bots and fake accounts that have hurt it so badly. It will be much smaller, but better. I LOVE TRUTH!” he continued.
Later, in an interview with Fox News, Trump revealed his plan if offered a return to Twitter.
“I like Elon and I wish him a lot of luck. I hope he does well with it. I am staying on Truth. I like it better, I like the way it works, I like Elon, but I’m staying on Truth,” he said.
“I don’t think Twitter can be successful without me. Facebook is now down $80 billion and boring. Twitter has been taken over, and, if it wasn’t for me, it would have never been taken over. No one would have even thought about it,” he noted further.
“I made Twitter hot 12 years ago, I made Twitter hot,” Trump said. “And then when they terminated, it became cold, and that’s what happened.”
Shortly after Musk took over, he fired several top executives, including the former CEO and the official who banned Trump.
BREAKING: Elon Musk officially closed the Twitter deal.
Twitter's CEO Parag Agarawal, CFO Ned Segal, and chief content moderator Vijaya Gadde, who got Twitter to ban Donald Trump, got them to ban political ads, and censor the Hunter Biden story have all been FIRED
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 28, 2022