The former US president’s account is back on Twitter, but Trump plans to stay on his own platform.
Thanks to the results of a Twitter poll, former US President Donald Trump’s account has been reinstated on the platform. But Trump says he wants to stick with his own social media platform, Truth Social, instead.
Twitter overturns Donald Trump ban
On November 19, 2022, Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted a poll asking if the platform should restore Trump’s account. The final tally showed 51.8% of votes going to the “Yes” answer.
As a result, Musk said the former president’s account would be reinstated. On November 20, the @realdonaldtrump account was back. Users visiting the account will see the latest tweets posted by the former president on January 8, 2021.
The reinstatement of the account comes just days after Trump announced his 2024 candidacy for the US presidency.
Why isn’t Trump coming back to Twitter?
While he praised Musk for the move, Trump said he has no plans to return to Twitter. In video comments made at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, Trump said engagement on Truth Social was better.
In the video posted by ReutersTrump said:
“Truth Social is through the roof. It works phenomenally well. The press hates to talk about it but it works phenomenally well. I think the engagement is way better than with Twitter.”
He also said that while there might be a vote on whether he should return to Twitter, he saw no reason to return.
“They have a lot of problems on Twitter. You see what’s going on. It may do it, it may not. But the problems are amazing and the engagements are negative. And you have a lot of bots and you have a lot of fake accounts that I think they should tackle.”
Trump also said he doesn’t anticipate Truth Social users returning to Twitter either. Truth Social is a social media platform owned by Trump and according to The New York Timesit had 1.7 million unique visitors in the United States as of September 2022.
Trump stays away from Twitter for now
While Trump seemingly snubbed Twitter for his own social media platform, we may return in the future. With over 87 million followers on his former Twitter account, the platform remains a major way for him to reach people.
