Donald Trump signals he will not return to Twitter after Elon Musk reverses ban

Donald Trump has signalled whether he will start tweeting again after his banned account was reactivated by new owner Elon Musk.

Donald Trump’s Twitter account may be reactivated but the former US president has signalled he doesn’t “see any reason” to rejoin the platform.

The social media giant lifted its ban on Mr Trump’s account following a poll organised by Twitter’s new CEO Elon Musk.

During a video call to the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting on the weekend, Mr Trump responded to speculation on whether he plans to tweet again.

He said he had heard Mr Musk’s poll was getting a big response, but that he doesn’t “see any reason for it (a return to Twitter).”

“They have a lot of problems at Twitter. You see what ‘s going on. It (the company) may make it, it may not make it, but the problems are incredible and the engagements are negative,” Mr Trump said.

“You have a lot of bots and you have a lot of fake accounts, which I think they should get on. But Truth Social (Mr Trump’s competing platform) has taken the place for a lot of people and I don’t see them going back onto Twitter,” he said.

A slim majority of votes were cast in favour of Mr Trump’s account being reinstated.

“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” billionaire Twitter owner Mr Musk tweeted, using a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people, the voice of God.”

Elon Musk has reversed Twitter’s ban on Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

Shortly afterwards Mr Trump’s account, which had earlier appeared as suspended, reappeared on the platform complete with his former tweets, more than 59,000 of them.

The divisive figure was previously banned from the social media service for inciting violence.

The people have spoken.

Trump will be reinstated.

Vox Populi, Vox Dei. https://t.co/jmkhFuyfkv

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2022

If Twitter doesn’t first go bankrupt, his former campaign manager Jason Miller said the newly-announced presidential candidate would not silo himself on his competing Truth Social platform in the lead-up to the 2024 election.

“He’s going to want to get his voice out to as many people as possible,” Mr Miller told News Corp Australia in an interview before Mr Trump’s announcement at Mar-a-Lago.

Now the CEO of Gettr, the campaign adviser and spokesman from 2016 to 2021 said Mr Trump would also likely join other platforms like his own “free speech” competitor to Twitter.

“YouTube’s not letting him back on. Instagram’s not letting him back on. Facebook’s not letting him back on,” Mr Miller added.

“Zero per cent chance. Zero per cent. And so it makes sense for him to be on as many platforms as possible.”

Announcing on Saturday that the new Twitter policy was “freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach”, Mr Musk reinstated popular accounts of Jordan Peterson, Kathy Griffin, and The Babylon Bee.

“Trump decision has not yet been made,” Mr Musk said the day before Mr Trump’s account was reinstated.

Kathie Griffin, Jorden Peterson & Babylon Bee have been reinstated.

Trump decision has not yet been made.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022

Mr Trump last week asked a US appeals court to revive his lawsuit against Twitter Inc to challenge his permanent suspension, with lawyers arguing the ban marked “overtly partisan censorship”.

MUSK’S TWITTER TAKEOVER SHAKY

Mr Musk announced in early November the company was waiting until after the US 2022 midterm elections before allowing anyone who was de-platformed back on the network.

Since then, however, Mr Musk has laid off most of his staff and warned those who remained that the company could go bankrupt, a crisis that could delay the “clear process” being implemented to reverse the perma-bans on users like Mr Trump.

Donald Trump remains suspended on Twitter. Picture: AFP

In a late-night email just hours after Mr Trump’s 2024 announcement this week, Mr Musk asked Twitter staff to commit to being “extremely hardcore” to “build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world”.

While Mr Musk has posted data showing a 20 per cent increase in monetizable daily active users since he took over, major advertisers like General Mills and Pfizer have pulled multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns. The company is also well short of the target Mr Musk pitched in May of quadrupling the user base by 2028 to become profitable.

Jason Miller, CEO of Gettr and former Trump campaign manager. Picture: AFP

Mr Musk’s takeover of Twitter has been shaky. Picture: Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Those figures also hide what Mr Miller says is the real reason an olive branch was extended to Mr Trump’s supporters in May, when Mr Musk said it was a “mistake” to de-platform the ex-president and that he would “reverse the perma-ban”.

“As you look at under 25, or even under 18, the fact of the matter is nobody under the age of 18 uses Twitter. It’s effectively dead for the Gen Zers,” Mr Miller said.

“What Musk and everybody else involved with Twitter has as their biggest challenge, it’s not so much the current dead accounts, it’s hey, your whole platform might be dead because nobody is using Twitter, or hardly any, under 25, but definitely almost nil under 18.”

To avoid bankruptcy, Mr Musk has fired about 50 per cent of staff and has been in discussions with his PayPal co-founder and investor David Sacks about a plan to place the entire platform behind a paywall.

The model mirrors the paywall used by major publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, which gives users a limited number of articles for free before charging for content.

Plans for the drastic move came just days after Musk announced a $US8 monthly fee for verification check marks as part of the Twitter Blue subscription service, a rollout which Mr Musk delayed until November 29 after a disastrous launch that cost more advertising dollars.

Donald Trump tweeting during the US Capitol riot, shortly before he was permanently banned from the site. Picture: Supplied

US President Donald Trump had three messages removed on Twitter and his account was suspended during the US Capitol riots.

To grow the business, Mr Miller said Mr Musk would change its policies to be less politically discriminatory in a direct appeal to the users that left the platform in 2021.

“He basically was putting out the olive branch to get Trump supporters back onto the platform,” said Mr Miller, who continues to advise Mr Trump. “The reason being is in our research that we did last summer, between 20 and 25 per cent of all domestic US Trump voters quit social media when Trump was de-platformed.”

Mr Trump, for his part, has struggled to get his competing platform, Truth Social, to reach the massive audience of Twitter, Facebook or Google.

After Mr Musk took control of Twitter, the ex-president said the world’s richest man must work hard to remove bots and fake accounts to improve the 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,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

“It will be much smaller, but better.”

Originally published as Donald Trump signals he will not return to Twitter after Elon Musk reverses ban