Donald Trump’s Twitter account was reactivated on Saturday after Elon Musk, the platform’s new owner, conducted a poll in which a tiny majority of respondents supported the decision, just days after the former US president began another White House candidacy.
Trump was barred from the platform earlier this year for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a crowd of his supporters wanting to reverse the 2020 election results.
“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted, shortly after the 24-hour poll ended.
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“Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he added, repeating a Latin adage he posted Friday meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”
More than 15 million people voted on whether to reinstall the contentious profile, out of 237 million daily Twitter users, with 51.8 percent in favor and 48.2 percent opposed.
Trump, who had over 88 million followers on Twitter when his account was disabled, thrived in using it as a voice during his presidency, tweeting policy announcements, criticizing political rivals, and engaging with supporters.
Musk’s poll asked for a simple “yes” or “no” reaction to the billionaire Twitter CEO’s Friday comment “Reinstate former President Trump.”
“Fascinating to watch Twitter Trump poll!” Musk mused Saturday morning in a blast of tweets from the controversial and hard-charging new owner of the one-to-many messaging platform.
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He has already conducted similar polls, asking fans last year if he should sell stock in his electric vehicle firm, Tesla. He sold more than $1 billion in stock as a result of the survey.
Trump announced on Saturday that he would not return to the popular site, but would instead focus on his own network, Truth Social, which he founded after being banned from Twitter.
Trump spoke via video at a Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Las Vegas, saying he welcomed the poll and was a fan of Musk, but he appeared to deny any return.
“He did put up a poll and it was very overwhelming… but I have something called… Truth Social.”
“I don’t see it because I don’t see any justification for it,” he said of returning to the podium.
By late Saturday, Trump had not posted to Twitter, but he had shared a number of unrelated items on his Truth Social account, including opinion articles denouncing the US Justice Department’s appointment of a special counsel this week to examine his role in the Capitol attack.
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However, numerous of his political allies emphasized his return.
“Welcome back, @realdonaldtrump!” tweeted House Republican Paul Gosar.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a prominent Trump supporter whose personal account is also suspended, re-tweeted several of his previous posts from her official government account, including some tweets that were still marked with fact-checking badges refuting his claims about 2020 election fraud.
“Anyone who thinks President Trump isn’t going to win the 2024 primary is fooling themselves,” she tweeted.
Liz Cheney, the anti-Trump Republican who lost her re-election attempt as co-chair of the congressional committee investigating the Capitol attack, responded to the news by sending Twitter followers to a link with a video of one of the committee’s meetings.
“With Trump back on Twitter, it’s a good time to watch this Jan 6 hearing,” she tweeted.
“It covers each of Trump’s tweets that day, including those that have been deleted, and features multiple Trump WH staff describing his inexcusable conduct during the violence.”
Musk has reinstated other banned accounts, including comedian Kathy Griffin’s, which was removed after she impersonated him on the platform.
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Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has come under fire for making major changes at Twitter, which he purchased for $44 billion less than a month ago.
Since then, he has fired half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees and abandoned a work-from-home policy, even while his attempts to reform the firm have been met with criticism and delays.
Hundreds of people departed rather than submit to Musk’s demands that they accept long, arduous days at the new Twitter.
His bungled attempts to update user authentication with a contentious subscription service resulted in a proliferation of bogus accounts and pranks, prompting major advertisers to abandon the platform.
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