ELON Musk has reinstated former US president Donald Trump’s account on Twitter.
The move reverses a ban that has kept the former president off the social media site since a pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol in January 2021 as Congress was poised to certify Joe Biden’s victory.
Musk made the announcement in the early hours of Sunday morning (UK time) after holding a poll that asked Twitter users to click “yes” or “no” on whether Trump’s account should be restored.
The “yes” vote won, with 51.8%. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei”, Musk tweeted, using a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people, the voice of God”.
It is not yet clear whether Trump will actually return to Twitter. The former president has said in the past that he would not re-join the social media platform even if his account was reinstated.
Shortly after Musk’s announcement on Twitter, Trump’s account did reappear on the social media platform.
While it still had over 1.2 million followers, it was not yet following any other users.
All his former tweets also reappeared – more than 59,000 of them. Earlier in the evening, while addressing a Republican Jewish group meeting in Las Vegas, Trump said he was aware of Musk’s poll but that he saw “a lot of problems at Twitter”, according to Bloomberg.
“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”, the former president was quoted as saying.
“It may make it, it may not make it”, he added, apparently referring to Twitter’s recent internal upheavals.
The announcement comes amid reports that large numbers of staff were quitting after Musk called on them to sign up for “long hours at high intensity” or to leave.
Earlier this week, Trump announced he would once again be running for president. After his initial ban, he launched his own social media platform, Truth Social.
