Elon Musk Reinstates Trump's Twitter Account; Trump Says He Does Not See Any Need To Return To The Platform

Donald Trump's  Twitter account has been reinstated. The platform's new owner Elon Musk ran a poll in which a narrow majority of voters supported the move, days after the former US president announced another White House bid.

Mr. Trump's account was banned from the platform early last year after protestors near the Capitol Hill broke in. 

"The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated," Mr. Musk tweeted, shortly after the 24-hour Twitter poll on his account ended.

"Vox Populi, Vox Dei," he added, repeating a Latin adage he also posted Friday, meaning "The voice of the people is the voice of God." Ultimately, more than 15 million people – out of 237 million daily Twitter users – voted on whether to reinstate the controversial profile, with 51.8 percent in favor and 48.2 percent against.

Mr. Trump, who had more than 88 million users when his account was suspended, enjoyed using Twitter as a bully pulpit during his presidency and posted most tweets personally, unlike other politicians. He also posted policy announcements on Twitter and used the medium to attack his political opponents and address his supporters.

Many have speculated that the anti-vax sentiment might not have emerged in the US because Trump was extremely pro vaccine and most anti-vaxxers were his supporters. They simply assumed Trump would be anti-vax to but when Trump supporting political pundits interview him, he thought opposing vaccines is extraordinarily stupid. His views in fact caught many political pundits off guard. 

Trump was taken off the platform for spreading the lie that the election was being stolen from him, however, the result of taking him off was that lies about vaccines spread much more than they might have if Trump was on the platform, actively rejecting conspiracy theories about the vaccine. 

"Fascinating to watch Twitter Trump poll!" Musk wrote. When Trump was asked about the poll and if he return to the platform,  Trump replied by saying "I do not see the need for it." 

Trump was addressing a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition virtually, where he said, "I do like him... you know, he's a character and again, I like characters. He did put up a poll and it was very overwhelming... but I have something called... Truth Social. " When the interviewer asked him if he will return, Trump said, "I don't see it because I don't see any reason for it."

It is unclear if Trump will refuse to use the platform, now that he has decided to run again. Twitter has a much more wider reach that Truth Social and although it might not have the reach some other social media apps with a wider user base have, Twitter remains the go to destination for taking part in American political discourse. It is possible that Trump might prefer in a scenario in which he posts on Truth Social and then his team just shares it on Twitter using his account.

In the past, Musk has stated that Trump should ride off to the sunset and not run in the 2024 presidential elections, hinting that it should be Ron DeSantis instead. Trump got angry at Musk for suggesting that, and during an election rally mocked Musk, saying that he could make the Tesla CEO kneel in front of his if he wanted.