Elon Musk reinstated former President Donald Trump’s account on Twitter on Saturday, reversing a ban that has kept the former president off the social media site U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
But not so fast, Trump warned. The 45th president has repeatedly said he would stay on his own social media network, TruthSocial — and reaffirmed that on Saturday.
“I don’t see any reason for it,” Trump said when asked if he’d return Musk’s social media giant. “There are a lot of problems in Twitter, you see what’s going on. They may or may not make it but the problems are terrible.”
“The engagements are negative,” he said. “And you have a lot of bots and you have a lot of fake accounts.”
He said Truth Social was “through the roof” and is “doing phenomenally well.”
Musk made the announcement that Trump would be reinstated 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%. Previously, Musk had said Twitter would establish new procedures and a “content moderation council” before making decisions to restore suspended accounts.
“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.”
Shortly afterward Trump’s account, which had earlier appeared as suspended, reappeared on the platform complete with his former tweets, more than 59,000 of them. His followers were gone, at least initially, but he quickly began regaining them.
There were no new tweets from the account as of late Saturday. Instead, Trump followed through with his pledge to remain on his own social media network and attacked President Joe Biden through Truth Social on Sunday.
“Our Country has never seen a Weaponized ‘Justice’ Department, and FBI, like they are witnessing right now. They are doing everything they can, much of it unlawful, to protect an incompetent and corrupt President, and his drug addicted criminal son,” Trump wrote Sunday. “The system is Tainted and Rigged, just like our Elections are Tainted and Rigged, and just like our Border is for sale to the highest bidder, OPEN, and a disgrace to humanity. In the meantime, our Country is failing at a level never seen before!!!”
Trump has repeatedly said in the past that he would not rejoin even if his account was reinstated.
“No, I won’t be going back on Twitter,” Trump promised in April. “I like Elon Musk. I like him a lot. He’s an excellent individual. We did a lot for Twitter when I was in the White House. I was disappointed by the way I was treated by Twitter. I won’t be going back on Twitter.”
Musk’s efforts to reshape the site have been both swift and chaotic. Musk has fired many of the company’s 7,500 full-time workers and an untold number of contractors. His demand that remaining employees pledge to “extremely hardcore” work triggered a wave of resignations, including hundreds of software engineers.
Users have reported seeing increased spam and scams on their feeds and in their direct messages, among other glitches, in the aftermath of the mass layoffs and worker exodus. Some programmers who were fired or resigned this week warned that Twitter may soon fray so badly it could actually crash.
Musk’s online survey, posted on his own Twitter account, drew more than 15 million votes in the 24 hours in which it ran.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article