Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, announced Saturday that former President Donald Trump will be reinstated on the social media platform.
Trump’s Twitter account was suspended nearly two years ago after he was accused of playing a vital role in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.
On Saturday evening, Musk announced the decision after allowing his Twitter followers and others to vote on whether to reinstate the former president. Nearly 52% of votes – a narrow majority of 15 million voters – were in favor of Trump’s return.
Also Read | Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo photographed together by Annie Leibowitz for Louis Vuitton ad
“The people have spoken,” Must tweeted Saturday evening. “Trump will be reinstated.”
However, just a day ahead of the polls, Trump said he sees “a lot of problems at Twitter” and will stick to his own social-media platform.
“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,” Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Las Vegas via video link. “It may make it, it may not make it.”
Trump’s return to Twitter is one of the most anticipated decisions since he took control of Twitter on Oct. 27. The poll came just four days after Trump announced he would run for president in 2024.
Also Read | Naomi Biden, granddaughter of President Joe Biden, weds Peter Neal at White House
Twitter played an important role in Trump’s political rise, allowing him to broadcast his thoughts, provocations and insults to millions of fans. The 76-year-old started using Twitter in 2011 to falsely claim that then-President Barack Obama hadn’t been born in the US. He used his account to attack his critics, the media, Democrats and Republicans, who were not sufficiently loyal.