Former President Donald Trump said he did not “see any reason” to return to Twitter shortly before new CEO Elon Musk reinstated his account on the social media platform on Saturday.
Trump made the remarks during a brief appearance at the annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition when Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, mentioned to Trump that Musk was conducting a poll to see if he should let the former president back on Twitter.
“I don’t know if you’ve been following. Twitter is blowing up today: Elon Musk posted a poll that had over 13 million respondents so far, asking whether or not you should be reinstated on on Twitter,” Brooks said. “My question to you is what do you think about Elon Musk buying Twitter? And if you are reinstated, will we see you back on Twitter again?”
“I don’t see any reason for it. There are a lot of problems in Twitter, you see what’s going on,” he said. “They may or may not make it but the problems are terrible. The engagements are negative. And you have a lot of bots and you have a lot of fake accounts.”
Trump claimed that his social media platform “is through the roof” and “doing phenomenally well.”
Musk had stated back in May during FT Live’s Future of the Car conference that he would let Trump back on the platform.
“I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country, and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” Musk said, adding that the decision was “morally bad.”
“That doesn’t mean that someone gets to say whatever they want to say,” Musk said. “If they say something that is illegal or destructive to the world, then there should be perhaps a timeout, temporary suspension or that particular tweet should be made invisible or have very little traction.”
“I would reverse the permanent ban,” Musk added.
.@elonmusk says he would reverse President Trump's permanent ban on Twitter if the deal finalizes pic.twitter.com/QZfwREYAAZ
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) May 10, 2022
Trump has stated on multiple occasions that he will not return to the platform.
“No, I won’t be going back on Twitter,” Trump said 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.”
There are also contractual issues at play with Trump using Twitter as a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that Trump agreed to post all of his posts on Truth Social first and must wait at least six hours before he could post the same message to other social media platforms.
The filing states that “President Trump has agreed to first channel any and all social media communications and posts coming from his personal profile to the Truth Social platform before posting that same social media communication and/or post to any other social media platform that is not Truth Social (collectively, ‘Non-TMTG Social Media’) until the expiration of ‘DJT/TMTG Social Media 6-Hour Exclusive’ which means the period commencing when DJT posts any social media communication onto the Truth Social Platform and ending six (6) hours thereafter; provided that he may post social media communications from his personal profile that specifically relates to political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the vote efforts at any time on any Non-TMTG social media platforms.”