SAN FRANCISCO: Donald Trump’s Twitter account was reinstated on Saturday after 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.

Trump was banned from the platform early last year for his role in the Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted, shortly after the 24-hour poll ended.

“Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he added, repeating a Latin adage he posted on Friday meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” 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 favour and 48.2pc against.

Trump, who had more than 88 million users when his account was suspended, reveled in using Twitter as a mouthpiece during his presidency, posting policy announcements, attacking political rivals and communicating with supporters.

Musk’s poll asked for a simple “yes” or “no” response to the stat­ement “Reinstate former Presi­dent Trump,” which the billionaire Twitter boss posted Friday.

“Fascinating to watch Twitter Trump poll!” Musk mused on Saturday morning in a blast of tweets from the controversial and hard-charging new owner of the one-to-many messaging platform.

‘I have Truth Social’

Trump said on Saturday he would not return to the popular platform but instead remain on his own network, Truth Social, launched after he was banned from Twitter.

Appearing via video at a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, Trump said he welcomed the poll and was a fan of Musk, but appeared to reject any return.

“He did put up a poll and it was very overwhelming... but I have something called... Truth Social.” As to whether he would return to the platform, he said: “I don’t see it because I don’t see any reason for it.” Trump had not posted to Twitter, though he did share a series of unrelated messages on his Truth Social account, including opinion articles criticising the US Justice Department’s appointment of a special counsel this week to investigate his role in the Capitol attack.

But several of his political allies were highlighting his return. “Welcome back, @realdonaldtrump!” tweeted House Republican Paul Gosar.

Prominent Trump-backer Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose personal account is also suspended, re-tweeted several of his previous posts from her official government account, including some tweets that were still marked with fact-checking badges refuting his claims about 2020 election fraud.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2022