Thanks to the results of a Twitter poll, former US President Donald Trump's account has been restored on the platform. But Trump says he wants to stick with his own social media platform, Truth Social, instead.
Twitter Unbans Trump
On 19 November 2022, Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted a poll asking whether the platform should restore Trump's account. The final tally showed 51.8% of votes going towards the answer “Yes”.
As a result, Musk said that the former president's account would be reinstated. By 20 November, the account @realdonaldtrump had returned. Users visiting the account will see the last tweets posted by the former president on 8 January, 2021.
The reinstatement of the account comes just a few days after Trump announced his 2024 bid for the US presidency.
Why Is Trump Not Returning to Twitter?
While he praised Musk for the decision, Trump said he does not plan to return to Twitter. In video comments made at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting, Trump said the engagement on Truth Social was better.
In the video, published by Reuters, Trump said:
“Truth Social is through the roof. It's doing phenomenally well. The press hates to talk about it but it's doing phenomenally well. I think engagement is much better than it is with Twitter.”
He also said that while there may be a vote to see whether he should go back to Twitter, he doesn't see any reason to return.
“They have a lot of problems at Twitter. You see what's going on. It may make it, it may not make it. But the problems are incredible and the engagements are negative. And you have a lot of bots and you have a lot of fake accounts which I think they should get on.”
Trump also said that he doesn't foresee Truth Social users returning to Twitter either. Truth Social is a social media platform owned by Trump and according to The New York Times, it had 1.7 million unique visitors in the US in September 2022.
Trump Stays Off Twitter for Now
While Trump has seemingly snubbed Twitter for his own social media platform, it's possible that we will return in the future. With over 87 million followers on his old Twitter account, the platform remains a major avenue for him to reach people.'
Originally published on MakeUseOf.com
