Elon Musk caused the largest sensation so far in his management of Twitter since he bought the social media platform when he reinstated the account of President Donald Trump on Saturday. Musk based the decision on a public poll he posted and left open for 24 hours, asking all users whether they favored reactivating Trump’s account or not.
With more than 15 million votes coming in on the poll, a small majority said they wanted to see the 45th president get his account back. Trump’s account had been suspended since January 2021 during the final weeks of his first term in the White House.
Less than a half hour after the poll closed, Musk announced Trump’s account was being reinstated. He added the Latin phrase “Vox Populi, Vox Vei” to his post, which translates to “the voice of the people is the voice of God” in English.
The reinstatement of the account returned the entire history of Trump’s tweets over the years to the platform. That led to many users retweeting and commenting on many of Trump’s most famous tweets, causing them to return to the trending page around the globe.
One of the most popular Trump tweets over the weekend was his last post made to the platform on January 8, 2021. In that message, he wrote: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
THE ORANGE MAN IS BACK! 🍊🍊🍊
TRUMP BACK BABY pic.twitter.com/phoetQs1bv
— matt 🏴🍻 (@thfcmxtt) November 20, 2022
Many users used the comments below that tweet to welcome Trump back to Twitter. Some of the supportive replies got tens of thousands of “likes,” and many also thanked Musk for what was seen as a fair and correct decision.
As of Monday afternoon, Trump has not posted any new content to his account since it was reinstated. He has said many times in recent months that he supports Musk in his mission to reform Twitter and his purchase of the platform for a staggering $44 billion. However, Trump has also said that he will not return to Twitter, choosing instead to support Truth Social, the competing social media company he formed and owns.
When Musk’s poll was making news on Friday and Saturday, Trump was asked at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition if he had changed his mind about returning to Twitter if he were to be reinstated. “I don’t see any reason for it,” he said.
As of Monday afternoon, Trump’s Twitter account was back up to 87.5 million followers and growing. That level of exposure may prove to be too appealing to ignore for the 2024 presidential candidate.
