Elon Musk reinstates Donald Trump’s Twitter account

Trump’s account reappeared on Twitter after a poll run by Elon Musk showed narrow support for his reinstatement.

Elon Musk has reinstated Donald Trump’s account on Twitter, nearly two years after the former United States president was banned from the social media platform for inciting violence.

Trump’s account reappeared on Twitter on Saturday after Musk, the platform’s new owner, ran a poll on the social media site that showed narrow support for allowing Trump to return.

More than 15 million people voted in the poll asking whether Trump’s account should be reinstated, with a slim majority of 51.8 percent voting in favor.

“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted.

But Trump said earlier on Saturday that he had no interest in returning to the platform.

“I don’t see any reason for it,” the former president said via video when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting.

Trump said he would stick with his new platform Truth Social, the app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) start-up, which he said had better user engagement than Twitter and was doing “phenomenally well”.

Trump, who on Tuesday launched a bid to regain the White House in 2024, also praised Musk and said he had always liked him.

But the former president also said Twitter suffered from bots, fake accounts and that the problems it faced were “incredible”.

Agencies