In early 2021, Donald Trump, former U.S. president was banned from Twitter and other mainstream internet platforms. He was banned because he supported the January 6 rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol. He then went on to applaud Elon Musk for his $44 billion deal on his Twitter takeover on Truth Social.
Truth Social is a social media service that his company, Trump Media & Technology Group, launched in 2022 after he was ousted from major social media platforms. Musk among his first actions fired several top executives of Twitter including CEO Parag Agarwal. He stated that on his ownership Twitter would stand for “free speech.”
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What Did Donald Trump Say About Elon Musk?
Donald Trump praised the new Twitter owner Elon Musk in a Truth Social post. “I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country. Twitter must now work hard to rid itself of all of the bots and fake accounts that have hurt it so badly. It will be much smaller, but better. I LOVE TRUTH!”
Musk has accused Twitter of a “left-wing bias” and alleged that it censors conservatives. He previously said he would reverse Twitter’s permanent ban on Trump, calling that a “morally bad decision.” At the same time, Musk has mocked Trump’s attempt to build a Twitter rival. “Truth Social (terrible name) exists because Twitter censored free speech,” Musk tweeted on April 27. “Should be called Trumpet instead!”
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Did Trump Encourage Musk To Acquire Twitter?
In May, Devin Nunes, the former GOP congressman who is now CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, claimed that Trump “encouraged” Musk to acquire Twitter to “take on these tech tyrants.” Musk said that was false: “I’ve had no communication, directly or indirectly, with Trump, who has publicly stated that he will be exclusively on Truth Social.”
Meanwhile, Trump has previously insisted he would not re-join Twitter, regardless of who owns it. “I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth,” Trump told Fox News in April. All that said, Musk wrote in an open letter that Twitter won’t become “a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences.”
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