When billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter, the first question on many people’s minds was whether he would reinstate former President Trump’s account, which had been permanently banned.
On Tuesday, Musk finally commented on what he’d do once he officially takes the reins, assuming the deal is finalized.
“Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts,” he said at FT Live’s Future of the Car conference. “I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump.”
Musk added that he believes the crackdown on the 45th president “was a mistake, because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”
Elon Musk: “I would reverse” President Trump’s ban from Twitter
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 10, 2022
pic.twitter.com/9UxpfLf15j
Full video. pic.twitter.com/CHCqOdsqzR
— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) May 10, 2022
Trump, for his part, has publicly said he will not rejoin Twitter, even if his account is reinstated, preferring to instead remain on his own platform, Truth Social.
"I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on Truth," Trump told Fox News last month. "I hope Elon buys Twitter because he'll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth."
Trump argued being on Truth Social is better than Twitter, which he said became "very boring because conservatives were thrown off or got off the platform when I left."
"The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter,” he added.
Whether he stays true to his word remains to be seen.