New Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk announced that he will reinstate the Twitter account of former President Donald Trump on Saturday.
Musk ran a straw poll on the social media platform starting late Friday asking his followers to vote on whether to reinstate former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account on the platform. The poll ran for twenty four hours.
At its conclusion, Musk wrote in a tweet, “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.” The latter phrase means “the voice of the people is the voice of god.”
Trump’s account appeared to be live on Twitter, but the former president had not issued any new posts to the social media platform immediately after Musk removed the ban.
Under previous ownership, Twitter had issued a lifetime ban on President Donald Trump’s account in January 2021.
The former president’s account was first suspended by Twitter in the wake of the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol where his supporters rioted and disrupted lawmakers who were formally counting Electoral College votes.
At the time, Twitter said in a tweet, it made the decision “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Once Trump was banned from Twitter, and other social platforms including Facebook, he formed a social media company of his own.
For his part, Trump said earlier this year that he would not return to the social media platform even if Musk reversed the ban.
The former president told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in April after news of the…
