Liberal buzzkill in progress.
Former President Donald Trump made it clear on Monday that he’s NOT returning to Twitter:
Trump will not return to Twitter even as Elon Musk purchases platform, will begin using his own TRUTH Social
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 26, 2022
From Fox News:
“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” Trump told Fox News. “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.”
And he’ll start using his platform next week:
Trump told Fox News he will begin “TRUTHing” over the next week.
This *should be* good news to all the Twitter employees who were freaked out that Elon Musk might reinstate the former president’s account:
From my sources: Vocal Twitter employees on internal chats indicate their biggest fear is Donald Trump being unbanned. Many express strong hatred toward @elonmusk & say they’re sick of hearing about “free speech.” They’re concerned about their mental health. #ElonMuskBuyTwitter
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 25, 2022
And the NAACP should be happy as well:
NAACP calls for Musk to keep Trump off Twitter https://t.co/AisCx4CoU6 pic.twitter.com/iexvzAudpi
— The Hill (@thehill) April 26, 2022
From the NAACP:
“Mr. Musk: free speech is wonderful, hate speech is unacceptable. Disinformation, misinformation and hate speech have NO PLACE on Twitter. Do not allow 45 to return to the platform. Do not allow Twitter to become a petri dish for hate speech, or falsehoods that subvert our democracy. Protecting our democracy is of utmost importance, especially as the midterm elections approach. Mr. Musk: lives are at risk, and so is American democracy.”
Recommended
But will journos actually believe what the former president said? So far, it looks like they’ll milk this cow for the foreseeable future:
The news that ELON MUSK is buying Twitter has thrown Washington into a tizzy over one major question: Could DONALD TRUMP return to his old favorite social media platform and would he even want to? We got the GOP reaction in Playbook: https://t.co/CPGx87ryfo
— POLITICO Playbook (@playbookdc) April 26, 2022
But as tech journo and NYT opinion writer Kara Swisher noted yesterday, Trump was likely to get unbanned by Twitter anyway:
“The soon-to-be social media honcho is inclined to lift the permanent tweeting ban imposed last year on Donald Trump.
If you’re hyperventilating right now, you might want to take a breath because it was coming with or without Musk.” @karaswisher https://t.co/YYaM9rix19— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) April 26, 2022
She writes:
If you’re hyperventilating right now, you might want to take a breath because it was coming with or without Musk atop the Twitter organizational chart. Addressing the ban would have been near the top of Twitter management’s to-do list, since keeping off Trump as the 2024 G.O.P. presidential nominee — or as president — was always going to be a problematic stance. Twitter executives would have been under enormous pressure to reconsider the ban, which made sense at the time, and most likely would have let Trump back on, with certain behavior caveats.
This is probably the right move. Twitter should restore his account anyway:
Elon Musk should restore Donald Trump’s Twitter account, regardless of whether he plans to use it or not.
Free Speech on Twitter starts with righting previous wrongs.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 26, 2022
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member