Donald Trump is back on Twitter after owner Elon Musk asks users if they want him reinstated

20 November 2022, 07:33

Donald Trump's Twitter account has been reinstated, nearly two years after being banned, after the site's owner Elon Musk held a poll.

The move reverses a ban that kept the former president off the social media site since a pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol on January 6 2021 as Congress was poised to certify Joe Biden's election victory.

Mr Musk made the announcement in the early hours of Sunday morning (UK time) after holding a poll that asked Twitter users to click 'yes' or 'no' on whether Mr Trump's account should be restored.

The "yes" vote won, with 51.8%.

"The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei," Musk tweeted, using a Latin phrase meaning "the voice of the people, the voice of God".

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It is unclear if the former president will return to Twitter, where he was a prolific and unorthodox poster, having set up his own social network, called Truth Social.

as said in the past that he would not rejoin the social media platform even if his account was reinstated.

Shortly after Mr Musk's announcement on Twitter, the former president's account reappeared on the social media platform. While it still had over 1.2million followers, it was not following any other users.

LBC's Washington reporter Simon Marks gives his take on Donald Trump's announcement.

Mr Trump's last tweet was posted on January 9 2021, reading: "To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th."

All of his former tweets also reappeared when the account was reinstated - more than 59,000 of them. Earlier in the evening while addressing a Republican Jewish group meeting in Las Vegas, Mr Trump said that he was aware of Mr Musk's poll but that he saw "a lot of problems at Twitter", according to Bloomberg.

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"I hear we're getting a big vote to also go back on Twitter. I don't see it because I don't see any reason for it," the former president was quoted as saying.

"It may make it, it may not make it," he added, apparently referring to Twitter's recent internal upheavals.