Every one of the several news services to which I subscribe email updates reported last night: Trump returns to Twitter! Elon Musk had been conducting his own Twitter poll on the subject — I think his purpose was facetious, but nobody seems to grok Musk’s sense of humor. The vote was close. At one point Musk suggested that bots were voting — again, I doubt we are to take the poll at face value. Musk’s announcement is below.
The people have spoken.
Trump will be reinstated.
Vox Populi, Vox Dei. https://t.co/jmkhFuyfkv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2022
Trump’s return to Twitter is heralded like MacArthur’s return to the Philippines, yet the news stories are full of anxiety. Jack P. seems to be getting into the spirit of the thing a la Musk.
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 20, 2022
In any event, just to take one example of the media treatment of this historic event, the AP leads its Editor’s Selections this morning with the story “Musk restores Trump’s Twitter account after online poll.” Since his expulsion from Twitter in days of yore, Trump has founded his own social media company. He has been active on its platform. Will Trump actually return to Twitter? That seems to me the question of the moment. The AP story leaves us hanging:
Shortly afterward Trump’s account, which had earlier appeared as suspended, reappeared on the platform complete with his former tweets, more than 59,000 of them. His followers were gone, at least initially, but he quickly began regaining them. There were no new tweets from the account as of late Saturday, however.
Trump himself addressed the issue in remarks at the annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas yesterday. The AP quotes him:
“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,” Trump said. “It may make it, it may not make it,” he added, apparently referring to Twitter’s recent internal upheavals.
Trump too is on the Twitter death watch.
