Former President Donald Trump says he won’t be making a return to Twitter, even if Elon Musk reinstates his account now that Twitter’s board has accepted his offer to buy the company for $44billion.
Trump, whose Twitter account was permanently suspended following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, says the sole platform he will be using from now on will be his own, TRUTH Social.
‘I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,’ Trump said during an interview with Monday.
Before the deal was officially reported Monday afternoon, Trump told Fox he hoped Elon would buy the social media company.
‘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.’
The Trump Media & Technology Group’s TRUTH Social formally launched last month with little fanfare, as top executives leave the struggling platform. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the main competition for Trump’s app, may leave TRUTH with even fewer conservative participants.
Since its launch Trump’s app has seen about 1.3million downloads, according to Sensor Tower, an app insights company. Meanwhile, Twitter has over 200million active users.
Despite the app’s poor prospects, Trump has claimed millions have joined TRUTH.
‘We’re taking in millions of people, and what we’re finding is that the response on TRUTH is much better than being on Twitter,’ Trump said. ‘Twitter has bots and fake accounts, and we are doing everything we can.’
When asked about whether Twitter under Musk’s leadership would be in competition with TRUTH, Trump said he felt it was a positive change in social media.
‘I think it is good. We want liberty and justice and fairness in our country, and the more we can have open, the better,’ Trump said. ‘But no, I don’t view that as competition for what I am doing.’
The former President then added, ‘This is a platform for my voice. TRUTH is a platform for my voice and for my supporters.’
While it boasts his own voice, Trump said he hopes everyone joins regardless of their political affiliation.
Musk has said he decided to acquire Twitter because he feels it is not living up to its potential as a platform for ‘free speech.’ The Tesla CEO says it should be transformed into a private company in order to better serve its users.
Twitter said it will become a privately held company after the sale is finalized.
‘Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,’ Musk said in a statement about the deal.
‘I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,’ Musk said.
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