One of Elon Musk’s first actions as Twitter’s new CEO could be a sign that he is setting up former President Donald Trump for a return as tweeter in chief.
Almost immediately upon closing the $44 billion Twitter deal on Thursday, Musk fired CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety, according to insiders speaking with the Washington Post. Gadde was reportedly the figure instrumental in getting Trump’s account banned.
So far Musk has only tweeted one missive that appears to be about his acquisition: “the bird is freed.” Now the question that remains is whether Trump would even return, if unbanned, given his previous assertion that he would not do so, preferring to stay on his own alternative platform of Truth Social, among many others users who have been pushed off Twitter.
Musk announced in May that he would unban the former president. He hasn’t commented on the matter recently, following legal squabbles with Twitter’s former owners. At a Financial Times conference in May, Musk said that Twitter’s choice to ban Trump after the Capitol riot was “a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” then went so far as to call the decision “morally wrong and flat-out stupid,” according to the New York Times. He added that permanent bans should only be reserved for accounts that operate bots or spread spam. He added that temporary suspensions should only be put in place in rare instances, though could be appropriate for “wrong and bad” tweets, Reuters reported.
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There has already been some pushback against the prospect of a Trump return from a top ad-buying agency. Kieley Taylor, global head of partnerships at GroupM, said that at least a dozen clients told the agency to pause ads on Twitter if Trump should return, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Musk tweeted on Wednesday in an open letter to advertisers that Twitter should not, “become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences!”
Around the time of Trump’s banning, one of Musk’s close associates said that the Tesla CEO “vehemently” disagreed with Trump’s censoring, calling the move, “insane,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
So far Trump has only ever said he would not return to Truth Social, even if his account is unbanned. However, he has not commented on it publicly recently. “I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth,” Trump told Fox News in April. “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 head of Truth Social, Devin Nunes, refuted a viral post that circulated around Twitter on Thursday in which purported to be from Trump congratulating Musk on the acquisition and claiming he had been told his account would be back up and running by Monday.
“LOL! Left wing desperation for @realDonaldTrump to go back to Titter. #deepfakes #FakeNews,” Nunes wrote.
Trump was active on Truth Social when Musk formally took the reigns of Twitter, giving some midterm endorsements, but has not commented publicly on the purchase as of press time.
Trump was long known for his prolific Twitter use, both before and throughout his presidency, garnering a follower count of 80 million at the time of his ban. While he may have more freedom to post what he liked on Truth Social, he has far less of a reach, sporting just 4.37 million followers on the alternative tech platform.
The White House has reportedly signaled enthusiasm about a possible Trump return to Twitter, with official believing that it will help their electoral chances in a potential 2024 rematch.
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“White House officials are cheering for — a number of them told me this over the weekend — that if Elon Musk indeed takes Twitter, they hope the first thing he does is put Donald Trump back on it,” Politico’s White House bureau chief, Jonathan Lemire, said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe in May.
