Donald Trump confirmed to Fox News that he will not return to Twitter, despite the company’s sale to Elon Musk. Trump plans to use his own social media platform, the recently-launched Truth, for all of his social media needs moving forward. The Truth app launched earlier this year to several glitches, but it did hit the No. 1 spot on Apple’s app store on the day of its debut.
“I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth,” Trump told Fox News.
Musk completed his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion on April 25. Trump predicts Musk will “make improvements” to the platform because “he is a good man.” Musk, the richest person in the world, has said that he intends to expand the kind of speech Twitter allows after frequently criticizing the platform’s “failure” to uphold principles of free speech.
Trump was banned from Twitter following the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The platform suspended Trump’s account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” With Musk now taking over, many users were left wondering if Musk’s desire for expanding Twitter’s free speech would result in Trump’s return.
“[Truth is] 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…The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter.”
Upon completion of the Musk-Twitter transaction, which is expected sometime in 2022, Twitter will become a privately held company.
“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. “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.”
Click here to read more details about Musk’s purchase of Twitter.
