Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Former United States President, Donald Trump, has insisted that he had no interest in returning to Twitter.
Trump’s account was banned from the social media service in January 2021 for inciting violence.
In a poll organised by the new owner of the Microblogging site, Elon Musk, slightly over 15 million Twitter users voted, with 51.8 per cent voting in favour of reinstatement.
“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted on Saturday.
Trump’s Twitter account, which had over 88 million followers before it was banned on January 8, 2021, began accumulating followers and had over 83 million followers by Sunday afternoon.
Some users initially reported being unable to follow the reinstated account on Saturday evening.
Trump appeared less than keen to return to the microblogging site.
“I don’t see any reason for it,” the former president said via video when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting.
He said he would stick with his new platform Truth Social, the app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group startup, which he said had better user engagement than Twitter and was doing “phenomenally well.”
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. Trump, who on Tuesday launched a bid to regain the White House in 2024, praised Musk and said he had always liked him. But Trump also added that Twitter suffered from bots, and fake accounts and that its problems were “incredible.”
Musk first said in May he planned to reverse the ban on Trump, and the timing of any return by Trump was closely watched and feared by many of Twitter’s advertisers.
