Twitter CEO Elon Musk restored Donald Trump’s account Saturday night, reversing the former president’s indefinite suspension from the platform for his alleged role in inciting the January 6 Capitol Riot.
On Friday, the tech titan conducted a poll on the site posing the following “yes/no” question: “Reinstate former President Trump.”
Of the 134 million people who responded to the poll, according to Musk, 51.8 percent of users voted to lift Trump’s ban and 48.2 percent voted maintain it.
Given those results, Musk ruled Saturday: “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.” The latin phrase translates to “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”
The people have spoken.
Trump will be reinstated.
Vox Populi, Vox Dei. https://t.co/jmkhFuyfkv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2022
After Musk’s announcement, Trump’s Twitter account appeared to be reinstated, though the former president had not yet weighed in on the restoration of his page. Asked earlier this year whether he would return to Twitter if Musk reinstated him, Trump said that he was content to communicate with his supporters via his own social-media platform, Truth Social.
Musk also announced Friday that he was restoring the accounts of Jordan Peterson, Kathy Griffin, and the Babylon Bee, a conservative satire site whose account was frozen after it posted a joke calling transgender female White House official Rachel Levine “Man of the Year.” However, the fate of Trump’s Twitter was left undecided until Musk democratized the matter.
Two days after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Twitter, which served as the former president’s direct conduit to his fan base, kicked him off the site indefinitely, citing the “risk of further incitement of violence.”
Twitter claimed that two tweets from Trump violated its glorification of violence policy.
“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!,” Trump tweeted on January 8, shortly after the rioters descended on the government buildings.
The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump tweeted shortly after.
Trump refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, contending that then-Democratic candidate Biden “stole” it from him via voter fraud.
Having successfully acquired Twitter after months of legal quagmires, Musk in October announced he would reverse lifetime bans for Twitter users who were booted for various speech infractions, although he didn’t explicitly mention Trump.