Former President Donald Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to share his opinion on midterm elections and President Joe Biden.
“Our Country has never seen a Weaponized ‘Justice’ Department, and FBI, like they are witnessing right now,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“They are doing everything they can, much of it unlawful, to protect an incompetent and corrupt President, and his drug addicted criminal son. The system is Tainted and Rigged, just like our Elections are Tainted and Rigged, and just like our Border is for sale to the highest bidder, OPEN, and a disgrace to humanity. In the meantime, our Country is failing at a level never seen before!!!”
Trump did not copy the message to his old Twitter account.
Trump has seemingly rejected returning to Twitter, but as he embarks on a new presidential campaign, will he be able to resist? All eyes were on his account Sunday for any activity, after it was reinstated by the platform’s new owner Elon Musk.
Twitter had issued a “permanent” ban on Trump in the wake of the January 6, 2021 attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol, as he sought to overturn his election loss to Biden.
But Musk, who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” posted a Twitter poll Saturday that saw a majority support the former president’s reinstatement, and the platform’s new owner wasted no time in acting on it.
As of 11:30 a.m. ET Sunday, the revived account of the “45th President of the United States of America,” with its blue “verified” checkmark, had not posted any new messages.
The last message dates from January 8, 2021, when the billionaire said he would not attend Biden’s inauguration ceremony.
On the same day, Twitter banned the account, which was being followed by some 88.8 million people, citing the risk of further incitement to violence.
Trump’s followers numbered 86.6 million as of Sunday — though it was unclear how many of those were real and how many were bots — while the number of accounts followed by him went from zero to 49.
The account also linked to a campaign website seeking donations for Trump’s 2024 presidential run.
It was not clear who linked the website to the account or what any changes in the number of followers means — mass layoffs in recent weeks under Musk have seen Twitter’s communications team decimated.
Trump reveled in using Twitter as a mouthpiece during his presidency, posting policy announcements, attacking political rivals and communicating with supporters.
More than 15 million votes were cast in Musk’s poll — Twitter has 237 million daily users — with 51.8 percent in favor of reinstating Trump’s controversial profile and 48.2 percent against.
Musk asked for a simple “yes” or “no” response to the statement, “Reinstate former President Trump.”
On Saturday, while the poll was still underway, Trump posted a link to it on Truth Social, the Twitter alternative he founded, urging his 4.6 million followers there to vote for him.
But he also wrote: “don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere. Truth Social is special!”
And, appearing via video at a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, Trump said he welcomed the poll and was a fan of Musk, but appeared to reject any return to the platform.
“I don’t see it, because I don’t see any reason for it,” he said.
AFP contributed to this report.
