Elon Musk Reveals Donald Trump’s Fate on Twitter

For the first time since Joe Biden took office and the Captiol was still feeling the effects of Jan. 6, Donald Trump has returned to Twitter. The decision comes after Elon Musk held a Twitter poll to let the people decide, which they did, unlocking the former president’s account. The decision also comes on the heels of several companies halting their Twitter accounts or deleting them entirely.

Trump’s Twitter account was one of the top issues people asked about once Musk started showing interest in purchasing the company. After pushing through his $44 billion purchase of the social media platform, Musk announced that “comedy is legal again” and started his descent into misstep after misstep.

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Musk’s confirmation that Trump’s account would return came with a short message, confirming it was the people who made it happen. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk added to his message. This would mean “the voice of the people, is the voice of God,” in an old proverb. Reporter David Gura cited Alcuin of York’s reference to the saying in a letter to European emperor Charlemagne. “And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness,” he wrote.

There’s plenty of baggage with bringing Charlemagne into the conversation and some will definitely bring up the far right view on folks like Charlemagne and Charles Martel. But assume Musk didn’t mean to travel that route, we’re still in a time period where a billionaire who foolishly bought a social media platform that doesn’t make a profit and is now quoting scholars from the Middle Ages in reference to an online poll about Donald Trump.

Twitter was the first online platform to ban the former president in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, marking an apex of his offenses for some people. But the insurrection tweets reported broke the rules for “glorifying violence,” leading to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat, Twitch and many others to do the same.

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Trump has launched his own platform called Truth Social to counter these bans, giving him an unrestrained podium to speak from online. People still need to come to the site to read those posts usually, though the news will still comment on them from time to time.

The big question is will the ex president return to Twitter. He addressed the possibility on Saturday during an address to the Republican Jewish Coalition, seemingly ignoring any possible return. “I don’t see any reason for it,” Trump said, according to NPR.