Host
Max Cooper
Podcast Content
Last week, CEO Elon Musk announced that the reinvigorated account for Mr. Trump followed a narrow majority of votes in a Twitter poll that supported reinstating it for then-President Donald Trumps account was a serious error that had to be rectified. On Friday, billionaire Elon Musk changed tack yet again, posting a survey. Elon Musk made the statement late Friday evening, after holding a poll asking Twitter users to click "yes" or "no" on whether to reinstate the Trump account.
Trumps account was restored after Musk posted an online poll on Friday asking users on Twitter if Musk should remove the ban of Trump. Trump said early Saturday he would not be returning to Twitter if it was reinstated, when asked about the recent poll about Musks banning of his account.
Trump initially insisted Trump would not rejoin Twitter, repeatedly expressing frustration with the way the company had treated him. Former President Trump wrote, admonishing Twitter Co-founder Jack Dorsey, who resigned from his post as company CEO in November. As Musks $44-billion Twitter deal neared collapse -- Elon Musk pulled out of the deal, then agreed again to buy Twitter -- he said he would rescind a standing ban on former President Donald Trump put in place after a U.S. Capitol uprising.
Perhaps former President Donald Trump was quietly hoping Elon Musk would make good on a promise that would let him back onto Twitter once he took control. Elon Musk is now being sued by Twitter, a social media platform that Trump sees as his biggest rival for his own service, Truth Social. Former President Donald Trumps own service, Truth Social.
Elon Musk has been making daily news since acquiring Twitter, raising eyebrows for both his management style and his open courtship with right-wing conspiracy theories and media figures - most prominently, former President Donald Trump, who was welcomed back to the social media site over the weekend by the Tesla co-founder. Elon Musk has described himself as a free-speech absolutist, and one of his key goals in taking Twitter private was to weaken the limits on content moderation.
From the very start of the crisis, Musk, temperamental billionaire head of SpaceX and Tesla, has often challenged mainstream scientific studies, reports, and policies about COVID, so much so that Twitter was forced to respond to a flood of complaints suggesting that Twitter had removed his tweets because they were spreading misinformation. As Elon Musk seeks to re-elect former president Donald Trump after the two sparred on social media earlier this year, critics say the tech titans moves are little more than desperate attempts to save Twitter while hemorrhaging advertisers - and cash.
With Musk now in charge at Twitter, Trump has been welcomed back into Twitter. As President, Donald Trump has routinely lashed out at CEOs who cross him, yet somehow Elon Musk has stuck by his side, even when repeatedly he has criticized Trumps policies and persona. Even as Donald Trump originally praised the Twitter purchase agreement, in mid-May, he posted to Truth Social that there was "no way" Elon Musk would have bought Twitter for that absurd price, particularly after realizing that Twitter is largely built upon BOTs spam accounts.
On Thursday, a deal to buy Twitter was finally done, and Donald Trump openly celebrated Tesla-SpaceX-Bored Company CEOs takeover of social media behemoth -- even as he insists Truth Social will continue to be the sole home for his social media ramblings. The prospect of Donald Trumps return to Twitter follows Musks acquisition of Twitter last month -- an acquisition that has drawn widespread concerns about whether the billionaire owner would let purveyors of lies and disinformation thrive on the site. Twitters new owner, Elon Musk, cheered on Monday and promoted shares, while also trying to portray Twitters previous managements decisions as politically motivated.
Meanwhile, a drumbeat of articles appeared in right-wing outlets, who similarly blithely ignored Elon Musks misbehavior in order to claim his "slash-and-burn" tactics were literally the only way to eliminate excess bureaucracy at Twitter and turn Twitter into a profit-making company, as though this was a viper hole like no other seen in the annals of corporate governance. Even the epic flurry of catastrophes of the past month, from the defeat of the Donald Trump nominee in the midterm elections and his luncheons with the white supremacist Nick Fuentes and alleged Hitler-fan, Ye at dinner to his companys two-time tax-fraud convictions, to his corporate governance, may not have derailed him.