After Donald Trump said he had no interest in returning to Twitter, despite a slim majority voting in favor of reinstating the former U.S. President, who was banned from the social media service for inciting violence, in a poll organized by new owner Elon Musk, a variety of explanations for Trump’s refusal to rejoin Twitter have circulated.
Trump has yet to tweet since his reinstatement, but his follower count has increased. “I don’t see any reason,” Trump said, adding that he would stick with Truth Social, an app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) startup that he claimed had higher user engagement than Twitter and was performing exceptionally well.
According to Josh Tucker, a political science professor at New York University (NYU), “the simplest explanation is the most likely – it’s about money.” This implies that Trump refused to rejoin Twitter in order to promote his own social media platform, Truth Social, which resembles Twitter, as certain circumstances concerning Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), could make the business venture one of Donald Trump’s most successful.
Furthermore, because Trump owns Truth Social, his supporters will be more drawn to the social media company he founded. Furthermore, if Donald Trump stops posting on Truth and instead posts on Twitter, the share price of Truth Social could plummet.
Truth social has been Trump’s main source of direct communication with his followers since he began posting on the app regularly in May. And he has used it to promote allies, criticize opponents, and defend his reputation while under investigation by state, congressional, and federal authorities.
Among the reasons is a statutory provision that states, “President Trump is generally obligated to make any social media post on Truth Social and may not make the same post on another social media site for 6 hours.”
This means Trump will be unable to return to Twitter for financial and legal reasons.
The sources for this piece include an article in BBC.
