Amid excitement at the news of former President Donald Trump’s possible return to Twitter, owner Elon Musk has suggested that it might come with consequences.
In a Wednesday tweet, Musk shared that Trump’s return could cause Twitter to be targeted by the President Joe Biden administration. He said this in response to a tweet announcing that the former president is preparing for a Twitter and Facebook return.
“Will be interesting to see how the Biden administration reacts to this,” Musk’s tweet read. “They may try to weaponize Federal agencies against Twitter.”
Will be interesting to see how the Biden administration reacts to this.
They may try to weaponize Federal agencies against Twitter.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2023
Twitter banned Trump from the platform under previous CEO Jack Dorsey after the Capitol Hill attack on Jan. 6, 2021. As announced at the time, the suspension was supposed to be permanent. But after Musk took ownership of the social media company, he reinstated Trump’s account in November, among others that had been previously suspended.
Despite delighted reactions to the reinstatement, Trump has taken an inactive stance and has not made a single post since then.
His last posts are still tweets from the time of the Capitol Hill attack, including one tweet in which he implored his supporters to remain peaceful as they tried to seek a free and fair election outcome.
Trump’s silence on Twitter is not expected to be for long, as NBC News reported that a source, on condition of anonymity, hinted at the high possibility of him returning fully to the platform.
“Trump is probably coming back to Twitter. It’s just a question of how and when,” the source stated.
“He’s been talking about it for weeks, but Trump speaks for Trump, so it’s anyone’s guess what he’ll do or say or when,” the source further revealed.
According to another source close to him, Trump has been working on a Twitter return with his campaign plotting a grand return for the presidential aspirant. The campaign is also working on a prompt reinstatement into Facebook after the two years the ban covered passed earlier in January.
While Trump has been using his own social media network Truth as his primary social media platform, his followers on there pale in comparison to his nearly 88 million followers on Twitter and about 34 million followers on Facebook. While he is the most followed individual on Truth, he only has nearly 5 million followers on the platform as of Thursday.
With his planned return to Twitter and Facebook, the Trump campaign hopes he can have a broader reach in his fight to stop the inappropriate interference that has eaten deep into the nation’s political and election process.
