Elon Musk Sets the Stage to Bring Trump Back to Twitter

The billionaire is about to give a powerful and influential megaphone to Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is set to have a powerful tool to kick off his campaign for the 2024 presidential election. 

The former Republican president declared his candidacy on November 15 without much fanfare, with most mainstream media giving it limited coverage. 

Since the Republican Party's mixed results in the November 8 midterm elections despite very favorable conditions -- low popularity for Democratic President Joe Biden, an economy on the verge of recession, waves of mass job cuts, record inflation crushing consumers -- most of the Republican mega donors have been calling on him to make way for a new generation of conservative leaders like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. 

"I'd like to think that the Republican party is ready to move on from somebody who has been for this party a three-time loser," billionaire Ken Griffin said on November 16 at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.

The CEO of investment firm Citadel called Trump a "three-time loser" and added "I really hope that President Trump sees the writing on the wall." 

Trump's daughter, Ivanka, who was a senior adviser of her father during his four years at The White House, said she would not follow him this time. 

"Yes" or "No"

"I love my father very much. This time around I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics,” said Ivanka in a statement the night Donald Trump announced he was running in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. She did not attend the event. 

But Trump is on the way to recovering a megaphone that will allow him, like during his first presidential campaign in 2016 and his years as president, to deliver his message directly to voters, to attack his rivals and to control media coverage and public debate. 

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter is about to reactivate his account on the platform, which is considered the Town Square of our time. Trump had been permanently banned from the social network on January 8, 2021, where he was one of the most influential people, after the events of January 6, 2021 on Capitol Hill. His supporters had stormed the Congress to try and prevent the certification of the results of the presidential election of November 2020, which was lost by their champion.

Musk, who is aware that reactivating the Twitter account will arouse passions, chose, as he often does with important matters, to organize a poll on the platform on the evening of November 18. The question is simple: "Reinstate former President Trump: Yes or No"

The results were tight at the time of writing: 52% of users had voted Yes, to reactivate Trump's account, and 48% were against his return to the platform.

Musk has made it clear that he will listen to the results of this poll. He posted a very clear message saying: "Vox Populi, Vox Dei".

This Latin expression translates to "the voice of the people is the voice of God."

'Hellscape'

It is interesting to note that it is the "people" who will decide, while Musk had stated on October 28 that he was creating a council which was to examine the question of banned accounts. The poll suggests that Musk is deflecting responsibility on Trump.

Trump's return to a tech tycoon-controlled Twitter won't come as much of a surprise.

Musk has always said he was against permanent bans. Presenting himself as a "free speech absolutist", the serial entrepreneur also believes that any message is acceptable as long as it does not violate the law. 

But Musk runs the risk of losing advertisers, who make up 91% of Twitter's revenue. Many of them have already suspended their commercials out of fear of the return on the social network of hateful and racist posts, bullying and misinformation. Musk had tried to reassure them by promising that Twitter was not going to become a "hellscape."

Musk reactivated the first banned accounts on November 18. They were the ones of comedian Kathie Griffin, who had been banned for having impersonated him on November 7, of the conservative-leaning satirical site the Babylon Bee and of the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson.

Twitter had said that The Babylon Bee and Peterson posts violated its rules against hateful speech.