Former President Donald Trump said Monday that even if he were allowed, he would not return to Twitter after entrepreneur Elon Musk purchased the microblogging platform.
Trump was banned from the platform on Jan. 6 after he continued to insist that the election was stolen from him even as some of his supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol. Other social media platforms followed along in banning him, some permanently.
On Monday, he told Fox News that he would not return to Twitter but instead begin posting on his own social media platform called TRUTH Social.
“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” Trump told Fox News. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH.”
Musk bought the social media company for an estimated $44 billion. Many on the left are denouncing the deal and are fearful that Musk will push for fewer restrictions on hate speech on the platform.
“We’re taking in millions of people, and what we’re finding is that the response on TRUTH is much better than being on Twitter,” Trump continued. “Twitter has bots and fake accounts, and we are doing everything we can.”
The former president announced the new platform in Oct. 2021. It went live in a beta testing form in February. Some users have complained that they were waiting to have access to their accounts for too long.
Musk said in a statement after the announcement Monday that he hoped to expand free speech on the platform.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk wrote.
“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans,” he added.
Trump has previously said that he would not return to Twitter because it’s very boring without him.
Here’s more about Musk buying Twitter:
Elon Musk reaches deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion www.youtube.com