Political | Process

“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH. I hope Elon makes improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH,” Trump was quoted as saying in a Fox News report late on Monday.

Trump said he will begin “TRUTHing” over the next week. The former President announcement came moments after Musk won a takeover bid to take Twitter private for $44 billion at $54.20 a share.

Trump was barred from major social media platforms after the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, with Twitter citing the “risk of further incitement of violence.” The decision denied him the megaphone he had used to generate media attention and speak directly to his followers, which had been integral to his political rise.

At the time, the former president had roughly 89 million followers on Twitter alone.

Musk, the world’s wealthiest person and a self-described free-speech absolutist, had said he wanted to buy and privatize Twitter because he believed it wasn’t living up to its potential as a free speech platform. It raised questions about whether he might reinstate Trump’s account as the former president lays the groundwork for another White House run in 2024.

In recent weeks, Musk has voiced a number of proposed changes for the company, including relaxing its content restrictions, and said he would be “very reluctant” to delete content and cautious of permanent bans.

After being kicked off social media platforms, Trump launched his own social media app and sued Twitter, Facebook and Google’s YouTube, claiming he and other conservatives had been wrongfully censored, even though posts by conservative commentators are routinely the most widely shared.

On Monday, he said he welcomed Musk’s purchase and told Fox News he didn’t see Twitter as his own product’s competition.