Will Donald Trump's tweets return to "Twitter" after the acquisition of Elon Musk?
Elon Musk's acquisition of social media giant Twitter has raised optimism among many Republicans who support former US President Donald Trump.
Twitter's announcement of a $44 billion sale agreement with billionaire Elon Musk shocked many Republicans.
Members of Congress, including Marjorie Taylor Green and Jim Jordan, celebrated the news of the deal as a potential advance for "free speech", expressing hope that some of those who had been "censored" would regain their accounts on the platform.
The former US president was banned from Twitter after the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, which many outside the pro-GOP majority held partly responsible for the incitement.
Trump was also banned from Facebook, leaving him without access to the two largest social media platforms in the English-speaking world, before his efforts to create an alternative platform failed.
Republicans believe that Musk's historic deal to buy Twitter may pay off, and that recovering Trump's account will depend in large part on how much direct control Musk decides to exercise in the company.
But from the point of view of Trump's allies, the Republican Party is seeing encouraging signs of that happening.
However, Musk is not an outside supporter of Trump, having criticized many of the president's policies, and in 2019 backed tech entrepreneur and universal basic income advocate Andrew Yang in his campaign for the Democratic nomination.
Musk gave no indication that Mr. Trump's return to Twitter was a specific priority for him.
Yet his reputation as the "absolute of free speech" was borne out by a poll he conducted for his followers last March.
In another recent tweet, Musk said, "Social media policies are good if more than 10% of extremists on the left and right are equally unhappy."
Trump said today that he is not interested in returning to Twitter;
Because it focuses on its own platform, Truth Social.
"I'm not going to Twitter, I'm going to stay on Truth," he told Fox News.
"I hope Elon buys Twitter because he's going to make improvements to it, and he's a good guy, but I'll stick with my platform," he added.
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