Elon Musk is ready to use his Twitter powers to give Donald Trump back his tweeting privileges.
The Tesla founder made the revelation on Tuesday, though it comes as no surprise to most. Many people expected Musk to reverse Trump’s ban as one of his first duties as the new Twitter owner. Twitter accepted Musk’s bid to purchase the company on April 25th, though the sale won’t be finalized for at least another three months.
He revealed his plans to welcome the former president back to the app during Tuesday’s FT Live’s “Future of the Car” conference. During his speech, Musk said permanent Twitter bans should only be reserved for “extremely rare” cases and should apply mainly to bots, scams, or spam accounts.
“I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” Musk added before reiterating that he does not officially own Twitter yet. Hence, the possibility of Trump returning remains hypothetical.
Twitter decided to permanently ban Trump’s account following several instances of misinformation and “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the deadly Capitol riot on January 6th, 2021. Trump continuously made unsubstantiated claims regarding the 2020 election being rigged in President Joe Biden’s favor, which sparked the insurrection. Nevertheless, Musk believes that Trump being banned for life is “morally wrong.”
