As news of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter broke on Monday, former President Trump declared that he remains loyal to his “TRUTH Social” app even if his defunct Twitter account is reinstated by the world’s richest person.
On Monday afternoon, Twitter announced that its board accepted an offer from Musk to buy the platform for $44 billion.
Speaking to Fox News on Monday shortly before Twitter’s announcement, Trump — who has only made one post on his own TRUTH Social app thus far — claimed that he will officially join his own app in the form of actually posting on it over the course of the next week.
“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” Trump told Fox News.
Trump quipped that he had hoped Musk would buy Twitter because the billionaire would “make improvements” and is a “good man,” while reiterating that he will begin “TRUTHing” sometime next week.
Much like former congressman and TRUTH Social CEO Devin Nunes’ recent remarks, Trump claimed that TRUTH is faring better than Twitter, despite … evidence to the contrary.
“Twitter has bots and fake accounts, and we are doing everything we can,” Trump said.
“The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter,” the former president continued.
Trump’s remarks came hours after Nunes told Fox Business that Trump has no interest in returning to Twitter as a deal for Musk to acquire the social media giant was imminent.
When pressed on whether Trump would return to Twitter if Musk acquires it — under the presumption that the billionaire would restore Trump’s defunct Twitter account — Nunes said he believes the former president has no interest in becoming an active user of the platform again.
“Look, until you get in there and wipe out everything that’s been happening in the company in the last several years, Twitter right now is nothing but a PR wire,” the former congressman said.
In recent weeks, Musk has expressed interest in having a say in tamping down Twitter’s content moderation. Upon news of Musk becoming Twitter’s largest shareholder earlier this month, right-wingers gleefully celebrated the development as a sign that a supposed free speech messiah would revamp the platform and seek vengeance for Trump getting booted after last year’s Capitol insurrection.
Trump has only made one post to his own TRUTH Social app in February. The former president’s off-brand Twitter has experienced a series of glitches since Trump announced it in October in an effort to circumvent his ban by tech giants.
Following TRUTH Social’s messy rollout in February, in which the app experienced a 13-hour outrage and hundreds of thousands of people were put on its waiting list, Nunes said during an appearance on “Huckabee” that the app was finally fully launched for iPhone users this past weekend.
