Musk’s Trump Twitter Poll Hits 11 Million Votes—Most Want Ex-President Back On Platform

Topline

A Twitter poll from Elon Musk asking users whether he should reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account hit 11 million votes Saturday morning, with a slim majority in favor of bringing Trump back, as Musk surveys the masses ahead of one of his most highly anticipated decisions.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during the unveiling of the new Tesla Model Y in Hawthorne, California, … [+] on March 14, 2019. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

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Key Facts

As of 10 a.m. Eastern more than 11 million Twitter users had voted in Musk’s poll, with 52.3% in favor of bringing Trump back.

It’s not clear if Musk will use the outcome to determine whether Trump’s account will be reinstated, but he did tweet a reply to the poll saying, “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”

Less than 10 hours of voting in the 24-hour-long surveying period remain—the poll closes at 7:47 p.m. Eastern time.

Key Background

Trump often tweeted dozens of times per day while he was president but his account was banned shortly after his supporters mounted their January 6 attack on the Capitol “due to risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said at the time. Musk said in May he planned to lift Trump’s “foolish” Twitter ban once he took control of the company, but he still hasn’t done so after owning Twitter for just over three weeks. The platform’s content moderation policies have been in flux since Musk took over and appear to be changing on the billionaire’s whim, to the dismay of many companies that are now pulling back on Twitter ads. Musk on Friday lifted suspensions for several accounts, including comedian Kathy Griffin’s, despite saying earlier this month she was permanently banned for impersonating him. Musk also claimed shortly after he took over Twitter that existing content moderation policies were still in place but he seemed to set new standards Friday, saying hate speech will be allowed but tweets containing hateful language will be “deboosted & demonetized.” Musk has vowed to allow all speech permissible by law on Twitter.

Contra

Musk has repeatedly refused calls to let conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back on the platform, tweeting “too bad” Friday to a user who said he should be allowed back.

Tangent

Trump announced his 2024 presidential bid Tuesday. On Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee two investigations involving Trump—one over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the other concerning classified documents recovered at Mar-A-Lago—since Trump officially became a political opponent of President Joe Biden.

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