May 10, 2022

Elon Musk Says It Was a “Mistake” to Ban Trump’s Twitter

Men only want one thing: to be the center of attention on Twitter.

Joe Maiorana/AP

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Today, Elon Musk, who is set to take over Twitter, said that it had been a “mistake” to ban Donald Trump’s account. The 45th president, you’ll recall, was permanently banned from the platform following the January 6 insurrection, which he couldn’t stop egging on with his usual array of Oddly Capitalized Posts.

“I think it was a morally bad decision to be clear and foolish in the extreme,” Musk said of the ban during an event hosted by the Financial Times, the Washington Post reported.

“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” the Tesla founder added. “I think that was a mistake. … It alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”

Since his expulsion, Trump has tried to create buzz around his new social media empire, the poorly named TruthSocial. It’s not going great. Still, Trump has sworn that he’s dedicated to it and won’t be returning to Twitter, regardless of an invite from Musk. We’ll see how long that lasts. Meanwhile, former advisers have actually described it as a good thing that Trump is no longer on Twitter because, in theory, it took some spotlight off his characteristic unhinged behavior.

Anyway, I’m curious about what Musk thinks of Trump’s persistent efforts to claim that the presidential election had been stolen from him, especially after the violence of January 6, and what that could mean for a free speech platform. (I once attempted to ask Henry Kissinger, who the FT also interviewed this week, with no response.)

In any case, it sounds like it’s time to welcome back Trump tweets. As always, sorry to the haters and losers.

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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