Twitter booted Donald Trump two days after the Capitol riot, but Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s account last November. In the months that followed, many speculated that Trump would start tweeting again. He had dismissed the idea of returning to the platform, but insiders claimed it was inevitable that he would come back.
“Trump is probably coming back to Twitter. It’s just a question of how and when,” a Republican source claimed back in January. “He’s been talking about it for weeks, but Trump speaks for Trump, so it’s anyone’s guess what he’ll do or say or when.”
Trump resumed activity on the platform, now called X, on Thursday, the day he was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia. The tweet featured his mugshot along with “Election interference,” “Never Surrender!” and his website address.
https://t.co/MlIKklPSJT pic.twitter.com/Mcbf2xozsY
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2023
Does this mean that Trump’s returning to Twitter? While many appear to be celebrating it as Trump’s triumphant return to the platform he was famous for using to provide his trademark unfiltered comments, so far there’s reason to be skeptical that Trump is, indeed, going to resume tweeting, or Xing, or whatever you want to call it now.
For starters, while it hasn’t been a full 24 hours since the post on X/Twitter, he hasn’t posted anything new on that account since. Meanwhile, his Truth Social account remains active and has been busy posting links to stories, polls, memes, etc.
It’s a clear sign that his post on X was a one-off — and a brilliant one at that. Trump knows there’s been buzz about him returning to Twitter/X ever since he was kicked off, especially after Musk bought the platform and vowed to make it a free speech “public square.” By posting his latest mugshot and linking to his website, he clearly knew that the buzz around the tweet would likely generate a huge number of impressions, which, of course, it did. I suspect he successfully got some campaign donations with the post.
Related: Why Would Trump Want to Return to Twitter?
Nevertheless, I’m not convinced that Trump has “returned to Twitter” as some are certainly speculating. But that doesn’t mean he won’t either. This would be a huge mistake, though. Even if he doesn’t return to the platform he was once booted from, if he uses it for the occasional incendiary fundraising pitch, it’s practically an admission that, despite his efforts to build up Truth Social as a Twitter alternative, he still needs Twitter’s reach to achieve a larger audience.
If Thursday’s post was successful in generating a large sum of campaign donations, it’s safe to assume he’ll do it again, even if only sporadically. Sure, it may be good for his campaign, but it would kill Truth Social and the multimedia company Trump has been building since leaving the White House. I guess if that’s what he wants to do, then he can do as he pleases, but every time he posts on X, he’s undermining Truth Social.
So far, it looks like he’s leaving his regular posting to Truth Social, but for how long?