Twitter czar Elon Musk sparked fresh controversy late Friday with a poll shared on the social media platform asking users whether or not they’d like to “reinstate former President Trump.” The post, which came amid fresh chaos at the company after Musk’s $44 billion takeover just three weeks ago, seemed likely to inflame concerns about disinformation being allowed to run rampant on the platform. But the SpaceX founder seemed to relish in the possibility of any backlash, initially following up the poll with a popcorn emoji that was later deleted. The former president was famously booted from Twitter in January 2021 after his posts were deemed to have risked inciting violence in the wake of the deadly Capitol riot. A person that has spoken with Trump about the matter told The Daily Beast that the former president remains “serious” about staying on his own social media platform, Truth Social. Asked Saturday about the Twitter poll, Trump said that while he’d heard the results were “very overwhelming, very strong,” he “doesn’t see any reason” to return to Twitter, where “they have a lot of problems.” Truth Social, he said, “is doing phenomenally well. I think engagement is much better than it is with Twitter.”
-- Zachary Petrizzo contributed reporting
