It didn’t take long for Twitter owner Elon Musk to reinstate former President Donald Trump after a nearly two-year ban from the platform. Musk posted a poll on Friday night that wrapped up in 24 hours. Then on Saturday night Musk said the results spoke for itself.
“The people have spoken,” Musk about six minutes after the poll ended. “Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.”
That last line was tweeted by Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a leftist who was among more than 15 million accounts that voted in the poll. It translates to “voice of the people, voice of God.”
“I already voted for Trump to be able to use Twitter. The Statue of Liberty must not remain an empty symbol,” López Obrador wrote in a retweet.
Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Here’s the poll sent by Musk on Friday evening.
Musk touted that his poll had 134 million views by 6:07 p.m. on Saturday, roughly an hour and a half before it was to close.
The results? More than half the voters think should get his Twitter account back, but the percentage margin was thin. Here were the results from Musk’s poll that began at 7:47 p.m. ET on Friday and ended exactly 24 hours later.
51.8% – Yes
48.2% – No
15,085,458 total votes
Trump’s Twitter account and many of his other social media accounts were banned after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol. Social media platforms like Twitter suggested Trump incited the riots that resulted in several deaths.
New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to the poll, voicing her opinion to keep the former president off the platform.
“Idk man, last time he was here this platform was used to incite an insurrection, multiple people died, the Vice President of the United States was nearly assassinated, and hundreds were injured but I guess that’s not enough for you to answer the question. Twitter poll it is,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
Nearly two hours after his reinstatement, Trump had yet to post anything to his Twitter account. He did post four hours earlier on Truth Social to “Vote now with positivity, but don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere. Truth Social is special!”
Trump’s final tweet before getting banned was on Jan. 8, 2021, in which he wrote: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the inauguration on January 20th.”
Musk purchased Twitter last month for approximately $44 billion and has vowed to make it a free speech platform for everyone.
Newsweek has reached out to both Trump’s press team and Twitter for comment.
