After taking a public poll that drew over 15 million voters in 24 hours, Twitter owner Elon Musk decided, based on popular demand, to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s suspended Twitter account.
Invoking the Latin phrase “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” which translates to “the voice of the people is the voice of God,” Musk announced less than 30 minutes after the poll officially ended that the 45th president’s account would be brought back online.
When Trump’s Twitter account reappeared, all of his previous tweets, which stopped in January 2021 when he was initially suspended, became visible. Something interesting began happening within the comment sections of several of his older tweets, especially the most recent or “newest” tweet on his Twitter feed.
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump tweeted on Jan. 8, 2021.
To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021
That tweet alone was instantly flooded with messages of support and even went viral after a fresh round of retweets. Many Twitter users and, presumably, his supporters welcomed the president back to the platform.
HES BACK BOYS!
— aka (@akafacehots) November 20, 2022
That particular comment alone received over 16,000 likes. Others like it received lots of attention, too.
Welcome back sir 🫡🫡🫡🫡
— Joshua Medeiros (@JoshMedeirosTX) November 20, 2022
Others went into greater detail in their welcome-back messages.
.🚨OhMyLord 🙏 @realDonaldTrump
You are back. We waited too long for you to come back.
History is in the making.Thank you @elonmusk 🙏
You are the best.
Both of you work together will save our nation.
We can’t be happier!GodBlessAmerica✝️☦️🛐
~ @WenMaMa2 #T4MAGA2 #A11192 pic.twitter.com/V0VvFzhWHF— WenMaMa2 🤔🧐🕵️♀️ (@WenMaMa2) November 20, 2022
In both short and long versions, the same message echoed far down the list of replies to his nearly two-year-old tweet, suggesting that Musk made the right call by reinstating Trump’s account.
Still, others had a little fun in response to Trump’s last tweet, with many crediting Musk for making come to life what seemed an improbability just weeks ago. One person tweeted a parody of Trump awarding Musk a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
— Ghosted Hippie👻I told you so!👻 (@GhostedHippie) November 20, 2022
The question is whether the former president will use his old Twitter account. He’s said many times, and even in recent days, that should his account be reinstated, he would likely still take a pass and stay on Truth Social.
While making a remote appearance at the annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Trump was asked if he would return to Twitter if Musk reinstated his account. According to The Times of Israel, he complimented Musk on acquiring the platform but brushed off the possibility of returning.
“I don’t see any reason for it. There are a lot of problems in Twitter, you see what’s going on,” Trump said. “They may or may not make it but the problems are terrible. The engagements are negative. And you have a lot of bots and you have a lot of fake accounts.”
However, many believe that with 86.5 million followers on Twitter (at the time of this writing) and growing, the temptation to resume tweeting is far too great, especially given the reach he would have compared to the fraction of the number of followers he has on his Truth Social account, at roughly 4.6 million.