Posted on 11/21/2022 9:10:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Trump fans are clamoring for him to return to Twitter now that Elon Musk has lifted the company’s ban on the former president, but The Donald has already indicated he has no intention of resuming tweeting again. “I don’t see any reason for it,” he said via video when asked about a possible return.
But Elon Musk clearly wants him back:
And lead us not into temptation … pic.twitter.com/8qNOXzwXS9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2022
The problem is, Trump has reasons for not returning to the fold—potentially millions of them.
At issue is the social media site Truth Social, the privately held property of Trump Media & Technology Group which is owned by the 45th president. Trump created the app after being banned from most social media, including Facebook and Twitter, but he had to make some deals to get the platform off the ground. According to the NY Post:
TMTG is locked into an agreement with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which was created to take Trump’s company public.
If Trump’s company were to go public only for him to devalue Truth Social by resuming his Twitter activities — and thus giving his tens of millions of followers a reason to abandon the fledgling social media platform and return to Musk’s outfit — shareholders could sue him, a legal expert told Semafor.
Radio host Clay Travis doesn’t think that will stop him:
Two things about this: 1. Will he come back? I think the answer is yes. 2. Will it help his campaign? I think the answer is unclear. Joe Biden is president. 2024 should be a referendum on his leadership. But Trump with Twitter often makes himself the story.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) November 20, 2022
Complicating things isTrump’s agreement that states he “is generally obligated to make any social media post on Truth Social and may not make the same post on another social media site for 6 hours.”
“If it’s going to look, later on, that he never had that intention [of remaining off Twitter] but he just wanted to convince people that they should go ahead and close [the SPAC deal] that’s kind of a textbook securities fraud lawsuit,” Columbia Law School professor Eric Talley told Semafor.
Part of the value of Trump’s tweets was the immediacy and novelty they provided. A six-hour delay would make his musings much less interesting; if he said anything newsworthy we’d have read about it on news outlets before it ever hit Twitter. Another issue is that Truth Social operates in America only, and Trump would not be reaching a global audience like he would at the Blue Bird.
Trump claims the reason he’s not returning is that he’s concerned about the future of the company.
“I hear we’re getting a big vote to also go back on Twitter. I don’t see it because I don’t see any reason for it,” Trump said.
“It may make it, it may not make it,” he added, apparently referring to Twitter’s recent internal upheavals.
Another factor is that if trump caved and started tweeting again, many would interpret that as a tacit admission that Truth Social is a failure. Trump is many things, but he’s certainly not prone to admitting failure.
As of this writing, Trump has 87.6 million followers on Twitter, while he has 4.62 million on Truth Social.
One possible outcome: The Donald, co-author of the book “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” works his deal-making magic and finds a way to tweet without getting smacked financially.
Donald Trump was the best thing about Twitter, and I for one would love to see him back. Elon Musk is now the king of the hot takes on the platform these days, but I for one would love to see them both dropping their bombs every day.
I don’t think he’ll be back.
I doubt Elon will lose any sleep over Trump not coming back to Twitter.
If he came back, truth social would collapse.
If you look at Elon’s Tweets, oh, he definitely wants Trump back.
“I doubt Elon will lose any sleep over Trump not coming back to Twitter.”
Short term Trump might help to energize Twitter but Musk would be foolish to build a business revenue stream assumption around one celebrity personality. Trump is at an age where severe illness or death can take him down at any time. He may live one year or ten years but he won’t live forever. Over time it is the revenue from user participation over decades that covers expenses and creates profits for social media platforms, not the occasional phenomenon. Twitter is viable and has the potential to expand because it has a huge user base with or without Trump. It survived banning Trump and it appears to be surviving turmoil inside the company and a major restructuring by a new owner.
If Trump dies tomorrow Twitter will continue but Truth Social will have difficulty surviving. Truth Social’s business model today is built around Trump and his communications. Remove Trump from Truth Social and its primary reason for being goes away. Elon Musk, having lifted most censorship, will welcome Truth Social users to join his larger platform where they can engage with a bigger audience and a broader array of conservative, liberal, and celebrity personalities.
Musk will buy TS and make it into a Twitter “community.” Trump and his partners will split a few billion.
“As of this writing, Trump has 87.6 million followers on Twitter, while he has 4.62 million on Truth Social.”
Trump does need a bigger mouthpiece than TS in the midst of a presidential run.
I’m a Twitter user. I have noticed the ad quality is going down.
Before I was getting an ad about a new type of backpack, where they claimed it was amazing. I haven’t bought it, but I was intrigued.
Now I get low quality ads about some crypto coin thing, that I think is a scam and I have no interest in whatsoever.
Musk needs to fix this.
I kind of think Elon would want Trump back. He could have just said no to having Trump back. But he didn’t. He had a vote.
Face it, whether a person likes him or not, he has a yuge following and the media is addicted to Trump though they pretend they are not.
“’I don’t see any reason for it,’ he said via video when asked about a possible return.”
Then he isn’t a serious candidate for POTUS. If he were, he’d grab every possible opportunity to reach as many voters as possible. If he’s not serious, then supporting him financially or otherwise would be stupid.
Trump should be back on twitter just for the sake of making the left lose their collective minds.
Trump should mirror his Truth Social posts on Twitter to increase his reach.
Seriously, Clay Travis? He was handed Rush Limbaugh’s seat and has done little more than crap in it.
RE: He was handed Rush Limbaugh’s seat and has done little more than crap in it.
There will only be ONE Rush Limbaugh. He is irreplaceable.
But I’m curious, what’s it about Clay Travis that you don’t like other than he ( and his partner Buck Sexton ) is not Rush Limbaugh?
RE: Trump should mirror his Truth Social posts on Twitter to increase his reach.
Why would people still want to go to Truth Social if they can see the same messages on Twitter?
Maybe the six hour gap will work. Once people on Twitter see that his posts were from six hours ago, many might sign up for Truth Social in order to get them in real time. Twitter wins by having Trump actively posting and Truth Social wins by picking up a lot more users.
This might be the best solution here.
if trump was smart, he’d have a bot set up that would duplicate is truth posts to twitter, but with a 24 hour delay ... that way he could have his truth and eat it too ...
Sexton is ok. To me Travis lacks intellectual substance and depth. He’s good at parroting popular memes.
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