Donald Trump apparently back on Twitter after Elon Musk poll votes to lift his ban
Donald Trump appears to be back on Twitter after an online poll voted for his return.
The platform’s new owner Elon Musk had announced on Saturday evening that following the vote, the former president would be reinstated, almost two years after he was removed following the 6 January US Capitol riots.
On hearing the news, the former US president had originally said he had no interest in re-joining but later on Saturday a blue-tick verified account calling itself “@RealDonald Trump, 45th President of the United States of America” appeared and the words “He’s Back” was trending in the US.
The Twitter poll, accompanied by the words “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” – a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God” – had asked users to vote on whether Mr Trump should be allowed to return, and the result was that he should.
More than 15 million votes were cast, but the former president had told a rally on Saturday evening: “I don’t see any reason for it (returning).”
He said he would stick with his new social media platform, Truth Social.
Mr Trump was permanently suspended from Twitter in January 2021 after the attack by his supporters on the US Capitol that left several people dead.
Twitter said the decision, after the riot, was “due to the risk of further incitement of violence”.
Elon Musk has overseen huge changes to Twitter in just the first few weeks as owner
However, Mr Musk earlier this year called the ban a “mistake” and “morally wrong”.
The reinstatement poll was close – the yes vote was 51.8%, the no, 48.2%.
Many on the right of the political spectrum have long argued Twitter and other social media sites are biased against their views and quick to “deplatform” them.
After his exit, Mr Trump established Truth Social – his own social media platform, which was an almost carbon copy of Twitter.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Twitter employees were estimated to have decided to leave the company after an announcement from Musk that staffers agree to longer, more intense working patterns or quit.
Twitter’s corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California
The exodus adds to the rapid change and chaos that have marked Mr Musk’s first three weeks as Twitter’s owner, during which the company’s headcount had already been more than halved by redundancies and other departures to around 3,700.
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With so much of Twitter’s workforce now gone, there is speculation the site will crash during the football World Cup – one of the site’s busiest traffic events.
Many high-profile, blue-tick celebrities have tweeted farewells on the platform “in case”.
To add to Mr Musk’s business woes, Tesla is recalling more than 300,000 vehicles in the US because a software glitch can make rear lights go off intermittently, increasing the risk of a collision.
Police officers found a handgun, a silencer and a red notebook described as a “manifesto” when they arrested Luigi Mangione.
The 27-year-old was arrested in December 2024 and charged with killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York City.
Mangione‘s lawyers want to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors at his eventual trial in Manhattan about statements he allegedly made and items they said police seized from his backpack during his arrest at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
The objects include a 9mm handgun prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing, a silencer, a magazine with bullets wrapped in underwear and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to “wack” a healthcare executive.
Mangione with his attorney. Pic: Reuters
The defence contends the items should be excluded because police did not get a warrant before searching Mangione’s backpack.
Prosecutors deny claims Mangione was illegally searched and questioned.
They also want to suppress some statements he made to police, such as allegedly giving a false name, because officers asked him questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent.
Last week, Mangione watched surveillance videos of the killing of Mr Thompson, 50, as he walked to a New York City hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges.
The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
This week’s hearing concerns only the state case, but Mangione’s lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases.
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In September, a judge dismissed two terrorism counts against Mangione, finding prosecutors had not presented enough evidence Mangione intended to intimidate health insurance workers or influence government policy.
Trial dates are yet to be set in either the state or federal cases.
Paramount has launched a £108.4bn hostile bid for Warner Bros, challenging Netflix, which had reached a $72bn takeover deal with the company.
Paramount said on Monday that it was going straight to Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) shareholders with a $30 per share in cash offer for the entirety of the company, including its Global Networks segment, asking them to reject the deal with Netflix.
On Friday Netflix struck a deal to buy WBD, the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter” and HBO Max
The agreement means Warner Bros Discovery’s library of film and TV successes including Harry Potter and Game Of Thrones will come under the same roof as Stranger Things and Squid Game.
The cash and stock deal is valued at $27.75 per Warner share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt.
But Paramount says its deal will pay $30 cash per share, representing $18 billion more in cash than its rivals are offering.
In a statement, Paramount said it was making a “strategically and financially compelling offer to WBD shareholders” and a “superior alternative to the Netflix transaction”.
File pic: iStock
David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount, said: “WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company.
“Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors in private, provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion.
“We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process.
“We are taking our offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to act in their own best interests and maximize the value of their shares.”
Paramount said it had submitted six proposals to WBD in the course of 12 weeks, but that they were never “meaningfully” engaged with.
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