Undoubtedly shaken by the arrival of Elon Musk at the head of Twitter, Donald Trump decided to use his social network for the first time. For now, he refuses to return to Twitter.
A few minutes after the announcement of the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, Donald Trump had promised that he would start using TRUTH, his own social network, this week.
Thursday April 28, for the first time since February 21, the launch date of TRUTH, Donald Trump published a first message on the platform. It remains to be seen how often it will be used. Will we find the compulsive @realDonaldTrump of his presidential era? Or will he tire of TRUTH Social himself?
Donald Trump versus Elon Musk?
On paper, Donald Trump and Elon Musk share many opinions. Quite similar politically, the two billionaires are convinced that freedom of expression is muzzled on social networks. Upset by his ousting from Twitter in January 2021, Donald Trump has since repeated, through his entourage, that he intends to launch a social network superior to Twitter, without any censorship. This is what gave birth to TRUTH Social on February 21, 2022, a kind of Twitter for conservatives.
Until now, TRUTH Social has struggled to take off. Blame it on numerous technical problems, a geographical restriction limiting it to the United States and the absence of large accounts (Donald Trump was not there himself), the social network of the former president had everything a big flop. It seems that Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter is giving it a second wind, but for how long?
Indeed, if downloads for TRUTH Social are up this week (and will be even more in the coming days thanks to Donald Trump), TRUTH Social may come up against a major obstacle: Elon Musk. On the same ideological line, but with a social network with hundreds of millions of subscribers, Elon Musk should easily bring back people who feel censored on Twitter and cause damage to Donald Trump’s business. This is probably why the former president has accelerated his return schedule. The use of irony, with the hashtag #COVFEFE (in reference to his mythical misspelling), clearly indicates that Trump is trying to attract as many people as possible to TRUTH, including his detractors.
Musk criticizes TRUTH, Trump denies Twitter
If they publicly say they have a lot of respect for each other, Elon Musk and Donald Trump have already started to clash publicly in order to defend their respective social networks. On Twitter, Elon Musk notably made fun of TRUTH, a social network “Horribly Named” according to him. He recommends renaming it “Trumpet.”
Donald Trump, he welcomed the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk while indicating that he did not want to return to the social network. Difficult to blame him, to say the opposite would hurt TRUTH too much, so he must protect him for the moment. Ultimately, if the takeover by Elon Musk goes through to the end, it seems highly likely to see Donald Trump abandon TRUTH for Twitter, especially if his social network does not take off.
