Trump: ‘I am staying on Truth’

Former President Trump is sticking to his assertion that he won’t be back on Twitter now that it’s owned by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

“I am staying on Truth. I like it better, I like the way it works. I like Elon, but I’m staying on Truth,” Trump told Fox News Digital on Friday in an exclusive interview.

Trump received a lifetime ban from Twitter after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Since leaving office, Trump launched Truth Social and has used it as his main mode of communicating with his followers. Many Trump supporters and allies had their accounts banned or restricted after the Capitol riot, under the previous Twitter leadership. Others left when Trump’s account was terminated.

Truth’s reach, however, is fraction of Twitter’s, which boasts hundreds of millions of users. Experts and Trump allies have cast doubt on the idea that he would be able to resist the platform, were he allowed back on.

A spokesperson for Trump didn’t immediate respond to The Hill’s request for additional comment.

After months of negotiations, Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on Thursday, tweeting “the bird is freed,” a nod to his plan to loosen content moderation practices. He then fired the company’s CEO and two other top executives.

When Musk first started mulling purchasing Twitter, Trump signaled he wouldn’t go back.

“I don’t think Twitter can be successful without me,” he said this week.

Trump told Fox News Digital he had saved “a failing operation” when he joined Twitter before becoming president.

“I made Twitter hot 12 years ago, I made Twitter hot,” he said. “And then when they terminated, it became cold, and that’s what happened.”