Trump returns to Twitter

Donald J. Trump returned to Twitter over the weekend – or at least the new head of Twitter reinstated his account. The context of the reinstatement is remarkable in itself – a way to trick “bots” into revealing themselves. More remarkable still are the contents of the account, and the reaction to the reinstatement.

How the Donald Trump account came back

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, commissioned a poll of users, asking whether they wanted the Trump account back.

A landslide of early voters voted Yes. Then votes came in too fast for humans to cast them – as many as a million votes per hour.

User Kyle Becker sardonically compared the moving poll results to the Election of 2020:

Notice Becker’s screencap of the poll, showing a Friday evening vote of 64 percent to 36 percent, with 42,974 votes cast. Later Musk called his poll display “fascinating.”

But ultimately the total vote was 51.8 percent to 48.2 percent – with 15,85,458 votes cast. How many of these were live human beings, and how many bots, Musk won’t say and perhaps doesn’t know yet.

In any event, he gave the order to reinstate the account. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he said.

Newsletter writer “Noah” shared his theory that Musk posted the Trump reinstatement poll to trap “bots” on Twitter.

HONEYTRAP CONFIRMED!

Elon Musk baited them with something they couldn’t ignore, and they fell for it hook line and sinker!

And now he’s caught them in the act and he has all the data he needs.

Not only to expose them but to block it and stop it from happening in the future.

Cleaning out America’s Town Square (Twitter) has been a very important part of the plan all long and Elon is right on schedule in getting it done!

BRAVO!

Immediate reaction

Two users, named Kim Dotcom and Crystal Hope, cheered the Trump reinstatement.

Many other users expressed dismay. Robert M. Reich’s reaction was typical.

Another user said she had sent emails to Google and Apple. She said she asked whether they would keep the Twitter app on their respective “app stores” following the Trump reinstatement.

But by far the most serious reaction came from the Anti-Defamation League, and from Jonathan Greenblatt, its CEO. In fact, even before the reinstatement, the ADL account carried a very negative reaction to Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter.

That, is a threat. CNAV wonders whether such a threat is legal.

Jonathan Greenblatt, on his own account, accused Musk of breaking faith with the ADL over content moderation:

And that was before the reinstatement. After it, Greenblatt hit the ceiling:

To which Musk made this ironic reply:

The Trump account – a valuable archive

Thus far, Donald Trump has made no use of his Twitter account. Indeed, Reuters reported that Trump has no interest in using the account. He told the Republican Jewish Commission that he would prefer his own social medium, Truth Social.

Nevertheless, his account is now live:

Jack Posobiec, on his Telegram channel, noticed one thing immediately:

Really amazing how @realDonaldTrump gets unbanned and his last few tweets debunk every lie the Jan 6 Committee spread about him.

Even a cursory examination of the account bears this out. Since he hasn’t used it since the ban, these two tweets are the most recent:

In them he:

• Paid tribute to the estimated 75 million people who voted for him, and
• Said he would not attend the inauguration of his putative successor.

Much more relevant is what he said before, during, and after the January 6 Event. He begins by inviting people to attend:

The most relevant tweets are these that he left, beginning on the morning of January 6:

This tweet contains the speech President Trump made.

No one would be able to find in it any exhortation to force or violence or disrespect. In his next two tweets, he explicitly calls for respect for the Capitol Police, and for peace. “No violence!” he said.

And last, he shares this speech expressing regret for such violence as actually occurred.

Insights from this archive

First, CNAV urges extreme caution in believing any rumor that Trump used his Twitter account to promote any financial product. Donald Trump has not accessed the Twitter account in any way. Remember: he said he wouldn’t. He might reconsider once he realizes he has more than 86 million followers. But CNAV has never seen him directly promote any kind of private scrip or currency.

Next, as to the tweets that remain: as Jack Posobiec said, these are not exhortations to force or violence. To address Mr. Posobiec’s point, they do not support in any way the allegations of the “January Sixth Committee.” Nor do they support the testimony of any of its witnesses. Recall: that Committee was not an adversarial forum, but one having the purpose of writing bills of attainder and an ex post facto law.

In line with this: Twitter kept the former President off its platform, and allowed others to lie about him. Recall: Twitter, like Facebook, let itself become a State actor. To further this goal, they imputed words to Trump that he neither spoke nor posted. Now we have his last words, thus disproving all the attempts to tarnish his honor and alter our memories.

This event is no less momentous than would be the sudden restoration of fifty-two names to the Assyrian Eponym Canon, after King Tiglath-Pileser III ordered them chiseled out. For it now allows us to set the record straight.

And as for the ADL…!

And now, concerning the Anti-Defamation League, Elon Musk has already archly observed that an organization purporting to oppose defamation, engages in it. Indeed they create a worse problem for themselves. By what authority dare they order any common carrier of telecommunications services to deny service to anyone? They might as well order the telephone company to disconnect someone’s telephone.

Furthermore, they can have only one reason to order Twitter to suspend the Trump account and hide its contents. And that is to continue the libel of him. When they do that, they violate the Ninth Commandment. Which reads:

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Exodus 20:16

An organization purporting to speak for God’s Chosen People ought to keep God’s Commandments. They only demean themselves by demanding the scrubbing of an historical archive in order to facilitate a systematic libel.

Whether Trump will return to use this account, is his decision and no one else’s. But if Twitter wishes to save itself in the long run, it must behave like a trustworthy archive, as well as a common carrier.

Reinstating the Trump account is a good first step – though Twitter will not let the account show up in its own search engine. Whatever else it is, it’s an historical record of the beginning of a shameful chapter in American history. An earlier President, James Madison, must be spinning in his grave.