“Elon Musk reinstating Donald Trump’s Twitter account is a middle finger to all of mainstream media, woke leftists & Big Tech,” tweeted Steven Crowder, a conservative commentator. “If you claim to support free speech, this should have you smiling from ear to ear.”
Mr. Trump has vacillated in his opinions of Mr. Musk. In July at a rally in Alaska, he called Mr. Musk an insulting term for apparently supporting his political opponents in the 2016 and 2020 elections even though, Mr. Trump said, “He told me he voted for me.” Mr. Trump also said that Mr. Musk, who was trying to back out of his agreement to buy Twitter at the time, “got a pretty rotten contract.”
But last month when Mr. Musk closed his acquisition of Twitter, Mr. Trump declared himself “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands.” In a post on Truth Social at the time, Mr. Trump added that he was glad Twitter “will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country.”
The return of Mr. Trump’s Twitter account could further deter advertisers, which provide the bulk of the revenue for the social media company. General Motors and other brands had paused their spending on Twitter after Mr. Musk’s takeover of the company, especially as a new system that allowed anyone to pay for a check mark to verify their account had caused chaos.
Critics of Mr. Musk’s decision immediately began lobbying advertisers to take the opportunity to depart.
“Any advertiser still funding Twitter should immediately pause all advertising,” Derrick Johnson, the president of the N.A.A.C.P., said in a statement.
He added, “In Elon Musk’s Twittersphere, you can incite an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which led to the deaths of multiple people, and still be allowed to spew hate speech and violent conspiracies on his platform.”
Mike Isaac contributed reporting.
