The former U.S. President Donald Trump reckons there’s “no way” Elon Musk will buy Twitter due to its prohibitive price and the vast number of fake accounts and bots on the platform.
Trump took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, shortly after billionaire Musk announced that his deal to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold” until detailed information becomes available supporting that bots or fake accounts make up fewer than 5% of users on the platform.
“There is no way Elon Musk is going to buy Twitter at such a ridiculous price, especially since realizing it is a company largely based on BOTS or Spam Accounts,” Trump wrote.
He added. “By the time you get rid of them, if that can even be done, what do you have? Not much? If it weren’t for the ridiculous Billion Dollar breakup fee, Elon would have already been long gone.”
In his post regarding fake or spam accounts on May 13, Musk shared a Reuters report stating that Twitter had estimated that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its active users during the first quarter.
Musk said in his Twitter post…
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
The announcement sent shares of Twitter tumbling.
However, Musk followed it up with a second post shortly after noting that he is “still committed” to the acquisition and explained that his team will do a “random sample of 100 followers of Twitter” to find out the percentage of fake accounts.
Elsewhere, Musk says he’ll reinstate Trump’s Twitter account should his deal prove successful, stating that the platform’s decision to ban Trump was “morally bad.”
Trump was permanently suspended in January 2021, after it accused him of violating the company’s “Glorification of Violence” policy.
Musk told a Financial Times conference “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.” For now though, Trump has no plans to return to Twitter.
