Elon Musk has taken ownership of Twitter, updating his Twitter bio to read “Chief Twit” and tweeting video footage of himself showing up at the company’s San Francisco headquarters with an actual sink in his arms.
“Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” the billionaire tweeted.
It was not all fun and games, though, because the world’s richest man wasted no time getting down to business, reportedly firing CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, head of Twitter’s legal policy, trust and safety — the person who made the call to permanently suspend Donald Trump.
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
With Gadde being dumped there was plenty of speculation over whether the former president’s account will be reinstated and a phony statement from Trump began circulating Thursday evening, with MSNBC being duped into reporting on it.
MSNBC’s Alex Wagner shared the statement on her 9 pm EST program and the show later tweeted an acknowledgment of the error:
In the rush of reporting on Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter we included some bad information about Donald Trump’s reaction to the deal. We regret the error.
— Alex Wagner Tonight (@WagnerTonight) October 28, 2022
“Congratulations to Elon Musk on his purchase of Twitter,” the fake message read. “Many people are saying that change was needed, as the old management was too concerned with the woke agenda. I have been told that my account will be back up and running on Monday – we will see. Happy to be able to engage with an African-American owned business!”
Plenty of others fell for the “bad information,” including many on the right as well.
A fake statement from Donald Trump congratulating Elon Musk on his acquisition of Twitter is spreading online.
The fabricated quote claims Trump's account will be reinstated Monday & that the ex-president is "Happy to be able to engage with an African-American owned business." pic.twitter.com/p7fNxiaM2k
— Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) October 28, 2022
Trump said back in April when Twitter agreed to be acquired by Musk that he would not return to the social media platform and would instead use his own platform, Truth Social.
“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on Truth,” he told Fox News at the time. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he will make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth.”
Musk said the following month that he would reverse Trump’s ban — which he called “a morally bad decision, to be clear, and foolish in the extreme.” Twitter banned Trump in quick order after the Jan. 6, 2021 protest at the U.S. Capitol.
“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake,” the Tesla CEO said at the time. “It alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”
There’s another Twitter account many eyes are on, that being the Babylon Bee — the satire outlet has been locked out since posting a tweet awarding transgender government official Rachel Levine the title “Man of the Year.”
CEO Seth Dillon commented Thursday on being in Twitter jail, saying in part: “Never censor yourself, and never apologize for speaking truth.”
The Babylon Bee was tossed in Twitter jail 7 months ago for a joke that referred to an adult male as a man. We could have restored our account at any time by deleting the tweet, but we refused. It was the right call.
Never censor yourself, and never apologize for speaking truth.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) October 27, 2022
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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