Elon Musk says he will raise Donald Trump's Twitter ban once the deal closes

Elon Musk said Tuesday that he would lift the Twitter ban on former President Donald Trump if the takeover took place.

"Permanent bans should very rarely and be reserved for accounts that are bots or scammers, spam accounts... I don't think banning Donald Trump is right," Musk said at the Future of the Car FT Live conference. "I think it's a mistake to alienate a lot of countries, and in the end, it doesn't mean Donald Trump doesn't have a say.

"I will lift the ban permanently," added Musk, who is expected to become interim head following the acquisition. "I don't have Twitter yet. So it's not going to happen because what if I don't have Twitter?" Twitter permanently banned Trump from the platform in January 2021 after his supporters attacked the US Capitol. The company said it decided after the January 6 riots "because of the risk of further incitement to violence." Trump is on Twitter and has more than 80 million followers on Twitter. Platforms at the time.

After Musk announced that he was interested in acquiring a portion of the company to turn it into a free speech platform, questions arose about whether he would invite Trump back to Twitter. Trump tell last month that he would not return to social media if given a chance.

"No, I'm not going back to Twitter," Trump told news, Joe Kernen. Following the ban, Trump launched Truth Social, which he blamed as an alternative to free speech on high-tech platforms.

"I'll be on Truth Social until next week. It's on schedule. We signed up a lot of people. I love Elon Musk. I like him. He's a nice person. We did a lot for Twitter before I was in the White House. I was disappointed with how I was treated by Twitter. "I'm not going back to Twitter," Trump said.