OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump has responded to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s announcement that his deal to purchase Twitter has been put “on hold.”
Musk tweeted early on Friday morning that the deal was “on hold” in response to a story that showed Twitter claimed spam and bot accounts comprise less than 5 percent of its users.
“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” he said.
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
Hours later he said, “Still committed to acquisition.”
Still committed to acquisition
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
“Twitter Inc estimated in a filing on Monday that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter,” the Reuters story said that Musk shared in his tweet.
“The social media company had 229 million users who were served advertising in the first quarter,” it said.
“The disclosure came days after Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk, who has inked a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, tweeted that one of his priorities would be to remove spam bots from the platform,” it said.
Trump responded on TRUTH Social by saying he was skeptical that Musk wanted to buy Twitter at that price.
“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. Fake anyone? 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. Just my opinion, but Truth Social is MUCH better than Twitter and absolutely exploding, incredible engagement!” Trump wrote.
Below is a screenshot of Trump’s full response:
Earlier this week, Musk said he would reverse Twitter’s permanent ban of Trump if his bid to buy the social media company is successful.
Musk told the Financial Times that the ban “was morally wrong and flat out stupid.”
Last month, Trump said he “probably” would not return to Twitter if Musk reinstated his account.
In an interview with Sirius XM’s Americano Media, Trump said he “probably wouldn’t have any interest” in returning to the platform, where he had almost 90 million followers.
“You know, Twitter has become very boring. They’ve gotten rid of a lot of their good voices … a lot of their conservative voices,” Trump said.
Earlier this week, Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal announced he is freezing hiring and taking other cost-cutting measures now that Musk’s bid to purchase the company has been accepted.
The company will not make any new hires and could possibly rescind offers it has already made a company memo said.
“At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the decision was made to invest aggressively to deliver big growth in audience and revenue, and as a company, we did not hit intermediate milestones that enable confidence in these goals,” the CEO said. “In order to responsibly manage the organization as we sharpen our roadmaps and our work, we need to continue to be intentional about our teams, hiring, and costs.”
“Leaders will continue making changes to their organizations to improve efficiencies as needed,” Agrawal wrote.
And two of the company’s top executives are both exiting the company.
