- Donald Trump said there is “no way” Elon Musk is going to go ahead with his Twitter purchase.
- The former president said Musk wouldn’t buy it at a “ridiculous” price because of the number of spam accounts.
- Musk said on Friday that his Twitter buyout is on hold until he works out how many Twitter users are actually bots.
Former President Donald Trump responded on Friday to the news that Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s planned Twitter buyout is temporarily on hold.
Posting on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump told his followers that he believes Musk will not go ahead with his Twitter purchase.
“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 on Friday, per Mashable. “Fake anyone?”
Musk said in a tweet on Friday that he plans to conduct his research to determine the amount of Twitter users that are bots before his purchase of the social media platform goes ahead.
He said that the $44 billion deal was on hold until he could verify that fake accounts represent less than 5% of users. “To find out, my team will do a random sample of 100 followers of @twitter,” Musk said in a tweet.
Trump addressed the spam account concern in his Truth Social post. He wrote, “By the time you get rid of them, if that can even be done, what do you have? Not much?”
The former president went on to say that “Elon would have already been long done” if it wasn’t for the breakup fee.
Musk and Twitter have signed an agreement that includes a $1 billion break fee payable by the Tesla CEO if he walks away.
“Just my opinion, but Truth Social is MUCH better than Twitter and is absolutely exploding, incredible engagement,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
Trump’s Truth Social launched in February. According to Insider reporter Rosie Bradbury, who spent a week on the platform, it feels like a “conservative ghost town that had been overrun by bots.”
Musk said this week that he would reinstate Trump’s account once he owns Twitter, calling the decision to ban him a “morally bad decision.” Trump has previously said that he would not rejoin if his account were reinstated.