Trump reinstated on Twitter after 15 million vote in poll

Update 10:00 p.m.: 

Former President Donald Trump's Twitter account has been reinstated on the platform after a majority of 15 million voters said they supported the move. His past tweets have also been restored. 

Original story: 

Elon Musk’s Twitter poll on whether he should unban former President Donald Trump received a staggering 15 million votes by the time it closed on Saturday night – and they said he should.

The platform’s new owner recently made good on repeated promises to unban controversial accounts, most notably Christian satire site The Babylon Bee, whose ban over a transphobic joke may have motivated Musk’s purchase.

On Friday afternoon, Musk reinstated the Bee alongside psychologist Jordan Peterson, who was also suspended for challenging transgenderism, and liberal comedian Kathy Griffin, who was removed for imitating Musk on her Twitter account.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO responded to questions about why right-wing figures like Trump or conspiracy theorist Alex Jones had not been reinstated by presenting the question to the entire site.

“Reinstate former President Trump,” Musk tweeted later Friday along with a “Yes” or “No” poll.

Reinstate former President Trump

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2022

“Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he added in another post, a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”

15,085,458 votes were cast by the time the poll closed 24 hours later, where “Yes” won with 51.8% of the vote.

In an update shortly before it closed, Musk said that 134 million people had seen the poll.

Several users noted that this was higher engagement than this year’s Super Bowl, where around 100 million viewers tuned into watch the Los Angeles Rams triumph over the Cincinnati Bengals.

It is not yet clear whether Musk will follow through and deliver by reinstating the controversial former President.