Elon Musk Rejects Claim From Truth Social CEO That Trump Urged Him To Buy Twitter

Elon Musk flatly denied rumors that former President Donald Trump played any part in encouraging him to purchase Twitter. Musk’s rejection follows a claim from the CEO of a Trump-connected app Truth Social, who claimed they encouraged Musk to make the purchase.

"This is false. I’ve had no communication, directly or indirectly, with Trump, who has publicly stated that he will be exclusively on TRUTH Social," Musk wrote on Twitter.

Musk’s denial follows an interview between Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes, a former GOP lawmaker and Trump loyalist, and Fox Business where Nunes claimed that the former president nudged Musk into buying out Twitter.

“President Trump, basically before Elon Musk bought it, actually said to go and buy it because the goal of our company is really to build a community where people are in a family-friendly, safe environment,” Nunes told Fox on May 4.

Nunes added that Musk was encouraged to go for the buyout in order to take on the "tech tyrants" and that it was Trump's desire to "make sure that the American people got their voice back" online.

“People like Elon Musk doing what he’s doing, we’re definitely in favor of it,” he continued.

Musk has never alluded to any outside influence over his decision to purchase Twitter. The world’s richest man has described his decision as rooted in a desire to protect free speech from what he considers the currently anti-democratic approach of social media companies.

For his part, Trump, who has been banned from Twitter since January 2021, has stated his approval of Musk’s decision to buy the platform. However, as Musk noted, the former president made clear that he was planning to stick with Truth Social.

"I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH," Trump said in a statement on April 25.

Despite Trump’s promise to stay with his own social network, some advisers have suggested that he would return to Twitter “in a heartbeat” to regain what was once his most powerful microphone.