May 6, 2022 - Economy

Elon Musk denies claim Trump told him to buy Twitter

Erin Doherty

Elon Musk at the 2022 Met Gala on May 2. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met/Vogue

Elon Musk on Friday rebuffed claims that former president Trump "encouraged" Musk's takeover of Twitter.

Driving the news: "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 on Friday.

Musk was responding to an article in the New York Post about comments made on Fox News by Devin Nunes, the CEO of Trump's social media platform, Truth Social.

Nunes said Trump had encouraged Musk's takeover of the platform.

"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 said on Fox Business Network.
"That's why we encouraged Elon Musk to buy it, because someone has to continue to take on these tech tyrants," Nunes added.

State of play: Trump, in the immediate aftermath of Musk's agreement to buy Twitter, told Fox News he was going to stay on his own struggling social network.

"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."

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Elon Musk denies claim Trump told him to buy Twitter

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