Trump returns to Twitter, now X, for first time in 2 years

• Elon Musk, who reinstated Trump's account in November, reposted the 2024 presidential candidate's post with the comment "next-level."

Driving the news: Trump in the post included a link to his website and a photo of his mug shot. "Never surrender," he wrote in the caption under the post.

• Trump surrendered to Fulton County authorities about two hours earlier on Thursday on Georgia criminal charges relating to his alleged efforts to subvert 2020 election results.

The big picture: The social media platform banned Trump's account after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in response to the "risk of further incitement of violence," it said at the time.

• Musk, who took over the platform in October 2022, reinstated Trump's account after posting a poll and millions of accounts voted in favor of reinstating the ex-president's account.

The platform was Trump's primary communication tool when he was running for president and while in office — so much so that some of the posts have been the subject of his legal troubles.

• In the Georgia indictment, his tweets uses as the play-by-play to the alleged conspiracy: 12 of the 161 acts were simply citing Trump statements made on Twitter.

Zoom out: After his ban, Trump launched a social media platform similar to Twitter called Truth Social, but it failed to gain traction. He has a fraction of the followers on that platform as he has on his "X" account.

• Trump said last year that he would not return to the platform and instead continue using Truth Social after the company agreed to be acquired by Musk.
• But people close to his team had thought he'd eventually get back on as a way to drown out negative news such as an indictment.
• Trump, the polling frontrunner in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination, faces 91 criminal counts in four different jurisdictions.

Go deeper: The tweets haunting Trump

Editor's note: This article has been updated with comment from Elon Musk.