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Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

reuters.com

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Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#11

Post by mikkergp »

I’m firmly in the camp of not wanting to hear anything more from Trump in my lifetime, but I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk.

It’s not clear at all that Trump coming back to Twitter is good for him, or for Republicans. Banning him I think took a lot of the bad side of the conservative culture out of the spotlight and bringing him back will make it front and center again. A consistent message I saw from Republicans was his policies aren’t bad but could he just stop Tweeting. It will get ugly but if Trump is able to rile DeSantis up into a public fight, it will probably be bad for discourse but good for Democrats.

The ideological piece would be the bad ideas and sunlight thing. Trump, as an important voice in the Republican Party should be visible so people can vote against him if they so choose.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#12

Post by karp773 »

mikkergp wrote: post #11

I’m firmly in the camp of not wanting to hear anything more from Trump in my lifetime, but I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. It’s not clear at all that Trump coming back to Twitter is good for him, or for Republicans. Banning him I think took a lot of the bad side of the conservative culture out of the spotlight and bringing him back will make it front and center again. A consistent mess…

Edit: the estimates were way off!

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#13

Post by gsatic »

mikkergp wrote: post #6
karp773 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not say imminent but it has increased considerably as Trump seemed to be one of the main bets of Musk to increase (double?) engagement.

Kara Swisher had a pretty good tweet thread about this. Essentially: Musk is doing a pretty good job single handedly attracting attention to Twitter, but where does he go from here, executing disloyal devs on livestream? https://nitter.net/karaswisher/status/1593970881352826880#m

How do they come up with so many gifs is mainly what I want to know...

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#14

Post by smt88 »

karp773 wrote: post #8
jimmydean12 wrote: post #4

This isn’t a surprise, part of the financing deal for truth was that Donnie would always post on truth first before any other social media.

To be honest, it's a surprise for me. Because in order to win, Trump needs to broaden his audience. What's the point of limiting himself to only his supporters on truth? They are his hardcore supporters anyway. It’s like preaching to the choir.

> in order to win, Trump needs to broaden his audience

I don't think this is true. Trump's message, image, and behavior were possibly the most widely/frequently broadcast of any human in history. There is effectively no stone left unturned for him.

There was also some analysis during his presidency that the more he tweeted, the worse his approval rating got. That might not be true these days, but it shows that not all publicity is good publicity.

> What's the point of limiting himself to only his supporters on truth?

He can squeeze them for donations, just as he does with his email campaigns.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#15

Post by karp773 »

One more thing, which may be controversial here on HN, but which I think is nonetheless correct, is that Musk has been effectively cornered by the previous Twitter board. He has no other choice but to count every penny and squeeze the maximum from the remaining employees. See the revenue vs loan payments estimates.

So the blame for all the drastic measures such as mass layoffs and such, should be equally shared by the ex-board if not solely.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#16

Post by smt88 »

mikkergp wrote: post #11

I’m firmly in the camp of not wanting to hear anything more from Trump in my lifetime, but I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. It’s not clear at all that Trump coming back to Twitter is good for him, or for Republicans. Banning him I think took a lot of the bad side of the conservative culture out of the spotlight and bringing him back will make it front and center again. A consistent mess…

> I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk.

I think this is giving Musk too much credit. He hasn't shown ideological consistency on any issue, and that includes free speech.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#17

Post by karp773 »

smt88 wrote: post #16
mikkergp wrote: post #11

I’m firmly in the camp of not wanting to hear anything more from Trump in my lifetime, but I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. It’s not clear at all that Trump coming back to Twitter is good for him, or for Republicans. Banning him I think took a lot of the bad side of the conservative culture out of the spotlight and bringing him back will make it front and center again. A consistent mess…

> I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. I think this is giving Musk too much credit. He hasn't shown ideological consistency on any issue, and that includes free speech.

Right, he seems to be 100% opportunistic.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#18

Post by karp773 »

smt88 wrote: post #14
karp773 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, it's a surprise for me. Because in order to win, Trump needs to broaden his audience. What's the point of limiting himself to only his supporters on truth? They are his hardcore supporters anyway. It’s like preaching to the choir.

> in order to win, Trump needs to broaden his audience I don't think this is true. Trump's message, image, and behavior were possibly the most widely/frequently broadcast of any human in history. There is effectively no stone left unturned for him. There was also some analysis during his presidency that the more he tweeted, the worse his approval rating got. That might not be true these days, but it shows that not al…

I am not saying this is a winning strategy. Only that's the only reasonable strategy to have a shot on winning.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#19

Post by laweijfmvo »

mikkergp wrote: post #11

I’m firmly in the camp of not wanting to hear anything more from Trump in my lifetime, but I do wonder if there is any ideological side to this from Musk. It’s not clear at all that Trump coming back to Twitter is good for him, or for Republicans. Banning him I think took a lot of the bad side of the conservative culture out of the spotlight and bringing him back will make it front and center again. A consistent mess…

i'd imagine most of the american voters are not on twitter, but most of them watch cable news. Trump could publish on a Myspace page and the media would broadcast it for him.

Re: Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president's account

#20

Post by detaro »

karp773 wrote: post #15

One more thing, which may be controversial here on HN, but which I think is nonetheless correct, is that Musk has been effectively cornered by the previous Twitter board. He has no other choice but to count every penny and squeeze the maximum from the remaining employees. See the revenue vs loan payments estimates. So the blame for all the drastic measures such as mass layoffs and such, should be equally shared by th…

What exactly did the board do to "corner" him?
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