Elon Musk sharply contradicted a claim by Truth Social head and former Republican lawmaker Devin Nunes that Donald Trump had directed Musk to purchase Twitter.
The Tesla CEO and multibillionaire flatly called the claim “false” in a tweet.
“I’ve had no communication, directly or not directly, with Trump, who has publicly stated that he will likely be exclusively on Truth Social,” Musk wrote, referring to the previous president’s own social media platform and Twitter competitor.
This is fake. I’ve had no communication, directly or not directly, with Trump, who has publicly stated that he will likely be exclusively on Truth Social.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2022
Nunes claimed on Fox Business on Wednesday that Musk was following Trump’s directive when he purchased Twitter.
“President Trump, principally before Elon Musk bought it, actually said to go and buy it since the goal of our company is absolutely to construct a community where persons are in a family-friendly, protected environment,” the previous California congressman, who’s now the CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, told Fox.
“That’s why we encouraged Elon Musk to purchase it, because someone has to tackle these tech tyrants,” Nunes said. “Donald Trump desired to make sure that that the American people got their voice back and that the web was open, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44 billion presents major latest competition for Truth Social, which has already been plagued with problems. Musk is predicted to open up Twitter to far-right voices, the identical being courted by Trump’s fledgling Truth Social.
Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp., which plans to take Truth Social public, have tumbled in recent weeks.
Trump, who has been permanently banned from Twitter for his role in last 12 months’s rebel, said last month that he wouldn’t return to Twitter even with Musk because the owner.
He insisted he’d follow his own Truth Social operation, despite the fact that he has only posted two very temporary messages on the location since its launch almost three months ago. Trump typically posts all of his communications on the Twitter account of an aide.
