Elon Musk said Friday morning that he did not communicate with former President Trump about his plans to buy Twitter, despite the CEO of Trump’s social media platform saying that the two spoke before the purchase.
In response to a New York Post article that quoted Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes saying during a Fox Business Network appearance that Trump had “encouraged” Musk to buy Twitter, Musk denied that he was in communication with the former president.
“This is false,” Musk said of the claim in a post on Twitter. “I’ve had no communication, directly or indirectly, with Trump, who has publicly stated that he will be exclusively on Truth Social.”
Musk reached an agreement with Twitter in late April to buy the social media giant for approximately $44 billion.
Republican members of Congress celebrated the purchase due to Musk’s stated intention to restore “free speech” to the platform. Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, expressed fear that Twitter’s restrictions on disinformation and incendiary speech could be loosened and former President Trump could return to the platform after being banned following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Both Trump and Nunes have said that the former president will not be returning to Twitter following the purchase. Musk has not publicly commented on whether he would restore Trump’s account.
Trump previously praised Musk’s move to buy the platform, saying, “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man.”