There has been much discussion lately on whether Donald Trump’s Twitter handle has been reinstated. In recent times, this topic has been all around the corner as a Twitter account popped up under Trump’s name. This account was involved in a serious scam that took place on Twitter in October 2022. The handle sold 1000s of T-Shirts before its suspension.
Following the acceptance of Elon Musk’s $44 billion offer to purchase Twitter, reports came that Musk had reinstalled former US president Donald Trump on the platform. In reality, Trump’s Twitter account is still restricted, so all accounts in his name are fake. What exactly was this brand-new Donald Trump Twitter account?
Has Donald Trump’s Twitter Handle Been Restored?
No, Donald Trump’s Twitter handle has not been restored. Donald Trump, a former US president, was banned from Twitter in January 2021. So Elon Musk, who hasn’t finalized his Twitter agreement, hasn’t restored Trump’s account as of now. Trump’s Twitter suspension is still in effect. His account was suspended for violating the terms of service and encouraging violence.
The screenshot that was going around was of an account pretending to be Trump, and it was a fake account. Looking at the screenshot carefully, the user has also pinned a tweet on October 9, 2022, stating, “Thank you, Elon Musk, I’m Back!!” to make it look somewhat ordinary and reasonable and imply that Musk has finally restored his handle.
The tweet went viral all around. This was all fake, though! The user made this handle on August 2022, impersonating Donald Trump. This is the same account that eventually ended up scamming thousands of people.
140k Followers On The Fake Handle
Not everyone followed this account, but the account before suspension reached 140k followers eventually. Many people realized that Trump is not there as is depicted in this account. Check out the screenshot below.
Many people were suspicious of the account. Some wanted proof from the handler that Trump was indeed there. While some people observed the account didn’t have the official blue tick, one user even said Elon would have only restored the previous version of his account if it had been restored. Smart people, yeah! However, there were some who fell for the ever-growing account.
Estimated to have sold over 1000 T-Shirts of “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Trump.”
The next question is what the fictitious user actually did with the account. Before people realized it wasn’t Trump, the user made the account available to shop for some of the merchandise bearing his likeness and estimated to have sold over a thousand T-shirts. He put up a link where people could order and shop. The T-shirts had a tagline saying, “Don’t Blame Me I Voted For Trump.”
The user was able to fool many people; before the account was removed, the post had over 12,680+ likes & 1,050+ retweets. We have a screenshot of the earlier retweet with 5,515 likes and 574 retweets.
Look at the screenshot below to see how some individuals are raving about the t-shirts (these could be additional bots to make the page look real) while others are complaining that they were tricked. With the hashtag #MAGA, users even submitted some amusing Trump images. However, the person speculated to be using this fake account has a Twitter handle named @BenJohn97534340.
Was The Fake Twitter Account Suspended?
The topic was getting out of hand, but eventually, something was done. After tricking numerous people, the fake Twitter handle was ultimately suspended. It is, therefore, evident that Donald Trump’s Twitter account was not reactivated. However, it is interesting that Musk criticized Twitter’s move to ban Trump, calling it morally repugnant and extremely idiotic. It won’t take long before the real Donald Trump is back on Twitter.
This was all we knew about the fake Donald Trump handle and that it reached 140k followers and sold 100s of T-Shirts before the suspension.
