No, this Trump statement about returning to Twitter isn’t real

First came the fake tweets that made it appear that former President Donald Trump was thanking billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk for restoring his Twitter account. 

Now — since Musk successfully purchased the social media company and assumed ownership Oct. 27 — come the fake statements. 

"Congratulations to Elon Musk on his purchase of Twitter," began what appeared to be an Oct. 27 statement from Trump. "Many people are saying that change was needed, as the old management was too concerned with the woke agenda. I have been told that my account will be back up and running on Monday — we will see. Happy to be able to engage with an African-American owned business!" 

Musk, who is white, is from South Africa.

An Instagram post sharing an image of the purported statement was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Though the image showed Trump’s "Save America" letterhead, we found no such message on Trump’s  website, where news articles, endorsements and statements are shared. The last statement on the site from the former president is dated Oct. 24.

Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s Twitter account after the U.S. Capitol insurrection in January 2021 over concerns that his comments could incite violence. There’s been widespread speculation that Trump could return to the site if Musk, who has called himself a "free-speech absolutist," lifts the ban.  

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Twitter did not immediately respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the fate of Trump’s account. 

Trump also did not respond to questions from PolitiFact. 

Trump said on Truth Social on Oct. 28 that his social media platform "looks and works better" than Twitter and that he’s "very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by the Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country."

"Twitter must now work hard to rid itself of bots and fake accounts that have hurt it so badly," Trump said in the post. "It will be much smaller, but better. I LOVE TRUTH!"

He didn’t mention returning to Twitter. 

Several conservative commentators, Russian state media, and an MSNBC show were duped by the fake statement circulating online, Insider reported. But we found no evidence that it’s actually from Trump. 

We rate claims that it is False.