No, Twitter Has Not Reinstated Donald Trump’s Account After Elon Musk's Takeover

Former US President Donald Trump's account remains suspended as on 30 October 2022.

A screenshot of a tweet, purportedly shared by former United States (US) President Donald Trump, is being widely shared on social media, where Trump appears to thanking the Twitter's new CEO Elon Musk for reinstating his account.

Trump's account was permanently suspended by Twitter on 8 January 2021 "due to the risk of further incitement of violence." This was two days after the Capitol Hill riots.

Though there are speculations of his account being reinstated, Trump's Twitter account remains suspended as on 30 October 2022.

The screenshot of the tweet being shared shows the user's handle as 'TheUltGmr' and uses a photo of the former President. While we could not confirm when the account changed its name, we found that it previously used the screen name 'UR2SLOW.'

CLAIM

Social media users are sharing the screenshot to claim that former US President Donald Trump's Twitter account has been reinstated.

Archives of more posts with the same claim on social media can be seen here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We saw that the screenshot of the tweet being shared uses Trump's photograph and name, but shows the handle as '@TheUltGmr,' whereas Trump's suspended account has the username '@realDonaldTrump.'

We checked '@TheUltGmr' for the tweet in the screenshot and found that the verified account was not using Trump's photograph anymore.

However, an archived version of this tweet matched the screenshot being shared on social media.

(Note: Swipe right for both screenshots.)

Next, we explored this account's archives and found that on 8 September 2022 it operated with the screen name 'UR2SLOW.'

While we were unable to verify when this account changed its screen name, we can confirm that it does not belong to former US President Donald Trump, whose account remains suspended as on 30 October 2022.

@TheUltGmr's verified Twitter account's bio states that it does a "little trolling" and that it is a "parody account."

Evidently, social media users shared a parody account's tweet as one from Trump's account to claim that his suspended account had been reinstated after Twitter was bought by Elon Musk.

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