Donald Trump returns to Musk’s X, posts his mugshot

San Francisco: Former US president Donald Trump finally made a comeback on X (formerly Twitter) after more than two years as he was banned in January 2021 on various social media platforms after the US Capitol riots.

Trump posted his first tweet on X with his mugshot late on Thursday, saying: “Election interference, Never surrender”.

Musk also reacted to Trump with a quote post saying: “Next-level”.

Several followers welcomed the former US president on X, now owned by Elon Musk.

Earlier, Trump surrendered at a county jail in Georgia in an alleged case of racketeering to overturn the outcome of the state’s vote count in the 2020 presidential election. He was arrested and released on bail.

After facing the ban on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms, Trump had started his own social media platform called Truth Social.

On November 18, 2022, Musk ran a poll asking Twitter users if he should reinstate Trump.

There were around 15 million responses, with 51.8 per cent saying yes and 48.2 per cent saying no.

Trump said there was no need for him to come back because he saw “a lot of problems on Twitter”.

Twitter permanently banned President Trump on January 8, 2021, after a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol, leaving five dead.

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter had said in a statement.