May 12, 2022: -Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he would lift Twitter’s ban on former President Donald Trump if his acquisition goes through.

“Permanent bans should be rare and reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts. I think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk said at FT Live’s Future of the Car conference. “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”

“I would reverse the permanent ban,” added Musk, who is expected to become interim CEO following the takeover. “I don’t own Twitter yet. So this is not like a thing that will happen because what if I don’t own Twitter?”

Twitter suspended Trump from the platform in January 2021 following the attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol permanently. The company said it decided after the Jan. 6 riot “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Trump was an avid tweeter and had more than 80 million followers on the platform.

Once Musk announced he was interested in taking over the company in part to make it a free speech platform, questions arose about whether he would invite Trump back to Twitter. Trump said last month he wouldn’t return to the social network if he had the chance.

“No, I won’t be going back on Twitter,” Trump told CNBC. Trump launched Truth Social after the ban, billed as a free-speech alternative to Big Tech platforms.

“I will be on Truth Social within the week. It’s on schedule. We have a lot of people signed up. I like Elon Musk. I like him a lot. He’s an excellent individual. We did a lot for Twitter when I was in the White House. I was disappointed by the way I was treated on Twitter. I won’t be going back on Twitter,” Trump said.

Elon Musk acknowledged that Trump said he wouldn’t return to the platform on Tuesday. Still, few people close to him say they expect Trump to return to Twitter anyway.

White House officials and Democratic strategists have worried about a Musk Twitter takeover ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Some members of the Biden administration had become concerned that Musk would allow Trump and other Republican operatives who were banned from the platform to return, CNBC reported.