Donald Trump loves Twitter.
In 2017, he stated he wouldn't have grow to be president with out it.
"Twitter is an excellent factor for me, as a result of I get the phrase out… I may not be right here speaking to you proper now as president if I didn't have an trustworthy method of getting the phrase out," he stated.
After Twitter's new proprietor Elon Musk reversed Mr Trump's everlasting suspension, you might need thought the previous president would soar on the probability to return again. However to date, he hasn't taken up that provide.
Why?
Nicely, solely Donald Trump is aware of the reply to that query for certain.
However what we do know is he has some huge cash to lose from tweeting.
"The only rationalization is the most probably – it's about cash," says Josh Tucker, professor of politics at New York College (NYU).
After Donald Trump was kicked off Twitter, he created his personal social media platform referred to as Fact Social – that appears an terrible lot like Twitter.
To grasp the monetary bind Donald Trump is in, you need to perceive the complicated nature of Fact Social's enterprise arrange.
Final 12 months, the personal firm that owns Fact Social, Trump Media & Expertise Group (TMTG), introduced its intention to merge with a shell firm buying and selling on the inventory trade referred to as Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC).
DWAC is what's generally known as a Particular Goal Acquisition Firm (Spac). Spacs are hyped as a technique to pace up the usually gradual technique of taking a non-public firm public. In easy phrases, it means merging an organization that isn't on a inventory trade with one that’s.
Each TMTG and DWAC have agreed to merge, although the deal has not but been accomplished. However that hasn't stopped traders piling cash into DWAC – all of them speculating that the deal will undergo. The shell firm is at present valued at greater than $800m (£665m).
Contemplating DWAC would solely be buying a couple of quarter of TMTG, Mr Trump's newly merged firm could be price not less than $3-4bn, says Michael Ohlrogge, an instructional specialising in Spacs.
"He would personal the overwhelming majority. He would personal in all probability 70 or 80% of it."
If all of it goes via, it could make this enterprise enterprise some of the profitable of Donald Trump's profession.
However the important thing to holding inventory worth excessive is ensuring that the previous president stays on Fact Social – and solely so.
It's exhausting to see what Fact Social has going for it with out Donald Trump. The social media firm was created by him. Why ought to even his supporters use the platform if he’s posting elsewhere?
Fact Social is already struggling to draw customers. Analytics agency Related Net estimates the platform had eight million website visits in September 2022 – down from 11.5 million in July. For a social media firm, that’s tiny.
Related Net estimates that Twitter had 9 billion website visits in September.
If Donald Trump have been to cease posting, or do it elsewhere, he may probably tank the share value of DWAC, wiping a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} off its worth.
So necessary was Donald Trump's exclusivity with Fact Social to the proposed merger with DWAC, {that a} authorized provision was positioned within the settlement.
It states that "President Trump is mostly obligated to make any social media submit on Fact Social and should not make the identical submit on one other social media website for six hours."
It signifies that not solely may Donald Trump lose some huge cash by utilizing Twitter (by spooking traders) however he may additionally get sued.
"It's exhausting to say for certain who would win, but it surely wouldn't be a very loopy go well with to attempt to convey," says Ohlrogge.
It means Donald Trump is now in a quandary. He may need to return to Twitter. However he’s financially – to not point out legally – incentivised to not.
There are, nevertheless, different components at play that would result in him tweeting as soon as extra.
For starters, DWAC's share value has behaved in very unusual methods just lately.
Relatively than it merely being a spot the place individuals can de facto put money into Fact Social, individuals have been buying DWA shares as a method of investing within the former president himself.
"It's a meme inventory," says Michael Klausner, Professor of Legislation at Stanford College. Meme shares are firms which have a number of small traders who’re on-line or social media followers, who can drive the share value up and down.
Klausner says many who’ve invested in DWAC are Mr Trump's personal supporters.
"They suppose that Trump's identify connected to one thing goes to be useful," he says.
It means DWAC's share value goes up when Donald Trump's fortunes are on the rise, and down when they’re taking a flip for the more severe.
On Monday 7 November, it surged after studies emerged that he deliberate to run for president in 2024. However 9 days later, when he lastly confirmed the information in a speech that was criticised as "low vitality" – the inventory value fell.
The idea right here is that though DWAC is merging with Fact Social, what it's actually doing is giving Donald Trump a possibility to drift himself – his private model – on the inventory trade. If that’s the case, it wouldn't matter a lot if Mr Trump have been to cease utilizing Fact Social – because the social media firm is just a proxy for the person himself.
For Josh Tucker from NYU, the state of affairs raises attention-grabbing ethical questions.
"I’ve by no means personally heard of one thing like this earlier than – that there’s a massive sum of money monitoring what appears to be the political fortunes of a politician."
He warns {that a} politician may go on to make selections based mostly not on what is nice for his or her political aspirations, however their monetary ones as an alternative.
"If you happen to're a Republican, you may want your Republican nominee to make use of the media to the very best of their capability," he says.
Tucker argues that if Republicans have been to elect Donald Trump as their presidential nominee, they might count on him to utilise wider social media in campaigning – quite than simply limiting himself to 1 platform for monetary acquire.
However Donald Trump could have anticipated this drawback. Buried within the merger settlement there may be one other provision that permits him to make use of different social media platforms for "political messaging".
It might be a "loophole", says Klausner, that will permit Trump to tweet with out breaching the contract.
Not solely that, however Mr Trump is just sure by the settlement to submit solely on Fact Social till July 2023, says Ohlrogge.
"My studying is after that time [legally] he'd have the opportunity submit immediately on Twitter, with out posting first on Fact Social," he says.
There’s one more reason to suppose Donald Trump may come again onto Twitter. The merger itself is at present below Federal investigation.
The deal may nonetheless fall via, at which level Donald Trump's authorized dedication to submit solely on Fact Social would even be ripped up.
Mr Trump may lose cash, however it could open the door nonetheless wider for a Twitter return.
As with a lot of Mr Trump's monetary affairs, it's sophisticated. And Donald Trump shouldn’t be an individual who is simple to foretell.
However what we do know is that have been he to stay with Fact Social solely, and full the Spac merger, he would probably earn a small fortune.
It's exhausting to see how that's not a significant component in his pondering. Will that calculation change as we get nearer to an election?
It might nicely do. However for now, Mr Trump says he's staying put.
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