While rumors were that Trump would threaten with a lawsuit if his needs weren’t met, the campaign hasn’t done so—at least not yet.
Both Facebook and Twitter banned Trump a day after conservatives stormed the Capitol in an attempt to claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
While Twitter placed a permanent ban at the time, new owner Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s account on Nov. 19. Trump has access to his account now, but he hasn’t tweeted yet.
On the other hand, Facebook instated a limited ban that was to be reviewed after two years, starting Jan. 7 of this year.
“Trump is probably coming back to Twitter. It’s just a question of how and when,” a Republican who wished to stay anonymous told NBC News. “He’s been talking about it for weeks, but Trump speaks for Trump, so it’s anyone’s guess what he’ll do or say or when.”
According to Media Matters, the day before Trump announced his 2024 presidential candidacy, he amplified more than 50 posts from QAnon-supporting accounts on Truth Social. The posts came at a time when Meta shared that Trump’s political speech would be ineligible for fact-checking.
“If former President Trump makes a clear, public announcement that he is running for office, he would be considered a politician under our program policies” and “political speech is ineligible for fact-checking,” Meta said in a memo on Nov. 15.
Of the 50 posts shared, a majority of the posts included references to the harmful QAnon conspiracy theory that has been tied to various acts of violence and is considered a potential domestic terror threat by the FBI, Media Matters reported.
Other posts also made claims about election fraud, including one referring to the Capitol riot as when “millions of Americans stood faithfully by President Trump in protest of the stolen election.” To make matters worse, QAnon influencers took notice of Trump’s posts and celebrated them.
But talking about QAnon theories and a stolen election is not all Trump is doing on social media. As the Justice Department continues to look into Trump’s classified documents scandal, he is taking to social media to make his “arguments.”
In a post on Wednesday, he even referred to the FBI as “the Gestapo,” referencing how he took “cool” folders and that the controversy he was involved in was just about “ordinary, inexpensive folders with various words printed on them.”
Trump is never going to change and his words are going to continuously cause harm. As his posts on Truth Social show, no ban is going to make him aware of the consequences his lies have.
On the first episode of season two of The Downballot, we’re talking with Sara Garcia, the strategy and outreach manager at Crooked Media—home of Pod Save America—about everything her organization does to mobilize progressives and kick GOP ass. Sara tells us how Crooked arose to fill a void in the media landscape, how it not only informs listeners but also gives them tools to take action, and some of her favorite shows that she loves to recommend to folks.
Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard also discuss the Republican shitshow currently unfolding in Congress—and starkly different outcomes in two state legislatures that just elected new House speakers via bipartisan coalitions; the landslide win for the good guys in a special election primary in Virginia; why George Santos faces serious legal trouble that will very likely end with his resignation; and the massive pushback from progressive groups and labor unions against Kathy Hochul’s conservative pick to be New York’s top judge.
Aysha Qamar
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