President Trump is known for his love of Twitter and social media. His hilarious, angry, insightful and inflammatory remarks helped propel him to the Presidency.
But now Twitter has banned him permanently on Friday night after claiming his tweets are “inciting violence.”
This comes following Wednesday’s protests in Washington where hundreds of Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill and entered and vandalized the building.
The protests led to 5 deaths so far, including one unarmed Trump supporter shot down in the halls of Congress, one Capitol Hill police officer struck on the head with a fire extinguisher and three other Trump supporters who died of medical emergencies.
Trump put out a video saying he understood protesters’ anger but that they had to go home in peace. Then Twitter suspended him. Now he’s banned for good. And he’s not taking it well at all according to reports.
The following accounts have all either had tweets deleted or been suspended outright after Trump tried tweeting from them:@realDonaldTrump@POTUS@thedonalddotwin@garycoby@TeamTrump
He doesn't seem to be taking the news especially well.
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) January 9, 2021
Senior Admin Official: Trump is ‘Ballistic’ Over Ban
According to a senior administration official, Trump is “ballistic” about the ban and is “scrambling to figure out what his options are.”
Trump has used Twitter to fire people, jumpstart political careers, help pass laws and pump up his fans for years. The banning of his account is a big blow. The President says he has been talking to other sites about changing over to them while “we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future.”
The specifics of these plans aren’t clear, what is clear is that one of Trump’s biggest bullhorns for communicating with the world and taking over the news cycle has been taken from him and he’s furious.
Trump Tries to Tweet from Other Accounts, Gets Blocked
Following Friday night’s ban – which Twitter said was motivated by Trump supporters planning further violence and egged on by his messages – the President hunted around for other accounts to get his voice heard.
Trump’s attempts to tweet from @garycoby @TeamTrump and @thedonalddotwin all resulted in immediate account bans and were unsuccessful.
He then tried going the more official route and went and tweeted from @POTUS and @WhiteHouse but his tweets were almost immediately removed. His tweets blamed the radical left for trying to destroy free speech and silence conservative voices. They read:
“As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me — and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me.”
And:
“Twitter may be a private company, but without the government’s gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long. I predicted this would happen. We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in their future. We will not be SILENCED! Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH. They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely… STAY TUNED!”
Twitter says @POTUS and @WhiteHouse won’t be suspended but it’s clear they are removing new tweets from the President on that site.
Rumors that Trump may be joining Parler are unverified and that site has been banned from Google Play and may be banned from the Apple Store, so it’s not clear if he really will be making the jump to Parler, starting his own social media network or pursuing other options legally against Twitter.
