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The Washington Post had reported less than two weeks ago that Trump’s blog and website, complete with a fundraising portal and an online store, was getting fewer visitors than recipe site Delish over one week. His blog posts had been shared in one week less than 2,000 times per day on average, well below his previous reach, the Post reported.
Trump has been forced to grapple with how to reach his supporters after Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies banned him from their platforms — Twitter permanently suspending him and Facebook suspending him for now, though there is a chance he could return. Facebook’s oversight board gave the social media giant six months — just over five months from Wednesday — to review the “arbitrary penalty” imposed on Trump and determine an “appropriate” one.
A person close to Trump had previously told POLITICO that Facebook’s decision would only accelerate the timeline to develop a long-teased new social media platform. In March, Miller told Fox News that the platform would bring Trump back to social media in “about two or three months.”
Twitter had allowed Trump’s blog content on its site “as long as the material does not otherwise violate the Twitter Rules.” Twitter suspended an account that was tweeting Trump’s blog posts word-for-word.
Before the bans, Trump had leaned heavily on Twitter to spread his message and on Facebook for fundraising. Facebook’s decision last month to keep his suspension in place for now left Trump aides panicked, with one person close to Trump’s operation saying the move made it “infinitely harder for him to raise money.”
Both Facebook and Twitter said they suspended the former president because his rhetoric risked causing violence in wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. In a video posted on Twitter amid the chaos of Jan. 6, he told supporters to “go home” but also told them they were “very special.” Well before and after the insurrection, Trump has persistently falsely stated that the election was stolen from him, despite no evidence of widespread fraud.
Trump laid into Facebook and Twitter for their decisions last month, saying on his blog that “Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid of the truth.”
Trump has signaled he will run for president again in 2024, if his health is good.
The Trump Organization is facing a criminal investigation from the New York state attorney general. Trump was the only president ever to be impeached twice, the second time on a single charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Meridith McGraw contributed to this report.
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