From his first executive tweet on the morning of inauguration day 2017 to his final tweet on Friday, announcing that he would not attend his successor’s inauguration, Donald Trump’s personal Twitter account has served as the president’s official platform.
For four years, the @realDonaldTrump Twitter feed was both public square and personal dialogue, a place where he made policy announcements and taunted political enemies; threatened military reprisal and boasted about his TV ratings. But perhaps most dangerous of all, it was a place where he unleashed a combustible stream of misinformation, lies and outrage to his more than 88 million followers.
Twitter permanently suspends Trump’s account to prevent ‘further incitement of violence’
After he was defeated by Joe Biden, Trump used his account to amplify conspiracy theories and lies about the election result. Twitter began placing warning labels on his claims. But the missives kept coming.
On Wednesday, a mob of rioters loyal to the president stormed the US Capitol in a violent attempt to overturn the results of a presidential election he lost unambiguously. Following the deadly insurrection, Twitter locked Trump’s account for 12 hours and required him to delete a series of tweets it said were in violation of the platform’s policies.
And on Friday, Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account, citing the “risk of further incitement of violence”, indefinitely muting the president’s megaphone of choice.
His banishment from Twitter is likely to further enrage the president at a moment when even his allies fear what he may do in his final days. The removal is also a symbolic censure of a president whose use of the platform to spread lies and sow discontent helped fuel his unlikely political rise and paved the way for his presidency’s dark end.❐
Trump permanently suspended from Twitter after Capitol siege https://t.co/2Q4sXcsCvr pic.twitter.com/fSF0dD0YDF
— New York Post (@nypost) January 9, 2021
