Back in January, Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter after he doubled down on the lies that generated the violence on Jan. 6 by both continuing those lies and praising the insurgents. Facebook has since continued Trump’s temporary suspension “indefinitely.” Soon after, stories began to circulate that Trump was either going to buy out an existing social media platform (presumably using the funds of those still sending him checks to “stop the steal”) or launch his own.
By March, Trump assistant Jason Miller popped up on Fox News to say that Trump was returning to social media with his own platform. “This is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media,” said Miller. “It’s going to completely redefine the game, and everybody is going to be waiting and watching to see what exactly President Trump does. But it will be his own platform.”
Earlier this month, Trump did in fact launch a platform that redefined the game. He redefined it in terms of a pre-2000 blog that allowed only Trump to post and no one else to comment. That’s not to say that “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” didn’t have at least one innovative feature—it contained a like button that, once turned on, could never be turned off. It was perfect. Except for one thing: No one was showing up to read it.
For a mere three weeks, Trump’s blog existed as a pure demonstration of his growing irrelevance. But this morning, CNBC reported that Jason Miller was back with the next exciting update: Trump’s blog has been scrubbed from his site. And it’s not coming back.
As Jessica Sutherland noted on May 22, while Trump’s erratic posts on his “desk” blog were dutifully picked up by the right-wing media, it’s not as if anyone else was hovering around waiting for the off chance that he might speak. That put Trump’s new site way down the list of most visited websites. Like … down below sites seeking to place pets from shelters and well below sites that teach people to properly grill steak (without ketchup).
Mostly, Trump’s blog site seemed to exist as an example of his lack of a team capable of genuine technical work, and as an example of how his ego allowed him to believe that a site posting occasional statements from a single person—most of them exactly the sort of nonsense that he used to deliver via tweet—could remain somehow relevant.
Still, Miller isn’t ruling out a return to social media for Trump, though he does “not have a precise awareness of timing.”
Honestly, Trump should be able to create an alternative to conservative sites like Parler for the cost of a couple of Python programmers and a rented server. It’s not as if those sites are doing anything that represents a great technical challenge. The only challenge will be Trump agreeing to be on a platform where the only voice isn’t his voice.
But if Trump does create a new site, you can bet it will have some pretty simple community guidelines.
By March, Trump assistant Jason Miller popped up on Fox News to say that Trump was returning to social media with his own platform. “This is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media,” said Miller. “It’s going to completely redefine the game, and everybody is going to be waiting and watching to see what exactly President Trump does. But it will be his own platform.”
Earlier this month, Trump did in fact launch a platform that redefined the game. He redefined it in terms of a pre-2000 blog that allowed only Trump to post and no one else to comment. That’s not to say that “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” didn’t have at least one innovative feature—it contained a like button that, once turned on, could never be turned off. It was perfect. Except for one thing: No one was showing up to read it.
For a mere three weeks, Trump’s blog existed as a pure demonstration of his growing irrelevance. But this morning, CNBC reported that Jason Miller was back with the next exciting update: Trump’s blog has been scrubbed from his site. And it’s not coming back.
As Jessica Sutherland noted on May 22, while Trump’s erratic posts on his “desk” blog were dutifully picked up by the right-wing media, it’s not as if anyone else was hovering around waiting for the off chance that he might speak. That put Trump’s new site way down the list of most visited websites. Like … down below sites seeking to place pets from shelters and well below sites that teach people to properly grill steak (without ketchup).
Mostly, Trump’s blog site seemed to exist as an example of his lack of a team capable of genuine technical work, and as an example of how his ego allowed him to believe that a site posting occasional statements from a single person—most of them exactly the sort of nonsense that he used to deliver via tweet—could remain somehow relevant.
Still, Miller isn’t ruling out a return to social media for Trump, though he does “not have a precise awareness of timing.”
Honestly, Trump should be able to create an alternative to conservative sites like Parler for the cost of a couple of Python programmers and a rented server. It’s not as if those sites are doing anything that represents a great technical challenge. The only challenge will be Trump agreeing to be on a platform where the only voice isn’t his voice.
But if Trump does create a new site, you can bet it will have some pretty simple community guidelines.