US President Donald Trump, already facing mounting calls to step down or risk impeachment, on Friday suffered further ignominy when Twitter permanently suspended his account, saying the US leader is too dangerous to use the platform.
After a “close review” of tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account, “we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said.
The unprecedented move, which severs Trump from his 88.7 million followers, is an astounding setback for the president in the chaotic waning days of his administration.
Photo: Reuters
It could also prove an insurmountable hurdle should the brash Republican choose to mount a political comeback in 2024, as he has hinted he could do on multiple occasions.
With his presidency imploding, Trump signaled a final, unrepentant display of division by announcing — in his final tweet before the ban — that he would skip the inauguration of US president-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20.
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going,” he wrote.
Biden responded that this was “a good thing,” calling Trump an “embarrassment.”
Two days after Trump sent a mob of followers to march on Congress, his presidency is in free fall, with allies walking away and opponents sharpening their teeth.
Trump, whose actions Wednesday capped his relentless efforts to overturn Biden’s Nov. 3 election win, finally conceded defeat on Thursday and appealed for calm.
“A new administration will be inaugurated on Jan. 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power,” Trump said in a short video.
However, the evidently reluctant concession, in which Trump failed to congratulate Biden or directly admit defeat, was too little, too late to calm outrage over his role in the Capitol invasion.
Five people died in the mayhem, including one woman who was shot dead and a US Capitol Police officer. Flags over the Capitol were lowered to half-staff on Friday.
After the ban, Trump took to the official @POTUS account to accuse Twitter of “trying to silence me.”
“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,” he wrote.
The post was swiftly deleted by Twitter.
Twitter also suspended Trump’s campaign account @TeamTrump.
With the president muted, son Donald Trump Jr took to Twitter to call the platform’s move “absolute insanity.”
While his father is banned, “the ayatollah, and numerous other dictatorial regimes can have Twitter accounts with no issue despite threatening genocide to entire countries and killing homosexuals etc,” Donald Trump Jr wrote on Twitter, presumably referring to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) “would be proud,” he added.
In a blog post, Twitter said that the suspension was based on factors such as evidence that plans for future armed protests were proliferating on and off the platform, “including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on Jan. 17.”
Biden, who won 7 million votes more than Trump, as well as a decisive majority in the vital state-by-state Electoral College, would be sworn in on the Capitol Steps under huge security.
Between drastic COVID-19 crowd restrictions, the absence of Trump, and a new “unscalable” fence around the congressional complex, little about the inauguration would be business as usual.
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