This illustration photo shows former President Donald Trump’s Facebook page on a smartphone screen in Los Angeles, March 17, 2023.
chris delmas | AFP | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump was assigned to Facebook Friday for the first time since the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Riot, which prompted the social media giant to ban the then-president’s account for two years.
Trump, whose Facebook account was reinstated in January, was set to return to the Meta-owned platform and Twitter after the two companies lifted suspensions on his profiles.
Trump’s 2024 Republican presidential campaign had officially petitioned Meta to restore his Facebook account. But until the Friday afternoon publication, Trump had stuck to his own platform, Truth Social, as the outlet of choice for his campaign ads and slander against his political foes.
“I’M BACK!” Trump wrote in all caps in the new Facebook post, above a 12-second video showing the former president speaking at a victory party the night of his 2016 election win over the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
“Sorry to keep you waiting – complicated business. Complicated,” Trump said in that clip.
The post was Trump’s first since the day of the Capitol Riot, when a violent mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol and temporarily derailed lawmakers’ efforts to confirm President Joe’s election victory. Biden in 2020.
At least 1,000 people, many spurred on by false allegations of widespread voter fraud that Trump had spent previous months propagating, have been arrested on charges related to the riot, according to the Justice Department.
The previous 13 posts from Trump’s Facebook account were posted on January 6, 2021. The most recent shows Trump calling on his supporters on Capitol Hill to “remain peaceful.”
Two posts before that, Trump slammed his own vice president, Mike Pence, for lacking “the courage to do what should have been done” after Pence refused to join Trump’s efforts to undo his 2020 election defeat. rejecting key votes from the Electoral College.
Earlier Friday, Youtube said he would lift his own restrictions on Trump’s account, allowing him to post new videos.
A day after the Capitol riot, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcement Trump would be suspended from Facebook, writing, “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue using our service during this time are simply too great.” The company said in June 2021 that Trump would remain banned for two years.
The former Republican president is seeking the White House again in 2024 and currently holds an overwhelming lead in the polls among the few other candidates officially running in the GOP primary so far.
In January, Meta said he would restore Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, explaining in a lengthy blog post that “by default we let people speak, even when what they have to say is distasteful or factually wrong.” .
Twitter, which Elon Musk bought in a $44 billion deal last fall, decided to revive Trump’s account after the website’s new CEO conducted an unscientific Twitter poll on the question.