President Donald Trump often brags about being able to rally his cult-like following via his popular Twitter account. But on Friday night, he was suspended from the social media platform and that reportedly didn't sit well with the president.
A senior administration official told POLITICO that Trump went "ballistic" when he learned that Twitter had permanently banned his account. Officials claim that the president was "scrambling to figure out what his options are." This led the White House to issue a statement explaining that Trump is looking into creating his own social media platform or partnering with other sites.
Despite using the platform to lampoon his political adversaries and/or spew half-truths to the public, Twitter allowed Trump to keep his account in the name of free speech. Following his attempted coup, the site found it appropriate to remove him because of two tweets that seemingly signaled violence.
"The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!" the first tweet read. The second indicated that he won't be attending Joe Biden's inauguration.
"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter explained. "In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action."
"These two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President's statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks," Twitter continued in its statement.
Twitter has banned Trump's @realDonaldTrump account, but has also deleted his @TrumpTeam campaign account as well. At this point, Trump still has access to the @POTUS and @WhiteHouse. He used the former to condemn Twitter for stifling his free speech in a series of now-deleted tweets.
