Shortly after leaving the US state of Georgia, where he was formally arrested under multiple felonies for the fourth time since leaving office, former US President Donald Trump returned to the platform that once banned him indefinitely and that he used as a soap box during much of his presidency.
On August 24, at approximately 9:38 p.m. EST, the social media site now known as X changed forever after Trump returned to the platform following a more than two-and-a-half-year absence.
The former president last posted on January 8, 2021, just two days after riots broke out at the US Capitol, and which led to his banning from the social media platform. Incidentally, his comments made on the site are also at the center of one of his indictments.
That same day, the site then called Twitter issued a “permanent suspension” of Trump’s account, arguing two of his tweets - one saying he would not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration as president and one thanking the “75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me” - as an “incitement to violence.”
In November, Twitter/X owner Elon Musk, who purchased the social media website a month earlier, reinstated Trump’s account after taking a poll of users that showed 52% supported reinstating the former president.
But until today, the former president and current GOP frontrunner declined to post on his Twitter/X account, which has more than 86 million followers at the time of this writing. Trump founded his own Twitter clone called “Truth Social,” which he continued to use similarly to how he utilized his Twitter/X account previously. The message shared on X was identical to a post he made on Truth Social.
The former reality TV show host has not posted again at press time, and it is unclear if he plans to be more active on the platform.