Is This Why Donald Trump Is Anxious To Get On Twitter Again?
Donald Trump is sick of being silenced. The former president is reportedly desperate to get his Twitter account back so he can resume sharing his deepest thoughts with millions of people. According to MSNBC, Trump is taking drastic action to get back online.
He's asked a federal judge to force Twitter's hand because, as has quickly become obvious, Trump doesn't have nearly as much reach with his recently launched personal website as he did with the social media platform. Evidently, if Trump could reach his audience any other way, he would. The former reality star asserts that his First Amendment rights are being violated because Twitter is, essentially, censoring him.
However, the First Amendment protects citizens against government censorship. Twitter is a private company and can run its site however it sees fit. Considering that Trump breached the rules of the platform on multiple occasions, most recently by inciting the deadly Capitol riot, the most shocking thing about the Twitter ban was that it didn't happen sooner.
Trump may be complaining about being treated unfairly, but filing a suit makes it seem less like a hissy fit and more like a compelling legal argument. However, regardless of how it pans out in the end, Trump trying to legally force his way back onto Twitter proves just how anxious he is to get back on there — and this is why.
Donald Trump badly needs to increase his ratings
According to Axios, Donald Trump is so eager to get back on Twitter because his online engagement is at an all-time low. Data from SocialFlow confirms that, no matter how the former president tries to issue his various missives, they simply don't land as hard outside of the social media platform. His profile dropped considerably once President Joe Biden took over, obviously, but, in the ensuing months, the numbers have continued to go down.
This has been exacerbated by the fact that Trump is being written about less overall. For instance, there were 26% fewer stories published about him in August and September 2021, per Axios, while interest in them is also waning. In fact, there's been 28% less engagement in Trump-related stories over the past couple of months alone.
Funnily enough, the biggest engagement came on May 12, 2021, when Liz Cheney was removed from House GOP leadership while, on Sept. 9, interest briefly increased again after Trump endorsed her primary opponent. He's filed lawsuits against the CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter, claiming censorship across the board.
Trump could return to Facebook in 2023, when his two-year suspension expires, though. As MSNBC notes, it's unlikely that Twitter will be scared off by a lawsuit considering how much the company is worth. But Trump will likely fight anyway since he's previously used lawsuits against social media companies to fundraise.
If Trump plans to run again in 2024, he'll need all the help he can get.