On May 30, a New York jury found former U.S. President Donald Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records. Allegedly, he falsified these records to conceal hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, who said she had an affair with Trump, during the 2016 election.
But as the clock ticks closer to the Republicans’ official candidate selection (and Trump’s sentencing), social media as a whole doesn’t seem to quite know what to do with him.
Trump and TikTok
Remember when Trump tried to get rid of TikTok? It might seem like a long time ago now, but he was the one who actually tried to ban the app during his presidency in 2020. But since then, his views on the app have dramatically changed course, as he spoke out against the app’s potential ban earlier this year. So, his joining of the app was somewhat inevitable.
Since Saturday alone, Trump’s official TikTok account has amassed 4 million views, while Biden’s official campaign account struggles behind at just over 340,000.
Trump and X
Back when X was still Twitter, Trump was a very… animated member of the platform. But this all changed after the Jan. 6 insurrection, with Trump calling the individuals involved “patriots.” This led to the temporary suspension of his account in 2021, which soon turned into a permanent ban.
When Elon Musk took over the platform in November 2022, he ended up reinstating the former President’s account. Since then, he has been courting Trump to get him to return to the app, now called X.
And now, this has escalated into him inviting Trump for an online ‘town hall,’ showing that, more than ever, Trump is embedded into these mainstream platforms.
Trump and Meta
After praising those involved in the violence on Jan. 6, Meta indefinitely suspended Trump’s official Facebook and Instagram pages.
He remained off the platforms until Jan. 25, 2023, with Nick Clegg, Meta’s President of Global Affairs, saying that they had issued certain “guard rails” to deter “repeat offenses.” At the time of writing, Trump’s official Instagram and Facebook pages remain live.
The Social Media Saga Continues
Needless to say, things have changed a lot since January 2021. After a few years of bans, suspensions, dominating fringe right-wing platforms like Rumble and Gab, and launching Truth Social, the former President is back front and center in the mainstream.
It’s just in time for the elections and, it seems, in spite of his status as a convicted felon.
