Failures to Communicate

By now you’ve heard the good news that Facebook is not going to reinstate Trump’s account, at least for the time being.

But Trump took matters into his own tiny hands. A month ago a spokesperson for Trump announced he would be returning to social media with his own social network platform. Yesterday the birth of the platform was announced —

According to team Trump, the outlet will enable the former president to continue sharing his thoughts and opinions despite being blocked indefinitely from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

“In a time of silence and lies, a beacon of freedom arises. A place to speak freely and safely. Straight from the desk of Donald J. Trump,” text on a video announcing the launch reads.

Except it’s just a blog. It’s not a “platform.” It doesn’t even qualify as
“social media” because it’s not interactive. It does not allow comments, although allegedly people can share Trump’s blog posts on social media. Allegedly.

Don’t let the fact that this webpage is connected to the internet fool you: This website is awful. The entire “communications platform” is a giant loophole designed to bypass Trump’s various social media bans by letting other people tweet out his message on his behalf. But the integration is gloriously janky.

That’s “janky” in the sense that the “share” and “like” buttons weren’t working yesterday. I’m betting the “donate” button works just fine, though.

Most of the posts up right now are gloating that Liz Cheney is awful and is about to be demoted and that Mitt Romney was “booed off the stage” in Utah, except that I don’t believe he was.

We’ll see if the blog brings back Trump’s social media presence. Meanwhile, Neal Rothschild writes at Axios that Trump’s spell over the media broke once he lost his megaphones. “Social media interactions about former President Trump have fallen 91% since January, according to exclusive data from NewsWhip,” he says.

By the numbers: Clicks to Trump stories fell 81% from January to February, another 56% from February to March and 40% from March to April, according to exclusive data from SocialFlow.

  • Following impeachment, the biggest storylines related to Trump have been tied to Biden administration actions, including news about the border wall; speculation about a Trump social media platform; and news about allies like Rudy Giuliani and Kayleigh McEnany, per NewsWhip.

Between the lines: Trump’s ability to broadcast his thoughts to major social platforms disappeared in recent months, but so too did the imperative for news organizations to cover him.

  • Post-presidency, Trump has tried to get his thoughts out through tweet-like press releases, which only get seen if media outlets pick them up.

“Trump’s social media superpower was never his ability to tweet — it was his ability to get the media to cover what he tweeted,” SocialFlow CEO Jim Anderson tells Axios.

See also Paul Rosenzweig, The Atlantic, Ban Him Forever.

10 thoughts on “Failures to Communicate

  1. Maybe we can pull a Sneakers (1992), hack Trump's system, redirect all donations to Planned Parenthood and Greenpeace, and watch Lord Smallgloves's head explode?

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  2. Typical Trump, ever the scammer, to call a blog a "new platform" and have the rubes who donated millions for him to "continue the fight" believe he's showing Facebook a thing or two.  It could have been created for nothing on WordPress or other free blog services.  In the press release it said that users will be able to share posts on Facebook and Twitter.  Sure, by pasting in the urls to the comments.  Which makes it even easier for the social media giants to block.  

    They say Brad Parscale helped create "the new platform."  Do wonders ever cease with these people?

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      • BTW, speaking of the social media giants blocking them, they've already started:

        Twitter Shuts Down Account Sharing Content Identical to Trump’s Recent Blog Posts

        https://www.complex.com/life/twitter-shuts-down-djtdesk-account-trump-blog

        "Early Thursday, the Twitter account @DJTDesk—which featured the same logos present on Trump’s blog—was suspended. Per a screenshot shared by senior NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny, the @DJTDesk account’s bio claimed this was 'not Donald J. Trump tweeting.'"

        Great work, Parscale.

        Absolutely unbelievable, even for them.  Its like the kid standing before you, cheeks stuffed full of cookies, telling you they didn't take cookies from the cookie jar.

        Amazing that they thought they would be able to get around the Twitter ban with this simple-minded approach.

  3. Things that are in the plus column for the New Desk:

    Lots of things to buy and a prominent donate button, of course.

  4. OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO'S!!!!!

    NOT a blog!

    We're sunk!

    I wonder how many millions of bucks he'll try to write-off as a start-up?!?

    • Yeah, it will be a blog the likes of which the world has never seen before.

      Why doesn't he just publish a little red book of his thoughts so his followers have something to reflect upon in their down time of their battle against intellectualism and reality?

      There's no telling how things will play out for Trump's future, but I like to think that when the 300 plus insurrectionists start to go on trial or take plea deals, that Trump's lie is going to be front and center on the national stage. I don't expect that will increase his standing in Republican circles as so many take the hit for Trump's lies.

      I've heard that "Stop the Steal" was a slogan and website created by Roger Stone to be deployed in 2016 in anticipation for Trump's expected defeat in that election. It was put on the shelf then reinstituted when Trump lost to Biden in this last election. I don't know how the minds of the insurrectionists work, but my assumption is that if I was tagged with a felony conviction for the rest of my life and I found out or figured out that it was just a marketing ploy to benefit Trump I certainly wouldn't be a happy camper to know that I was just a Trump stooge.

       There's no need to look to Norway….Just look to Cesar Sayoc

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  5.  This is the moment for major FB advertisers to say that Trumpism is bad for business and they will take their advertising dollars elsewhere if Trump is given an account. I have no leverage on FB because I pay nothing but the metric for revenue is (I think) clicks. So if I want a widget company to threaten to quit FB, if I and thousands of others 'click' on their ad, the cost to them goes up -bigly – with no increase in sales. 

    Now's the time to plan gonzo warfare and let FB and advertisers know we have the muscle to disrupt the system if Trump returns. 

    I'm not a nice person.

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  6. Feel  the force Donny, the force you are denied.  When you play on the dark side with the force the force will be taken from you.  Do not use the force for  revenge or manipulation.  The force is not for the dissemination of lies, half-truths, or control of ditto heads.  Exceptions are allowed for paying customers, but your present credit rating is low even by Russian standards.  We are in business to make money, you know, not to provide charity for failed politicians.  

    When the president says something it is news, breaking news, or even material for a special report.  When an ex-president says something the same material is mostly not so news worthy or fit to print.  Thank goodness.

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