Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via AP
Former President Donald Trump returned to Twitter — recently rebranded as “X” — on Thursday and made his first post since January 2021, just hours after he was arrested in Fulton County, Georgia.
In Trump’s first post since his Twitter ban following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots, Trump shared the mugshot from his Thursday arrest, along with the caption, “ELECTION INTERFERENCE. NEVER SURRENDER! DONALDJTRUMP.COM.”
While Trump’s ban from the platform was lifted after Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, Trump had opted until now to only make posts on the rival social network Truth Social, which he founded in 2021 following his Twitter ban. Trump Media and Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes is the current CEO of Truth Social.
Trump’s final Twitter post until Thursday had been an announcement that he would not attend the inauguration of President Joe Biden after losing the 2020 presidential election.
For nearly a year, Trump dismissed calls for his return to Twitter, despite Musk’s attempts to court him back to the platform.
“I don’t see any reason for it, they have a lot of problems at Twitter, you see what’s going on. It may make it, it may not make it,” Trump said in November 2022 following his reinstatement.
In January of this year, however, it was reported that Trump wanted to end his Truth Social exclusivity deal and return to Twitter ahead of the 2024 election.
Axios added in June that sources close to Trump’s campaign expected the former president to return to Twitter in the imminent future.
Trump did appear indirectly on Twitter, Wednesday for an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who now posts his show directly to the social network. The interview received more than 700,000 likes.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
