Trump planning own social media site, launching within months, don't let it become an echo chamber

#Trump #Internet #SocialMedia #Miller #Twitter

Donald Trump will return to social media in the next few months with a platform of his own, longtime advisor Jason Miller revealed Sunday.

'I do think that we're going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here with his own platform – and this is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media,' Miller said during an interview with Fox News 'MediaBuzz' host Howard Kurtz on Sunday morning.

He added that the new platform will 'completely redefine the game' of social media.

Miller, a principal at SHW Partners and spokesperson for Trump's 2020 reelection campaign, predicted the former president will attract 'tens of millions' of new users to his online presence.

Trump was a prolific Twitter user before and during his presidency, but the social media platform shuttered his account and permanently banned him from posting after January 6, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building.

'After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,' Twitter said in a January 8 statement.

Twitter executives said in February that the ban would stand.

'When you're removed from the platform, you're removed from the platform,' Twitter CFO Ned Segal told CNBC on February 10. 'He was removed when he was president and there'd be no difference for anybody who's a public official once they've been removed from the service.'

Since being booted from his favorite social media site to use and criticize, Trump started releasing statements both from his America First political action committee and from the Office of the 45th President.

Those statements, which are more long-form but reminiscent of Trump's Twitter activity, have been lauded as more presidential than his tweets ever were by supporters and critics.

Miller said he couldn't give too much information about the specifics of Trump's plans for a new social media site, but said it is a long time in the making and will be 'big.'

'I can't go much further than what I was able to just share, but I can say that it will be big once he starts,' Miller told Fox. 'There have been a lot of high powered meetings he's been having at Mar-a-Lago with some teams of folks who have been coming in. And I got to tell you, there have been – it's not just one company that's approached the president. There have been numerous companies. But I think the president does know what direction that he wants to head here.'

He added: 'This new platform is going to be big and everyone wants him. He's going to bring millions and millions, tens of millions of people to this new platform.'

Twitter suspended Trump's account indefinitely shortly before Joe Biden was inaugurated, claiming his posts were inciting violence and spreading false information.

Police have testified that at least 800 people entered the Capitol after a smaller number forced their way in, seeking to block Congress from confirming the November presidential election victory of Joe Biden, The Washington Post reported.

More than 300 people have been charged in connection with the riot, with charges expected for at least 100 more in what authorities describe as one of the largest investigations in American history.

Authorities have said 139 police officers were assaulted by Trump supporters wielding sledgehammers, baseball bats, hockey sticks, crutches and flagpoles. More than 40 people are accused of assaulting police officers.

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died a day after the riot. Acting Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman said the investigation of Sicknick's death remains active and is being led by D.C. police and the FBI.

Trump was accused of inciting the violence during a speech to a crowd on the National Mall shortly before the rioting began. Trump exhorted his supporters to march on Congress, where politicians were meeting to his Democratic opponent's victory.