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Donald Trump’s new blog? Much-hyped ‘communications platform’ shows former president is just ‘shouting into the void’, say critics

From the Desk of Donald J. Trump has been dismissed by critics expecting more from the former president’s online communications. Photo: AFP

Donald Trump’s new communication platform has been widely mocked as little more than a “glorified blog”.

Former US President Donald Trump has been banned from Twitter for life. Photo: DPA
Long-time Trump adviser Jason Miller once promised that the former president would create a platform that would “completely redefine the game” on social media. Instead, Trump’s new site, which is attached to an existing website used to sell Make America Great Again merchandise, merely contains short blocks of text and little interaction, making it more reminiscent of a political blog from the mid-noughties, according to critics.

Nu Wexler, a former Google and Facebook executive and Democratic operative, tweeted simply: “He’s launching a blog”.

Miller has since insisted that Trump’s new website is not the social media platform he has spent months hyping and that this will still emerge “in the very near future”.

However, the fact that Trump still has to communicate with his followers via statements posted to his own website illustrates the scale of the challenge he faces in gaining a fraction of the attention he enjoyed before he was banned from social media platforms.

At this point, Trump is just shouting into the void. He isn’t letting anyone shout back
Peter Loge, associate professor, George Washington University
Trump has struggled for attention since he was kicked off Facebook and Twitter in January in the wake of the Capitol riot on January 6.

The drop-off has been dramatic: the media intelligence agency Newswhip found that social media interactions about the former president have fallen by around 91 per cent since January.

Trump’s campaign had initially resorted to mailing out tweet-length statements which would make their way via journalists onto Twitter and into news reports.

Logging onto former US President Donald Trump’s new social media platform, dismissed as little more than “a blog” by critics. Photo: AFP

And while his new communications site represents something of an upgrade from that, the absence of truly interactive features means he is going to continue struggling to generate anywhere near as much internet attention as he did on the mainstream platforms.

“A challenge for Trump is that the most effective online engagement requires interaction,” said Peter Loge, associate professor at the school of media and public affairs at the George Washington University. “Fans want to feel as if they have a relationship with their favourite celebrity. These parasocial relationships are what keep fans coming back and buying more stuff.

“At this point, Trump is just shouting into the void. He isn’t letting anyone shout back. Shouting at people is a less effective way to maintain celebrity status and keep selling new merchandise than finding ways to create the illusion of interaction is.”

There are, of course, some benefits to Trump launching a one-way communications platform rather than a fully fledged social media network.

Alex Stamos, the former cybersecurity chief at Facebook, tweeted a meme mocking Trump’s new website, which pointed out Trump’s campaign wasn’t obliged to moderate any user content if he didn’t have any users.

The move also ensures that the attention remains solely on the former president himself, Loge added. “He is not writing for other outlets, taking part in others’ panels, or joining any other organisations,” he said. “Trump is promoting Trump on the Trump blog on the Trump website … Trump’s blog appears to be reaching the people he wants to reach and doing what he wants it to do.”

Jared Kushner and Donald Trump might be checking social media – but now the former president is offline. Photo: @ivankatrump/Instagram

Nonetheless, it is likely to be the decision of Facebook’s Oversight Board that will have the most decisive hand in determining the viability of a potential 2024 run for Trump as far as social media is concerned.

While Trump’s Twitter ban is permanent, his Facebook suspension is indefinite, and the Facebook Oversight Board’s decision this week to prolong his suspension for another six months raises the prospect that he could, in theory, be back on mainstream social media within the year.

That may prove to have a bigger impact on his political fortunes than any new “communications platform” he chooses to use in the meantime.

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Donald Trump
  • Banned from Twitter and Facebook, Donald Trump has pledged to reclaim the dialogue with his own communications platform, but spectators are not impressed so far
  • From the Desk of Donald J. Trump amounts to little more than ‘glorified blog’ reminiscent of a mid-noughties website, according to critics