Former President Donald Trump launched his own communications platform Tuesday, allowing him to communicate directly with his followers through comments, images and videos months after being banned from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
The platform, “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” can be found at www.DonaldJTrump.com/desk.
The platform allows followers to share his posts to social media sites, but does not include a feature to let users reply or engage with Trump’s posts directly.
“This is just a one-way communication,” one person familiar with the matter told Fox News. “This system allows Trump to communicate with his followers.”
The new site features a video that says, “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.”
One Twitter user shared the video, stating, “Promo video posted on Trump’s website for his newly announced platform.”
According to Fox News, the site is apparently powered by Campaign Nucleus, a “digital ecosystem made for efficiently managing political campaigns and organizations,” developed by his former campaign manager, Brad Parscale.
The new site was launched just one day before Facebook’s independent oversight board is expected to decide whether to uphold the former president’s indefinite suspension from the social media platform and Instagram.
“The Oversight Board will announce its decision on the case concerning former US President Trump on its website at oversightboard.com/news on May 5, 2021 at approximately 9:00 a.m. EDT,” the board tweeted Monday.
Earlier this year, Facebook blocked Trump’s access to his Facebook and Instagram accounts following the January 6 Capitol demonstration.
In early January, the former president was also banned from Twitter due to “the risk of further incitement of violence.”
“After close review of review of recent Tweets from [Trump’s] account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” the company announced.
In February, the social media giant confirmed that Mr. Trump would never be allowed back on Twitter even if he runs for office again.
“The way our policies work, when you’re removed from the platform, you’re removed from the platform – whether you’re a commentator, you’re a CFO, or you are a former or current public officials,” Twitter’s Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal said.
“Remember, our policies are designed to make sure that people are not inciting violence, and if anybody does that, we have to remove them from the service and our policies don’t allow people to come back.”
