We’ve known for some time now that former President Donald Trump has had most of his social media accounts suspended or permanently banned. Apparently a person who is no longer in a position to exert any form of executive authority is still too dangerous to be allowed to say words. But did you know that nobody else can post any content where the former president’s voice is heard? That’s apparently the case on Facebook and Instagram at a minimum. Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara learned that lesson the hard way this week. She filmed an interview with The Donald and put a teaser on Instagram to preview the video. That was all it took for her to receive an email “warning” her in advance that if she posted such a video, it would be removed and restrictions could be place on her account. She posted it on Facebook anyway and good to their word, they deleted the video and sent her another threatening note. (NBC News)

Facebook removed a video featuring former President Donald Trump, a company spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday, citing his indefinite suspension from the platform.

The removal tests just how far Facebook is willing to interpret its suspension, which followed the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The video featuring Trump was posted by his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who was interviewing the former president. Lara Trump had teased the interview in an Instagram photo of the sit-down on Tuesday.

An email Lara Trump posted to her Instagram account later on Tuesday shows a message warning her team about uploading the video. The email reminded them that “content posted on Facebook and Instagram in the voice of President Trump is not currently allowed on our platform (including new posts with President Trump speaking) and will be removed if posted, resulting in additional limitations on accounts that posted it.” A Facebook source confirmed the veracity of the email.

I remain unsure if all of these actions by the social media giants are a result of their hatred of Donald Trump, their fear of him and what he might say about them, or a combination of both. But whatever the reason, the posing, virtue signaling and temper tantrums coming from Facebook these days have long since reached comical levels. Perhaps you can buy into the idea that a sitting President of the United States could be so dangerous that his words alone could bring about the end of the world and he should be barred from social media platforms. (Well… I can’t, but clearly, someone can.) At any given moment he could whip out his phone and God only knows what he might decide to post or tweet. But now he has returned to private life. He can’t sign any executive orders or start any wars.

Still, even if you see some rationale for keeping him off of these platforms even after he leaves office, how is a prerecorded video posted on another user’s account going to cause any “harm” to anyone, aside from the odd TDS sufferer who is so triggered that they collapse in a pool of tears at the sight of the man? Did anyone at Facebook even bother looking at the video to see if it contained any dubious content?

That doesn’t appear to be the case. If there were a specific objection to something Trump said during the interview, I would imagine that Facebook would have mentioned it in their email to Lara Trump. Instead, all they said was that any content “in the voice of President Trump” is banned from the platform. The man’s voice is apparently so powerful that the mere act of speaking could result in irreparable harm to other users. Just imagine having that sort of godlike, oratory power.

I think I’ll try a quick experiment. I’ll include some random YouTube video of the former President speaking at the bottom of this article. When it goes live, I’ll send out a tweet and put up a Facebook post promoting the article and include the phrase “video of Donald Trump” in the text. I wonder if they too will disappear? Let’s sit back and wait to see.

Just for a blast from the past, here’s Donald Trump’s victory speech from November of 2016.