Facebook, YouTube restore Trump's accounts as his campaign heats up

AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell

Trump is free to take up where he left off on two big social media platforms – Facebook and YouTube. Both Big Tech companies brought back Trump’s accounts as his campaign to be the Republican presidential nominee heats up. So far, Trump has not used his YouTube channel and on Facebook, his return was a two-word post with a very short video clip from the 2016 campaign. “I’M BACK!” was his message on Facebook.

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All caps. The man loves to write in caps. Trump framed his return to Facebook by opining that the move to reinstate his account would be a big help to Facebook. It would help Facebook more than it helps him.

Ahead of Meta’s announcement that Trump would be able to return, his campaign confirmed to Fox News Digital that it was discussing a potential reinstatement with CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Trump, however, downplayed any need he had for the platform, telling Fox that Facebook had lost a whopping $700 billion since his ban took effect.

“If they took us back, it would help them greatly, and that’s okay with me,” Trump said. “But they need us more than we need them.”

The Trump campaign in both 2016 and 2020 relied on social media to get his message out, as other candidates did. Trump was a prolific tweeter before that account was permanently suspended. When Elon Musk bought Twitter, he brought back Trump’s account. Trump has not used it though. It may be due to an agreement he has with Truth Social, which he uses regularly. That platform doesn’t have the reach that Twitter does.

Today a spokesperson for Trump is busy walking back a bombshell Trump delivered this morning on Truth Social – he declared that he will be arrested on Tuesday. Then he called for protests.

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“NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!,” Trump wrote.

Just when I thought Trump was taking a lower-key approach to campaign this time around and beginning to finally leave 2020 behind, he makes a plea for protests by his supporters. That immediately brings the riot of January 6 to mind. What could go wrong?

The truth is that if Trump is indicted by a partisan Democrat in New York next week, we are in uncharted territory. The D.A. knows he won’t win the case against Trump for paying hush money to Stormy Daniels yet he’s been pressured into pursuing it by other partisan Democrats in New York. It is a historic move if it happens. There is no confirmation that it will happen next week, though, and now the Trump people are walking his statement back. Take it as you will.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy calls for “relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being USD to subvert our democracy.” He called the potential indictment of Trump “an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violet criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.” He’s not wrong. No other former president has ever been indicted.

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Elon Musk understands that if Trump is indicted and arrested – particularly if he appears on camera in handcuffs – he’ll be re-elected in a landslide. American voters know this is about partisan politics, whether they like Trump or not. Men are never prosecuted for paying off women with whom they cheat on their wives. Think of how many men would have fallen into that category by now. The media ignored Tara Reade’s accusations against Biden. Bill Clinton skated. John Edwards was not convicted.

He hasn’t posted any new videos yet but YouTube has restored Trump’s channel. Two years ago, he was suspended from the platform indefinitely following the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

“Starting today, The Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and the ability to upload new content is restored,” Leslie Miller, YouTube’s vice president of public policy, said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. “We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, balancing that with the importance of preserving the opportunity for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in thrun-upup to an election. This channel will continue to be subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube.”

While YouTube’s statement did not include a mention of whether the videos it took action on and deleted would be restored, Axios, the first outlet to report on the restoration of Trump’s channel, stated “those videos will not be restored.”

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Just as social media platforms all lined up and canceled Trump, now they are all bringing his accounts back. It’s progressive groupthink at its strongest. Imagine if Barack Obama did something and was knocked off all of his social media accounts. Never mind. You can’t because we all know it would never happen. Censorship is bad unless it is against a Republican. Obama called for a boycott of Fox News Channel when he was president. Democrats are once again doing that. It’s cute how they claim that FNC isn’t a real news organization. CNN and MSNBC gave us four years of Russia, Russia, Russia, and the Steele Dossier, but do go on. Not to mention the continued media black-out on the Biden crime family operations and our very compromised president, Joe Biden.

We’ll see if next week brings about a new direction for political discourse. Democrats think an indictment will knock Trump out of the presidential race. It will only embolden him and his supporters. The backfire will be spectacular.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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