Donald Trump’s new blog lasted less than a month
Blogging is hard.
By Sara Morrison Jun 2, 2021, VOX
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Trump has waved good-bye to blogging after less than a month. James Devaney/GC Images
Donald Trump’s “communications platform” — also known as a web log or “blog” — will join the Trump Steaks, Trump Airlines, Trump Magazine, Trump Vodka, and Trump 2020 on the list of Trump-branded flops.
“From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” a section of Trump’s website, launched last month and featured tweet-style posts from the former president — which he could no longer place on the actual social media sites he used to dominate because he was banned from them. But now, just like his social media accounts, “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” is no more.
The short-lived site was a letdown from the start. For months, Trump’s team said that Trump would launch his own social media platform after being kicked off Twitter and Facebook. But when “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” went live on May 4, it was not the Twitter competitor some expected, but rather a section of his website that basically functioned as a blog.
Donald Trump’s “communications platform” — also known as a web log or “blog” — will join the Trump Steaks, Trump Airlines, Trump Magazine, Trump Vodka, and Trump 2020 on the list of Trump-branded flops.
“From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” a section of Trump’s website, launched last month and featured tweet-style posts from the former president — which he could no longer place on the actual social media sites he used to dominate because he was banned from them. But now, just like his social media accounts, “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” is no more.
The short-lived site was a letdown from the start. For months, Trump’s team said that Trump would launch his own social media platform after being kicked off Twitter and Facebook. But when “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” went live on May 4, it was not the Twitter competitor some expected, but rather a section of his website that basically functioned as a blog.
Trump posted his thoughts about current events, and fans could then share them on their own social media accounts. There was also a “heart” option with limited functionality. Initially, it didn’t work at all, and then it didn’t allow people who hearted a post to un-heart it — but there was no way for the viewer to see how many others had also hearted the post.
And now, there will be no hearts at all, for the blog has been shuttered and wiped from the internet. The blog page now redirects to a page urging visitors to sign-up for “EXCLUSIVE updates” from Trump via email and phone (it’s mandatory to provide both — these are contact information harvesting operations, after all).
Trump adviser Jason Miller confirmed to CNBC that the blog section of the site is indeed gone and won’t be back, then hinted on Twitter that Trump will be joining another social media platform — without specifying which one.
As for why Trump’s virtual desk disappeared, the Washington Post noted that it never really caught on — it certainly didn’t get nearly the kind of attention Trump’s social media posts did — and that Trump was upset about its low readership and high number of people mocking it. As many bloggers well know and Trump apparently just discovered, blogging is hard and it can take time to find an audience.
As noted above, the Trump team is still insisting that he will either create his own social media platform or join another one (so far, he has resisted using Gab or Parler, either of which would be happy to have him). If that’s true, we’ll see if that foray lasts longer than his month of blog posts did.
Trump closes his ‘beacon of freedom’ website a month after launching it
Jason Miller, senior aide to former president, confirms closing of the ‘From the Desk of Donald J Trump’ online communication tool
Jason Miller, senior aide to former president, confirms closing of the ‘From the Desk of Donald J Trump’ online communication tool
Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, on 28 February 2021. Photograph: Octavio Jones/Reuters
Richard Luscombe
@richlusc
Richard Luscombe
@richlusc
THE GUARDIAN
Wed 2 Jun 2021 20.18 BST
Donald Trump has discontinued the blog-type website he launched in a fanfare less than a month ago as “a beacon of freedom” and “a place to speak freely and safely”.
Jason Miller, a senior aide to the former US president, confirmed the closing of the “From the Desk of Donald J Trump” online communication tool in a statement to CNBC on Wednesday, just weeks after billing the venture as “a great resource” for his boss’s musings.
Miller offered no explanation for the closure, and it remains unclear if it was a voluntary move or was imposed by a third party of some kind, like Trump’s removal from social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook for inciting the deadly 6 January Capitol insurrection.
But in a tweeted reply to a Republican activist questioning if the move was “a precursor to him joining another social media platform”, Miller said: “Yes, actually, it is. Watch this space.”
In the statement to CNBC, Miller attempted to paint the short-lived project as “auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on”.
The Trump blog, a mouthpiece for his false claims about a rigged 2020 presidential election, failed to gain traction and on 21 May the Washington Post reported it had attracted a “staggeringly small audience”.
Last weekend, the website mysteriously crashed after Trump posted more falsehoods about the bizarre election “audit” in Arizona that the former president says provides proof that Joe Biden’s victory was “stolen”, despite the failure of many dozens of lawsuits challenging the result, and local, state and national officials declaring that 2020’s was the most secure election in US history.
Meanwhile, without evidence, Trump insisted that there were “broken seals on boxes, ballots missing, and worse” in Arizona. Shortly after the entry was posted, the website reported a URL processing error, and the blog page went dark completely.
Visitors to the donaldjtrump.com website on Wednesday found only an archive of Trump’s media statements dating back to January and a link to an online shop for Trump merchandise.
Trump and his acolytes have long railed against social media platforms for their perceived bias against him, and despite the apparent one-time popularity of his posts. When Trump’s account was permanently suspended from Twitter he had almost 90 million followers.
Facebook’s oversight committee, meanwhile, ruled last month that his ban should not be lifted, but left the door open for “a final decision” within six months.
The closure of his blog comes as Trump, who is mulling a second presidential run in 2024, prepares to return to campaign-style rallies for the first time since he incited a mob of supporters to overrun the US Capitol building on 6 January in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
On Saturday he will speak at the North Carolina Republicans’ state convention in Greenville, and is planning a series of public events over the summer in other battleground states, including Florida and Ohio.
Wed 2 Jun 2021 20.18 BST
Donald Trump has discontinued the blog-type website he launched in a fanfare less than a month ago as “a beacon of freedom” and “a place to speak freely and safely”.
Jason Miller, a senior aide to the former US president, confirmed the closing of the “From the Desk of Donald J Trump” online communication tool in a statement to CNBC on Wednesday, just weeks after billing the venture as “a great resource” for his boss’s musings.
Miller offered no explanation for the closure, and it remains unclear if it was a voluntary move or was imposed by a third party of some kind, like Trump’s removal from social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook for inciting the deadly 6 January Capitol insurrection.
But in a tweeted reply to a Republican activist questioning if the move was “a precursor to him joining another social media platform”, Miller said: “Yes, actually, it is. Watch this space.”
In the statement to CNBC, Miller attempted to paint the short-lived project as “auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on”.
The Trump blog, a mouthpiece for his false claims about a rigged 2020 presidential election, failed to gain traction and on 21 May the Washington Post reported it had attracted a “staggeringly small audience”.
Last weekend, the website mysteriously crashed after Trump posted more falsehoods about the bizarre election “audit” in Arizona that the former president says provides proof that Joe Biden’s victory was “stolen”, despite the failure of many dozens of lawsuits challenging the result, and local, state and national officials declaring that 2020’s was the most secure election in US history.
Meanwhile, without evidence, Trump insisted that there were “broken seals on boxes, ballots missing, and worse” in Arizona. Shortly after the entry was posted, the website reported a URL processing error, and the blog page went dark completely.
Visitors to the donaldjtrump.com website on Wednesday found only an archive of Trump’s media statements dating back to January and a link to an online shop for Trump merchandise.
Trump and his acolytes have long railed against social media platforms for their perceived bias against him, and despite the apparent one-time popularity of his posts. When Trump’s account was permanently suspended from Twitter he had almost 90 million followers.
Facebook’s oversight committee, meanwhile, ruled last month that his ban should not be lifted, but left the door open for “a final decision” within six months.
The closure of his blog comes as Trump, who is mulling a second presidential run in 2024, prepares to return to campaign-style rallies for the first time since he incited a mob of supporters to overrun the US Capitol building on 6 January in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
On Saturday he will speak at the North Carolina Republicans’ state convention in Greenville, and is planning a series of public events over the summer in other battleground states, including Florida and Ohio.
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