Culture
Trump's already shut down his silly little blog because no one cared about it
And it won't be coming back.
Former President Donald J. Trump has apparently shut down his self-hosted blog. Navigating to the web address where “The Desk of Donald J. Trump” used to be found now redirects visitors to an email signup list for Trump updates. All of Trump’s statements that had been posted to the blog have now been archived on the site’s News page.
The blog, which first went live less than a month ago, was meant to take the place of Trump’s once-immense social media presence. But poor web design — you couldn’t even interact with the posts other than copying and pasting a link to them — and general lack of interest led to very poor readership. The blog saw just over 212,000 engagements in its first week.
Why Trump and/or his team suddenly decided to remove all traces of the blog is unknown; Trump himself is unable to take to social media with any announcement about it as he once may have. We do know that the site is gone for good, though. Jason Miller, one of Trump’s senior aides, told CNBC that the blog “will not be returning.”
Miller added that the blog was “just an auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on.” Ominous.
And just like that The Desk of Donald J. Trump fades into the internet abyss.
More to come — Trump’s movements and planning have been much quieter than usual. During his tenure as president, the world grew used to Trump’s tendency toward telegraphing his moves via social media posts. He’s been virtually silent now, in comparison. Most of the statements on his site are either continued misinformation about the 2020 election or forced-sounding celebrations of his allies. (See below for a recent example of the latter.)
Overall, Trump’s blog just never really gave the public much insight into the former president’s thoughts in the way his Twitter feed once did. On the topic of what Trump is planning next, Miller says: “Hoping to have more information on the broader efforts soon, but I do not have a precise awareness of timing.”
Blissful silence — It’s been nearly five months since Trump found himself blocked on all mainstream social media — the result of years of spreading misinformation, hate, and violence across various platforms. There’s no end in sight for Trump’s ban in most places, though the Facebook Oversight Board did recently ask the company to review that “indefinite” suspension in the next six months.
Miller clarified when the blog launched that it wasn’t mean to be a social media platform. Meanwhile, other alt-right icons like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell are creating their own social media platforms. We haven’t spent much time on there ourselves, but we haven’t heard great things about that attempt at alt social media, either.
