- He's back: Donald Trump returns to X after a long break.
After a long hiatus, Republican Donald Trump has spoken up again on the platform X. Nearly a year after his last post there, the Republican presidential candidate published a series of posts on his X account.
He kicked things off with a campaign video, portraying his journey from his first election victory in 2016 to his current presidential candidacy as a constant struggle against resistance from his political opponents - and as a heroic tale of a man who refuses to be beaten down.
This was followed by several other clips and campaign contributions - and promotion for Trump's planned exchange with X owner Elon Musk on the platform in the early hours of Tuesday. The tech billionaire openly supports the Republican in the current presidential election campaign.
Donald Trump posted his mugshot in 2023
The last time Trump posted something on his X account was at the end of August 2023. On that occasion, he used his historic mugshot as an opportunity to return to the Twitter successor platform X. Trump posted the image that had been taken just before in a prison in Atlanta.
The Republican had surrendered to law enforcement after being indicted in Georgia in connection with attempted election fraud. Trump is the first former president of the US to be indicted, in multiple cases. And he is the first former US president to have to present himself in a prison and be immortalized on a mugshot.
Donald Trump currently has 88 million followers
Before that, there had been more than two and a half years of silence on Trump's account on the platform he had used as a crucial communication channel during his term. The platform, which was taken over by Musk in 2022 and later renamed, had always had a significant number of followers for Trump, currently over 88 million.
The Republican was banned from major online platforms towards the end of his term after his supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. In his online messages before and after the Capitol attack, he openly showed sympathy for the rioters. The platform operators feared that there could be new violence if Trump was not banned - and blocked his accounts.
Since then, Trump has regained access to all major online services. And he has spoken up on several channels. However, he had hardly used X so far - although its new owner Musk had already reinstated him in the fall of 2022. Instead, Trump had built up his own Twitter copy, the Truth Social platform. He uses this intensively. However, he has a significantly smaller reach there with around 7.5 million subscribers.
The Republican elite expressed their support for Trump's resurgence on X, praising his commitment to regular updates despite facing opposition. Despite being indicted in Georgia for election fraud attempts and resulting imprisonment, Trump maintained a substantial following on X, with over 88 million supporters.
