QAnon and open threats
“Why is everyone so mean?” At Truth Social, Donald Trump is ranting like he used to
Donald Trump has found a new stage at Truth Social after his Twitter exit
© Mark Humphrey / DPA
While Donald Trump’s presidency has been far from uneventful, few things have shaped his perception quite like the daily tirades on Twitter. In view of the investigation against him, he is now getting started again at Truth Social.
Attacks on opponents, praise of allies and a lot of ego boost: Even before his presidency, Twitter was the method of choice for Donald Trump to communicate directly with his supporters. After he was banned there, it was suddenly much quieter around him. Since the investigation against him has picked up speed, Trump has now started using his own platform Truth Social. And the rants there make even his most extreme Twitter days feel moderate.
On Monday alone, the ex-president sent over 60 so-called “truths” (“truths”, as Truth Social calls his version of a tweet), in the last few hours the tirade has continued, sometimes every minute. The content is determined by the allegations against him of having illegally stored secret documents in his residence in Mar-A-Lago. And of attacks against everyone who doesn’t stand firmly enough at his side.
+++ Also read: Because of Twitter withdrawal, Trump writes insults on paper – and urges them on to others +++
Verbal sweep
In addition to attacks on obvious targets such as his successor Joe Biden, the US Federal Police FBI responsible for the Mar-A-Lagos search and Attorney General Merrick Garland, he also targets former allies such as the Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell or his former house newspaper, the “New York Post “Because, in his opinion, they do not support him sufficiently or, as in the case of the “Post”, even call for Trump to finally give up.
Trump isn’t particularly picky about his tools. Between his typically erratically written personal attacks, the ex-president also shares plenty of articles and truths from other users, which he perceives as support. Among them are well-known right-wing news outlets like “Breitbart”, but also a lot of posts that can be assigned to the radical conspiracy myth QAnon. Trump now takes over their stories completely. Be it the story about the supposed “laptop from hell” that is supposed to incriminate Joe Biden’s son Hunter or the idea that the storming of the Capitol was a secret cooperation between Antifa and the FBI: Trump got both through redirects (so-called “retruth”) Legitimation, she also claims as a fact.
He is now even attacking the Covid vaccines developed under his government. A supporter had foisted a false quote on Trump’s daughter Ivanka and accused Biden of manipulating the population with the vaccines. Trump shared this without comment. The rapid development of vaccines in the early days of Trump was still proudly announced as his own achievement. However, that was before the American right took a stand against vaccination and mask requirements.
mockery instead of audience
In other social media such as Twitter, Trump’s tirades cause a lot of ridicule. One of his messages asking “why is everyone so mean?” Republican activist Rick Wilson answered on Twitter: “It’s up to you. Only you.” Other users publicly asked when his children would “finally pick up the phone”. “Which of the seven stages of ‘I was caught stealing classified information’ is that?” joked another in reference to the seven stages of grief management.
Although Truth Social has been operating since the beginning of the year as Trump’s own alternative to Twitter, the ex-president initially made himself scarce there. Only in the last few months has he started posting regular messages to his approximately four million followers there. Compared to Twitter, the audience is still small: Trump not only reached more users there with more than 88 million followers, but media coverage had given many of his tweets significantly more reach. It remains to be seen how long he can continue to rely on Truth Social as a mouthpiece: the service is threatened with bankruptcy due to a lack of income, and the app has just been rejected in the Google Play Store due to a lack of moderation.
Sources: Truth Social, Twitter
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