It must be hard, getting 86'ed from a venue, watching as 2.7 billion people stroll past a skinny, pale bouncer. Maybe you mull around the dumpster outside, in a cloud of cigarette smoke with the Nazis and Laura Loomer, talking about how much that party sucks, actually, that this alley area is way better, and we should start our own thing. Or maybe grab the nearest blonde woman and scream, I’M WITH HER!
Donald Trump tried the latter, and Facebook has booted him again.
Late last night Miami time, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, Fox News commentator, and presumptive senatorial candidate Lara Trump posted screenshots of emails from Facebook. The first warns that she is not to post a planned interview with Donald Trump on her Facebook and Instagram pages. It reads:
Hi folks,
I saw on Lara Trump’s Instagram account that she will be hosting an interview with President Trump tonight. Just a reminder that content posted on Facebook and Instagram in the voice of President Trump is not currently allowed on our platforms (including new posts with President Trump speaking) and will be removed if posted, resulting in additional limitations on accounts that posted it.
This guidance applies to all campaign accounts and Pages, including Team Trump, other campaign messaging vehicles on our platforms, and former surrogates.
Hours later, Mrs. Trump shared an excerpt from the following email which she apparently received after the first message:
We are reaching out to let you know that we removed content from Lara Trump’s Facebook Page that featured Donald Trump speaking.
In a caption, Lara Trump referenced 1984, a novel about a regime that squashes all non-sanctioned alternative modes of communication, and then posted a still-live link to the interview on Rumble.
Facebook confirmed to The Verge and NBC News that it removed the interview.
Donald Trump has attempted numerous times to wedge back into conversation with updates on what he’s been up to. There were the early failed takeovers of the POTUS and TeamTrump accounts, the chaotic imitation tweet on official letterhead, the reported handwritten Liz Cheney burns for aides to tweet, the new official website, and the allies’ buzz about his own social media platform.
Facebook banned Trump on January 7th after he incited a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol that resulted in five deaths. The company’s “Supreme Court,” whose judgments can overrule Mark Zuckerberg, is currently reviewing whether to let the former-President make a comeback. That arrangement takes some heat off the company after four long years appeasing screaming people over smoke alarms.
The banishment of content “in the voice of President Trump” seems to be new, and it isn’t mentioned in Facebook’s previous newsroom statements on the ban. Since January 7th, various news outlets have posted videos of him speaking, such as a statement from the Oval Office and his speech at CPAC.
We’ve asked Facebook to clarify which types of videos of Donald Trump speaking are banned from the platform and we’ll update this post when we hear back.