Trump supporters attack police and security forces as people try to storm the US Capitol on January … [+]
Donald Trump had his Facebook and Instagram accounts restored on Thursday, despite the fact that the former president orchestrated an attempted coup against the government of the United States on January 6, 2021. Trump has not yet posted new material to either account.
The last Facebook messages sent by Trump, a continued threat to the safety and security of the country, were in 2021 and included a call for the insurrectionists to remain peaceful, though that was long after the violence against Capitol Police had already started.
Earlier Facebook messages to his supporters who’d assembled in Washington, D.C. were more characteristic of Trump, putting a target on the back of his Vice President Mike Pence.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” one of the restored Facebook posts reads.
There is no evidence that the 2020 election experienced any widespread voter fraud, as Trump has repeatedly alleged. In fact, many of the people who’ve been since charged with voter fraud were Trump supporters. In the latest case to make national news, a 55-year-old woman in Iowa allegedly voted twice for Trump, fearing one of her votes would be changed, because the “polls are rigged.”
Again, there was no evidence to support the lies that Trump has been spreading about election fraud.
Trump started his own social media company called Truth Social, which has struggled with low user numbers since it was launched in early 2022. Truth Social is largely an echo chamber for Trump supporters, where Trump himself often posts things that simply aren’t true or caters to the more fringe elements of his base, including people who believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Meta, the parent company of both Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. I’ll update this post if I hear back.
