The Political Insider

Donald Trump made a triumphant return to social media, posting a message to his Truth Social platform that is sure to delight his supporters and dismay his critics.

The former President joined Truth Social – his own social media company, which is itself a response to being banned at other social media outlets – with an image of himself at his Mar-a-Lago property holding a phone and ready to connect with people online once again.

The post included the caption: “I’M BACK! #COVFEFE.”

The message is a callback to an infamous 2017 tweet in which then-President Trump accidentally shorted a message and ended with a hilarious typo.

“Despite the constant negative press covfefe,” he wrote at the time, sending the media into a frenzy.

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Trump Returns With Truth Social Post

Trump’s Truth Social post marks the first social media appearance for the former President in over a year.

He announced the formation of Truth Social in October of 2021, saying it will serve as a new social network designed to compete with outlets like Facebook and Twitter and combat the “tyranny of Big Tech.”

“We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced,” he said at the time. “This is unacceptable.”

Truth Social formally launched last month and is currently only available on Apple products.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who recently acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal, poked fun at the new network, saying Truth Social is a “terrible name.”

Still, Musk noted that Truth Social’s mere existence is due to censorship by Twitter and its previous owners.

He joked that the name should be changed to “Trumpet.”

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Trump Not Returning to Twitter

President Trump has insisted that despite the move by Elon Musk, who presents himself as a champion of free speech, he has no intentions of returning to Twitter where he practically revolutionized political campaigns and public interaction.

“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” he said. 

Trump was permanently suspended from several social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat following the Capitol riot and the media-driven narrative that he was responsible somehow.

Musk thus far has not indicated Trump’s account would be reinstated.

The frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 says Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is a good thing “because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man.”

As such, he doesn’t view Truth Social to be in competition with Twitter.

“I think it is good. We want liberty and justice and fairness in our country, and the more we can have open, the better,” Trump told Fox News. “But no, I don’t view that as a competition for what I am doing.”

Within hours of posting “#covfefe,” Trump sent out an email to supporters pointing them to a store selling his latest swag – including ‘covfefe’ related items.