2023: Trump’s Return To Facebook Could Be Major Fundraising Boost

NEW YORK – The decision by the company that owns Facebook to quickly restore Donald Trump’s account comes at a crucial time in the former president’s campaign to get back into office.

The only declared candidate in the 2024 race, whose campaign has been criticized for a slow start, could make a lot more money if he took back control of his social media accounts.

Trump is also thinking about going back to Twitter, which he used to connect with his supporters in the past in a way that was both effective and personal.

He was barred from posting on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites for his role in inciting violence in the deadly insurgency at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

By thinking about going back to the platforms that turned him down, Trump is admitting that Truth Social, the social media company he started last year, doesn’t come close to the reach of the biggest platforms. He currently has 4.84 million Truth Social followers, far fewer than the 87.7 million who follow his Twitter account, the 34 million who follow him on Facebook, and the 23.4 million who follow Meta’s Instagram.

Trump’s Social Media Was Unlocked In November

Trump’s Twitter account was unlocked in November, shortly after Elon Musk bought the company, but Trump has refused to use it, claiming that he is happier on Truth.

However, while Twitter has long been Trump’s platform for airing his grievances — and has received far more attention — for his new campaign, Facebook is ultimately about money.

The business executive and reality TV star’s 2016 campaign was a first of its kind because it used the power of Facebook’s digital advertising tools. And his 2016 and 2020 campaigns spent millions of dollars on advertisements critical to his small-dollar fundraising efforts.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, decided to bring him back on Wednesday. This is likely to help his current campaign raise millions of dollars, collect emails, and find voters.

“I think this is first and foremost about fundraising for Trump,” said Katie Harbath, a Bipartisan Policy Center fellow and former Facebook public policy director. “He wants to keep getting emails and addresses for fundraising, which the platform has always been very important to the campaign.”

Personal Appeals From Users

During his suspension from Facebook, Trump’s political operation continued to fundraise on the site but could not run ads directly from him or in his voice — appeals that Harbath said are far more powerful.

“Personal appeals are always the most effective,” she says. “And people haven’t seen that in a long time in their feeds.”

The reinstatement comes at a great time for Trump, who has been struggling in the first few months of his 2024 campaign to bring back the energy of his first two campaigns. On Saturday, he plans to visit two early-voting states, New Hampshire and South Carolina, for his first official campaign event.

Even though Trump and his team are thinking about using the social media brands that helped him get where he is now, big problems could come up.

After being banned from Twitter and Facebook, the former president founded Truth Social, a Twitter clone. He typically posts multiple times per day on his social media site, sharing thoughts, insults, and campaign videos, as well as reposting messages from his supporters, as he did on Twitter.

Cannot Post On Another Site For 6 Hours

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last May, Trump agreed to make Truth Social the “first channel” for “any social media communications and posts coming from his profile” as part of his deal with Digital World Acquisition Corp. to take it public.

This includes a clause that says the former president is “generally required to make any social media post on TruthSocial and can’t make the same post on another social media site for 6 hours.” This clause goes into effect on December 22, 2021, and lasts for 18 months, until December 22, 2025.

However, Trump “may make a post from a personal account related to political messaging, political fundraising, or get-out-the-vote efforts on any social media site at any time,” according to the statement.

Some people who support Trump think that this line gives him the right to post political messages whenever he wants, even though he is still not running for office.

Former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Trump’s obligations are clear from the SEC filing, but he declined to elaborate. Requests for comment were returned by something other than Digital World or its CEO, Patrick Orlando.

Trump Spouting More Hatred

“I think this is more of an ego question than a legal question,” Harbath said, adding that he expects Trump to start advertising on Facebook before resuming messaging. “The man enjoys putting on a show.”

There are questions about whether federal stock exchange regulators will let Digital World merge with Truth Social and go public. Trump, who owns the most shares of Truth Social, will not get shares in the new company, which could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Stock in Digital World has plummeted since rumors spread that Trump may resume posting on rival social media platforms. Even though the broader comparative market has barely moved, the potential Truth Social partner has dropped 30% since Twitter reinstated Trump’s account last year.

So far, Trump has insisted on sticking with Truth, claiming that he prefers the engagement on the site, where fringe content predominates.

But, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke anonymously to disclose private conversations, Trump has been talking about returning to Twitter in recent weeks. NBC News says that this has included talking about possible first tweets that would have the most effect.

A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign wouldn’t say anything about Trump’s plans for social media, including his possible return.

But, while Meta deliberated, Trump’s campaign lobbied for his reinstatement.

Metas Vice President Is Ready For Trumps Return

In a letter this month, lawyer Scott Gast asked the company to let Trump back. He said that keeping the ban in place “would be, in Mr. Clegg’s words, a deliberate effort by a private company to silence Mr. Trump’s political voice.”

That’s Meta’s vice president of global affairs, Nick Clegg.

“Moreover, every day that President Trump’s political voice is silenced contributes to an inappropriate interference in the American political and electoral processes,” wrote attorney Gast.

Trump may also face restrictions on the type of content he can share on the platform.

Clegg stated in a blog post announcing Meta’s decision that “the public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying — the good, the bad, and the ugly — so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box.”

At the same time, he said that the company would set up new “guardrails” and that Trump would be suspended again if he posted “more content that broke the rules.”

And if Trump or anyone else posts material that does not violate Facebook’s rules but is otherwise harmful — for example, content that attempts to delegitimize an upcoming election or is related to the QAnon conspiracy theory — Clegg said Meta would take action to limit the material’s reach.

It could also temporarily bar Trump from using its advertising tools.

SOURCE – (AP)