Former US president Donald Trump marked his return to the social media site X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday with a picture of his mugshot taken at an Atlanta jail earlier in day.
Mr Trump fired off his first message in more than two years shortly after surrendering at Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia.
He posted a photo of his mugshot and the words ‘Election interference. Never surrender!’ along with a link to his website, which directs to a fundraising page.
The post garnered more than 14 million views within 50 minutes after going live.
It was Mr Trump’s first post since January 8, 2021, when Twitter suspended his account indefinitely, citing fears he would incite additional violence following the storming of the US Capitol building.
In November, the San Francisco-based app reversed its position on Mr Trump under its new owner, Elon Musk, the self-proclaimed ‘free speech absolutist’ who bought Twitter on October 2.
Mr Trump, had more than 88 million followers when Twitter banned him in January 2021. He used Twitter and other social media platforms to claim his defeat in the 2020 election was due to widespread voter fraud and to share other conspiracy theories.
On November 15, Mr Trump launched a bid to regain the White House in 2024.
On Wednesday, Trump opted out of a Republican primary debate on Fox News, attracting millions of viewers who watched – or at least scrolled by – a rival interview on X.
According to the site’s statistics, that 46-minute conversation with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson had drawn nearly 250 million views as of Thursday night.
On Thursday evening, Trump broke from a vow to stick exclusively with his new platform, Truth Social, the app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) startup. Trump had 6.4 million followers on Truth Social as of Thursday.
Truth Social has been Trump’s main source of direct communication with his followers since he began posting on the app regularly in May.
The former president has used Truth Social to promote his allies, criticise his opponents and defend his reputation amid legal scrutiny from state, congressional and federal investigators.
Trump sued Twitter in 2021 over his suspension from the platform, arguing the move violated his right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
A US judge in California dismissed the case, and a federal appeals court in California, is set to take up the dispute on October 4.
Attorneys for Trump have said his claims are still viable and can be ruled on by the appeals court, despite his reinstatement to the platform.
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